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: Grandma's Shawl

My grandmother is always freezing, so I wanted to make her something for Christmas that would keep her warm. She generally wears sweaters around the house, so I decided that a shawl she could drape over one of those sweaters would add a nice extra layer of warmth.

My grandma is a little difficult to knit for- she has a tendency to declare things “too nice to wear.” I wanted to make her something nice that she would still wear, so I chose a pattern that’s mostly very simple garter stitch, with a pretty edging. I also chose a dark beige yarn, to make it a nice, every-day wear scarf. I knit it in Knitpicks Comfy Sport, so that it would be washable.

The body of the shawl was really easy, and went fairly quickly. The edging, on the other hand, took forever. I had some trouble starting it, because I just could not visualize how the steps I was doing were possibly going to make this edging, but I finally just went with it, and lo and behold, I had a pretty edging! It took so long to crank out, but I love the look of it!

Pattern: Annas Shawl

Yarn: Knitpicks Comfy Sport

Colorway: Cashew

Needles: US6 and US4

The Verdict: I love the way this turned out- the drape is beautiful, and I think this is perfect for my grandmother. I probably would not knit the exact same thing for myself, but I may make one in blue for me, instead. I’d wait awhile before doing so, though- I really don’t want to do any more of that sawtooth edging any time soon!

FO: Fall Breeze Shawl

This was my mother's Christmas present.

My mother wanted to steal my bed shawl (keeps my shoulders warm when I’m reading/knitting in bed!) from me. I of course wasn’t going to surrender it, so I decided to give her one of her own for Christmas. I wanted something wide and long, so that it would keep her nice and warm, and a rectangular shawl, rather than a triangular one. I settled on the Fall Breeze Shawl.

The pattern recommended Caron Simply Soft, and since I wanted a washable yarn, that seemed like a good choice. I chose a color that would match my parents’ bedroom.

The shawl was going quickly at first, but then I got to the huge stockinette portion. Feet of stockinette is so boring, and the shawl got too big to be a travelling project, so I could only work on it at home. Additionally, I was getting really, really tired of working with 100% acrylic.

The pattern called for 1.5 balls of the yarn. It took me 2.3 balls. The pattern was a little ambiguous; it said to knit the stockinette until the shawl is the desired length, and that the designer’s was 55”. I assumed that that meant I should knit the stockinette until the shawl was 55” and then work the final lacy section; I’m beginning to suspect that the designer meant that her whole shawl was 55,” and that may be where the yarn amount discrepancy occurred. This caused a little bit of a problem, because I needed to go buy more yarn- although Caron Simply Soft is not supposed to have a dye lot, you can kind of see the difference. It’s not too terrible, though, and I didn’t have much choice, so I went with it.

I also had a little bit of help on this project. I took it home over the Thanksgiving holiday to work on it. I was in my bedroom, watching tv on my laptop and knitting away, when the dogs decided to come offer their assistance and test out the partially-finished shawl’s merits. As you can see, Mia decided it would make a good pillow, while Napoleon thought it was an excellent blanket. I made sure to make it long enough for a dog to snuggle under the ends while Mom uses it, if she feels like sharing.

Pattern: Fall Breeze Shawl

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft

Needles: US8

The Verdict: The end result looks great, and I love the way it turned out. However, I definitely do not think I’d knit this again- I got so incredibly bored during the stockinette portion, and it was way too big and heavy to transport!

Christmas Gifts

I think I did pretty well on Christmas shopping/knitting this year! Unfortunately, my schedule kind of fell to pieces and I wasn't able to finish two of the projects, but I didn't do too badly. Here's a peak at each gift- those that are knitted will have Finished Object posts to come!

For Mom:

A few years ago, Mom bought me a nice, wide shawl to wrap around my shoulders while I'm reading in bed. It's so much easier to use than draping a blanket around my shoulders- the blanket either gives me too much bulk around my neck, or I'm lying on bunched-up places. A few months ago, she asked if I ever used it, and if not, could she have it back?

Well, I was not giving up my bed shawl, so I decided to make one for her for Christmas. It needed to be wide, and long enough for her to wrap around herself and still have a little extra left in case the dogs wanted to snuggle underneath with her. I chose the Fall Breeze Shawl, and this is what I ended up with:

For Dad:

Dad isn't much into knitted stuff, but he does love bugs, especially cute sculptures of them. I found the perfect gift for him from the Etsy shop Jodieflowers. I chose the Screen Porch Spider. It's designed so that you can stick it onto a screen door, or you can also have the artist put a magnet on the back. I had her leave the magnet off, as I think Dad will want to just stick it on his desk. The artist also lets you make color requests; I requested non-girly colors, preferably blue, and got such an adorable green and blue spider! I love the little teeth! It also comes in nice packaging, and the legs are unbent, so Dad will get to bend them exactly the way he wants them:

For Grandma:

I've made Grandma knitted gifts for the past two Christmases. She uses the afghan I made her two years ago on a regular basis, but won't wear the scarf I made her last year because it's "too nice to wear." Lately, Grandma has been complaining about being cold all of the time. I thought a shawl that she could throw over her shoulders on top of a sweater might be a nice, useful gift for her. I wanted to make something nice, of course, but not too nice, as she would never use it. I settled on a simple pattern with a dark beige yarn:

For Grandpa:

Two Christmases ago, I made Grandpa a sweater vest. We could not get him to take that thing off for about a week, he loved it so much! Based on this, I decided another sweater vest might be in order. He isn't very temperature sensitive and I've seen him wearing sweater vests in warm weather before, so I decided to make this one out of a cotton/linen blend, so he won't overheat as easily. I heavily modified a basic pattern, and it's coming out pretty well- all I have left to do is finish the neck edging (which I have now ripped out three times, and the arm hole edging. It would be done, except that my hands were hurting from knitting too much cotton, and I had to take a break and knit with something else.

For My Aunt:

Since I was making my Grandparents hand-knitted presents, I needed to make my aunt something as well, so she doesn't feel left out. An easy, lacey scarf sounded like a perfect idea. It was a little slow-going, because scarves can get boring, but I'm happy with the result:

For Mia:

Much to her great dismay, dogs do need baths sometimes and Mia is no exception. After her bath, the poor thing is always so cold and shivers until she dries. She is so freezing that she willingly allows my mother to put a sweater on her. However, the sweater is too thin to do much, and acrylic, which doesn't really wick away moisture. I decided to make her a nice, warm, worsted-weight wool sweater for Christmas, so that she can be warmer after her baths. The pattern I chose is a little fancy for something that's only going to be worn after bath time, but looks gorgeous- I think I still might be suffering from guilt over moving away from home and leaving her (the family dog) with my parents. This is the second Christmas knit I didn't get done. I probably could have- I was going to bring the project home and knit all day Christmas Eve and most of Christmas (we weren't doing presents until the evening). However, I managed to leave the second ball of yarn back at my apartment when packing to visit my parents, so this wasn't really an option.

For Napoleon:

Mia, however, is not the only dog I have to knit for. Napoleon the Chihuahua doesn't technically belong to my family, but he is a frequent visitor to the house (he belongs to my brother's girlfriend). When Napoleon first started visiting, I was determined not to like him- I've never had a good track record with Chihuahuas, and Mia was feeling a little neglected because Po (that's what we call him for short!) was getting so much attention. However, he was equally determined that I would love him. He followed me around, to the point where I began to understand where the saying "follows around like a puppy" came from, and snuggled up next to me on the couch. The clincher was when his human called him to go home, and he hid behind my legs. It wasn't long before I was head over heels in love with this dog.

Unlike Mia, Po isn't only cold after a bath- he's freezing all the time. He loves snuggling next to people under the covers, a human armpit being his favorite place to nap due to the warmth. He's especially cold when he goes outside in the winter! When he first arrived, he was too tiny to wear store-bought clothing so I made him a coat at my mother's request. He outgrew that, and she was able to buy him one- but it's big on him, and makes swishy noises when he walks, and baby blue- such an easy color to get dirty for such an active dog! I decided to knit him a nicer superwash wool one in a distinguished-looking burgundy color. I had an idea in my mind of how I wanted the coat to look, with a cable around the entire edge, and ended up having to design my own pattern because I couldn't find anything resembling what I wanted:

For Napoleon's Human:

Napoleon's human has been really sweet about sharing him with us. My parents have become really attached to him, as have I. She makes sure that he visits frequently, and sometimes even lets him stay overnight. I visit my parents about once a month, and she makes sure I get my Napoleon time! She and I aren't really that close, but I wanted to make her a thank-you gift for sharing her dog with us. I thought some mitts to match Po's coat would be the perfect thing. They're pictured with Po's coat in the picture above.

For the Guy I'm Dating:

We've been having a lot of fun with an old set of Kinex that he found in his room the last time he went home to visit his parents. We were wishing we had some Legos to play with, too, so a big tub of Legos seemed like a great gift we could both enjoy.

For The Cat:

The guy I've been dating also has a cat. I saw some an adorable pattern for some catnip mice online, and decided to knit her a couple for Christmas. Her human provided the catnip, although it almost didn't make it to me- he put some in a plastic bag in his backpack. The cat got into the backpack and chewed through the plastic to the catnip inside. Nevertheless, he rescued the remaining catnip, transferred it to a plastic container, and I made these:

I think I did a pretty good job on presents this year- what do you think?