Unwrapped

Now that the holidays are safely behind us, I can share some of the projects I've been working on - generally in a panic - throughout the past month and a half. As usual, I took on a bit more than I should have between everything else I want/need to do at Christmastime. So I've got to say, I was really proud of myself for getting everything finished and wrapped in time for Christmas.

French Press slippers
I knew right away that I wanted to knit a pair of French Press Slippers for my sister. These are slippers I've been coveting since I first saw them, and I knew they were her style as well. The pieces that make up the slippers are a wonderfully quick knit. The end result is very long and floppy and looks nothing like the photo. Until you throw them in your washing machine and the little felting gnomes come out with their little felting magic to take your weird floppy looking knitted... things and turns them into soft, felty, snuggly slippers. Thank you felting gnomes.

Coffee cuff
This cuff (pattern found here)seemed like a cute way to package a coffee shop gift card for my daughter's preschool teacher. And a nice quick knit too.

Felted clogs
The pattern is so clever. Somehow the entire slipper is one piece, with minimal seaming (much appreciated after all the seaming involved for the French Press Slippers). It was a lot of fun to see these come together. My first knitted gift for my mother in law.

Panda hat
I had gotten a cute panda outfit for my cousin's newborn daughter, but it seemed incomplete. Crochet to the rescue! In two evenings I had a matchy matchy panda hat.

I also made a crocheted wire bracelet for my mom, but completely forgot to photograph it before I gave it to her. Is it odd to ask someone if you can photograph their gift once it's gifted?

I'll have some big (well, big for me) crafty news coming up soon. I'm very excited for the start of the new year and some new projects. Happy 2011!

My first Fair Isle

My son's ever growing head needed a new hat. It seemed that the multitude of 12 to 24 month hats were just too small, and as my daughter's princess and pink obsessions started around 2, the only other options for him in our house involved Belle, Sleeping Beauty and a lot of pink hearts.

Two things you should know: I am cheap. Ok, frugal. I guess that's the nicer word for it. Also, I hate seaming, which is where I am at with my other current projects (which, for now, will remain cloaked in mystery). The powerful combination of these two forces brought me to the Norwegian Star Earflap Hat. It was the hat my son needed, which could be created with yarn I already owned (cheap... err, frugal) and would give me excuse to put down that awful tapestry needle and pick up my knitting needles again. Joy.

I was thrilled with the end result. Until I put it on his head. Too big. Really, comically too big. It fits my daughter, it fits me. It even fits my husband. But my son... well, it's kind of cute when little kids are in too big hats, right?

You knit some, you lose some...

Last week, I came back from a wonderful vacation with my family with lots of photos, wonderful memories... and a knitting project significantly smaller than it was when we left. There I was, cheerfully working on my February Lady sweater, when something about the lace pattern seemed off. The lacework wasn't lining up just right - I then realized that somewhere several rows up, I had repeated a portion of the pattern where I shouldn't have. So, I began unraveling. And then... I kept going. I saw a weird gap on my garter stitch button band. And then there was those buttonholes. And before I knew it, I was down to the neck band. It's kind of weird how all that frogging is heartbreaking and weirdly satisfying all at the same time.

But I'm working to get back to where I was. I'm much more satisfied with my the top buttonhole this time, so I feel happy with my decision. Except when I look at where I was... sniff... and where I could have been if I hadn't done all that unravelling... sniff, sniff... but I know I'll be happy with the end result.

Of course, I'm thinking my sweater might take a backseat for a few weeks to get some (cue festive music) holiday knitting underway.

Ooh, look at that lovely little stash of Patons Wool. So full of potential. I can't wait to get started.

I got a rock.

Halloween is an interesting time of year. For 364 days out of the year, we tell our kids, strangers are bad. Don't talk to strangers. And for goodness sakes, don't take candy from strangers. Unless it's Halloween. Then, by all means, take their candy. And if they're doling out the full-size candy bars, go home, throw together another costume, go back and take more of their candy.

Last night, I paid my daughter for all of her chocolate candy. After dinner, she dumped out her bag of candy, separated her chocolates from her non-chocolates and presented me with a box filled with Snickers, Milky Ways, Kit Kats, Reese's Cups... pretty much the stuff of my childhood dreams. But she hates all of it. She hates - yes, hates - chocolate. While out trick or treating, she was very polite, dutifully saying thank you no matter what was dropped into her bucket. When she'd come back to me, she'd mutter in this dejected voice, "Chocolate." You would have thought she had just gotten a rock dropped into her bucket instead of bits of chocolatey deliciousness. At least promising her money for each piece of chocolate helped with her disappointment.

As luck would have it, one girl's rock is another girl's baking treasure. Last year I used her discarded Reese's cups for some pretty tasty Peanut Butter Cup Blondies (thanks to that blondie recipe I told you about before). I'm thinking of doing a mix this time around, sort of a candy bowl blondie. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Making progress

When I began knitting, the idea of a knitted sweater seemed... oh, I don't know... insane. A scarf - sure, no problem. Hats? I'll give it a try. Why not? Even a baby sweater - a much smaller scale, so a little crazy, but doable.

But a sweater? A full-on, me-sized, knitted-by-my-own-hands sweater? With the seaming, the blocking, the pattern following and, ack, worst of all, swatch knitting? Even the idea of it was daunting.

But somewhere along the line, the idea becomes... less daunting. A pattern calls for blocking, so you give it a try. That little baby sweater seems a little too Mr. T-like without sleeves, so you learn to seam. And, yes, your daughter ends up with a few extra blankets for her little dolls as you learn the value of knitting swatches.

So the idea of knitting a sweater for myself, as crazy as it seemed when I first picked up a pair of needles four years ago, became less crazy. A pattern was found, yarn was ordered, a sleeve was started... and quickly discarded. Perhaps a mid-thigh length lacework cardigan, as gorgeous as the Celeste was, wasn't the best choice for a first sweater.

So I scaled back the plans, using the same laceweight yarn on a simpler, more manageable project - the very lovely Featherweight Cardigan. With its basic stockinette and top down construction, it seemed like the perfect first sweater. And it was. Until it was eaten by moths. Yes, really. Moths. Fun, right? Nothing like pulling a project out of the bag you had it in and seeing a fat little moth come out with it. (Consider this your public service announcement on the importance of proper yarn and project storage.)

So the third time, so far has been a charm. New yarn, new pattern: the tried and true February Lady sweater, from Flint Knits, knit up in the very lovely Berroco Weekend.


It's actually coming along nicely.... with a caveat. I feel like I really messed up the button holes. For some reason I have a large, loose piece of yarn going down the middle of the top two. Unfortunately, I'm the kind of knitter who would rather make due with mistakes in the interest of getting it done (and then point out the mistakes to myself years after the project is complete, of course), so I'll be figuring out a way to salvage those once it's almost finished. I can't believe I just used the words "almost finished" in the context of a knitted sweater.

Could knitted socks be too far behind? No way. That's just crazy.

And it's mine, all mine

As promised, I am posting pics of my already much loved Clapotis. There is something about a scarf or wrap that makes me feel very jaunty and put together, and this one is no exception. The feel of the yarn - Brooks Farm Solo Silk - is divine; it's ultra soft and very warm at the same time. The photo to the right, of course, is me showing off my very lovely Clapotis (notice the jauntiness) while imagining your jealousy that you are not ensconced in its warm and soft loveliness.


Of course, it isn't all perfect. This project was boring. Really... incredibly... boring. And LONG. As I wrote about before, I really had to force myself to keep going. But, really, aren't most big projects that way? I'm trying to tell myself that as I dive into my next knitting project - the February Lady sweater. I've already got the yoke done and am a few repeats into the lacework body. So far so good - it's knitting up relatively quickly, and the yarn - Berroco Weekend - seems to work well with it. The green color is gorgeous - it was the first thing that drew me to the yarn. I kind of/sort of made up a swatch to test my knitting gauge, but I quickly unraveled it to make sure I had enough yarn to complete the whole thing. So if you see my 5-year-old sporting a rockin' green February Lady sweater, you'll know why.

It's done! It's done!

I'm so excited to post pictures, but that will have to wait - in the meantime, I just wanted to share my excitement. My Clapotis is finished!

Did you ever have a project that seemed to, for the lack of a better term, gum up the works, creatively speaking? This was mine. I felt like I couldn't work on any other projects until it was done - it seemed like if I just put a few good evenings into it, I could get it finished. Unfortunately, there is a stretch of this project that is just SO boring, I didn't want to work on it. So I was stuck. I couldn't post on my blog because I wasn't "making" anything. (As an aside, I need to correct that and figure out what I can do to keep my blog active while I'm in the midst of projects. I am baking stuff all the time, but it was never really my intention to do a baking blog. I really wanted it to be a mix. But that's a conversation that's best left to my own mind - likely late at night, when I should be sleeping. )

But now, it's finished. Finished! I'm so happy. I can't wait for the weather to cool down a bit again so I can wear it. And I'll take some pictures this afternoon. As an added bonus, I'm feeling incredibly creative again. It's like the floodgates have opened back up. I'm ready to start... HOLIDAY projects. Family, you've been warned. And maybe a sweater for myself too - my first! I'm thinking I'll continue jumping on the bandwagon of popular Ravelry patterns and try out the February Lady.