gifts | Page 2

New Pattern Release: Texture Times Two!

I have two new pattern releases for you today! Here’s the Texture Times Two Hat and Scarf:

The pattern stitch I used is nice at first glance, but the coolest thing about it is the wrong side, which looks completely different:

It’s like the accessories have a split personality–classy on one side, sort of kooky and fun on the other. Plus I love it when scarves have an attractive backside (because who doesn’t love those? Hehehe. Yes, I am twelve).

The pattern is easy enough to memorize pretty quickly, but difficult enough to stay interesting through a whole scarf and matching hat. I knit mine in buttery-soft Malabrigo Worsted (you might remember the skeins of Purple Mystery from my birthday haul), which made the whole knitting experience highly enjoyable.

The patterns are for sale for $3.50 each here and here, or through my Ravelry store. If you want both patterns, you can buy the set for $6.00 (about a 15% discount).

I can trust you guys to keep a secret, right? After seeing my mom’s reaction to the FOs, I’m planning to give them to her for a Christmas present. Shhhh….

FO Friday: Latte Baby Coat

Two FO Fridays in a row! Baby sweaters are addictive, yo.

Again, apologies for the non-modeled, craptastic blocking shot. My niece lives about 1500 miles away, so getting her to model the FO wasn’t really feasible.

The specs:

Pattern: Latte Baby Coat by Lisa Chemery (Ravelry link). I made the largest size (3T-4T). The pattern was well-written. It included tons of options, which makes for a slightly more cluttered pattern, but I always appreciate having choices.

Yarn: Cascade Eco+, 1 skein in Purple Jewel Heather. The pattern calls for 1.5 skeins for the hooded version in the largest size, but mine took only one, and I had a good sized ball left over. I did rip out my swatch, though–if I had kept a decent-sized swatch, I might have been closer to the end of the skein.

This yarn has been marinating in my stash for more than a year, and it was good to finally use some of it up. I usually avoid baby/toddler knits with non-superwash yarns, but since this is more of a coat anyway and likely won’t fit her next year, I’m not going to be terribly upset if it gets ruined. Plus it was really quick on #10 needles!

Notes: It turned out really cute! I was worried about rippling on the edge, so I bound off very tightly the first time… and then had to rip it out and re-do it when I realized her face wouldn’t fit into the tiny head opening. Doh. But I think I got the tension right the second time.

The balloon is something I’ve recently started using to block hoods. It works like a charm! No more flattened or weird-looking hoods.

When it’s dry, I’ll sew on buttons. I’ve got these neat Celtic knot ones in my button stash that should be perfect.

And it’s good that I’m done with baby knits… because a huge box of yarn just arrived for two commissioned designs that will be due in the new year. Unfortunately, they need to be kept secret, but I can tell you I’m about a fourth of the way through a gorgeous cabled pullover in one of my favorite colors. More on that later….

FO Friday: Sweet Peasy

Remember my baby sweater dilemma?

I decided to go with with Sweet Peasy for my niece’s Christmas present, because it had just the right blend of pretty detail and mindless stockinette. I’ve gotten rather, ahem, addicted to the show Castle lately (Nathan Fillion, witty humor, romance, and mystery–be still my heart!). I wanted a sweater I could make whilst being riveted to the TV.

(Apologies for the non-modeled picture… I don’t have a small person around to put it on, and modeled shots on dolls or stuffed animals freak me out a little, to be totally honest.)

The specs:

Pattern: Sweet Peasy by Heidi Kirrmaier (Ravelry link)

Yarn: Malabrigo Arroyo in Plomo, about 1.5 skeins. The yarn was really lovely to work with, as per usual with Malabrigo. I’m not a hundred percent happy with the way it striped up in the FO, to be honest… but it’s not too bad. I’m just a perfectionist. :-)

Notes: I raided my vintage button stash and came up with these textured dark green ones, which I think look neat with the grayish-purple.

I thought the pattern was fairly good. I’m something of a discerning customer, haha. The pattern tells you to knit the sleeves first and then pick up body stitches from the underarm. I did it in reverse (body first). I also picked up a few extra sts when joining the sleeves and decreased them on the first round, which closes gaps at the sides of the underarms nicely.

I also added a couple of rows to the garter stitch trim on the bands, since I noticed many of the FOs on Ravelry were curling. It seems to have addressed the problem nicely!

Of course, as soon as I finished this, I spotted another little kids’ pattern that I MUST MAKE… so the nieceling may be getting more than one sweater for Christmas. We shall see.

Birthday Wrap-Up, Part 2

I was planning to blog about the rest of my birthday presents (first post here) last week, but I’m participating in a few writing contests and the time just got away from me.

Without further ado, the rest of my yarny presents!

My mother-in-law isn’t a knitter, but she is a painter. To my delight, she decided a few years ago that choosing from all the scrumptious Madelinetosh colors was her idea of a seriously good time. Remember Blue Betty and Chandail? Yep, the yarn for both of those sweaters came straight from her.

I think she outdid herself this year.

That’s five (count em! Five!) skeins of Tosh Merino Light in Worn Denim. Is that gorgeous or what? I love blues and greens, so this is pretty much nirvana in skein form.

Just looking at the pictures is making me drool. I’m thinking a sweater with lace details for this.

And just when I thought no one could top the presents from both of my fantastic mothers, my husband gives me this:

That’s a skein of yarn he hand-dyed in my favorite color, just for me. The picture doesn’t do it justice–it’s a stunning tonal green, with perfect darker and lighter bits interspersed throughout. I’m thinking a hat for this, but I’ll have to choose carefully, because I’m not about to waste this amazing skein.

I am seriously the luckiest person ever.

Birthday Wrap-Up

My birthday was a few days ago, and I have to tell you–I was stunned by the quality of my knitting-related gifts! My nearest and dearest know I love yarn and yarny things, obviously, but this year they seriously outdid themselves.

In fact, I have so much to show that I’m breaking it into several blog posts!

First up, my lovely mom:

(Please note: Mom is a non-knitter. This makes the following all the more impressive.)

On her own, she found a friendly LYS (Always In Stitches). She asked the ladies there for advice on what to get, and when they recommended a ruffled scarf yarn she nicely said, “Well, she’s not that type of knitter, actually.” She then proceeded to proudly show them my Ravelry design page and project page so they’d understand!

After that was established, Mom said they all had an absolute ball picking out yarns after that (a LOT of yarns. She went sort of bananas in the store, let me tell you). I had just told her my favorite colors for yarn were blue, green, and purple, and obviously she was listening.

Here’s what she got me (looking at these pictures, I’m still a little overwhelmed!).

4 skeins Malabrigo Worsted in Purple Mystery and Emerald

JoJoLand superwash in a few different colors/weights:

Crystal Palace Kid Merino in two different (gorgeous!) colors:

Debbie Bliss Angel Prints:

Crazy Zauberball Self-Striping:

And as if all that weren’t enough, she also got me a bunch of notions and fun things:

That’s a Knit Happy sticky note organizer, HiyaHiya Puppy Snips, a Lantern Moon sheepy tape measure, and my personal favorite, an absolutely adorable Black Sheep umbrella. The umbrella is from the Dublin Gift Company, and the ad copy for the product says, “Adorning this umbrella is one black sheep with a shamrock on his arse among a flock of white.” Love it!

The last item was this awesome shelf sitter:

Truer words were never spoken.

Thanks, Mom!!!!

FO Friday: Ruffled Baby Hat

My last three FOs were secret design projects, and I’m currently working on three (!) large garment designs, so there hasn’t been much FO Friday action around here. But this week I actually have something to show off!

I whipped up a little baby hat for my friend’s impending new arrival (who might be making her grand appearance sometime today, it turns out! Glad I sent it last week… ).

It was sort of bizarre to knit from someone else’s pattern for the first time in… six months? Eight months?

Here are the specs:

Pattern: Ruffled Baby Hat (Ravelry link).

Yarn: Cascade Pacific, less than half a skein in color #32. I picked up two skeins of this newish wool/acrylic blend at a yarn store in northern California. It’s very, very soft and washable–I was impressed! Definitely one of the better acrylic blends I’ve used.

Needles: size US #7 (4.5 mm).

Notes: This hat knit up mega-fast, about 2 hrs from start to finish. I modified the pattern by adding an eyelet round a little bit above the ruffle–just a simple [k2, yo, k2tog] around. I’ve had the thin brown ribbon sitting around for years, and I think it looks great with the lavender.

The hat is SO TINY AND CUTE. It was a wrench to send it away, even though I have no kids (and won’t anytime in the near future). I just wanted it around to coo over every once in a while… there’s nothing wrong with that. I think. :-)

Pic with iPhone for scale (that’s a totally normal thing to do, right?):

Star Wars Baby Shower

Warning: picture-heavy post ahead! (It has a little to do with knitting, I promise. Hang in there.)

I threw a baby shower for my best friend yesterday. She’s a Star Wars mega-fan from way back, so we came up with the idea of having a Star Wars theme! I couldn’t resist the opportunity to put my new camera of awesomeness to good use.

I made Yoda Soda by mixing lemon-lime soda with lime sherbet:

The favors were lightsabers (pretzel rods dipped in melted candy coating and sprinkles):

The gorgeous mama-to-be:

We played games, decorated onesies, and watched her open presents:

Recognize this? It went over really well with everyone! All of the non-knitters were impressed that both sides looked good, which I thought was pretty awesome :-)

The shower took a lot of planning, but everyone seemed to have a great time. The mama-to-be was very happy. So it was all worth it :-)

My favorite picture of Kari and me

Work-in-progress: Baby Blanket

Sigh… so I was hoping to have this as an FO for today, but that definitely isn’t happening, so I thought I’d do a post about its progress.

This is a blanket for my best friend, due to have her first baby (a girl!) in May. (Kari, I don’t think you read this blog–but on the off chance you do, act surprised when I give it to you, okay?)

The yarn is Knit Picks Simply Cotton in Duchess Heather. I’ve been on a Knit Picks kick recently–can you tell? The mama-to-be (who doesn’t know anything about the blanket) informed me a few days ago that she’s painting the baby’s room lavender, so I think it’ll go nicely. She also registered for mostly organic clothes and blankets, so the fact that this yarn is 100% organic cotton is a bonus.

The design is my own, a heavily-modified version of a stitch pattern from one of my design books. It’s an easy-to-memorize 16 row repeat, interesting enough to keep my attention but not enough to be frustrating. I’m about 75% done, and only now starting to get sick of the pattern–that’s pretty good for me. Blankets of any size usually drive me up the wall. They’re basically just giant swatches, right? Makes me long for some shaping.

Stay tuned for the pattern, coming soon to a Ravelry store near you….

FO Friday: Smittens

A quick little FO today: ornaments gifted to my mom for her tree!

Pattern: Smitten (a Holiday Garland) (Rav link)

Yarn: Leftover Malabrigo Worsted from the Give ‘Em the Slip Set, leftover Malabrigo Rios from SoCal, and I think the gray is leftover Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted from something lost in the mists of time.

Notes: This pattern is really easy and fun! The worst part of it was knitting worsted yarn with size #3 US needles, but even that wasn’t too bad. I sewed the loop wrongly on the first one (it’s supposed to be on one side only, not across the whole mitt), but I liked the way it looked so I did them all like that.

Now I’m wondering if I could use the same pattern for baby mittens, hmm…

Christmas Was Awesome

Hope everyone out there in blogland had a great Christmas!

I know I did. I made a Knit Picks wishlist for the first time this year, and boy did my family come through!

The yarn is the KP Wool of the Andes sampler in bright colors (I can’t wait to start in on colorwork hats and mittens, yay!). The needles are Harmony DPNs, which I’ve wanted for a while. Unfortunately, I got two sets of size #9 needles, but I already called Knit Picks and packaged up the duplicates to exchange for another size.

Then there are two stitch dictionaries–I keep checking these two books out from the library and am thrilled to have copies of my very own! My MIL also got me the adorable sweater keyring.

And last but not least, this amazing Namaste case for essential accessories:

The inside of the case. The divider is magnetic!

I also got one other yarny gift… but I went back and forth on whether to post it here. I decided to do it, but be forewarned:

THE PICTURES BELOW MAY CAUSE DISTRESS TO PEOPLE WHO LIKE YARN.

You sure you want to see this?

Really sure?

Okay… but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This is what I saw when I looked in the gift bag she handed me (with no warning, I might add):

And when I dumped it out:

I think I may have hyperventilated a little bit (and not in the good way). Most of that yarn is CUT, people. Not to mention tangled beyond hope of sorting out. Someone took a bunch of yarn–mostly acrylic, but some wool–wound it into dozens of hanks, and then CUT THE STRANDS. Seriously, WTF?

SIL told me she found the bag at a yard sale for $1.00 and had to get it for me. I tried to be appreciative, but I was kind of terrified.

Any suggestions on what to do with this mess?