It's after Thanksgiving and time to really get going on those Christmas gifts! How you all doing out there??

In order to make some progress fast, I decided to start the scarves. Three nice, simple projects on big needles. I've still got two projects to do on tiny needles (another double-knit hat and a big cowl scarf), but I wanted to get these scarves out of the way first. Here's the first one for a friend's six year old son, made in Debbie Bliss' Merino Chunky (bought on sale!) and using a pattern from Rowan Junior.

It came out a little narrower than I would have liked. I tried giving it a wash and blocking out the ribbing, but even though the yarn softened up amazingly well, the ribbing is, well, still ribbing. The scarf is definitely warm and long enough though. And I love those boy colors too. Next up a little girl's stripey sideways garter stitch scarf. Fun!!

I can't bucket. I'm loving watching all the fuzzy, furry and fabulous bucket hats being knitted all around our little blog world (like here and here and of course here), but I have to admit to being a bucket bozo. I so want to have a bucket hat, but I have a very low fiddliness threshhold and simply cannot bear to do all that picking up of stitches and knitting little pieces and parts. This is why I do not knit socks. Still, I can't stand not having a bucket hat in my wardrobe, so I picked up some yarn to make this pattern from the Fall 2003 issue of Interweave Knits (by local designer Rebecca Harris!).

Can I knit it now? Can I? Can I? I should focus on my holiday gift-knits, shouldn't I? Shouldn't I?

Despite a momentary (and so far unsuccessful) lapse into bucketing, I'm still on schedule with my holiday gift knitting.

Here's the beginnings of another sideways garter stitch scarf. This one's for a friend's little girl. The yarn is soooo soft - Plush from Berroco - 100% nylon and as fluffy as a cloud. I swear if they had any sophisticated adult colors, I'd be all over this yarn! It was a little slippery on my preferred Inox needles, though. But since I broke out the bamboos, it's been a dream to knit.

That is, at least as long as I remember to knit. I've already purled a WS row out of habit and had to unknit the whole row (150 stitches!). Twice. And since every stitch just disappears in this fuzzy, smooshy, pillowy yarn, unknitting has been pretty not cool. I fear that the yarn gods are ready to move on to help others. My project karma is starting to go bad!

The fluffy cloud scarf is finished. I just want to wrap myself up in it. It is to die for soft.

You might have noticed, but I'm slowing down on this holiday knitting. I think all this knitting to a deadline is getting to me. I'm making little annoying mistakes. First there were the two mobius strips I knitted in an attempt to start my bucket hat. Then the WS rows I kept purling on this garter stitch scarf. And then I realized about 10 rows into the scarf that I'd started with the wrong color. I'd planned to start the scarf above with purple and have a blue stripe down the middle. Whoops! But I really like it the way it is now.

And I'm getting distracted by the fabulous yarns I'm using and instead of knitting am spending my time at the yarn store lusting after more. I've visited the Plush several times now, hoping that the colors will improve. (Thanks so much for your color suggestions yesterday, by the way.) And now I've cast on for another sideways garter stitch scarf - this one in Debbie Bliss' cashmerino aran - and I love, love, love the yarn. There ARE beautiful, sophisticated colors of this yarn available. Danger, Will Robinson!

Found a boo-boo in my current sideways scarf - about twenty rows down. It's supposed to be all garter stitch, but there was one spot where a single incomplete stitch produced a tiny blip of stockinette. I was too horrified to think of snapping a picture of it, but trust me it was visible. That little "v" was sticking out like a sore thumb in the sea of garter ridges. In desperation I decided to drop two stitches all the way down to the error to try to correct it. I haven't had too many successes with recovering more than one dropped stitch in stockinette, so I was not confident. Once I managed to get to the error and correct it though I was bold enough to set the knitting down and get the camera. Here's the scarf, opened up, as it were, just after I corrected the incomplete stitch.

Now for the hard part - redoing all the other stitches! It looks like a zipper's been opened in the middle of the scarf. If only it closed as easily! Slowly, slowly, I made it back up to the current row and was so wiped out that I forgot to take a picture. That's enough knitting for one day! Finished scarf coming soon....

Do gift-knitters get vacation days?

I'd had my fill of mistakes and bad yarn karma this week and I felt a little twinge in my hand again. So in order to save the gifts and my hand, I officially gave myself permission to take a little break from holiday knitting. I went to the movies - something I rarely get to do. Want proof: the last movies I saw in the theaters (in reverse order) were Seabiscuit, Matchstick Men, L'Auberge Espanol, About a Boy, Gosford Park, and Riding in Cars with Boys. That's it in the last two years (and I used to see scores of movies every year). Pretty pathetic, I know. I guess you can see how I get so much knitting done!

And since I'm taking a Christmas break, I'm going to go play in the snow now. Woo hoo!

Finally, I can join my own knit-along. My Phildar yarn has arrived! It just barely missed me while I was in Germany and had to be sent on from there. I'll pause, so you can do the math..... Yup, that's over five weeks airmail from Germany to Boston. And that's pretty typical for us. For some reason packages from the in-laws always take forever to get here. I'm sure they're inspected thoroughly by customs. Those in-laws - a very suspicious bunch.

I took a chance on some different colors and I'm so glad I did. It's so scary when you've only seen something online. But I love them! In fact, I love the big, chunky, amber Fantasia yarn so much that I went ahead and started knitting. Isn't it obscene how quickly this yarn knits up?

Phildar fillies, here I come! Finally.

Cashmerino scarf - done.

Another Christmas gift finished. I'm down to the last two. Just one skein of Prime Alpaca and some US3's stand between me and a holiday gifting victory lap. But don't get out the wrapping paper just yet. One cowl and one double knit hat. At that gauge. I'm gonna be down to the wire here. Guess it's not really kosher to outsource your holiday knitting, huh? Maybe I could use two strands... hmmm....

By the way, my hand is fine. I can see now that it was just a big bruise on my wrist. I've got two very active toddlers and they are such BOYS, constantly banging and bruising me while horsing around. Poor mommy. But at least I can still knit!

Sorry to say it, but my mom's fandango vest has turned into a fandang-stop. I finished the first of the front panels a while back and proudly showed it to mom,

only to discover that it's too short. So it'll have to be ripped back to the armholes. Although I didn't mind working with the Fandango yarn -- it is a large gauge at least -- there's a lot of knitting still to go on this one and the idea of going backwards instead of forwards is discouraging. Which means that I just haven't felt like picking it up for a while. I hate having unfinished projects lying around, but I think I'll put this one on the back burner at least until all my holiday knits are done.

Gotta go find a new present for mom....

(You can tell I took this picture a while ago, 'cause now my porch looks like this!)

I spent the last couple of days thinking about how to avoid all that knitting at a tiny gauge. And then I wimped out. For my last two knit-gifts I'm going to use two strands of the Prime Alpaca held together which gets me comfortably up to DK weight and a US6 needle. It'll be much easier on me and should also make the winter wear even warmer. So I started by casting on for some sort of cowl and was trying out different numbers, when I realized that what I'd knit so far wasn't really wide enough for a cowl, but it was perfect for hubby's hat.

Only one problem, it's not double-knit like he wanted. I tried turning up the bottom as you would for a hem and picking up the cast-on edge for the second set of stitches so I could continue the hat from this point as double-knit, but the first double knit row wasn't looking clean enough, so I scrapped that idea. It'll be a regular hem instead, but a large hem that will cover his ears. That's two layers of double-stranded alpaca over his ears. That should be pretty toasty!

Any more holiday gift-along updates to share? What gifts are you most proud of so far? Any you're dreading finishing? Do tell!

I caved. I bought (*gasp*) a bucket hat.

I was standing in line at the department store with some Christmas purchases and trying to keep the boys amused by trying on hats. Well, I slipped on this bucket hat and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Gosh darnit, if that hat didn't look good. And better than any hat that I could knit. I couldn't put it back. (Forgive me, Bonne Marie and Becky!)

I guess that now that's out of my system, I should get back to the hubby hat.

I'm getting a lot less knitting done these days, as it seems my boys have given up taking an afternoon nap. They used to be in bed for about two hours every day and I got to clean up, eat, relax and do a little knitting. Yeah, they also used to look tired around 1pm every day. Now they look like this all day long. So no more daytime cleaning/eating/relaxing/knitting for me. While I adjust to not having any break in the afternoon, I'm experiencing a real energy drain. Result: a knitting brownout.

After several days, I finally managed to knit enough of hubby's hat so that I could turn up the hem. I wanted the hem to be nice and deep, covering his ears entirely. That meant that I had to knit enough for practically a whole hat just to make the hem.

At least the hem is high enough that I was able to start the decreases pretty soon after. So I'm slowly creeping towards finishing this hat. Another couple of energy bars and I just might make it.

Another holiday knit-gift done. Presenting the hubby hat...

Hey Mikey, he likes it! Even though it's not doubleknit, it was enough to keep his head warm through the latest storm. Snow tested, hubby approved. Alright!

(Always wanted to know what hubby does while I'm knitting? He wears my knits of course!)

Santa came a little early to our house, bringing us a new cedar chest! Now all my hand-knitted (and favorite store-bought) sweaters can live at the foot of the bed surrounded by cedar.

Luckies! We don't have much closet space (heck, no one in Boston does), so my sweaters were stuffed in the back of various closets just waiting to be found by moths. And others were hanging on hangers (say it isn't so!) because there simply wasn't any more horizontal space left. But now they are happy.

My boys are happy too. The cedar chest came in a big ol' box that screamed to be made into a playhouse for them. Here they are going in and out a little door and here they're using a window.

Thanks, Santa!

Now that I'm down to just one holiday gift left, I let myself knit a bit on my finally Phildar pullover. This yarn is so quick to knit that there's no need to take too long of a break from holiday knitting. Here's the finished front.

Now that I'm cranking along, I'm wondering, how are all my Phildar filly friends doing?? Looks like Angela's sweater is coming along beautifully. And Silvia's already planning another Phildar project. Of course, many of you are getting holiday knitting out of the way first (very good of you) and have your Phildar sweaters coming up. But just to tempt you fillies, there's a new, gorgeous, free pattern up at the Phildar site! Mmmwwwahahaha.

I received a picture of my friend's son wearing the minimono jacket and hat set that I made in the spring. Awwww. It's so nice to see someone looking so cute and snuggly in something I made. Almost makes me want to knit more holiday gifts. Almost.

Well, I've finally made some progress on the cowl. I'm double stranding the Prime Alpaca like I did with hubby's hat, but instead of using US6's, I'm using US8's in the hope of making it a little softer. I want it to have some drape instead of being stiff like his super warm hat.

So here it is about 10 inches done and rolled over like a collar. I took Peg's basic cowl pattern (posted last week on Wendy's site) and cast on for about 30" around in a ribbing (3x3 rib). My first (600 yd.!) skein of alpaca has run out at this point so I have to ball up another giant skein before I can continue. Man, it takes a lot of yarn to make one of these!

Quick, quick, knit a sleeve before anyone catches me not working on my one last holiday gift!

Although I'm not working on my final knit-gift, some of my fellow gift-alongers have been very busy. Congrats to all of you who are all finished: Uli, Brenda, Sharlene, Kristine, Claudia, Debi, Anne, and Stacy. Way to go, ladies! Go visit them and give 'em a hand.

Time's running out for the rest of us - quick, knit! And once you're done, be sure to run, don't walk, over to Amy's site for some awesome knit-gift labels. Thanks, Amy!

Here it is, the final knit-gift, the finished cowl.

Looks a little different, doesn't it. Yes, well, I made some changes. After setting down what I'd finished before, I took a long hard look at it and was not convinced that it was really working. It certainly was cowl-ing and it would definitely be warm, but I started having doubts that the recipient would wear it. The alpaca was super soft for alpaca, but if she's got any wool scratch sort of issues, it's a no go. And it was taking up a ton of the yarn, which is not cheap. So I scrapped it.

I went to the yarn store, got a ball of Berroco Plush (pillowy soft nylon - no scratch issues here) and knit up a quick, little neck warmer instead. I bought some lovely little pearl buttons to hold it closed and voila, instant present that my aunt will probably like much more. I got the idea from some neckwarmers that fellow Knitsmith Dava brought in to show us a couple of weeks ago. She said a friend of hers found one for sale on the Cape for like $30 and thought, hey, I could make that. Yes, indeed! Me too.

You know what this means: holiday knitting done! Woohoo!!! And a big woohoo to other finished gift-alongers Johanna, Lee Ann, Melanie, and Suzanne. And also to Becky, who just finished her ribby cardie!

We had a special Knitsmiths' holiday all night knit-a-thon over the weekend to support each other in finishing up those holiday knit-gifts. Since I was done with mine, I started sewing up the finally phildar sweater. Four hours later and I got to wear my new sweater home.

I noticed that I had about a skein of yarn left and Dava immediately whips out a hat pattern for bulky yarn. Oh yeah! The pattern said to knit until 6 1/2 yds. are left, then do decreases for the crown. So I wound up about 20 feet of leftover yarn into a tiny mini-skein so I would know when to stop. Isn't it adorable? I didn't end up having enough yarn for the hat, but if I could ever take a break from knitting, I'd love to roll up all my old leftovers like this. I could display them in a little basket and see all the cool yarns I've used in the past. I'm totally obssessed with this idea now. Somebody stop me!

Yippee, I'm finally an official Phildar filly. Carissa just joined the finished fillies list too, having completed the fall catalog's cover sweater. And wouldn't you know it, Silvia's already finished her second Phildar sweater - a bona fide Phildar phenomenon!

Spotted recently at Knitsmiths: Rowan Wool Cotton in red and green. I guess if it can't be a white Christmas, that's not a bad second! Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas filled with wool, cotton, and every good thing.

Oh to be two years old again on Christmas morning. Wow!

Note: Windows Media Player may ask you to install a new audio decoder to view video.

Awesome knit-gifts, gift-alongers! I hope all your pressies were well recieved.

But who wouldn't appreciate a beautiful Booga Bag, or fuzzy rockstar scarf? What child wouldn't love to recieve a boy's backpack and bear or puppy puppets? What relative wouldn't be touched to find a cabled sweater or a a pretty poncho under the tree? And is there anyone who wouldn't be tickled to get a Cowboys football helmet or little Christmas finger puppets? Very merry, indeed.

My siblings-in-law reportedly loved their christmas hats. Although perhaps not as much as my boys loved their new rampy, garage toy for their Matchbox cars! And I was "wooooow"ed to find some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn (my new favorite yarn!) under the tree for me. How do you think I'd look in this?

And there was one last Christmas surprise. Perhaps excited by the promise of presents, the boys taught themselves how to safely climb out of their cribs. They'll never sleep again! Merry Christmas, mama.

A friend's baby, expected at the end of January, has arrived early. I hadn't even started knitting the baby gift! Better hop to it...

I'm making a wrap around style kimono sweater from Rowan Junior in some soft lambswool that I had leftover from my funky vest. I think the pattern calls for Rowan 4ply or something really fine like that, but I'm not going there. Still, this lambswool is the yarn that gave me those wrist pains before, so I'll be knitting this one a little at a time with lots of breaks.

As usual, I was too lazy to make a real swatch. With baby clothes, I often just cast on according to expected gauge and for a larger size. It doesn't have to be one specific, exact size - they'll be every size eventually. And I figure bigger is better - they can get more wear out of it. This one looks like it's coming out to be about a 1 1/2 yr. size. (Seems good for a baby born in the winter, right Melissa?)

As others get ready to put away the menorah and take down the tree, I'm ready to retire the holiday gift-along. It's a nice change having a knit-along with a pretty definite ending date: holidays off, knit-along o-vah! We now return you to your regularly scheduled knit-alongs.

happy knitsmas

December 2003

I'm a fool for Phildar. Barely finished my big orange monster sweater and I've started another Phildar pattern. This will be my larger gauge project to knit alternately with the fine gauge baby sweater.

I got this Phildar Giboulees yarn in a pre-Christmas splurge last year. It's so cool - all wavy and thick and thin. I don't know how I managed to wait a whole year to get around to making something with it. It's producing the most interesting textured fabric. And because it's a wool and acrylic blend, it's also very soft. This one is going to be neat to wear. Kerrie is also just finishing a sweater with this yarn. Becky made one last year. And so did Clemence and Kim. (Kim's was the one that convinced me to buy this yarn. Wish she had an archive picture so you could see it!)

So I'll be starting the new year off right with a blue sweater for the blue blog. Here's hoping that in the New Year you have health, happiness, and find wonderful yarn in your favorite color in your stash!