One and Only Christmas Gift

I only made one Christmas gift this year - these linen placemats for my brother. They are very simple double crochet rectangles. I started these in the airport on the way home on December 22. I finished the second one Christmas afternoon. My hand really hurt; it is not use to so much crocheting. But I really like how they turned out - they are small placemats because my brother has a small, round kitchen table so thats what works on his table. The yarn is Berrocco NaturLin. The two placemats took three skeins of beige and one skein of blue. I had a little left over which I crochet in to a little circular coaster, but I didn't get a photo it, so you'll just have to use your imagination!

Molly made the scones for Christmas breakfast. She is the best scone-maker I know.

Mom Mittens

Pattern: Norwegian Mittens by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Source: Knitters Almanac

Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark

Needles: US 4
Start: 11/30/07
Finish: 12/23/07

Happy New Year! This is the last of the Christmas knits... mittens for my mom. This was really my first stranded knitting project and I think they turned out quite lovely! I did make a simple fair isle hat about a year ago, but this was a tad more advanced. I did have a few problems in the beginning, but once I got a rhythm down and figured things out, it was smooth sailing. It is a bit more puckery than I would like, but most of that smoothed out with blocking. I like Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns because the basics are there, but you still have to do some figuring out for yourself. I will definately be making another pair of these for myself.

More Christmas Knits

A few of the smaller items I made for Christmas gifts...

Top: Mistake Rib Scarf for my dad, made with Paton's Classic Merino Wool.

Middle: Utopia Hat for my friend Mary, made with Classic Elite Renissance and a little of the Patons. I absolutely love how this turned out and I know Mary will love it too.

Bottom: Wisp Scarf for Jamie, made with Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I didn't put the buttons on it because I didn't think you would wear it like a caplet. I really love how this turned out, too. I think it will actually be pretty warm. I just love how mohair looks.

Lace Leaf Pullover

Pattern: Lace Leaf Pullover by Teva Durham

Source: Loop-d-Loop

Yarn: Valley Yarns Berkshire Bulky (6 skeins)

Needle: US 13

This was the first Christmas project that I completed. It is supposed to be knit in two pieces in the round... knit the bottom half and then the top half and then graft them together. This is because there is supposed to be a leaf motif near the bottom of the sweater and you knit it this way to keep both of the leaf motifs pointing toward the middle of the sweater. Well, I tried this, but my grafting looked like crap, so I decided to just leave off the leaves on the bottom and knit it in one piece. It is a bit short, so I am going to make it longer for Molly, but otherwise I am very happy with it. I hope Molly likes it as much as I do!

There are lots more Christmas knits, but I will do them one at a time so its not too much of an overload...

Keeping People's Dishes Clean Since December '07

I absolutely cannot believe that it is the middle of December already. The weather here has finally cooled down a bit, but it still doesn't feel like winter. I have been working on finishing up my Christmas gifts, so there isn't much to post because they're SECRETS! However, I made a couple dishcloths to add to gifts. I love these things... they are the best dishcloths ever. I found a bag of kitchen cotton at the thrift store a while back, so I have lots of colors to choose from when I make these.

Last Thursday at knitting, Cheryl gave us all awesome Christmas presents. She dyes yarn & she dyed each of us our own special colorway. She had written words to describe us on little tags that she read aloud and we had to guess who she was describing. It was so sweet, and I love my colorway - its so me! However, she did forget to write 'bossy' on my tag...

Retractable Roof ?

The Gingerbread Party was a success.... lots of sugar (including a yummy chiffon pumpkin pie my friend Katie made), potent drinks (homemade eggnogg from Joel and chocolate peppermint martinis), sheep (there happened to be a live nativity scene a the church down the street and they had live sheep!), Chrismas music, and lots of laughter and conversation. We made approximately 5 gingerbread houses. I say approximately because we made three from kits, one of which fell apart, and two other freestyle ones. The one above is the one that Michelle and I made. The one on the left has " stained glass skylights" (i.e., melted jolly ranchers) and also ended up having a "retractable roof" (i.e., the roof fell off in the end, and after that happened, the structure pretty much collapsed). The last one, I'm sure you can tell, was a freestyle one... complete with mailbox! Anyway, we had a good time figuring out how to make these things work!

And now for the knitting content:

I finished my Carolyn cardigan over a week ago, but didn't ever have time to block it or take good pictures. I finally got to blocking it last night, but it will take a while to dry because it is 75 degrees (!) out and really humid. Where is winter? I am wearing a t-shirt and flip flops today!

I also used up all the yarn that I had for my blanket. I had to order some more today... I just need one more square and then yarn to put it together and for the border. I also blocked the squares because they were very lumpy. So are knits everywhere in my house right now. I am really loving how the squares turned out. It is going to be hard to give it away, but I think the recipients will really appreciate it.

Liesel

So you're probably wondering if I did any knitting on vacation, right? I finished the socks for my dad on the drive up. And one afternoon at home, I finished the scarf for my aunt:

Pattern: Liesel by Mary Joy Gumayagay

Yarn: Classic Elite Renaissance, 2 skeins

Needle: #8

Start: 7/14/07

Finish: 8/23/07

This was a really easy and fun scarf to knit. It went fairly fast, and even faster because I didn't make it very long. I didn't memorize the pattern, but since it was so small, I didn't really mess up much at all. I love how this yarn and the pattern mix so well... I wasn't sure about using a variagated yarn with this pattern, I always tend to question using variagated yarns and patterns because a lot of times they seem to fight with each other. But this time they don't, do they?

So, I've got my first Christmas gift finished and it's only September... pretty good, eh? Well, I know that this fall is going to be crazy at school, so I wanted to get an early start. I'm almost through with a second Christmas gift as well, but then that will be it for a while.

Are you gals planning any Christmas knitting?

Dyeing Again

I've been busy the last few days. I started a lot and didn't finish much - until today, that is. This weekend I went out to Bankhead to help Bill out with habitat plots, but I was able to do some dyeing - this time using oak leaves and curled dock. The oak leaves produced a gorgeous oaky-brown color and the dock leaves, a light sage green. The brown from the oak really does look like wood! They both turned out really great and will look good together - I think I will make a hat with them. I also collected roots from the dock plants for dyeing, but they had to soak for a few days. They are simmering on the stove as we speak - they are supposed to produce a dark brown color. I think next I am going to try to make some variagated sock yarn with these earth-toned colors. I haven't tried variagated yarn yet, and I'm not sure how to go about it, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.
This morning I finished up a few projects that had been lying around. First off, these adorable baby booties. There is a free pattern here. They are for a high-school friend who is expecting a boy in October. I used some yarn (Katia Mississippi 3) I found at the thrift store for 99 cents. And there is still enough yarn for about 5 more booties. Yea for thrift store yarn! The second thing I finished off this morning is this little top I sewed up. I found a shirt at that I really liked for $58, and decided that I could most definately make that myself, so I went directly to Hancock Fabrics and found a pattern and some fabric (that was nothing like the shirt in the store). I had troubles with the elastic at the top and had to rip it out, but I finally figured out how to do it (my way) this morning. You can sort of see my new hair cut in the picture, but I thought I'd add another one since there have been so many requests. Its really hard to take a picture of myself without making my nose look like Pinocchio, so this will have to do. The hair is cuter in real life, too.

All the Christmas yarn I ordered came last Friday. I think I have a lot of knitting to get to!

More tank tops and Christmas too

Another tank top... this one is the corded halter dress from Knit Simple spring/summer 2007. The pattern is for a dress, but I shortened it to make a top. I knit it from the top down instead of the bottom up, which was easier for me because I didn't know how long I wanted it. I basically just knit until I ran out of yarn - I used 2 skeins of Lion Brand Microspun. It is a pretty cute top and I plan to use it as a coverup at the beach, provided I ever go to the beach...

I brushed up on my crochet skills and made a couple of those cute little birdies this weekend. Adorable, no? They were super easy, even with my basic crochet skills, and I made the two of them within a couple hours. Right now they are hanging out on my windowsill waiting for more friends to join them. Very cute.

I have officially started on my Christmas knitting... I started a scarf for my aunt, I am using this pattern. So far, it looks really nice. As for other Christmas knitting, I have made my list and it is pretty extensive, but hopefully do-able! Among other things, I am going to knit Bill the sweater he has been asking for since last Christmas. I'm a little apprehensive since he is SO picky about his clothes, but he says he will wear it. He has approved the pattern and picked out the yarn - its color #9408, a reddish-brown. It was a big step for us, well, me anyway.

The transition from working all the time, to having lots of free time is going okay. I was incredibly bored this weekend, but now I am adjusting. I went to a friend's for a yummy dinner last night and tonight I think Bill & I are going to meet up for dinner (he's out at Bankhead all this week). Otherwise, I've been taking Frazier for walks, cleaning, shopping, eating, and generally lazing around. I'm trying to get motivated to start entering data. Soon, real soon, I'll get to that.