Effortless...

This cardigan was technically my first FO of 2013, finished on January 1st. My BFF, Annie, requested a sweater for Christmas this year, and she picked everything out. The pattern is Effortless by Hannah Fettig, which I'm sure you've seen around the block once or twice by now. 

The yarn is my favorite - Knit Picks Comfy Worsted - in Seraphim, a pretty grey-violet. It's a bit short on me, because Annie is a bit short, but you get the gist.

Every Christmas I am resolute: NO sweaters. For anyone. ...And then every Christmas, someone has to ask for the perfect sweater that I totally want to knit them (on size 10 needles), and wear me down. Next year will be the year of no Christmas sweaters. Yup, NEXT year. 

A Hat with a Beard - A Christmas Classic

Yup, I'm still posting pictures of all my holiday gift knitting (and sewing). Hope you enjoy, and leave links to your holiday projects in the comments for me to look at, too! 

Modeled by Chris

Gifted To: Sometime in November, my little brother, Patrick, texted me a photo of a hat with a beard attached that simply said "Christmas?" My baby brother was requesting hand knits? How could I do anything but oblige?!

rav link

Pattern(s): I looked around for a good hat pattern, and settled on the Asterisk Hat. It was a lovely, straight-forward hat pattern, perfect for any sort of dude in your life. The mitts are of my own design, based on the Asterisk design elements. For the beard, I based it on the Garter Stitch Beard pattern. I think I used bigger needles, because it was too small. It was a long time ago....

Yarn: Yup, this yarn is leftovers from my Bombshell Shorts - Knit Picks Gloss DK in Clover. It worked perfectly, and Patrick loves green, so it was a good fit. 

Patrick totally loved this combo, so I count this as one of the most successful hand knit presents I've ever given him. Although he did go crazy for a scarf in MSU colors when he was about 5...

Blanket for Baby #3

Yup, I'm still posting pictures of all my holiday gift knitting (and sewing). Hope you enjoy, and leave links to your holiday projects in the comments for me to look at, too! 

rav link

Gifted To: Technically, this is a blanket for my brother's third baby - a boy - due in March. But I wrapped it up and gave it as a Christmas gift to my brother and his wife, because it just felt a little more special. Plus, they'll get another gift once baby arrives. 

Pattern: Chevron Baby Blanket from the Purl Bee. This one had been in my queue for awhile, just waiting for the right baby and the right...

Yarn: Baby's First, a Lion Brand yarn. Oh man, this yarn! I picked it up on a whim at Michael's when I was doing a ton of Christmas crafting shopping, and it is awesome. An acrylic/cotton blend (that I had never seen before), it feels like a squishy, soft sweatshirt when knit up. I wish they made more colors, because I would totally make a blanket for myself out of this stuff! 

When I presented Michael and Jen with this blanket, after ooo-ing and ahhh-ing over it, Jen said, "I didn't know if you were going to make a third one! Madigan has her's, and Ellie has her's, so I thought, maybe there will be a third, maybe not!"

But I will confess to you, dear readers, that one of the sweetest things Jen has ever said (or texted) to me was about those two baby blankets. She once said something along the lines of, "I'm so glad my daughters have special handmade blankets and sweaters, just for them, so they know they are loved and special." I'm paraphrasing here, but just be assured, my heart did melt. And she pretty much secured a lifetime of handmade goodness for her babies. :)

NOEL Scrabble Pillows

Yup, I'm still posting pictures of all my holiday gift knitting (and sewing). Hope you enjoy, and leave links to your holiday projects in the comments for me to look at, too! 

Gifted To: My Grandma. She got an iPad for Christmas last year (2011), and loves to play Words With Friends, using the chat feature quite liberally (things got pretty heated around election time!). So when it came time to choose what to make for G.Ma, I knew it would be something Ww/F or Scrabble-related.

Pattern: My own. After looking around for some inspiration, here's what I did: 

I Googled "Scrabble Font," and printed out the letters that I wanted as large as I wanted them. Then I cut them out and used them as pattern pieces. I backed the felt with iron-on adhesive (this stuff), then cut out the letters using my pattern pieces. I cut 6" square pieces of linen and backing fabric. I ironed the letters where I wanted them on the linen, then hand stitched them. I sewed the front to the back, and then stuffed the little pillows. 

Fabric: Red Felt, linen and Christmas left-overs I bought from Sew Mama, Sew about 3 years ago. Stash-busting! 

And here they are on Grandma's amazing mid-century couch. I have laid heavy claim to this couch, but I'll have to fight off my Uncle Mike for it, according to my mother. It might cost a bit to have it shipped from Ohio to California - but I think it's worth it. Plus, Uncle Mike lives in London - so it's not like it's cheap to ship it there! 

Christmas Wallpaper

Yup, I'm still posting pictures of all my holiday gift knitting (and sewing). Hope you enjoy, and leave links to your holiday projects in the comments for me to look at, too! 

Gifted To: My Mom. Dare I say, I gave her two cowls for Christmas this year. She requested one of the samples from my Chevron Sunshine pattern, but then while I was knitting this one up as part of the Wallpaper Cowl KAL, it just kept calling her name. When she opened this one first on Christmas morning, she said "This is not the one I wanted... but I like this one better!"

Pattern: Wallpaper Cowl by Emma Welford. 

Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss DK in Hawk and Fairy Tale, and Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in Kenai. I really, really love these colors. I'd been wanting to use Fairy Tale for something all Fall, so this was my chance! And I love the contrast color lining in the design. 

Needles: US 6. I was totally boring and followed this pattern completely as written. It really didn't need anything else! 

Watched while knitting: All of the possible Christmas movies I own. Which is not as many as the Halloween movies I own, but it's a lot: White Christmas, Holiday Inn, Nightmare Before Christmas (it's both! Chris says it's just for Halloween but he's WRONG), Home Alone and Love Actually. I like to get into the season with my film-watching. 

Felt Desserts (Perfect if you're on a diet!)

Yay, I can post pictures of all my holiday gift knitting (and sewing)! Hope you enjoy, and leave links to your holiday projects in the comments for me to look at, too! 

Gifted To: My niece, Emlyn, and Chris' nephew, Josh. Once I came up with the idea for Ellie, I made a double batch so Josh could have some, too! 

Pattern: My own - inspired by many others around the interwebs. 

I was at a loss this year, trying to figure out a gift for my two and half year old niece. And then my sister gave me a big clue, "Ellie loves dessert!"

With that directive, I took off running. It's been awhile since I made play food, but it's always fun to figure out how to best represent one's favorite foods with felt. I knew I wanted to make her some ice cream - so the ice cream cone came first. Then I added in some Oreos, since they're easy to make up in large batches. 

But those donuts - oh man - they are my favorite of the three desserts. I want to eat them, they look so good! But they were a bitch to sew (each one completely by hand), and I stayed up way past my bed time to get them done. 

Chris totally wanted to keep one for himself. 

Falling Leaves Mittens

Yay, I can post pictures of all my holiday gift knitting! Hope you enjoy, and leave links to your holiday projects in the comments for me to look at, too! 

Gifted to: Allyson, although when I started this, I didn't know that they would be for her! However, when I was done, I knew that I wanted to give these colorwork beauties to someone who would really appreciate them, and needed something extra special this Christmas. I guess I started a lot of projects this year without knowing who'd they would go to! 

Pattern: Woodland Winter Mittens, by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence. 

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in 7 colors. The yarn and pattern came as part of a kit that I received for Christmas in 2011. There's colorwork charts that correspond to the months October through March, and enough yarn in the kit to make 6 pairs of mittens. That's a lot of fiddly colorwork mittens, so I'm proud to have finished at least one pair in 2012! 

Needles: Size 2 circs with a 40" wire for magic loop. These would be super annoying on DPN's. 

Modifications: The pattern recommends a size 1 needle, but after I swatched, I realized my gauge was way off. And I'm not the only one - countless others on Ravelry said that they went up one or even two needle sizes in order to get mittens that fit. Part of that is the tiny needles - but the pattern is also written very small. These mittens were fitted on me (and Allyson), and I have tiny hands. I think I'll try knitting the next pair on a size 3 needle and see how it goes, or add a border of extra background stitches.

I also added 4 more stitches to the thumb, which was worryingly small, and just worked those extra 4 stitches in the background color around the thumb pattern. 

Watched While Knitting: Season 1 of Friday Night Lights. Everyone's been talking about this show for years, and I was all like, "Yeah, but I don't like football!" I'm dumb - this show is awesome. The camera work and characters are both equally amazing, and I think now that the holidays are over (I go crazy for Christmas movies), Chris and I will watch more. 

Tri-Color Multiplicity

Yay, I can post pictures of all my holiday gift knitting! Hope you enjoy, and leave links to your holiday projects in the comments for me to look at, too! 

on Ravelry here

Gifted To: Sharriese, my friend in Chicago and roommate in college. As soon as I started knitting it, I knew it would go to her - the colors just scream "Sharriese." Plus she texted me that she cried when she opened the package, and if that's not a sign that she deserved it, I don't know what is!

Pattern: Multiplicity from Holla Knits Accessories, by Allyson Dykhuizen

Yarn: This pattern is wonderful for stash busting! It calls for DK, but I didn't have enough of any two colors of DK weight, so I turned to worsted. I picked a skein of Wool-Ease in Grey Heather and a skein of Full O' Sheep in Mediterranean.

But then about halfway through, I got worried that I was going to run out of yarn before I finished, and I thought about doing the striped gusset in coordinating colors. I picked out leftovers from Honors Geometry, but ended up just using a small ball (less than a quarter skien) of Sheep(ish) in Lime(ish) striped with the grey. I also used the Lime yarn to whip stitch the pocket together. I absolutely LOVED these three colors together!

Needles: I went up to a size 8 to match the change in yarn weight.

Strap: A coordinating strap from Homestead Heirlooms, LLC in "Split Pea."

Modifications: Other than shifting the gauge to match the yarn, I made no changes in the pattern as written. But, I did re-enforce the side seams of the bag with my sewing machine, because I wanted to make sure it would stand up to every day purse-like use. 

So I sewed everything together by hand, as Allyson designed, and then went over it again with the machine. I definitely recommend doing both if you're going to use the machine. Machine sewing + hand knitting can get really icky, fast. 

 

I love the way this one turned out, and I really loved using up stash yarn. This could definitely be done with two of your standard worsted-weight skeins. You know, the kind you buy when walking through Joann's without a plan (always a bad idea). 

Allyson and I were joking that since I didn't have any DK yarn, I shouldn't go up in weight, but down. So a Mini-Multiplicity made with sock yarn and size 2 needles is now officially on my "To Knit" list. Because I'm a crazy person who wants to double knit on size 2's.