Look what I got!

MarvelousToy over at 200 Shawl Project, has been generously hosting several yarn giveaways on her blog lately. I was one of the lucky ones, winning a skein of Tannis Fiber Arts Blue Label yarn in the Mallard colorway. It's a really pretty green!

I was a little worried that one of the many mail people we've been having lately (the USPS keeps switching them on us) had lost my package, but it arrived the day after I sent Leah an email, asking if it had been sent. I feel bad that I bothered her about it, and hope I didn't seem ungrateful!

And I am definitely not ungrateful. Not only did my package contain the skein that I won, but Leah also threw in a bunch of other goodies, too!

She wrote such a nice little note, and there's also a blue and purple skein of JL Bamboo Zania (also: I had mentioned in my comment how much I love blue and purple yarn; how sweet of her was it to pay attention to that little detail and send me a skein with my exact favorite colors?), some candy, and some needle holders with adorable little beaded accents. I love it all.

Here's a close-up of the needle holders:

The package arrived in the middle of a very stressful day at work, and it definitely brightened my day.

I'll definitely be sending a thank-you out in the mail to her!

FO: Fetching Mitts

I wanted to make something for Napoleon’s owner, too, and a nice pair of cabled mitts to match Po’s coat seemed like a perfect gift. I settled on the Fetching mitts from Knitty. They have just enough cables to be interesting without over-doing it.

Cascade 220 Superwash is so soft and such a pleasure to knit with. I enjoyed making these mitts so much. They also knit up super-fast- I think I finished them in three days total. The pattern was really easy to follow, and it had a couple of new techniques that I had never used before. When I’ve knit mitts in the past, I’ve knit the gusset for the thumb as I’ve knitted or I’ve put those stitches on waste yarn to hold later. Instead of doing this, the Fetching pattern has you actually knit the waste yarn into the pattern. Basically, you knit a tube, then go back later, pull out the waste yarn, pick up the resulting live stitches, and knit the thumb. Suddenly, you go from having a tube to having a glove. It’s like magic (although not as much magic as turning a heel)!

The picot edging was also new for me. It’s one of those nice little features that never would have even occurred to me to use, had I been designing the mitt, but it really adds something to the finished object. It was really easy and fun to do, too!

Pattern: Fetching

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash

Needles: US4

The Verdict: I love the way these turned out. They were quick and easy, yet such a fantastic finished object. I definitely want to make another pair!

FO: Strangling Vines Lace Scarf

I wanted to make my aunt a nice, lacey scarf for Christmas. When this yarn arrived (I purchased it in a destash), it seemed like a perfect match for a pattern I had had in my queue: the Strangling Vine Lace Scarf. I was a little wary of the pattern- after all, who wants to wear a scarf with the word “strangling” in the title? However, it was a very pretty pattern and looked nice and simple.

It was a very easy, simple pattern. It’s a four row pattern, but two of the rows just involve purling. If you can yarn over, knit two together, and slip slip knit, you can do this pattern. However, it gets really monotonous. Knitting a scarf in fingering weight yarn takes forever, and seems like it will never end. I wasn’t sure I’d get it done in time for Christmas!

I heard a rule somewhere that a scarf should be about as long as you are tall. My aunt is 5’4” (64 inches). I knit the scarf until I reached 55”, and then decided to rely on blocking to do the rest. Speaking of blocking, this was the first time I used blocking wires. They take forever to thread through, but it’s very worth it to get a nicely-blocked scarf without points along the long edges. I was impressed with how the yarn blocked. I was expecting the yarn to spring back a bit after blocking, due to the 20% nylon content, but it maintained its blocked shape perfectly. I forget to measure it after blocking, but I tried it on and it seemed to be a nice length.

The yarn is a little bit of a blah color for me- I prefer accessories that add a pop of color to an outfit. However, I think that my aunt will love it. The yarn is so soft and wonderful. Although it’s intended as a sock yarn, I’m not sure that I would like socks made out of this, and how well they would wear.

Pattern: Strangling Vines Lace Scarf

Yarn: Classic Elite Alpaca Sox

Colorway: Sky, possibly- I don’t have the ballband, but this is my best guess.

Needles: US4

The Verdict: It’s so soft and lacey- it was a ton of effort, but I love the finished object!

FO: Brimmed Cap

When I saw the pattern for the brimmed cap, I thought that it would be the perfect gift for my aunt. She rides horse a lot, and I thought that it would keep the sun off of her face while still keeping her ears warm.


Turns out, it was a huge hit. She wears this type of hat all the time, and thinks it's too nice to wear to the barn!

I messed up a little bit on sewing the hat to the brim, and I'm too much of a perfectionist to just leave it that way. I decided to knit a little cabled strip to cover up the join, and added two buttons for decoration.


I love the way it turned out. It was a pretty simple knit, but so pretty!

The details:

Pattern: Brimmed Cap from Shazzzas Patterns

Yarn: Lion Brand Woolease in Blue Mist

FO: Herringbone Scarf

Christmas is quickly approaching, and I'm trying to get my Christmas knitting done early so that I don't have a massive day-before-Christmas-knitting panic. Exhibit A: A scarf for my grandfather.

Pattern: Night on the Town (ravelry link) (non-ravelry link)

Yarn: Patons Angora Bamboo

Colorway: Urban Gray

Mods: I didn't want it to be quite as wide as the pattern called for, so I only cast on 26 stitches.

The Verdict: I wanted something warm, soft, and fashionable. I also wanted something a little more complicated than seed stitch, but still masculine enough to give to a man. This scarf totally fits the bill. It's so incredibly soft and warm, perfect to keep Grandpa warm on cold days. I love it, and I know that he is going to love it too. I just wish I didn't have to wait until Christmas to give it to him!

FO: Cabled Coffee Cup Cozy (Happy Mother’s Day!)

Mom drinks a ton of coffee from Starbucks, and I thought that she could use a nice accessory for that. It's washable and more environmentally-friendly than a disposable paper cuff.

She said she didn't need anything, but I felt that it would be appropriate to at least make her something small.

I would have suck a Starbucks gift card inside, but that's the gift that my brother always gives her (yep, the same thing for every holiday), and I didn't want to step on his territory, so instead I filled it with some dark chocolate Hershey's kisses (her favorite).

I like the way it turned out. The pattern is Cabled Coffee Cuff (rav link). The cables were enough to keep me interested, without being overly complicated.

I knit it in Paton's Kroy Socks 4 ply in the Winter Eclipse colorway. My only complaint was that there were a few less=dyed spots in the places where the color changed, which is something that I haven't found in the other multi-colored Paton's yarns that I've used.

Easter Flowers for Mom

Every year for as long as I can remember, my mother has assembled wonderful Easter baskets full of goodies for me and for my brother. She's also always put together a little something for my father. But throughout my childhood, no one ever did a basket for her. I realized this last year, and put together a nice Easter basket for her, overflowing with goodies. However, she thought it was a bit excessive- she doesn't eat that much sweet stuff; she prefers a little at a time. So this year, I decided to do something a little different. I knit the Bloem pattern in some leftover yarns (Lion Brand Wool Ease and Patons Classic Wool) and stuck them in a vase with a few dark chocolate kisses at the bottom. I hope she likes it!