Christmas Hat and Yarn Along

The final just-in-time-kind-of Christmas project was a hat for my husband. Back in October we were wandering around a craft store looking for things to help us with Lil One's Hallowe'en costume (and taking a few minutes to just be out in the world together because my MIL was watching Lil One). The husband saw this yarn and said, "That would be a good hat." I snatched it off the shelf and tried not to exclaim too much. The husband actually WANTED me to knit him something! and he had found yarn he would like to wear and I would like to knit!

He has this thing about authenticity. It has to be just right, or he would feel silly and never wear whatever it is. He explained later that this yarn says to him, "I am wool. I come from sheep, and I am here to keep you warm. That is all."

Knitted up into a basic, pleasingly vanilla Seaman's Cap pattern (Ravelry link), it has become his best cold weather hat. We're both really pleased with it. I believe it's the first thing I've ever successfully knit for him.

In Yarn Along news, after at least a month of reading almost nothing but children's books, Husband and I joined a bookclub, which chose The Hunger Games as our first month's book.

I read all three books in five days. E-books are dangerous -- I didn't even have to stand up in between books two and three. Book two is pictured here with the February washcloth I started today. Please check out Ginny's blog for more Yarn Along fun.

Now that all the Christmas knitting is up, next I'll wrap up the 2011 Washcloth Project, catch up on the 2012 edition, and see if I can get through January's knitting while it's still February! We get an extra day this year, so maybe I have a shot :-P

Christmas Dress

I didn't let myself think of this as a Christmas dress until it happened to get done almost on time (before Jan. 6th counts as nearly on time, I should think).

Here it when I had finished the knitting still with ends to weave in, a ribbon to weave through the eyelets around the chest, and a button to be found and sewn on the top of the back. Those things have all since been done, although not photographed.

This picture was taken just a few moments after the first one, when Lil One leaned the word "dress" and insisted on wearing it right away. She seems to really like it, and it should be a good fit from now through summer, I think.

Only one more Christmas-catch-up post to go.

Christmas Cozy

After the Spectra scarf and all the stockings, the next major knitted Christmas gift was a tea cozy for my mom and step-dad. They drink tea all the time and their old cozy was pretty stained. I had been planning on making them a new one for a while, and sometime in mid-December decided it was finally time. Here it is, already at work keeping our Christmas morning tea warm.

No matter how I photograph it, this yarn looks obnoxiously, glowingly red, but it isn't really. Just a nice bright red from Liberty Wool. It matches the kitchen in their new-ish house (moved in less than two years ago is still new, right?). The pattern was designed by Diana Foster, and is in the book One-Skein Wonders 101 Yarn-Shop Favorites. I did NOT knit the inside layer; I have no idea how I managed to finish it on time as it was. I think it might really benefit from being double-layered, though, so I may steal it back for a few days and add the layer.

Christmas Spectra

Still working on catching up with documentation of the Christmas knitting. The major knitted present this year was a scarf for my step-mom (completed on time and everything!).

The pattern was Stephen West's Spectra (ravelry link). I believe my only two pattern modifications were to slip the last two stitches at each edge instead of only one, and to twist the yarns to trap the contrast color between the wedges. Both of these mods were recommended at my LYS. I used a brown Malabrigo sock for the main (border) color and Kauni for the contrast (wedges) color. I used the Malabrigo until it was almost all gone, and I used only about a third of the Kauni. The color was "EG," their rainbow colorway. I absolutely love this yarn. It's considerably rougher than the butter-soft Malabrigo, and in this scarf I think that provides a great texture contrast. I might not use the Kauni alone for a next-to-skin item, but I still love it.
This shot gives an idea of how very slowly the colors change. I started at the blue edge of purple, knit through red, orange, yellow, and 87 color wedges later I was just getting into the green. I think this is the right part of the spectrum for my step-mom's coloring, though I am not known for my ability to judge such things. It seems right, though.

The short row wedges make a great spiral shape, which turned out to be a little bit of a challenge to block on a flat surface. When my husband came home and saw this pinned out on our sunroom floor, for a minute he thought I had knitted a rug.

This pattern with this yarn was so much fun that I may have to turn the rest of my Kauni skein into two more spectra scarves. Giving me the wonderful dilemma of choosing two more yarns to be the edges!

2011 Christmas Stocking Round-up Part 2

The fourth Christmas stocking I made this year (Dec. 12-18) was for new Nephew HH.

On this branch of our family, all the grandkids get stockings to match Grammy's, so it was another candy cane pattern. This is one of the Mary Maxim patterns that isn't in a booklet. This is the pattern all my immediate family has, and I think of it as the original. I've also probably made more of this pattern than any other, although the Rudolph head might be tied.

Then I realized that I had one more stocking to make. I got a new step-father-in-law this September and I forgot to adjust my mental list of Stockings Needed to include him. So, a little late, but within the "12 Days of Christmas," I finished the fifth and final stocking for the year.

This one doesn't match my mother-in-law's stocking. She has a dove, and that just didn't seem to fit her new beau, a lifetime member of the NRA. I picked another pattern with a blue background and a white-with-green picture -- this is called Mr. Snowman and is in the first Mary Maxim Christmas stocking booklet.

There we have it, the 2011 set of Christmas stockings. I don't yet know of any that will be needed in 2012, but I don't really expect to have a no-stocking year. That would be too weird.

2011 Christmas Stocking Round-up Part 1

Three of the five stockings I knit in 2011 were for my step-sister's family. I made stockings for her immediate family some time ago, but her mother and in-laws always spend Christmas with them and she asked me to make some stockings for them too. I had all year to do it, but of course I ended up knitting two of them in December. But I now know that I can make one of these stockings in a week. I'm not too sure how, but it all worked out.

The first one was all but done in August. These are all Mary Maxim stocking patterns. This one is a mash-up of the Gingerbread Girl and Gingerbread Boy patterns. I took the main image from the Girl stocking and used the coloring and candy cane border from the Boy pattern. These are in the "Christmas Stockings 2" booklet. I believe I have their full collection of Christmas stocking booklets plus a few single patterns.

Knit during December 1-6 is the Snowflake pattern, and then December 7-12 I made the co-ordinating Wreath pattern, both from "Christmas Stockings 3." This was my first time making all three of these patterns, and I quite liked them. I used stranded knitting for the Wreath and Snowflake patterns because that made so much more sense to me than strictly intarsia.

I use Red Heart or a similar yarn for all the Christmas stockings I make. I know a lot of people will cringe at that, but to me it seems like a good use for the yarn. As I see it, the main requirements of a stocking are that it be durable and colorful, which are really Red Heart's strong suits. I don't mind the knitting experience, and with the number of these stockings I've made over the years, affordability plays a sizable role, too.

I had thought I was going easy on the Christmas knitting this year, but as I look at it now, I did quite a bit. I intend to do the rest of the updates soon. Happy New Year!

Yarn Along - Stocking 2/4

I am almost finished with the second of four Christmas stockings for this year. All it needs is a name, to be added in duplicate stitch.

I churned this out between December 1st and 6th, so I remain optimistic about my chances of finishing two more stockings and two more projects I have yet to start but am planning for Christmas presents. I even have the yarn and pattern picked out for one of those two projects.

I was trying to decide which book to photograph for this week's Yarn Along, and feeling like I haven't been doing any reading. In all of "my" books I'm not any further along than last week. But then I realized that I read a lot every day. My kiddo loves to have me read to her. She'll bring me book after book, plop down in my lap and help me turn the pages.

This week's picture is a small sampling of the books Lil One had me read before 9:00am this morning.

Visit Ginny's blog for more Yarn Along fun.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm being summoned to read "Tiny Turtles." Again.

Yarn Along - 2011 Washcloths November Edition

Once again joining in Ginny's Yarn Along. Check out her blog for great projects and book ideas.

Here we are on the very last day of November. So I knit a washcloth today. Simple pattern of stockinette/reverse stockinette ridges knit from corner to corner. The pattern was on the back of a Sugar 'n Cream ball band from quite some time ago. I've lost the ball band for this particular skein of S'nC, so I don't know the color name.

The book is Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford. I'm not very far into this book, because it's my nursing reading, and nursing is happening less and less. The book is about the importance of skilled manual labor and how it really takes much more mental work than our culture usually gives it credit for needing.

I almost finished the big blanket in time for Nephew O's first birthday. There are just more ends to weave in. I gave myself a whole week to weave in ends and I still couldn't make it. So I'll be finishing that up and posting about it soon, then I must dive headfirst into the Christmas stockings. December starts tomorrow, and I have three more stockings to make!

Yarn Along - 2011 Washcloths October Edition

For this week's Yarn Along I have two recently finished items.

The October washcloth was finished way ahead of time. The pattern uses the October 19 stitch from the "365 Knitting Stitches A Year Perpetual Calendar," (the day I started it) and is called Diamond Drops. This is the last of the ball of Buttercream Sugar 'n Cream cotton, which comfortably made three full washcloths.

The book is Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende. It's the story of the year and a half he and his wife spent living in an Amish-type community, trying to find the level of technology use that is "enough." It was quite an interesting read, and has gotten me thinking about simplifying my life, too.

Ten successful months of my washcloth project! Also, check out other people's yarn along projects at Ginny's website.

2011 Washcloths - September Edition

Presenting the September Washcloth. This was actually done well BEFORE the last minute! I've had a pretty strict knitting schedule this month, so I can stay on track with a few big projects that have specific deadlines. On September 18th I got a bit ahead of schedule and had my needles free for a bit, so I jumped on the opportunity to make this month's washcloth.

The pattern is from the "365 Knitting Stitches A Year Perpetual Calendar," which I got for my birthday this year. The stitch for September 18th is Seed Stitch Checks, so I used that pattern and more of the ball of Buttercream Sugar 'n Cream cotton that I used for August's washcloth. I think I may get three complete washcloths out of this one skein.

Sorry for the less-than-great picture. When I was trying to take pictures --

someone had other ideas.

2011 Washcloths - August Edition

Knitted in the second-to-last week of August (so early!) was a washcloth in Bee Stitch, a simple pattern using "knit one below." This pattern is the first one in a Leisure Arts booklet called "Kitchen Bright Dishcloths." This pattern plays nicely with variegated yarn, where most of the ten patterns in this booklet are better done with solids. The yarn used was Sugar n' Cream in the Buttercream colorway.

This month I joined the NFL Football Knitting sub-group of the Knitters' Brewing Company Ravelry group. The price of admission for that is one dishcloth -- I'll need to send a cloth to the person who wins week 7. I'm not sure yet if I'll make a special washcloth for that, or use one of the ones I've already made this year. I recently started listening to their Yarn on Tap podcast, and joined on a whim at the last minute. Hopefully this way I'll have some more people to talk with about football, since no one in my immediate family is remotely interested.

2011 Washcloths - May, June & July Editions

I've been very successful so far at sticking with my goal of knitting one washcloth each month, if not so successful in documenting these projects.

May:

Coming in just under the wire in the last few days of May, a corner-to-corner washcloth done in stripes of stockinette and reverse stockinette. The pattern for this came off the back of the ball band.

June:

I actually made two washcloths this month, while on vacation at Lake Michigan. I left them there as gifts for the cottage's owners. One was a basketweave pattern, and the other a trinity stitch. The first pattern was pulled out of my head, and the second was made with the help of a stitch-pattern-a-day calendar I got for my birthday. Sorry for the low-quality picture. I almost forgot to take one before we left.

July:

Once again remembering to make a washcloth in the nick of time, I fell back to the good old Mason-Dixon Knitting ballband dishcloth. I ended up making two in the last three days of July, using up the bits and pieces of yarn remaining from previous washcloths.

I seem to have been all about the green washcloths so far this year. I think that will change for the August edition.

Yarn Along

I have almost finished the first Christmas stocking for this year. It's seamed and the ends are woven in, I only need to duplicate stitch the name. Three more stockings to make this year: My step-sister requested three for the grandparents who are at their house every year, and one for the new nephew.

I'm reading The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution by Keith Devlin. Turns out that Leonardo Pisano (Fibonacci) popularized the use of Hindo-Arabic numerals in Europe. It's a very interesting book, and is my current nursing reading.

So, I've been away from the blog for awhile, but I've still been knitting. I'm going to try to Yarn Along with Ginny every week to help me get back in the blogging habit.

2011 Washcloths - April Edition

Once again, the blog post is late, but the washcloth was done on time.

Last month for the April washcloth I improvised a pattern. I noticed while doing the dishes that the seed stitch border was the part I kept using. So I decided to make a washcloth that was mostly seed stitch. It came out a little smaller than the others I've made so far this year, but one of the nice things about making so many is that there is room for variety.

2011 Washcloths - February Edition

February's washcloth was finished on the 11th of the month. So far, so good with my washcloth-a-month plan. I used one of the patterns found on the back of the ball band from the yarn for January's washcloth.

Again I used my usual Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn with size 8 needles. This color is called "Mistletoe" and I rather like the way the colors pooled on this corner-to-corner pattern.
When I went to put away this washcloth, I looked through my cotton stash to get ideas for next month, and found quite a nice surprise:

I have three already completed washcloths hidden away. Bonus.

2011 Washcloths - January Edition

One of my goals for 2011 is to knit a washcloth every month. This will be rather like the self-imposed sock club that the Yarn Harlot established for herself last year, only I haven't organized to pick out all the yarns and patterns ahead of time. Each month, I just make a washcloth. Hopefully, this will help put me in a good position for Christmas gifts at the end of the year.
I'm off to a good start with January's washcloth coming off the needles in the middle of last week.

This is the "Shapely Diamond" pattern from a Leisure Arts booklet called "Kitchen Bright Dishcloths," and I knit it out of my standard Sugar 'n Cream cotton, this one in sage green. I think for next month's cloth I'll use the pattern that came on the ball band.