Crafts of the Past - Christmas Edition

Every year these things turn up, and every year I wonder why I haven't gotten rid of them yet. They are actually finger puppets, but ended up stashed with the ornaments. Anyway, my sisters in particular find them hilarious.

Merry Christmas...?

I think Santa's crooked mustache probably has a lot to do with that.
These were made when I was first knitting, that first time, knitting 1.0, when I was still in grade school. I knew how to cast on, and how to increase and decrease and how to bind off, and that was it. These are knit flat decreasing on the front, and then at the top, I just started increasing, and leaving holes as I did so, because I didn't know about the "twist the stitch you pick up" trick. (In effect, the increases I did here are just yarn overs done in the following row... if that makes sense?) Then seamed up the two sides, though not properly, because I hadn't been taught that yet.

It wasn't until I relearned knitting in college that I learned how to knit in the round... now that's pretty much the only kind of knitting I do. The third time around, 8 years ago or so, I learned shaping and cables and how to read patterns - mostly teaching myself from books - it's easier to relearn than learn it, I think.

And yet, looking back on my early primitive acrylic efforts, I'm kind of in awe, not of my technique, of course, but of my bravado. I would not attempt some of those things now, or certainly not designed in the manner I did then, I wouldn't mix fiber types or yarn weights so wildly as I once did, or start projects I'm not certain will work out, and I wonder if that's because of experience, or increasing hesitancy to take risks that comes with getting older, or a general crush for time I didn't have when I was young.

And I kind of miss it, whatever it was that drove me to make these strange little things.

Uh, right... Merry Christmas, everybody!