FO: Last Christmas Prezzie DONE!!!!

Oooh, it feels soooo good to be done with these mitts; I had to take crappy cell phone photos to show them off:



Project Details:
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette in the aptly named "blue" and "yellow" -- Swedish colours!
Pattern: Swirly Mittens from Anne L (aka. Goldenknits)'s blog, Kultalankaa (Golden Thread) -- the blog is in Finnish and English. FYI: The pattern is more of a chart to insert into your own mitten pattern. I had to learn how to do the cuff (loose directions given), thumb gusset and thumb (no directions given).
Needles: Addi Turbo 2.5mm circular needles -- magic looped
Ravelry Project Page: Click here!



Feel free to now resume your regularly scheduled blog reading... I'm off to block and better photograph these babies -- and to dream about what I'm knitting next!

Doh.

I'm officially an idiot regarding this second mitt.

Problems so far:

1) I cast on too few stitches, and didn't even realize ("hmmm, does that look small?") until 3 inches into the cuff. Had to rip back and create some blue and yellow ramen to start over.

2) In the palm motive, I messed up a set of four blue/yellow stitches at the end of a round. I dropped a couple of stitches intentionally to sort them out, and managed to fix them, but with wonky tension.

3) Luckily (?!) problem #2 didn't matter because I totally forgot to start the increases for the thumb gusset. More ramen as I ripped WAY back. Ouch.

Hopefully these things come in threes and that's it now. I'd like to get these done and gifted!

Ticking Along...

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by linzknits

I'm working on these mitts, still... and they are a joy to knit, but I wish I weren't trying to get them done ASAP.

I think deadline knitting is enough to sap all the energy out of what I'm working on.

Luckily, these are gorgeous enough that I'm motivated to get them done!

I'm using teeny tiny needles, and funnily enough, they keep warping just a little bit. I think this two-handed stranded knitting has my tension all wound up super tight. I do manage to bend the needles back every so often, but perhaps I need to loosen up a little?

Wish me luck... I think I need it!

Dad's Hat

The verdict is in on my Dad's Christmas hat

1) the hat is a little big, but he likes it that way
2) it covers his ears (YES!), and even a bit of his neck (oh dear... but he's happy)
3) it is very soft (HUZZAH!!! and it damn well should be, with the merino/alpaca/silk blend!)
4) the colour is perfect (black... surprise, surprise)
5) he is happy



My mum, sister, and I all think it makes him look a little bit like an inmate. But he loves it, so what can you do?

I found a hat in my Christmas cracker that fits me much better than his did:

Christmas Sewing

Well, I am still struggling to finish Solveig's mitts... but, I have some sewing FOs to show you:

Both of them are Christmas prezzies -- one, an apron for my Mum:



I finally figured out sewing rounded corners... the pattern recommended that I sew REALLY long basting stitches around the corners first, and then pull the threads to create the curve. Magical. My new favourite technique!

This is my Mum's second handmade apron. The first one I made for her last year, and she adores it enough to have requested a second one for when it's in the wash. How could I refuse?

The second present? A pair of PJ pants for my sister. I used the pattern from Amy Butler's In Stitches. It's a fantastic pattern for a beginning sewer like me (tells you all about selvedges, grainlines, etc... all the things you don't know to check when you don't know what you're doing!), and SO cute with the wide-legged pants.



I offered to hem the legs a little shorter, but she likes them like this. What can I do?

All in all, two successes -- and WAY faster than knitting!

Happy Giftee

My dear friend, Pemma, was the recipient of the Composed Mitts I knit for Christmas.



I think she likes them...

Merry Christmas

I wish you all yarny goodness and time to knit and celebrate with family and friends!

I was hoping to post finished pics of Solveig's Swirly Mittens... but they won't be done until the new year. I've got one done... except for the thumb (and I may have to work out how to knit a thumb to do it... hmmmmm) and just barely started on the second.



Luckily, I have a store-bought prezzie for her, and she's happy with her surprise knitted prezzie coming in the new year, for perhaps Ethiopian Christmas (Jan. 7). She has a friend working in Ethiopia right now, so we had a good giggle over the delayed present.



I would normally be mortified to not finish a Christmas present on time, but I think these are going to be worth it! Let's hope Solveig feels the same way.

Oh, and as a Christmas wrap-up: all the other prezzies got finished!!! Huzzah!

Best of the season to all, whatever you may celebrate, and to all a good night.

Christmas Prezzie #4 is finito!

What a wonderful and quick project! I think these will be go-to gifts for a while! One skein (just just barely, I had about 2 inches leftover, even after I skipped a row of the second wristwarmer!) and so super fast!

Hopefully the recipient will LURVE them!

Project Details:
Yarn: Manos Silk Blend in the gorgeous colourway, 3109 (what a name!).

Needles: Addi Turbo Lace (mmm... still obsessed) 4.0 mm circulars, and Holz & Stein Rosewood 3.5 mm circs for the 'smaller size'. I went MacGyver for the cables and used a paperclip.

Pattern: Toast! by Jennifer Campbell of the Purple Purl, free pattern with purchase of Manos Silk Blend or Malabrigo Silky Merino

Ravelry Link: click here

Gratuitous photos:






These will be very hard to give up, but they definitely have given me a one-skein project for the luscious balls of yarn that I never know what to do with, but desperately need to take home.

Now, to finish the last knitted Christmas present!!!

Christmas Prezzie #4 in progress

Ok, here's what's on the needles:


This is the Toast wristwarmer #1 designed by Jennifer Campbell of the Purple Purl. It was a free pattern with the purchase of Manos Silk Blend or Malabrigo Silky Merino.

Lest you think I've cast on frivolously, I've managed to finish:
1) Composed Mitts, which I'm gifting tonight!
2) Dad's Super-Soft Hat
3) A pair of PJ pants (sewn, photos to come -- I'm proud!)

However, I do have still on the go:
4) An apron (sewn, not yet started and the pattern is "hiding" in my mess)
5) Solveig's Swirly Mittens (currently almost done 1... need to finish for the 24th)
6) These Toast Wristwarmers (1 almost done)

I'm not crazy, just optimistic!!!

Christmas Prezzie #3 in progress...

This is my "tricky knitting" for Christmas this year. I got hooked on stranded colourwork doing Pemm's wristwarmers, that I needed another project!

Well, diving right into the deep end, I pulled some Knitpicks Palette from my stash, and seeing as it costs about $2/ball, I figured I'd be ok even if I messed this up completely.

I'd bought these colours for my boyfriend's Mum, Solveig, as they are the Swedish national colours, originally destined for a pair of stripey socks. But I think these results are going to be much more exciting:



Mittens!!!! Solveig's Swirly Mittens!!!

Don't you love them? I'm using the chart from this blog, which I think is in Finnish. It's much more of a chart than a pattern, and it's my first real pair of mittens, so I'm learning mitten construction as I go. Definitely fun knitting!

My Mum loves the pattern on the back:


And you have to see what I'm doing with the thumb:


Yes, these are my official precursor to the Selbuvotter mittens I am dying to make. But those will be for me!

Christmas Prezzie #2 just started

I'm doing a super-snuggly-soft hat for my Dad out of this luscious yarn:


It's Sulka, by Mirasol Yarns. A 60% merino, 20% alpaca, 20% silk blend. It is a gorgeous black, with tiny shots of brown and blue throughout. Enough to keep my interest while knitting, but not enough to read as anything other than black for my conservative Dad.

And when you buy Mirasol yarns, a portion of the purchase price goes back to Peru. You can read about it at their website. I'm going to include one of the yarn tags with the hat, so my Dad gets the story too.

So... the hat has gone through many pattern ideas in my head.

Idea #1) Striped black and grey hat -- Actually, this is what my Dad requested, originally. I asked him (in Heathrow Airport) if he'd actually like a hat I knit him, and he asked for a soft cashmere black and grey hat - you know, with stripes. I don't think he actually wants stripes, he just thought of the two colours together. So I've vetoed this one as I know what the yarn is like.

Idea #2) Beautiful, manly cables on an all-black hat -- This was my brilliant idea, and thankfully I talked to Jennifer at The Purple Purl about it because she mentioned cables won't show up on black, and I should do grey instead for them to show. As you can see, I aborted the cable plan and went with black.

Idea #3) K5, P1 rib with stockinette every other row -- A fantastic idea from Jennifer, but I decided I wanted a real 'ribby' look at the bottom edge. This will be a hat I knit out of a thinner-weight yarn ... probably for me.

Idea #4) K2, P2 rib at the bottom "ear" edge, stockinette to the top -- The final pattern! This is what I'm knitting, and I'm using the hat/head proportions from The Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules. Seriously, this book has saved me more times than I can count. I'm knitting a hat with a 23" circumference, and knitting for 7.5-8.5" before the decreases. I think I can handle that.



And yes, all I've done is cast on. But it's sooooooo smooshy already!

Christmas Prezzie #1 done!

The stranded fingerless mitts are done!



I have so enjoyed this project, my first colourwork knitting!

In fact, I got so much enjoyment from it that I've purchased some colourwork books that should arrive next week, and I'm on my way to pick up a couple more from the libary. Reviews to come!

In the meantime, here are the FO details:

"Where do Generals Keep their Armies . . ." (Composed Mitts)
Pattern: Composed Mitts by Michelle Rose Orne from Interweave Knits, Fall 2007

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight, Alpaca Silk, and Melange to get the colours right

Needles: 3.5mm (US 4) Addi Turbo circular needles, using magic loop

Ravelry Page: click away!





Yep, it's going to be hard to give these away.

A True Hat Story

I don't know if I ever showed this hat off on the blog.
It was a Christmas present for my boyfriend a few years back, and makes me smile to think of it.

As you can see here, it's a simple hat pattern (I just made it up, and started decreasing when it looked big enough) knit with double-stranded cheapy yellow acrylic from my stash.

The braids were the toughest part. I wanted them to be "posable" and so needed them to be wired. To get the strength I needed, I ended up triple-stranding yellow pipe-cleaners around 6 strands of floral wire. I then put one of each of these 'bunches' of wire inside each strand of yellow braid. Of course, the ends then needed blue ribbon!

They were very well-received by my boyfriend, who had (believe it or not) requested such a hat after watching a cooking show with a crazy Frenchman wearing ridiculous hats (including, a carrot hat)!

He wears it every Winter (to my delight), and will even wear it when driving. The looks we get are priceless; it is as if the random people we pass on the street are saying: "Hey guy, do you know that you've got braids on your head?"

Yup. Sheer crazy, and perfectly wonderful.