Made by Christmas Eve

Nine Christmas crochet ornaments and small gifts, and a way to know which ones you can finish before Christmas Eve.

This book is for someone who would like to crochet a few Christmas presents and decorations this year, including someone who has never held a hook. It starts with how to hold the hook and the yarn, teaches every stitch it uses with step pictures, and then works through nine makes from easiest to hardest, each one adding one or two new things.

What you make

1. Five-Point Star, about 4¼ in (11 cm): a magic ring and five chain points. 94 stitches.
2. Holly Sprig, two leaves and three berries: a gift topper. 159 stitches.
3. Little Tree, about 4 × 4¾ in (10 × 12 cm), with a trunk and a small star: rows and decreases. 194 stitches.
4. Gingerbread Friend, about 3¾ × 3½ in (10 × 9 cm): one piece, with a French-knot face. 88 stitches.
5. Peppermint Swirl, about 4 in (10 cm): red and white wedges; one circle is a coaster, two make an ornament. 246 stitches.
6. Holly Wreath, about 4¾ in (12 cm), with leaves, berries and a bow. 326 stitches.
7. Gift-Card Stocking, about 4¾ × 6¾ in (12 × 17 cm): sewn from two pieces, a gift card fits inside. 594 stitches.
8. Lace Snowflake, about 5¾ in (15 cm) pinned out, with a page on stiffening and pinning. 235 stitches.
9. Net Bauble: a net of loops that fits round a 3 in (75–80 mm) plastic ball. 469 stitches.

What makes it different

• Every pattern twice. Each row or round is written out, and drawn as a crochet chart that shows where every stitch goes.
• Counted. Each line ends with the number of stitches you should have. Every count was worked out by a program from the line before, and the written lines, the charts and the UK cards are all produced from the same pattern data, so they cannot disagree.
• Timed by you. Each make has a stitch total. A three-minute pace test turns those totals into minutes for your own speed, and a planning section (with a worked example and a blank calendar) shows how to fit a gift list into the evenings you have before the 24th.
• Levels and checks. Each make has a skill level, size, yarn amount by colour and a list of what is new in it, plus "check as you go" points and the slips people make most.
• US and UK terms, never mixed. The book is in US terms (single crochet). Separate pattern cards give every pattern in US terms and again in UK terms (double crochet).

What you download

• Made by Christmas Eve (51 pages, PDF, US Letter, colour, with bookmarks): the book.
• Pattern Cards, US terms (10 pages, PDF): every pattern on its own page with circles to tick off each line, its chart and its finishing steps.
• Pattern Cards, UK terms (10 pages, PDF): the same cards in UK stitch names.
• Planner (2 pages, PDF): the pace test, a minutes table and a list-and-calendar page to print and fill in.

Good to know

• You need worsted-weight (UK aran) cotton yarn, a 5 mm (US H-8) hook, a tapestry needle, scissors and a stitch marker. One 120 yd ball each of red, white, gold and green, plus small amounts of brown and light green, covers one of every make. The bauble needs a 3 in plastic ball ornament; the snowflake needs white craft glue or starch and pins for stiffening.
• Sizes and yarn amounts are worked out from the patterns at the yarn's ball-band gauge (13 single crochet to 4 in); your own tension will change them a little. Times are estimates from your own pace.
• The pictures of the finished makes are drawings built from their patterns, not photographs.
• Ornaments are decorations, not toys: keep small sewn-on pieces away from babies and small children.
• Pages are US Letter. On A4 paper, print with "fit to page".
• This is a PDF download. No physical book or kit is shipped.