the c-word

No, not that c-word. My goodness.

I’m speaking, of course, of Christmas. And Christmas knitting, which has been underway for some time. I have enthusiastically taken the handmade pledge, and I think it’s going pretty well so far. I originally intended that all the handmade gifts would be handknitted gifts, but that’s not going to happen. Besides friends and family, there are people like the kids’ teachers, all six of them (hello - only three kids), and it’s just going to be too much. I’ll probably do some baking or making things like lip balms or bath balls. The handmade holidays group in Ravelry has tons of good suggestions. And then, not all the gifts can be handmade – though that’s all I’ll say about that here.

So what have I knit so far? Well, there’s the mittens.

The last couple of pairs have been stripey wool exercises in stashbusting. On the first pair, I made the stripes completely random, and then I put a bit more structure in the second pair. I’m also perfecting my jogless join, and using up as much as I can of those annoying little balls of leftovers. Do those drive you crazy, too? Or is it just me?

I’ve also been doing a bunch of stuffed animals, mostly using the Bubby pattern from knitty. I planned to do a cat (for the baby in the family that has cats), a dog (for the baby in the family that has dogs), a bear (the pattern ends there), and a salamander. Obviously I’m not going to do a Bubby salamander, but all the others will use that pattern. The cat and dog, actually, are already done.

They just need faces, but I’d like to get some embroidery floss for that. Also, I’m not sure I like the bow ties/neckties on either of them. I think I might get some ribbon for ties and be sure to stitch it down securely. Or maybe I’ll go all-out and knit them some little clothes. That might be fun.

The toughest Christmas knitting to get through is going to be the kids’ sweaters. I get the sinking feeling I’m going to do all the fun stuff - like, say, stuffed animals and mittens - first, and wind up spending the last couple of weeks before Christmas going crazy with the big projects. Because that is how I roll. At this point Big Brother’s sweater is knit up to the armpits, plus one sleeve and a little bit of a second sleeve. I started the second sleeve last Thursday, then spent the weekend (my prime knitting time) on other, smaller projects. Honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m forcing myself to save Baby Sister’s sweater for last, because it will be by far the most entertaining.

And last but not least, I knit something up for my sister's boyfriend. Which, fellow Secret Santa participants, does not necessarily mean I drew his name! So there! Last year I made him fingerless gloves, so this year I was going to go for a hat. Unfortunately for me, it turned out Nancy had knit him two hats last year (one in black and one in brown, so being a guy, he'd never need another one). So a hat was out.

Hmm, what to knit, what to knit . . . a-ha, a COWL!

Love it when I get to knit a gift and indulge an obsession. I'm going to post the pattern for this (ridiculously simple as it is), but I'll make that a separate post.

So that's it for Christmas so far. I feel like I should put a countdown in the sidebar or something, but I'm not really that organized in my thinking this year. Gone are the color-coded Excel spreadsheets of years past, there's just not enough time. Sigh . . . I've been so busy and doing so much thinking and exploring - soon I'll sit down and share my thoughts. As soon as I can get them to stay in one place long enough.

fiber-y update

I realize I never really put up a good picture of the skeins of contest yarn - an egregious oversight indeed! Just to remind you, this is 8oz (more or less) of shetland wool that Jess and I dyed with Koolaid and spun up for her contest benefitting the Relay for Life. I really enjoyed working with it; it had a great crimpy texture and it was very soft and sheepy-smelling. I ended up with two skeins, one of which made a lap at the Relay. They're a chunky weight, a little bit thick-and-thin, and still soft and sheepy.

The color is a little off in both pictures - the actual yarn is not so pink as the first one, and not so washed-out as the second one. You can picture it, right?

While I'm on the topic of handspun . . .

Here are those mitered mittens I've been working on. They took three tries to finally be something I was happy with. Well, mostly happy with, but I'll get there in a minute.

The first time I showed you these mittens was Take 1, the pair that were too tight. I went up a couple needle sizes (size 6 to size 8) and knit Take 2. This time, I was unhappy with the way the colors looked. This particular skein of handspun had been navajo-plied, to keep the colors together. The result was long repeats of color; the mitten had a purple cuff, a while hand, and a bit of yellow right at the fingertip. It looked like the Easter Bunny's version of candy corn, and who knows what the second mitten might have looked like. It's too bad - those long repeats would have been great in a Baby Surprise Jacket, but I didn't have enough yarn for that. Anyway, I solved the problem by winding the yarn into two balls and doing narrow stripes.

So what was I unhappy with? Well, I chose to do afterthought thumbs (which I liked a lot, being someone who chronically does not leave enough space between the thumb and the base of the fingers), but this is how much yarn I had left after both mittens:

Enough for two thumbs? I crossed my fingers and snipped.

And no. It was enough for about 1 1/3 thumbs. The second one was finished off with some undyed worsted weight. They look okay, but their gift potential has been seriously impaired. They certainly can't go to a nonknitter now.

The last project I want to show you is a quick baby hat I made with some of the yarn I've spun recently. I say baby hat, but it ended up as a doll hat. I am just continually afflicted with Yarn Shortage.

Ah well. The solution must be to spin more, right?

warm hands, warm heart

Actually, warm everything right now. Is it fall yet?

Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that I am quite suggestible when it comes to podcasts. They've gotten me to sign up for Ravelry, buy books, even write poetry. Honestly, if a podcast told me to go jump off a bridge, I'd probably do it.

The most recent incident involves Kelly Petkun, of the Knitpicks podcast, a most devious repeat offender if ever there was one. A couple of shows ago, she was talking about mittens. She said they were great for stashbusting, as they don't use much yarn (which I already knew). She mentioned they are fun like socks but simpler and quicker than socks (which I also already knew). She suggested they make very good gifts (again, something I already knew). In short, she told me a whole bunch of things I knew already, and my reaction was OMG, everybody's getting mittens for Christmas this year!!!

I had a pair cast on within a half hour, and finished the next day.

Target Wave Mittens, from Knitting Nature. So cute! The yarn is miscellaneous stash that I had previously used to experiment with overdyeing. I meant for them to be for Baby Sister, but they practically fit me. No problem; they can go to Jess' daughter. It looked like I had enough left afterward for a second pair, so I went down a couple of needle sizes and tried again.

Ran out of the green. Damn near ran out of the pink too, but that's what stashbusting is about, right? Anyway, they fit Baby Sister nicely.

The pair I'm working on now are EZ's Mitered Mittens, from the Knitter's Almanac. I'm using some yarn I spun last fall. The yarn is a bit overplied and a little stiff, but it makes a good sturdy fabric for mittens.

The picture is of a first attempt that I frogged because they were just too tight. Still, I wanted to show you the lovely way the colors blend in the handspun. Mmmm.

I think this mittens-for-Christmas idea will prove to be a good one, however ridiculous the way I came to it is. I've got so many more options: Bird in Hand, thrummed mittens, Norwegian mittens, not to mention the interesting cables or stitch patterns I can put on the backs of a basic mitten pattern.

At least I won't get bored!