Over-due Thank You Post

Right around Christmas (that's how behind I am here folks...) I received an awesome surprise gift in the mail as a thank you. A long time family friend and lovely lady had asked for some Steelers koozies of her own and as a thank you she sent me a gift! Totally not necessary, by the way, but enjoyed nevertheless.

It's a yarn bowl with a special curie-que in the side which keeps the yarn coming and the ball in one place instead of all over my floor as it was before. I've seen these before in yarn shops I've visited but usually they look like something I might have made in 8th grade pottery class. Never have I seen one as cute as this, with the bees and white polka-dots. I love it!

You may also recognize the yarn that's currently residing in the bowl; it's the knit picks I got for Christmas, so the bowl has been in use for as long as I've had it, I just haven't had the time to finish the WIP. I'm adapting, as best I can, a pretty sweater from an old Vogue Knitting magazine and not having trouble exactly, but some of Vogue's patterns seem to be more complicated then necessary so I'm hopeful that my simplification won't result in an unwearable item. Someday I'll finish it and learn the answer, till then, fingers crossed!

Maybe I waited this long so I could take advantage of the pretty flowers (aka weeds) growing in my backyard already. Unseasonably warm weather has given me an awesome photo-shoot backdrop so that must be the reason for my procrastination!

Thanks again Robyn, I love, love, love it!!

Scarf

I almost forgot to share another homemade Christmas present. In addition to the socks and the fingerless gloves, I made a scarf for my Aunt Anita.

It was a little tricky because she's allergic to wool and acrylic so I used Lion's Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton which worked even better then I had anticipated. I love the way the pattern came out after I blocked it.

The pattern is Saroyan scarf available on ravelry if you'd like to make one of your own.

More Christmas Gifty Goodness

A few weeks before Christmas my Mom found a fabulous new (to us) store called Charming Charlie. If you have never heard of it, look up a store near you and check it out. It's an accessory store full of tons of bling and fabulous things that sparkle and glitter with feathers and charm, and the best part, it's all arranged by color. I'm not much of a shopper, but this store is such a sensory overload I could spend hours looking at all the jewelry, bags, pins, hair accessories, scarves, the list goes on and on!

I've been a couple of times and actually the only things I've purchased so far have been re-purposed (because I can't help myself; I'll post about them some other time) but everything is reasonably priced, and have I mentioned, sparkly???

When Mom found the store she decided to just buy a bunch of things and let her girls (Megan, Stephaine and me) pick something from her stash that we liked. I chose these fingerless gloves.

I'm sure you can guess the reason, besides the fact that they were adorable, I wanted to use them as inspiration to make more and more and more! And so I did.

I made these for my Mom as a gift for Christmas since every time she saw me wearing mine she'd ask when I was going to make her a pair, and I was more than happy to set my needles to the task. Since I don't know how to crochet, and had already purchased Martha's glitter eyelash without a project in mind, the edges got fringe instead of trim.

 

I got purple tulle, but a single layer like the original gloves didn't really show up against the yarn so I had to sew the corners of a large piece together several times and then add some beads for more sparkle in the center, creating a flower.

I will be sharing the pattern for these as soon as I make another pair to be sure the pattern is written perfectly. My notes from this pair is a little sloppy.

Don't you just love them? What handmade item did you give as a gift that you were just super excited about?

Finally Get To Share!

Finally I get to share the lovely things I made to give as gifts this holiday season. I'm going to start with the most unexpected since I have already said that they scare me, but I made socks! More surprising than that even was that I found them to be almost easy to make!

The yarn that I purchased online on cyber Monday was all intended to make a cute pair of ankle socks with fun fur cuffs, but the colors were not as good of a match in person as I thought them to be online so I did have to make an extra trip to get fun fur that went with the sock yarn. Don't worry, I definitely found something to do with Martha's glitter eyelash...

So here they are! I think they came out pretty good for having to modify this pattern for Sock Monkey Socks to make them shorter. So now I am addicted to making socks, which is a good thing because these only took one skein of the two I purchased to make them. Plus, I got a couple of skeins in my stocking; Santa knows what I like!

I gave them to my Aunt Mary for Christmas and she wasted no time putting them on and wearing them the rest of the day.

There will definitely be more socks to come!

More Thoughts on Last Minute Gifts

The title of this book says it all.

And I can't tell you how many times I've been in Joann's or Barnes and Noble and had it in my hands debating over whether to bring it home with me or not. I love knitting gifts for people, and there are several appealing projects nestled in the pages of this lovely book, but for some reason I've never brought it home. So while I can say I like it, and perhaps someday will have more then a passing affection for it, I can't actually vouch for any of the projects.

I can, however, recommend an equally cleverly titled book, that may not be as obvious on the gift giving front, but has just as many quick and wonderful things to knit for those you love.

This is the cover of the one I actually own, but there are several different One-Skein books geared towards different interests. This is definitely a go-to book for me when I have some left over yarn, or need some inspiration and I can say I've always found the projects and pictures colorful, whimsical, and helpful.

Here are just a couple of things I've made from the book that were quick, beautiful, and even helped me learn new skills... picolt cast-on anyone?

Are there any books you would add to my list?

Last Minute Gift Ideas

There are less then three weeks before Christmas but thanks to the unseasonably warm weather, I have yet to panic. Right now, everything seems a little slow moving to me, except the calendar, so I'm working through my gift list, but with no real urgency, the decorations are still mostly in boxes, and I haven't even begun to think about baking.

This is highly unusual for me. I generally enter December in a state of anxious list making and a frantic decoration of everything from the tree to the sugar cookies, and last year I remember knitting well into the night to get everything finished for Christmas day. Maybe it's the fact that for a change I went shopping on black Friday and actually bought a few presents, or it could be that I'm in 3 polyannas which cuts my gift buying in half. (Check out Elfster if you're looking for a fabulously easy way to organize your own gift exchange) Whatever the case I'm thankful I don't feel stressed right now, and I'm hoping it's not gearing up for a horrible 2 weeks of holiday all nighters.

So, if you are feeling the way I usually am with 19 days to go before the big day, but still want to give your loved ones some handmade coziness, here are a few quick projects that make great gifts, especially when the real winter weather hits.

Hats are great, everyone needs one, and there's so much creative freedom you can have with them. Hannah's hat has an interesting pattern, and on size 13 needles, you'll fly through!

 

A cowl is another great gift and is perfect if you don't think you have time to get though a whole scarf. The name says it all for this Quick Cowl.

How cute are these Christmas Mitts, all dressed up with a pretty ribbon. Fingerless gloves are becoming more popular, especially for the frequent texter.

If you think your giftee won't want something to wear, how about something like this Coffee Cozy? Any coffee lover would appreciate this quick knit to keep from burning their hands on their favorite brew.

These are just a few patterns available on Ravelry so you can also go search their site for the perfect gift, or make make one of my easy original designs.

What are your favorite handmade holiday projects to give?

The Art of Sharing and Not Telling

As I stated in my last post, my needles are happily clacking away on holiday projects as fall has sped right on into November and we're now less then two months away from Christmas. Eek!

This is what my Christmas gift list looks like at the moment, with the names stealthily swiped off so those who read and will also be receiving won't know what they're in for.

Here are a couple of snapshots of what has been made, bought, or dreamed of to this point.

What are you dreaming of gifting for the holidays?

Gifted Annis

I loved the Annis shawl I made so much that decided to make a second one. I was also moved to cast this on again when I saw that Patons Lace Yarn had added some spectacular jewel tones with some sequins sparkle and I had to see how it knit up.

I love the color, and will probably be knitting it again and again; there are several more beautiful Paton colors!

This will probably be a gift this holiday season, but I have yet to decide who to give it to. I'm also thinking of blocking it again since it's still a bit curly.

Is there anything you're working on as a gift? I would love to know what everyone is working on for the holidays.  :)

Picture Perfect Knits

Last Friday was feeling like a wholly unspectacular day. I was just hanging out on the couch and knitting when my husband brings in the mail which included a package just for me! Not just a card or a book I had ordered from Paper Back Swap, but a real, unexpected, lovely package with my name on it!

Inside I found a sweet note from my sister-in-law, Erin, a package of monster mix which hasn't even survived till today for me to take a picture of, and a new knitting book!

See!

It has some fun stuff, and some funky stuff, but having just really learned how to knit with different colors I can see this being a very helpful and handy book as I learn to do more of my own designing!

I've already used it to make a sort-of Halloween costume for myself, having found a need for one for the first time in years.

I am going to have fun with this! Thanks Erin!!

Something Lacy Shrug

In June my Mom bought me a great dress for my birthday which inspired me to start the Something lacy shrug. I knew immediately I wanted to wear the dress to my sister's bridal shower, but I thought it needed something across the shoulders.

The theme for the shower was champagne and sweets, and I encouraged the other ladies helping me host to wear white and champagne colors to go with our theme, so as you can see, Megan was completely surprised, and my dress was the perfect colors for our theme.

I cast on the shrug with some left over fisherman's wool I had used for another project, quickly made my way through the pattern, and after finishing realized this was never going to fit me. It was a good thing the day of the shower was blazing hot, I didn't need any more layers as I had originally anticipated because I had no back-up plan.

The pattern was written way too small, and I couldn't even get it on without looking like a scarecrow on a pole, my arms jutting out at odd angles. I could barely get it over the back of this chair to take a picture of! So I gave it to my friend's 4 year old daughter to wear, and promised her big sister I would make her one in the color of her choice.

Isabella chose blue, and now she will have a shrug of her own! Can you believe the difference of the sizes? The cream one is the small size and the blue one is a modified large.

It's still a bit tight on me, so I don't have the sizing exact for myself, but I don't have time to make anything for myself at the moment anyway.

For Isabella, I think it'll be perfect!