elf! and baby elf!

I don't have a better picture of these hats, but it's still fair to say that they were my most successful Christmas knitting, both for the reaction they inspired and because I actually finished them on time. It's the Pointy Elf Hat, from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts, a pattern that I can't recommend enough. I used Blue Sky Cotton held doubled and added the stripe, but otherwise knit as instructed for the toddler and baby sizes. I wish I had film to share with you of my nephew's reaction but it went something like this:

T: "Elf! And baby elf! On parade!" [marching, while urging his sister to crawl along behind him]

He then proceeded to wear the hat for the rest of the evening, despite the fact that he seems to usually be too hot and want to wear less clothing. My niece, who couldn't express herself quite so verbally, seemed equally delighted upon seeing herself in a mirror with a pointy thing on the top of her head and burst into laughter each time she was held up to a mirror. Considering that each hat took me about 2 hours, I thought that the pattern's time-spent-knitting-to-amusement-of-recipient-children ratio was pretty good.

running out of yarn hasn't stopped me yet

I actually finished some of my Christmas gifts by Epiphany this year, largely because I didn't put as many on my list as last year. (We'll see about some of those last-year-gifts getting done by Valentine's Day, okay? Okay?) But I didn't manage to finish these two in time to gift them in person, which really disappointed me. Luckily, the recipients didn't mind as much.

For my grandma, I was so inspired by this cowl that I forgot that I have a really hard time finishing garter stitch log cabin squares.
Albers Cowl, knit in various colors of Plucky MCN fingering. Ravelry details here. I ran out of several colors of yarn, leading to interesting (and time-consuming) modifications. I am glad that my grandma likes it as much as she does, because that was the only thought that got me through it.

For my grandpa, I knit the popular Turn A Square pattern out of Plucky Cashmere fingering. (Ravelry details here) I had to modify the pattern for the thinner yarn and then had to modify again when it became clear that I was going to run out of Rustica, the brown yarn. But every grandpa loves an ombre, right?
(And thanks to both my parents for modeling these before they were mailed off. After my dad modeled the hat, it was strongly suggested that he probably needed a similar one to line his Christmas hat from last year... I accepted this as the price for asking someone to model cashmere and did knit a liner out of the leftover blue yarn, but got no pictures before sewing it in the old hat and returning it to my dad.)

Hey, Knitting!

So, I wasn't just neglecting this blog over the past months--I didn't do much knitting at all until around September of this year, and even then it was only a little baby hat for a coworker that I gave away before gathering pictorial evidence.  

Finally though, the cool weather set down in the East Bay, and found my knitting mojo again.  

First up was a hugely belated mother's day gift that became a Christmas present.

 

Ishbel for Mom

I forgot to take pictures of the finished product in action, but this little Ishbel in The Plucky Knitter Silk Merino (Nora Charles colorway) made me pretty happy.  It blocked BEAUTIFULLY, all pointy-edged, and without blocking wires (as I'd waited till the day before Christmas Eve to finally finish this up.)

Next on the knitting list aren't really a project I can claim for myself, but I do want to show them off. HEB and I bought this yarn at a random store in this fake Scandinavian town in southern CA a couple of years back (it matched our nail polish!) and I finally convinced her to at least send me my pair.  She made me promise to block them, which I did, and then proceeded to wear them around.  SO CUTE.

Socks from HEB

 Also on the list of projects started long ago that I finally finished? These awesome awesome fingerless gloves.

Awesome Transition Gloves

I really love them. I managed to mess up and add too many or too few repeats to one, but I can't even deal with the thought of living without them for long enough to fix it.  It only really bothers me when I'm sitting on the train staring at them, and that happens so rarely, it's hardly worth taking them apart. 

Quite honestly, I think part of my constant frustration with the lack of cold in the Bay Area this winter is because I want to wear these all of the time, and really, it has to be pretty cold, because these babies are WARM.  I have been appreciating the beauty of the quarter length sleeve, as demonstrated above, and how the combination is comfy and chic. (Ha, probably not, but I so don't care!  Love!)

There is one more little thing that's helped to bring back the love of knitting most recently. 

Pretty SHELTER yarn.

I suppose if any designer was going to create a new yarn, Brooklyn Tweed would be the one to do a wooly, tweedy yarn that makes me want to knit with it all day long.  I knit myself a Turn a Square Hat with "Nest" and "Long John" colorways, and then knit my brother a semi-matching one. 

Tire swings are never not fun.

This picture shows his off a little better. 

Baby the goat in the background.

 

Instead of alternating 2 rows of the red with 3 rows of the grey, I did 3 rows grey, 2 rows red, 3 rows grey, 4 rows red (I know, WILD).  I really really like how his came out, even more than mine.  I also steam-blocked for the first time (I was a little worried about the yarn growing too much) and it worked wonders.  The wool seriously relaxed in front of my eyes, and became a little softer and far more flexible.  And that, in turn, let me wax poetic to my family about the wonders of wool.  Aren't they lucky?

 But two hats was not enough.

Actually a dark, dark brown (Pumpernickel!). Photographing this may be challenging.

This is the first (and not yet complete) of at least two more hats I'm making with this yarn.  More updates as they happen. One of many NYE resolutions is going to be posting to this blog.  Maybe one of those posts will include some lingering holiday gifts as well, but no promises. 

*wink*

Winter Knitting

I knit this quicky "gathered pullover" in just about a month, starting on a car ride to Philadelphia on 9/11. The Berocco "Jasper" wool is really soft and warm and the pattern is totally simple stockinette except for a complex cable that brings it in under the bust and gives it a nice fit. I bought the yarn because I fell in love with it, and found the pattern on Ravelry.

About the same time, I also made a scarf of Malabrigo worsted - Emerald Blue. I really like the pattern RIVULET (from Interweave - because it is totally reversable and is an interesting ribbed cable. Very thick and warm. I love Malabrigo yarns. I was looking for another pattern and yarn for a sweater when I found the worsted the the Jasper in my local knitting shop. Later I found the pattern and yarn I really wanted on line and am working on that sweater now.

hello, blackbird

I somehow managed to not get very good photos of this scarf, despite it being one of the more photogenic things I have knit and having the most photogenic model come visit Hartford to help me out.
Regardless, I'm quite pleased with it (and, more importantly, my mother seems pleased with it as a birthday gift). It's the Dipped Infinity circle scarf, a pattern by CosmicPluto. I now want to knit lots of patterns by CosmicPluto, since this one came along at a time when I was feeling very disengaged from knitting and it was fun and exciting and completely turned me back into a knitter. (Plus, she went to David Berkeley's Boston show the night after my DB house concert. I'm not quite sure why that makes me want to knit her patterns, but it sort-of does.)


The yarn is the Plucky Knitter superwash merino fingering, sold as a kit for the dipped infinity pattern, in Retro Infinity.
I've started putting skeins of sock yarn aside in the hopes of knitting one of these for me someday!

Some quilts and other things

Well, for a break today from statistics and all things boring, I'm posting some delayed quilting.

First up, a butterfly quilt for a friend having her first baby girl. Samir and I made this jointly in a crazy sewing session that lasted about four hours, the morning of my friend's baby shower (this is likely why the pictures are not ideal-- I seem to remember being quite late and needing to run to take a shower, and saying "come on! take it! got to go!"). There's nothing like a deadline to get you going! I liked it particularly because it wasn't too "baby". The back is just the butterfly fabric and it comes through nicely in the second picture. I would have like to angle it, but unfortunately this was just some scrap fabric my mom had lying around so I had to make do with less than I would need to do so.



This quilt I probably made two years ago now (yikes!) and although I distinctly recall taking pictures of it myself, I have never been able to find the pictures. So, we'll have to settle with glimpses available in pictures my friends have taken of their kids where the quilt makes an appearance. It's a lovely little ladybug fabric with red, white, and black, originally made for friends' first baby, but happily used extensively for friends' second baby. I loved this quilt because the cottons I used ended up being super soft. It was considerably larger than the quilt above ("toddler bed" or "crib size" in quilting terms), so took awhile. I was sad to part with it because it was my biggest quilt made to date, but my sadness quickly turned to sheer delight when I saw my friends actually used it. (As I'm sure you knitters can share in, the most heartbreaking part of gifting handmade items is if the recipient does not use the gift. Samir also sews quite a lot but refuses to sew any gifts because of this problem.)


In other happy, artsy things, my sister painted this mailbox for my parents. I love it!


Finally, I thought some of you (not HEB) would appreciate this. Awhile ago we foster parented some adorable, adorable kittens that were abandoned by their stray mother after being powerwashed. My mom found them while out canvassing for some election, and we took care of them for a few weeks until they could eat on their own. They were so sweet! (Like I said, sorry, HEB). They generally cozied up to any and all yarn available. Here, two of them decided to snuggle with a baby blanket I was in the middle of knitting. Unfortunately the intended recipient had a bad cat allergy, so I ended up knitting a new gift for that friend and giving this to someone else.

knitting and other happy-making things

I've sent off a few handknits in the last week or so, so I figured I should also post them to the blog. The first package included this hat: Foliage, in Plucky Knitter cashmere fingering weight in Rustica.
I worked the hat with two strands of the yarn on US 6s. Hat mods here. The matching wristwarmers were knit with one strand on US 4s. (Details here on adapting the hat pattern to wristwarmers.)
As with many lovely yarns, I struggled to capture its color but think that the first shot of the wristwarmers probably gets it the best. As far as cashmere yarns go, I think this one is a great value, since this whole set used less than 1.5 skeins (hat: less than 1 skein; wristwarmers: less than 0.5 skeins).

On EW's orders, I am posting two non-knitting, but happy-making things to the blog. First up: flannel pajama pants that my mom made me. The fabric is Amy Butler flannel from Stitchers Crossing. She was working off a pattern, but, apparently, they were turning out odd so she basically winged it. I am so happy for cool nights when I can wear these. (They have shrunk a little in the wash since this photo, but that's all for the best.)
And my new fall bag, which is what came of having too many lovely birthday gifts.
I hope you all have time for knitting and other happy-making things!