Holiday Crafting

From my utter lack of blogging activity and current status as 8 1/2 months pregnant, you would probably guess that not much knitting has been going on. Well, it is certainly the case that less knitting than I would like has been going on, but I have managed to finish a few smaller projects along the way. For example, my goal of having handknit dishcloths for holiday gifts for all RJ's daycare teachers should be completed in time. As you can see from the photo below I have made several ballband dishcloths and a couple reverse miter dishcloths. I bought pretty bottles of antibacterial handsoap for each as well that coordinate with the color of the dishcloth. The dishcloths and soap will be nicely placed in holiday gift bags that I am making myself using plain brown gift bags that I got fairly cheap at Michael's, images cut from old Christmas cards, and various ribbons and trims from my stash.

The last one in the photo is now done and I cast on for another. I think I only need 6, but I bought 10 bottles of soap just in case and would like to knit coordinating cloths for all of them. I think they will make handy gifts to have on hand for other things as well. The gifts will end up costing about $4 total for each one. A lot of the cotton yarn was given to me (by people who had tired of kitchen cotton and wanted it out of their stash), I used stuff I already had to make the gift bags, and I bought the soap on sale. Pretty good deal on cost and hopefully an appreciated gift too! I am thinking next year I will make facecloths, the reverse-bloom flower washcloth but that is probably far too ambitious to consider while caring for a new infant. Perhaps I can crochet fingerless mitts from stash yarn? That would be faster and maybe more doable. Any thoughts?