Christmas Knitting the OMG I'm RUNNING OUT OF TIME EDITION!

So we are 2 weeks away from Christmas and I have a little under half a shawl, 2 hats and 1 sock left to complete. It didn't sound like a lot when I had almost 2 months to knit all of my presents but somehow, time has gotten away from me and I've only managed to complete one sock and a pair of mittens. Hats are quick, so I'm not terribly concerned about them (plus I have one hanging around that I'm not attached to and can gift if I do run out of time) but the shawl concerns me. I'm getting tired of it, the pattern is very repetitive and not terribly interesting so right now I fee like it's a slough to get through. It will be lovely, but I don't anticipiate doing this pattern more than once. Also, there's no way I'm going to finish the second owl sock before Christmas. Those socks just take way too long to knit (I'm a slow cabler). 

Since these are all presents I'll keep pictures under wraps until they are gifted. I know this isn't much of an update but I just wanted to let y'all know I am at least still knitting. I'm really excited about the patterns I can start in January but I'll share more on that later.

Finished Hederas

So I finished the first Hedera over a year ago (last August to be exact) and I wasn't quite in love with the pattern so I shelved the second sock unable to face all of those purls and knits and yos. But when I was trying to figure out what to make for Kevin's Mom for Christmas I found the first Hedera and decided that they would make a great present for Laura. The second sock went much quicker and more smoothly than the first. I'm not sure what made me dislike the pattern to begin with but it really wasn't so bad.



The sock on the left is the second sock and the sock on the right is the first. I can't remember if I blocked the first sock but the stitches on it seem much smoother and more even. I'll block them both to see if that makes them match a little better. Over all though they're nice and squishy and stretchy. Very comfortable socks and they're basically red sox blue so I hope Laura approves.

October knitting round up

So far in October I've knit the honey cowl, finished up a Koolhass, started a pair of thrummed mittens (1 down, 1 to go), knit up a quick baby hat for a friend's baby that should be making an appearance shortly and decided to finally knit the second sock from the Hedera pattern I started like...2 years ago? Whenever the winter Olympics were going on in Canada. Or was it summer Olympics? Who knows.

I've realized that honey cowl and thrummed mittens are the two patterns I've knit the most at 3 times  each. There's something about them that seem to appeal to people and I don't mind terribly knitting them multiple times, they're quick, easy and great for tv knitting. I decided I did need a break after finishing the first mitten this time around though and started working on that second Hedera sock again. Kevin's mom did ask for a pair of socks (or mittens!) so I decided that the Hederas could find a nice home with her at Christmas. And because I already have one done it won't take long to finish and I could probably still throw in another pair of mittens for her too since I'll probably have the time. I'm actually not even hating the pattern as much as I did when I made the first sock. I've become immune to the yos before purls. (That sounds like it should be a slogan on a tshirt or something! It could be a knitting solidarity thing, Yos before Bros! Ha!)

The present I'm most concerned about right now is Mom's Autumn Leaves stole. In theory it really shouldn't take that long to knit, it is knit with worsted weight after all but also it's a stole and quite a large one at that. I want to start on it no later than Thanksgiving so I can give myself at least a good month of knitting time on it before Christmas finally hits.

I sure have come a long way with my knitting since my first year of giving knitted gifts. I still cringe at some of those early scarves and too small hats. I kind of wish I could ask for all of those gifts back so I can rip them out and redo them. At least I can make up for it now with super awesome stuff that people actually ask for.  

Honeycowl the 3rd

Honeycowl the 3rd is finished now. I cast on last Saturday, realized I was knitting a mobius and recast on Sunday, cast off last night. It's in Malabrigo teal something or another. It is absolutely gorgeous and oh so cozy. I'm a little sad that I have to give it away but I think it will be appreciated by the recipient. I got a little bored with the pattern so I didn't make it a full 12 inches wide but the pattern is flexible and it's plenty wide and long enough to double up.

I think for my next project I want to knock out a quick baby knit this weekend. We have friends that have a baby due by the end of the month and I do like welcoming a new baby with a hand knit gift. After that I'll work on more thrummed mittens for Kevin's Mom and her friend and then I'll be starting on Mom's Autumn Leaves Stole. I'm certainly not lacking for projects to keep me busy until Christmas.

Koolhass

So I finally finished the Koolhass last night.



It's certainly a cute hat but it was a total pain in the ass to knit. I've decided I am not a fan of constant cable crosses at all so this will probably be the only time I knit this hat. It will probably get set aside to my christmas stock pile in case I need a present.

In other Christmas knitting related news, I will be making Mom an Autumn Leaves Stole and my MIL has requested another pair of Thrummed mittens for one of her co-workers to give as a gift. Slowly but surely I will make sure everyone in the South Shore area of MA will have thrummed mittens!

Manda has requested a teal honeycowl for her birthday so once that yarn comes in that will be my next project. In the meantime I'm finally working on the Noro Striped Scarf with Knit Picks Chroma. The Chroma is so soft and will make for a very cozy scarf. This will be my inbetween project to work on when I'm waiting on yarn like I am now. I still need to decide what I will knit for Laura for Christmas and I would like to work in a pair of socks for my niece Kaitlyn since Jessica hijacked the pair I was going to give to her. They might have to be ankle socks though, we'll see how long Autumn leaves takes.

Torture in the form of lace weight yarn...

So y'all remember the Citron I was working on last year? The Citron has loads of issues. I missed pattern repeats, had weird yarn snags and generally I didn't give it the attention it deserved. After the last mistake of cutting one of the pattern repeats short I just stuffed it into my yarn box to hangout in the naughty corner for awhile until I felt like dealing with it again. Well, it's that time again.

I pulled it out of the box the other night and studied on it and thought maybe I could thread a lifeline so I would only need to rip out the last pattern repeat. But the fact that it was lace weight and there were rows with increases and decreases and I couldn't tell which was which I quickly gave up on that thought. The fact that I couldn't even remember where I was in the pattern didn't really help much either. So with a heavy heart I frogged it. It was being knit with Malabrigo Lace so I wasn't about to let that languish in my yarn stash forever.

Once I finish my last hat for my Christmas knitting I may try again with the Citron in January and really give it the old college try. It's such a pretty little shawl and the yarn is a magnificent shade of blue. It must be knit, just not while riding the T in Boston.


Until then, I'm working on a cute honey comb pattern hat and I think I'll knit myself up a Star Cross Slouchy Beret or a Jane.  In some Malabrigo worsted that I have sitting around pleading to be knit into something warm and cozy for myself. I also have plans to make Kevin a Christopher in Pats colors in January. So I've got plenty of plans for knitting and I don't think I'm going to lose any steam anytime soon. It's going to be a productive winter!

Minor Gripes

So I'm normally the type of knitter that hates screwing up. I'm not talking about minor things like stitch counting being off by one or two  since I can fudge that with making new stitches. Or even repeating a row too many. As long as it doesn't effect the over all look of the knitted item I leave it alone. But if there's an epic screw up like missing a pattern repeat or screwing up a heel gusset or anything that involved ripping out and starting over I usually just opt to throw the project into some dark corner and forget about it. I HATE do overs. It's strange, since I knit because I enjoy it you'd think that just reknitting the same project is the same as any other knitting but it's not. It just annoys me and makes me hate that project. I guess I'm more into the results rather than the process.

The point to this post is that I'm working on another pair of Bella's Mittens for one of my nieces (I don't like just giving gift cards as gifts so I'm knitting up some quick projects to add to the gift cards). I thought I was almost finished with my 2nd mitten last night. I had gotten as far as closing up the top and weaving in the ends and was ready to start the thumb. I tried it on just to make sure it fit and it was SHORT. Like a good two pattern repeats short. It was dwarf mitten compared to the first one. I have no idea how that happened or how I completely missed it when I was knitting it (and trying it on!). So I got annoyed and shoved it into my miscellaneous box of knitting and went to go wind up some yarn for the rest of my Christmas knitting.

I got through 3 skeins of cascade 220 (that's quickly becoming my go to worsted weight yarn, it's warm and comes in great colors and it's cheap!) and finally calmed down enough to look at the midget mitten again. I had to cheat and snip the top open because I couldn't figure out how to pull my yarn end out and then I had to rip back pretty much the entire hand to the thumb stitches after trying and failing to pick up my stitches 3 times without dropping any. I'm most of the way through the hand again, fortunately for me this is a super fast knit, but it still doesn't look completely right. I'm still not sure where I came up short so I'm adding an extra pattern repeat to make it long enough. If I'm unhappy with it after I finish it I might wind up keeping these for myself and just doing two hats cause I'll be damned if I'm going to reknit this stupid mitten a 3rd time. I'm not that dedicated.

I'm also trying to decide on what hat pattern I want to use. It'd be for a teenage girl. I don't think they're into berets but I could be wrong. I keep going back to the same patterns I've already done and it feels repetitive. I'm drawing a blank so I'm definitely open to suggestions. It needs to be for worsted weight and I've got 3 pretty bold colors to choose from.

In other news, I got my latest shipment yesterday from The Loopy Ewe and I'm an official Loopy Groupie. They sent me a neat little tote with a calendar,  some free yarn and a sock pattern! They're probably my favorite place to order yarn from and have definitely cemented themselves as my go to online yarn shop. I highly recommend them to anyone!

Fin!

I finished Hermione's Cable hat. It fits my head beautifully! It actually covers my ears completely which is a nice change considering I suffer from a severe case of short hat syndrome.

I think this will be Kev's Mom's present, but I'm still undecided. I've got yarn that's calling to be made into a hat and if I can find the right pattern and whip another one up she might get it.

Either way, I think I'll be making one of these for myself in some lovely purple Cascade I got in my last shipment from the Loopy Ewe.

I'm on fire.

Seriously y'all, there's smoke comin' off my needles. Since my last update I've finished the Bella Mittens, a Star Crossed Slouchy Beret (in some luscious Malabrigo) and I'm halfway through Hermione's Cable & Eyelet Hat (and I just cast on for that hat today!). My hands are actually starting to cramp up a little from all this knitting. But Christmas is coming soon and there's no rest for the procrastinator.

I've decided to keep the mittens, and I know who the Star Crossed is going to, but I'm undecided on Hermione's hat. I was going to give it to Kev's Mom, but he made a fuss about how she asked for a matching hat for her mittens. I don't have enough yarn to do a matching hat, so I was doing a beige one that sort of goes with the roving I used for the thrum's in her mittens but now I have my doubts. I could order some more yarn to make the hat. But beige is a neutral and goes with anything... Thoughts? Stories? Good jokes?

If Hermione's hat doesn't go to Kev's Mom then I might give it to one of my nieces. It's cute, right? Teenage girls like Harry Potter, yeah? Anyway, I've enjoyed this knitting I've been getting done. It's nice to be motivated and inspired again. I did take some pictures but I'm not sure how many will get posted before Christmas. Can't be giving away too many secrets!

Marram round 2, complete!

I started Kev's Marram Friday afternoon (we got out early thanks to the snow) and finished it Sunday evening. Pretty much all I did this weekend was knit and bake cookies non-stop. No mistakes this time around. It's the right size. No problems at all! No pictures yet since I haven't been able to get him out in the sunlight to take a quick picture.

But since that one knit up so quick, I decided to start another one last night and it's going by just as quickly. The ribbing and first 2 repeats of the pattern are done. It's fun and easy to do and the finished hat just looks so dang clever and more difficult than it really is. This one will be purple/gray (the first was gray/gray).

The cookiepalooza that I had all weekend long was fun. I did two batch of peanut butter, one sugar, one chocolate chip and one chocolate christmas tree peppermint batch. Oh, and one batch of lemony snickets last night after replenishing my butter supply. I think my urge to bake has been satisfied and all of the cookies were gone before lunch after bringing them into work. I work with a bunch of pigs. :-p

Manda's scarf is the last holiday knit I have left to do. Fortunately I've got a grace period on it and will probably use it as my Christmas knitting when I go home to see the family.

Hope y'all have a fantastic holiday!

The dishes mittens are done, bitch.

I wish I had some buttons to use as eyes, but unfortunately I didn't have 4 teeny tiny matching buttons. Beads have to do. Now I am redoing Kevin's Marram hat. it's coming along nicely and maybe I'll have it finished by tomorrow (a day too late for this super blizzard we just got last night).

I just don't Give a Hoot!

So I decided to make a pair of Give a Hoot mittens for my Mom as a Christmas present. I'm using the Aliki beach Cascade 220 that I posted about way back when and so far, it's been working up really quickly. I'm concerned about the thumb. The instructions wind up leaving me with a super huge gap after separating out the thumb stitches, but I'm going with it and I'll see if I like how it turns out. They work up quickly enough that if I decide I don't like it I could frog it and redo it w/an after thought thumb or something. (I think. Not sure how much that involves changing the pattern.) The owl is super simple and cute. I may just start putting owls on everything I knit, now that I know how easy they are. Owl hats! Owl socks! Owl scarves! The possibilities are endless. (Speaking of owl socks, how cute are these?! They may have to be my first project of the new year...)

Kev's hat is still hanging out in the frog pond. Manda's scarf is coming along slowly but surely. And I'm forcing myself to ignore my socks until the Give a Hoots are finished.

Sorry, no pictures now, but maybe when I finish my first mitten.

Brief Update...

Just a quick update so you won't be worried that some enterprising young zombie hunter has done me in.

Baby Hat # 2 (or 3? Who knows at this point) is at the halfway point (I think...). Should be able to wrap that one up by the end of the week. It will be similar to the baby hat I posted down below. Same yarn, but I'm doing a small version of Odessa since it is such a fun pattern to knit and the little girl that is getting it is rather stylish.

I also started on my thrummed mittens this week. (Right on time! Just like I planned! OMG!) The first mitt is moving along quite swimmingly! Worsted weight yarn and larger needles help it work up quickly. It's so Fluffy! and Squishy! It makes me wish I lived in some butt ass cold climate so I would have a reason to wear them. But alas it doesn't get so cold in Virginia. I'll have to knit some plain ol' mittens for myself. No smoosh for me!

I've recently been eyeing drop spindle kits on Etsy. I'd love to learn how to spin yarn, just to further my obsession a bit. But I'm making myself hold off for now as my knitting time is pretty limited between, work, homework, class and my boyfriend insisting on hanging out with friends every weekend. Maybe I'll buy one for myself closer to Christmas as a present to myself for getting all of my knitting presents done (or mostly done...or at least halfway done.)

And holy crap, I got nominated for some sort of blogger award. I will post on that soon, but gosh, way to make a total n00b feel good about herself!:)

Prioritizing

I’m starting to think about the holidays and who will get what for Christmas this year. Last year I made nearly all of the Christmas presents I gave. Scarves, hats, dish cloths…I was pretty busy right up until the last minute. I’m not going to make nearly as many presents this year seein’ as how the dish cloths I made my sister sat in a box for the entire year and I don’t think I ever saw my nieces in scarves/hats that I made for them. There are some gifts that I would like to make though and they will take more time since they will be more complicated than the standard scarf/hat patterns I did last year. So I need to prioritize what’s on my to-do list and figure out what needs to get made first. Sadly, this may interrupt my sock knitting (that is going along swimmingly! I’m working on the heel flap now!). Working fulltime and taking class/dealing with homework 2/3 nights a week doesn’t help with the free knitting time either. Boo.

So the list: