Holiday knitting

So what does 10+ hours in the car get you?

pattern: Tang from Custom Knits (this and all other links will be Ravelry links) by Wendy Bernard
yarn: Twist by Laines du Nord

I am loving this pattern. All the sweaters in this book are done from the top down. Some are yoke/raglan type sleeves and some are set-in sleeves but are done by picking up the stitches at the arm holes and knitting down. That’s right! No seaming!! There are so many beautiful sweaters in this book. Its been a LONG time since I have picked up a book and wanted to knit nearly everything in it NOW!! Tang was not going to be my first knit. This was not because I didn’t eventually want to do it but I was just in love with Ingenue (love the shape!), Jewel (yarn in stash), and Slinky Ribs (just love it!). A KAL was started on the Knit and Tonic Knitters Group so I thought this would be a great way to start knitting from this book.

So, I had casted on and gotten part of the back of the top of the sweater done (too much to try to explain here!). In the 10+ hour drive, I got the back and front finished to the armhole and the sweater joined in the round. I would have gotten more done but it got dark and I didn’t bring my reading/knitting light. I put the stitches on scrap yarn and tried it on. It is going to be a great fit! Since then I am now to the waist…finished the decreases and have chosen to add an extra inch to the waist (I’m a little long waisted). I can’t wait to get to the arms!! I am thinking that this technique that she uses might just work for my Minimalist Cardigan, too.

Also finished over the holidays:

pattern: Eyelet Yoke Cardigan by Lionbrand Yarn
yarn: Jeanne by Plymouth
This is the one for my 2 yo niece. I began another that will be identical except that it is ina 4yo size for my other niece.

I feel very productive!!

Wow, December already, huh?

Where did the month go?  Where did I go?  Well, I might not have met my goal to blog everyday, but I did blog more often which was really my goal!

I hope everyone had a terrific Turkey Day.  I was visiting family and had a fine time.  In my last post I showed you the gifts I finished at the last minute.  Well, here they are with their new owners…

My nephew’s new obsession is the lasso. Well, you can imagine the fun he had when his aunt and uncle handed him 2 gloves connected by a very long cord!

And T seemed to really love her blanket!

I got a good bit of knitting done while traveling. No pics right now but very soon!

I did hear from my SIL that she did get the package with my niece and nephew’s birthday gifts. Then I remembered that I never posted L2’s Wonderful Wallaby.

She said they were wearing them this weekend and really liked them.

And, when I got that picture off of my husband’s camera I was also able to get these:

These were the socks that I knitted for the 4th year I was in the Hogwarts Sock Swap. The pattern is Heather Colorwork Socks #347 by Rebecca Hatcher. I used Trekking Pro Natura. I really enjoyed making them for Angela.

Down to the wire…

But I made it across!! Last night I finished my niece’s blanket.

It was originally suppose to be a birthday present (**whispers** back in February). Oh, well. Its not as large as I had hoped but I think I was also being overambitious. She is only 6, anyway, so it doesn’t have to be huge. If I could wrestle it out from under Bonita I would measure it for you, but I would say it is about 3 1/2′ square. Good enough to throw over you while watching Hanna Montana, or whatever.

Also started and finished my nephew’s mittens.

I was going to do a hat, too, but the yarn shop where I bought this yarn is taking their time mailing me the rest of the yarn and I don’t have enough to do a hat, too. We’ll see what my SIL says and I will decide if I will make the hat then. I have not put the string on it yet.  BTW, I didn’t try to match up the striping on these…it just happened.  Cool, huh?

while knitting

What do you like to do while knitting? Chat with friends? Listen to music? Catch up on Tivo?

I find that I can get completely lost in a audiobook while knitting and, as long as the pattern isn’t too involved, I am amazed at how much I can get done. I just finished Mistress of the Art of Death:A Novel by Ariana Franklin and really enjoyed it. I’m currently listening to The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. That’s 40hrs of good knitting time!

I like to watch tv, too, but I am not one of those knitters that can look away from the knitting while watching. I sometimes get too distracted and end up not getting much done or not getting much out of the show. I like SciFi , “cop shows” and medical drama stuff the most which might explain why I get distracted. Oh, and I’ve really gotten into Lost now that SciFi Channel started showing it from the beginning. I don’t know why I didn’t get into it before.

I do enjoy a good Knit Night or just knitting with a friend and a cup of tea. We have a local Knit Night at my LYS once a week. My LYS, though, is one of those places that you can stop in anytime and sit and knit for hours. While my friend, Bethany, was over in England we would Skype and knit. That was nice, too, cause I didn’t have to get out of my pjs!

I am making progress…

I have been completing at least 3 squares a night on my niece’s blanket. I have completed 4 rows of the squares with, I think, only 5 more rows to go. Its turning out even better than I thought AND I’ve learned a new technique! I have found that turning the blanket to knit back on the wrong side is getting more difficult as I complete more rows, so I have taught myself to “purl back backwards.”

I also cast on for the Eyelet Yoke Cardigan from Lionbrand.com. Its a free pattern but you have to sign up to see it. I first saw it on twiceknit’s blog and knew it would be perfect for my 2 nieces that are siblings.

One down!

Pattern: Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan
Yarn: Plymouth Jeanne #001
needles: US8 and US7 (on cuffs, etc)
mods: really, nothing you do on this is a mod because it is pretty much up to you. However, I will tell you that I must have knitted and frogged the collar 3 or 4 times cause I couldn’t get it to be stretchy enough. What I ended up doing is on every other bind-off I knitted into the front and back of the stitch and then bound them off…does that make sense? And the “ribbing” is a 2×1 with the 2 done in a faux cable (knit into second st on left needle, do not pull off, then knit into first stitch on left needle and pull them both off at the same time).

2 more sweaters to go, along with one blanket and a pair of mittens. But I feel good with one under the belt.

Time to get serious!

Christmas and, more importantly, Thanksgiving are just around the corner. This year we are doing Christmas with my family AT Thanksgiving so I need to have gifts for my 6yo niece, T, and 2yo nephew, E, done very, very soon.

I am giving T the blanket that was suppose to be her birthday present.

I’m a little further along than that now but still! I think I calculated that I need to do no less than 3 diamonds a day to get it done on time. Ugh!

And I think I am going to do mittens out of yarn on the right for E.

We’ll see. Anyone have a measurement for the “stupid” string that runs from one mitten to the other under the coat for a 2-3yo? Thanks!

I am so tired. After shopping for yarn all day yesterday and being at the shop all day today…I need a glass of wine and a good movie!

Post-Christmas Wrap-up! (part 1)

Just so much to report that it seems a shame to put it all into one post.  Part 1 will be Christmas knitting.  Part 2 will have to do with Christmas travel and family.

We’ll begin with some gifts that I received:

From Bethany…
Chocolate Creme…yarn, that is. She and I were surfing the net together (over Skype) looking for interesting things for her to buy others and I must have dropped a hint or 20 that I liked this one…. Hee!

And then she just went above and beyond with this:

Gorgeous! And a pattern to go with it, ta boot!  Oh, and there was Yorkshire Gold Tea, too! 

From Jeane:

Those really are beautiful needles!

And then this cutiepie!

to commemorate the hedgehogs that I tried to teach her to make (one picture here).

Now for Christmas knitting:
Ornaments for Knit Night Christmas Party exchange:


Really fun to make! I’ll have to keep them in mind to do for package tags or something next year.

And I believe the only niece/nephew sweater you didn’t see actually put together was:

Not the best picture but it was a big hit and I hope to get pictures on the child soon.

Speaking of…

Much harder than you think to get a 3 1/2 year old to sit still and smile for her auntie, but I was able to get this. Of course, this was her birthday present and she seems to love it. She asked to wear it twice while I was there! And it was totally unprompted by me! I was so relieved to see that it fit and wasn’t too long…just perfect!

One more thing…I WON! Tiennie had a little commments give away and I was one of the many lucky ones! WooHoo! I never win anything!

Speaking of comments and give aways… I just noticed that I am approaching 500 comments (WHAT!?!). Hhhhmmmmm!

In order to get all the “have to” knitting done, I informed all my non-family that they will be getting after Christmas gifts.  And that is what I am currently working on.  Now, back to it!

What I lack in quantity…

I hope to make up in quality.  This will be a picture heavy post.

OY!  Where did December go?!?  Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Went home for Thanksgiving/Christmas.  The knitted hats went over even better than I thought! 

My nephew liked both his and his sister’s.

T’s hat didn’t work so well for her pigtails…the holes were too low…but she didn’t want me to sew them up, so there you go.
Great visit with family and lots of Mexican Train was played.

I know you have all seen these photos from fellow East Coasters, but I have to share mine (from a little over a week ago), too:

view from my front porch

view from my backyard

4″ is a pretty big deal around here!

OK, knitting content:

Another finished gift.

The Girlfriend Shrug by Wendy Bernard
Sockotta by Plymouth #6063 (just over 1 skein, unfortunately, so socks or a hat will follow)
mods: none ON PURPOSE but when you misread the recipe at the very beginning…well. It wasn’t anything, I hope, that will effect the fit. I will know in the next couple of days when my nearly 3 yo model gets to the US. Pictures, I hope, will follow.

Nearly there:

L2’s sweater. All the bits are done and I just have to seam it up and put the collar on. Whew! I LOVE this sweater.

My goal is to have all the Christmas knitting for this side of the family done by tomorrow. I only have this sweater and 1/2 of a pedicure sock to go. I think I can, I think I can!

Things other than knitting:

Took at needle felting class and made these:

It was really fun.

There is a basket class tomorrow at the shop but I will have to see how the knitting and housecleaning go today/tonight. I don’t have high hopes.

Speaking of the shop…our little town has a candlelight house tour every year and there are horse drawn carriages and people in Victorian era clothing. The carolers stopped by:

And, should I get totally over whelmed and not make it back to the computer to post again before the BIG day…

Slight change of plans

But first…FINISHED CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!!
For K:

Where is a 1-2 year old model when you need one?!?

pattern: Lily in Pink by Sublime from The Second Little Sublime Knit Book (606)
yarn: Snuggly Baby Bamboo by Sirdar (80% bamboo, 20% wool)
size made: 1-2 year old
needle: US6 and US3
mods: none. The pattern is really well written. Maybe the only thing I did was change a couple of decreases to ones I prefer to use. They have a continuous stitch count going which makes it very easy to figure out if you did the increases or decreases correctly. Really loved making this! I haven’t washed it yet and am a slight bit nervous about it, but I’m sure it will be fine.

OK, now to K’s twin’s present. I was going to do that Debbie Bliss jacket but between the extremely large sizing (I feel like I am always making things too big for them) and having trouble getting gauge with the yarn (Jeannee is NOT worsted weight!!), I decided to change patterns. This is from the same book as K’s sweater.

I am really loving this so far.

The other passion….

Seems that basketweaving has made its way into my life BIG TIME!  Now, I should qualify by saying that this is not a hobby that I do on my own in my own home; however, I seem to be doing it more and more.  Could be because my LYS is having more and more classes these days.

Anywho…these are my latest…

Undulating Twill Basket
I’m using it as a wastepaper basket next to my knitting chair.

Egg Basket
Currently holding roving that I hope to get back to spinning soon.

In knitting news…
I am really coming along on K’s Christmas sweater. I have finished the back and the 2 front panels and am probably half way up both sleeves. I might have it done by the end of the weekend (heard that before).

I am coming along on this for L2 for Christmas:

which you can find here. I’m using Sockotta in color 6063 on US2.

I have not picked L1’s Shawl Collar Jacket back up yet.

Working on a few other projects that I hope to have pictures of soon, as well as pictures of FOs!!