Crafts

(Well, unless you’re receiving fantastic new toys…)

I made a ton of stuff for Christmas this year. (To avoid bandwidth issues, I’ll just keep the pictures on the individual project pages.) Let’s see…I finished the patchwork sweaters for my twin niece and nephew. I made a rainbow sherbet sweater for my youngest niece. My twin nieces got doll sweaters (and dolls) to match their flower sweaters they got for their second birthday. My oldest niece got a winnie the pooh apron (sorry, no picture) to go with the miniature bake set and winnie the pooh cookie book we got her. I think that’s all the nieces and nephew…

What else? I knitted to-be-felted clogs for my grandpa and my youngest brother. I made a fuzzy stash scarf for my grandma. It wasn’t for Christmas, because my mom’s birthday is Christmas Eve, but I made her a moebius scarf.

Let’s see…that’s 10 knitted gifts…there are two that haven’t been given yet… Oh, two teeny-tiny felted gift bags, and 11 teeny-tiny felted totes (yes, there are 12 in the picture, my mom knitted one). BTW, if you’re a Sit & Knitter, and you weren’t there on 12/18, don’t click on that last link. Wait, that makes 25, not the 24 on my counter…I guess I mis-counted. Or maybe I didn’t count the moebius scarf because it wasn’t a true Christmas gift? I don’t know. All I know is, I’m starting next years’ Christmas gifts next week. Unless I decide not to, in which case it will be because I’m working on birthday gifts or something for me!

I’m 1/2 of a gift away from being done with Christmas knitting. If I can knit most of the trip home in the car tomorrow, I’ll be all done. Then I can (finally) post pictures of the presents I’ve already given away.

Think light traffic/good weather thoughts for tomorrow, so knitting in the car won’t be scary, OK?

So what do you do with leftover sock yarn after making a pair of socks? Make mini socks!

I actually gave these socks to my niece Lizzy during our visit at Thanksgiving, but I just now picked up the camera and realized I had pictures in there I hadn’t done anything with. Silly me!

Anyway, kids socks are so much faster to make than adult socks – each sock was about an evening of knitting. And, as you can see, she couldn’t wait to put them on…actually, I think they go very well with her purple plaid dress and pink stripe stockings!

I hope I can make a kids’ pair out of all my sock yarn leftovers. Of course, that implies that I have the time to knit up all of my sock yarn. Someday I’m going to put it all in one place and count how many pairs of socks I can make. I honestly don’t know, but I’d guess that it’s at least a dozen pair of adult socks, plus whatever kids socks I can get from the mini-balls. Hello, my name is Sarah, and I’m a sock yarn addict.

Want the skinny on my new knitting project? Take a pile of blue railroad yarn, add size 13 needles, and you get…a pile of knitted blue railroad yarn!

Really, this is going to become something wearable. I think. And if it does, it’s going to be my holiday outfit (over something, obviously). It’s very loosely based on this pattern, although I’m really just using that for the overall shape. More details can be found here.

Oooh! The winter issue of Knitty is up! There are some really great patterns, including this. Too bad my Christmas gifts are all already planned or done. Seriously, though, as soon as the deadline knitting is finished, I’m making myself a set…in blue, and iPod-sized.

Update: I was quoted! In the left-handed knitters article! Neat! Does this count as my 15 minutes of fame? :)

I knitted an entire Christmas gift (minus the bind-off edge) in the car last night…and since we started our trip well past sunset, I did it all in the dark! It’s amazing that I didn’t drop or twist any stitches. It didn’t hurt that there were lots of headlights all around us, so I could hold up my knitting and check it occasionally. It was strange, though – I was working with a rather bright striping yarn, but it just looked gray in the headlights, so I didn’t get to see the color pattern it made until we got here.

Six gifts done. I brought an obscene amount of yarn with me (half of a very large duffel, plus a basket and a couple of tote bags) so that I can get to at least the half-way point of finished gifts before we get home…we’ll see! :)

(At least my shopping is completely done. All the time I’d spend waiting in long lines at the mall can instead be spent knitting!)

OK, now I’m ticked. I just discovered that the top six rows of the hood and all of the edgings of this mystery knit, knit out of the same dye lot as the rest of the sweater, are a noticeably different shade. And we’re not talking “daylight noticeable”, we’re talking “tungsten noticeable”. Same. Dye. Lot. Do I frog? All of the ends are hidden already. I was actually pretty pleased with all the stitches I picked up. I think I might cry.

I suppose I should get to work, and try not dwell on this all day. If anyone has any suggestions (besides ripping) I’m more than open to them. (Of course, the only two other options I can think of are to overdye the sweater (not going to happen – intarsia, remember?) or just live with it (which is probably the most reasonable thing to do, right?))

So, the general rule of thumb for yarn amounts (and time spent knitting) is: back of sweater = 1/3, front(s) of sweater = 1/3, sleeves = 1/3. I guess it didn’t really hit me that a hood is probably another 1/3. (Yes, that adds up to more than 1.) Not that I’m running out of yarn, it just surprised me, that’s all.

Oh, and intarsia, while it came out fairly well and is marginally fun to do, is not something I’d contemplate for a larger project (like something me-sized) at any point in the near future.

I’ll stop now, before I give something away. One of these days I’ll get back to knitting things I can show pictures of. Right this minute, I have 5 out of 22 gifts done. Two more are almost done, and two others are about half done. The rest of what’s left are teeny-tiny things…well, sort of. I’m not panicked. Yet. Ask me again in a week or so.

I need help! Elann has a new yarn on their site, Sierra, which is a wool/alpaca blend… I’ve been dying to knit the Green Mountain Gardens cardigan from the Green Mountain Spinnery book, but their yarn (while lovely) is way expensive…and I think this would make a good substitute, assuming I can come up with a colorway that works with the colors of the yarn available. The Eggplant and Plumberry shades are calling me…as are Spruce, and Ocean, and Mid and Dark Indigo.

Should I? Can I really justify buying another sweaters’ worth of yarn, when I have a fair isle vest and another sweater I haven’t even started yet? It’s such a good price, and such gorgeous colors.

Help!!!

Knitted things have been just flying off my needles! I finished the patchwork sweaters, but final pictures will have to wait for a good blocking and some good lighting. (No peeking, Mary!)

I started another mystery project, and I’m already about halfway through. I love little projects!

I also managed to get to the yarn shop in between all of my other errands this weekend and buy the yarn for the rest of the things I need to knit for Christmas. Hmmm…how many days are left?