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| The owls are for me, and the flowers are for Grandma. The other blanket will remain hidden until after Christmas! |
The Surprise Item
Lets get started on the projects! I'll start with one of the finished objects. Unfortunately, I can't go too much into detail on this one. It's a surprise for one of my holiday giftees, so I'll just leave a sneak preview of the fabulous yarn that I'm using for it. It's super soft, and it's also machine washer/dryer friendly! I'm just about entirely done with this item. I finished blocking it and weaving in ends over the weekend, and just have a wee bit more finishing type things to do on it before calling it 100% done. I'll definitely post more pictures and info once it has been received! (Or you can be sneaky and check out my Ravelry profile and scope out the project there... hint, if you're traveling to IL for the holidays and want to keep the surprise alive, don't do this!)
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| This is all I can reveal about the mystery item. It's so soft though! |
Grandma's Leafy Shawl
The next finished item is one I can talk about, since the recipient doesn't do computers. My grandma taught me to knit years ago, and I've made her several small things over the years like bookmarks and a scarf. This year, I wanted to make her something bigger, and something that could get a bit more use. I officially finished my Grandma Leafy Shawl this past weekend. I'm using the Traveling Woman pattern that I already used to make a shawl for myself. I love that this pattern covers multiple yarn weights, from lace all the way up to worsted. It makes it very versatile! I already have plans to make a third one for my mom in red for her birthday. For this one, I used Berroco Vintage Colors in the Oasis colorway. It's an easy to wash yarn, which means it can go in the washer and be fluffed in the dryer. It would just need some light blocking to get the shaping back to perfectly normal again. I'm going to make part of the gift a lifetime laundering guarantee, so that my uncle doesn't have to worry about washing it, since he's the household laundry guy. I think the colors for the shawl are perfect - it has blue and purple, which are her favorite and my favorite color, respectively. In addition, it has shades of green, which symbolize the outdoors and gardens that are so important to both of us. And the pattern resembles a cascade of beautiful, multicolor leaves. I didn't even think about that when I chose the yarn as a souvenir from Davenport, Iowa a few weeks ago, but now that I've spent hours looking at it and working with it, I realize just how fitting the colors are.
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| Absolutely loving worsted weight shawls. They practically fly off the needles! |
Harry Potter Owls Cardigan
This DK weight sweater seems to be just inching along! The last couple of sweaters I made used bulky yarn, so it feels like it is taking so much longer. It is finally starting to look like an actual garment now. The back is done, the sleeves are attached, and I'm working on the shoulder/yoke decreases now. I just love how the lace owls panel is taking shape. I get impatient with long stretches of purl stitches. The purled rows are what is slowing me down right now. I'm trying to keep chipping away at it, because after the body is done, the finishing should go nice and quick. The Swish DK yarn is lovely to work with. It's very soft, and it's comforting to know that it will be easy to launder. I find hand washing small items fairly easy, but larger items can be tedious, especially with the resident feline "helpers." Drying a sweater often means locking a cat out of a room for a day, which is a bit tricky in a one bedroom apartment. Herding cats out of their favorite lounge area is not an easy task!
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| It's finally starting to look like a sweater! The owls are showing up marvelously. Those stinkin' sleeves seemed to take forever though. Also, this yarn is super tricky to photograph accurately! I'd say the top right pic is most true to actual color. |
Husband Socks
I'm making a small amount of progress on the socks for Matt. The first sock is done. I've got so many other projects going, I haven't started the second one yet. But I certainly haven't forgotten about them. Matt won't let me forget about them anyways. He's pretty excited about having some handmade socks!
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| Matt sock #1 is complete. I played a bit of yarn chicken on them... that little string in the left corner is all I had left when I got to the toe! Luckily, there's another ball for the second sock. Otherwise I'd be in trouble... |
Festive Socks
I just started a new pair of socks for myself. They look marvelous! I got a ball of fancy hand-dyed self-striping yarn on Etsy from the Nomadic Yarns shop. It's sport weight sock yarn, so I can use US3 needles and they are just flying by! The first sock's cuff is already halfway done, and I just started them last night. Matt really likes the colors too, so for a last Christmas gift, I got a second ball of the same color to make him a pair of matching socks. If I'm lucky, I'll even be able to finish both pairs before Christmas! The yarn is soo soft, and the colors are very bright. And it's giving me a chance to use my awesome birthday gift from my little brother. He got me a sloth yarn bowl! It looks like a sleepy sloth giving the ball of yarn a big hug! It's extremely cute. And to add to the cuteness even more... I've got a festive project bag to go with the festive sock color scheme! I was lucky enough to catch a Fat Squirrel Fibers shop update a few weeks ago, and got a small project bag, which is perfectly sized for holding all things knitted sock related. Plus the shop helps support one of my favorite video podcasts, The Fat Squirrel Speaks.
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| These colors are simply amazing! It was so hard choosing, the Etsy shop has so many great color combos available. |
Gift Dish Towels
I signed up for a gift exchange at work, and it has a $5 maximum gift price. For my giftee, I'm making two dish towels. One is done, and the other in progress. I've got until Tuesday night to get them done, so I'll have to see if I can knock out the other one this weekend. I've gifted them to a few other people at work and they have rave reviews, so hopefully my grab bag giftee loves them just as much!
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| Simple gifts, and they remain useful for years! |
New Barley Hat
The Barley Hat Pattern is an extremely simple, fun little knit, which comes in sizes for the entire family. I made one last year, and it has gotten lots of wear. I'm making myself another one, this time with some fancy yarn I found at Goodwill over the summer. It's a skein of Spud and Chloe Sweater Yarn in a turquoise color. It's a 55/45% wool/cotton blend, making it both soft and durable. So far I've only gotten the ribbing of the hat brim done. I can't wait to get further, it's so soft! And it will match some of my other winter accessories.
I think that's about it for projects. There's a couple others, but they haven't seen a lot of action so I'll leave them out until there's something more exciting to say about them. As for projects I'm currently pondering, I'm trying to find perfect patterns and colors for a couple pairs of fingerless mitts. One of the gloves from my cousin's pair went missing, so I want to make him a second pair for Christmas. And if I'm making him a pair, it's only fair to make a new pair for his wife... so I've got two patterns pulled, and I'm contemplating perfect yarn choices for them. I've got lots of darker colors for my cousin, and then I'm eyeing some of the more fun and bright colors for his wife. They will be fun little instant gratification projects to break up the slow progress of the larger things I'm working on.
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| Linus and Apollo, my constant knitting companions. And in the lower right, Clyde in catloaf form. If I'm at my parents' house, he's usually close behind, moaning and yelling to announce his presence. |
Wow, I was far more busy with knitting than I imagined! So many neat things to work on!
