Christmas Knitting – She Loved It!

Just to update everyone – yes – she loved it! Here’s the pics that I have:




She told me that she "had grandpa" spread it out on a tablecloth and take lots of pictures to send to her friends. Apparantly in the crowd she runs with you get mad street cred if your granddaughter is a knitter too. Especially a lace knitter.

She’s in Florida now with my grandpa for the winter. Luckily, just like last year, I get to visit them! I'm not going for very long b/c Matt and I are planning a giant, huge, trip (lots more on that when it’s a little more concrete) and I won’t have any vacation time left over. But I'm at least going to go from Fri. night through Sun. one weekend in March. I'm really going to miss them for the next few months!

Following your advice

Dude, what was up with the blogger outage at lunch? Boo to not being able to catch up with my blog reading/blogging! Especially after I spent time making pretty diagrams...

Anyways last night I started this:
That would be the Falling Water Lace Scarf out of the Crystal Palace Kid Merino… I’m going to make it rainbowed but I think I want to start over and go up a needle size or two. That is knit on 6’s – which is what the pattern calls for – in fingering weight – and I’m using lace weight doubled. I’m thinking perhaps 8’s would make the lace pattern show a little better? Or is that too much…

Also… do you guys think that I should knit every pattern repeat in a different color so the rainbow happens pretty quickly like in the socks, or should I knit 3 repeats with each color so it’s more of big color blocks….Hmmm…. Ok here’s my 5 min Acad sketch (I’m a geek but I’m fine with it. Acad rocks.):

Option A – one pattern repeat color changes:

Option B – 3 pattern repeat color changes:

So… what do you think?

By the way I found the scarf pattern because I heard there was a hilarious pic of Brad Pitt – who for some reason thinks he’s an architect (which as an architect-in-training pisses me off… sorry, buddy, but you need to go through about 6 years of school, the hell that is thesis, and the long and arduous accreditation process before you can call yourself that – I don’t care how much money you have or how many babies you adopt) – standing in front of Falling Water the building looking all smug. Shudder. So anyways I googled for that picture and found the scarf….

Christmas Knitting – Stuff I got.

So check it out:

I did pretty good this year as far as the knitting gifts goes! I got the knitpicks options needles set (SCORE!), beautiful handmade wooden needles, a year subscription to Interweave Knits, and a knitting in public sock bag from my mom. And my grandma (the one I knit the shawl for) gave me a box of yarn, a pattern for socks, a scarf that she knit herself, and a set of the light-up needles which I can’t wait to try. I also got a gift certificate to soft ‘n sassy from Grandma Bobbie that I can’t wait to spend on something soft… and perhaps sassy.

Here’s a closeup of the box-o-yarn –

It’s enough of the Crystal Palace Kid Merino to make these socks... But I’m not sure I want to make socks out of it… I like the rainbow idea a lot but I’m thinking perhaps a rainbow lace scarf would be a better use of the yarn…perhaps a rainbow branching out? Or a rainbow falling water? what do you think?

Anyways my favorite knitting related gift is very clearly these:


That would be two (!) pairs of socks that my mom knit for me! One pair is her typical sock pattern – the pattern that I have been mocking her for knitting over and over and over and over again. I kept telling her she should at least try a little bit of some kind of pattern… perhaps even venture out into the land of toe ups. Well… it turns out she was being adventurous but couldn’t tell me:

She knit me LACE socks!!!

I mean lace! With a chart and everything! Just for me! And the plain socks she knit me are actually her traveling socks – she knit them while in Italy. I’m so lucky….

Durrow is actually happening

So I did do quite a bit of knitting while on my hiatus – and I only knit on one project. I think that’s some sort of record for me. Check it out:

The back is almost to the point where I need to make a decision as to what to do with the neckline, the front is started, and I’m through the first chart and one whole repeat of the second chart on one of the arms. The cables are kicking my ass – they require A LOT of concentration, a magnetic chart holder thingy, and nearly complete silence or a glass of wine – one of the two. But I totally think they are worth it:


As a side note Matt has renamed this his “Brit killing sweater” thanks to watching Braveheart while I was working on it. Offensive, yes, but amusing. I don’t quite have the heart to tell him that the cable pattern is based on an Irish manuscript and isn’t really Scottish at all… although the centered double increase technique is Celtic…. Whatever – I’m just glad he likes it so much!

Christmas Knitting – what I gave.

So check out all of the handmade gifts I gave this year:

Yup. Here’s a closeup:

That would be a pair of socks for my brother, a cozy for Alison, a knit bag for a friend, a hat for Matt’s aunt, armwarmers for Rebecca, a knit Danish Flag for Jason, an Ipod cozy for Matt, a necklace for my sister in law, and a necklace/earring set for my grandma.

And on the other side…


A pile of yarn that I dyed myself sitting on a branching out for LB, the cherry blossom shawl for my grandma, and a pile of stitch markers. Yeah… dying yarn? So very fun.

I gave this set to my mother in law (she’s a crocheter) – which also includes a stitch marker made by me:

And this set to my mom (an avid sock knitter) – which includes these tiny sock stitch markers and a row counter.


Two of those skeins in my mom’s pile were my "test skeins" and were cheaper wool (not the superwash) – but even they turned out well enough to be gifted! I so need to do more dying– and actually keep some of the yarn for myself next time! I used the acid dye and Knitpicks dye your own yarn…and 3 of those skeins are self-striping... but I’ll have a post all about it later on.

I think my fav. handknit (other than the cherry blossom shawl, of course) gift this year was the little Ipod cozy I knit for Matt. I pretty much just made it up as I went along but it turned out really nice. The best part was that he opened it before he opened the ipod… which confused him but definitely amused me.

I think everyone really liked and appreciated their handmade things – oh and don’t worry – I have some pictures of my grandma and her shawl to share – I just have to get them from my mom’s camera. Here’s some gratuitous close-ups of some of the other gifts:

Sister in law’s necklace:

Aunt Cathy’s Hat:

Rebecca’s Armwarmers:

Andy’s Socks:


Yeah for handmade gifts!

Back to reality.

So today I’m making my return to reality after spending the better part of 10 days in a Christmas Cookie sugar haze. I spent most of my time either going out or sleeping. It. Was. Wonderful.

I have lots of knitting stuff to share but sadly have not downloaded any pictures as of yet…. Soon, though. For now I’m going to go scroll through the 344 new posts I have in my Bloglines!

Hope you had a fantabulous holiday season and a wonderful new years!