DH spoilt me this year with yarn. I only got to open (most) of my presents last night from him, as we were off visiting family all over the place and decided to keep our own Christmas for ourselves.
Above is Plymouth Yarn Angora, 4 skeins of black and 5 of baby blue.
He also got me a whole bunch of everyone's fave, mmmmmalabrigo:
10 skeins of silky merino in "purple mystery" and...
5 of "dill".
I made myself a sweater in Malabrigo Silky Merino years ago and it is still going strong, so I know that this could make at least 2 sweaters (I used 6 for the first sweater and I have 15 now... even with full length sleeves I should be able to get 2 sweaters worth out of it). I'm thinking one of just the purple and maybe another with green as the main colour and stripes or something of the remaining purple for the 2nd? Or perhaps something completely different... we shall see, shan't we?
I hope everyone else had a wondering holiday, and don't forget, you can still take advantage of my holiday deal until midnight EST tonight!!
Monday, December 31, 2012
and a yarny new year
Friday, December 28, 2012
Little thing the third
is really little.
Ok, fine, we can look at it a little closer...
It's an ewok! Ok, fine, we can get closer still...
An Ewok on Hoth. Or in Canada. Either way.
Early on in our relationship, DH saw this when I was perusing things on ravelry and really really wanted it. I saved it in my queue, where it had sat ever since. What can I say? I love him, but really cannot crochet.
I didn't have time to do anything major for anyone this Christmas, so I went thru my queue and saw this guy sitting there, forlorn. I decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot.
I'm sorry to say that this project reinforced my hatred of crochet. I probably should have used a bigger hook with the woolarina, and the dolly was too splitty for crochet. And I hold on too tight. And in the round my crocheting often ends up inside out, somehow… probably because I sometimes end up throwing the yarn as opposed to holding it in my left hand. Old habits die hard.
Mods: improvised the hood in garter stitch (aka KNITTING) because I couldn’t understand the crochet directions and I think it was way easier my way. That’s what I’m going to tell myself, anyway. I’m not thrilled with my embroidery skills, either, but I think his face turned out ok.
Raveled here.
Speaking of small things, I found a close-up picture of the duck boots on my dad's camera, for those of you who want to see more of them (although who could pass up the cute baby pic for this?!):
And, to make a long post even longer, don't forget to take advantage of my holiday deal, explained here.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Little Thing[s] the Second
The only real knitted present this year was for my new niece. It was her first Christmas, so of course she was rather spoiled. She's too young to remember, though, so we'll make sure it doesn't go to her head... too much, anyway.
Some of you may have guessed from my earlier post that these were duck socks. They were a little fiddly, with the strange cast on and the applied i-cord, but the end result is well worth it. I'm sorry I don't have a better FO picture, but the cute baby makes up for it, no?
Mine raveled here.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
A holiday gift from me to you!
From now until the end of the year I am offering a special gift just for you, oh faithful readers!
You may choose one of my pay-for patterns on ravelry, for free, including the above jacket. Just check out my pattern page and use the coupon code "holidayknit" when checking out (no quotation marks necessary).
Happy knitting! And happy holidays too!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
what a difference an i-cord makes
secret detail shot... it's all you're getting [be]for[e] Christmas
The [thing] on the right is finished, and has some beautiful applied i-cord detail. It took an hour just for the middle one (there are 3), so you'd better be ooohing and aaaahing over it!
The [thing] on the left is still in progress and does not have any applied i-cord on it. Yet. See the valley sort of in the middle (right where it first touches thing-on-the-right)? That's where the middle applied i-cord will go.
If you know what these are, best not to shout it out in the comments, there could be recipients (or in this case recipients' mothers) lurking.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
little thing the first
Yesterday I posted that I was going to try and get a few things done before Christmas .... and then cast on this!
Pattern is: Elfin, yarn is Manos Maxima, needles are US 6s. Took less than a couple of hours!
A friend who recently had a baby asked if I could knit a hat for her new little girl, and of course I would! I hope that it fits and keeps her adorable little head warm all winter!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
sweater progress
Not much to say, but the sweater for my Will Work For Yarn Swap is coming along. A couple of sleeves and a collar and we'll be set to send it back to its proper owner!
Christmas knitting really didn't happen this year, which I'm sad about, but between the WWFY swaps and teaching for my first semester post-PhD, I got a little busier than expected. That said, there are a few small things I'm hoping to crank out before next week, and will update if/when they're done.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
wednesdays are for
what I've been up to.
Not much, honestly, but I did manage to get through one skein of cascade 220 (of 7) for the shiraz sweater I've been working on for someone in the WWFY group.
Hoping to crank this out along with Christmas presents (only a few this year) before the big day.