a new sweater project...

...but not for me! I dug out an old UFO - a sweater for my son using Cotton Ease. Of course, this was started a few years back, and well, we know how fast kids grow at this age, so it was ripped back and restarted. Before I ripped, however, I took gauge measurements, and plugged them into Sweater Wizard to get the sizing - I'm making it a little big, because it will probably be better for next fall.
Normally, I'm a natural fibre all the way kind of knitter, but I can deal with the 50% cotton, 50% acrylic blend of the Cotton Ease - 50% is my absolute limit of plastic fibres - for warmth or comfort, you just can't beat natural. And the Cotton Ease was pretty well priced, so it made sense at the time.
The boy likes these colours together - obviously living with me has developed his colour sense beyond the basic blue, black, beige and grey that my husband limits himself to:

It's just a basic top down crew neck pullover - Mainly the taupey brown and I will stripe in the pale grey and green.
This will be great cottage knitting for when friends drop by - once I break for the sleeves, it's just rounds and rounds of stockinette.

One of those weekends...

It was one of those weekends - Busy as all get out, yet not a lot to show for it. Part of the problem is my boss left for vacation on Sunday, so I spent Friday and Saturday going over stuff with him. He is convinced that the place will fall apart without him, even though he is only going to Florida, and has his Blackberry, and will be annoying me all week on little things. I love him to death, which is the only reason I'm putting up with this - he really doesn't need to send me 3 emails reminding me to do stuff I do every day without fail...
I also spent a good chunk of the weekend sorting out and organizing my card making supplies. I have a disgusting amount of papercrafting supplies, it seems! But I worked for a sticker and scrapbooking company for years, and got a great discount there. Then, when they got bought out, and we had to move or get rid of everything, well, the marketing dept, where I was, was stuffed full of samples that we divided up and all took home. It was that or tossing them out. So boxes more of the stuff came home with me. Because I don't really scrapbook, I tried to keep it to things that would be useful for cards, but I still have a ton. So I finally went through the boxes and sorted out everything by themes. Hopefully that will help. It does help navigation through my craft area - I got a lot of things up off the floor and on shelves.
There was some sewing, but nothing interesting - a couple of tablecloths and some napkin hemming - these had been sitting on my sewing table for months, taking up space and annoying me. So to make space, I finished them up. Then proceeded to fill the space with 5 more pieces of fabric - I went to Fabricland for navy thread. Navy. Thread. Period. A hundred odd dollars later, I had navy thread, 2 patterns, and 5 pieces of fabric! Two pieces of flannel for more cottage kid pajamas, and three great summery striped lightweight knits - all on sale.
I'm still out of sorts as far as a sweater knitting project - the floral yoke sweater is still ticking me off, so I've had trouble committing to a new project. I think I may have solved that  issue however, which is good because at the end of this week, I"m heading to the cottage with the boy for a few days over March Break, and I'll need knitting!

the stocking project continues

While I get over the epic fail of the floral yoke sweater, and try and decide on my next sweater project (had one ready to go, until I realized i didn't have enough yarn - argh!), I've been working on the Christmas stocking project. As you may recall, my plan is to make three stockings (for Me, Husband and Boy), using up a small part of my stash of Briggs and Little. I was hoping for a rustic look, using multiple colours and pattern bands.
Well, it's working. I've got one done, and started the second. I'm loving how they are turning out, especially since I'm not really doing any advance planning. I pick a pattern, choose some colours, knit it, then go on to the next. I admit to ripping back once or twice when colours weren't working out, but other than that, I'm really happy with this:

I think my favourite motif so far is the reindeer one:

Then there's the bells:

The zig-zaggy pattern leading into the heel (an afterthought heel of course!):

The trees that lead into the toe:

And the start of the second stocking:

Those blank parts at the top are edged top and bottom by Latvian braids, and I will duplicate stitch our names in the area, once we all decide which one we want.
I've started the second motif on the second stocking - this one is ornaments. As much as I will sort of let the boys choose, the first one will probably be for my son, the second of the husband, and the third one for me - I'm keeping the angels and bows motifs for me. (Along with a reindeer - there might be a reindeer on each of them...)

we've all thought this, haven't we?

Happy Leap Year Day!

A friend of mine is turning "14" today. 8 more years, and we'll let him get a driver's license...

Channelling Kenny Rogers

Knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em...

Meet the demise of the the floral yoke sweater.

I tried to make it work. I sewed and cut the steeks, and tried it on, and even had myself almost convinced that it would work. But a sweater should fit, no matter how you place it. This one had to be tugged down over the shoulders, to make the flowers lie across the yoke. that brought the armholes down to around the vicinity of waist, but held my shoulders tight in a straitjacket-like position. And every time I moved, it slid upwards, creating a thoroughly unattractive look.
I should have spent more time before casting on, doing some math and really trying to work it out, but honestly, I think seeing what I did wrong is a better teacher than anything else. I may revisit this project one day - I have tons of wool leftover, and could easily do it again. I'm thinking of using the contiguous method of sleeve and shoulder construction, and keeping the floral yoke pattern in place.
We'll see.
In the meantime, I bought some patterns and have filled my Knit Picks cart with potential "make up yarn". I haven't yet hit the purchase button, but we all know that's just a matter of time...

R.I.P floral yoke...

Susan has been busy

Since Susan (aka LuckyCanuck) stopped blogging oh so long ago, she had no where to showcase her fabulous knits. That's where I come in. When she remembers to send me pictures of her knits, I always ask if I can post them, and she always says yes (hence the wedding shawl post a while back). This time around, she has sent me TWO projects she recently completed.

Some Mittens:

and a Hat:

The hat you may recognize - she and I bought the same Chullo pattern from Knit Picks, but used dramatically different colourways. (Mine was in greys and greens for my son, and hers are this wonderful warm combination of oranges, reds and purples. Her words:
"the colour choices really did the work. Something about that Lilac just made them pop. I'd absolutely revisit making another one. You're right, it was a fast knit once I got through those silly ear flaps. (I had to convince her that the ear flaps were a pain, but the rest of the hat just flies).Now if only it would get nice and cold so I could wear it". (The Greater Toronto Area has not been experiencing our normal winter - we've been noticeably warmer for months.)

The mittens - Well, I can't remember the name of them - They are from Interweave (the most recent one, I think) - Susan will chime in in the comments to name the pattern. She used Fleece Artist Sea Wool, fingering weight. Again, her words: "something that's been languishing in my stash for a few years, I think, and I didn't even use one skein. I cut off the colour name from the tag it appears. But it does look great with my kelly green coat. Now if only it would get cold enough to wear the coat, I'd be a lot happier!"

Susan is one of those that likes the cold weather so she can wear her multitudes of coats and accessories. Me I'm waiting for the really warm so I can get back to the flip flops...

another new project

This is a project I've had in mind for a while. Especially since we are having the whole extended family for Christmas this year, I'd like to showcase more of the hand crafted items I love so much.
I gathered up a selection of Briggs and Little wool (sadly, this is but a small slice of what I own...) and researched some patterns. Some were free, but the greatest resource was a Knit Picks one I bought.

I want to make stockings for myself, my husband and our son to hang from our mantel. Yes, it will look nice this year when the whole family is here, but it's also something that we will enjoy for years to come.
You can see the start of the first one - I'm doing Latvian braids at the top, then a plain section where I will duplicate stitch a name, and another braid to define the name area. Then I'm picking motifs as I go. I've completed a reindeer motif already, and I think the next one will be some gold bells on a blue background. I'm doing rounds of purl stitches between each motif, just to give some definition. Considering I got this much done in about 2 days, these shouldn't take as long as I was expecting them to. And with a long weekend starting tonight (Family Day in Ontario is Monday), this is great cottage knitting.

I'll update this project as I go - I don't expect it to be an exclusive knit - I will probably be putting it down and picking it up throught the year. The plan is also to knit some ornaments and such for the tree and elswhere in the house - eventually I'd like it to be almost completely hand knit. (It will never be exclusively that - we have too many keepsake memories that have to be there).

barter sweater finished

I finished all the edging on the barter sweater. I did an attached i-cord all the way around, but in two sections. I started along the centre front, but not at the neckline - I started further down, where the v-neck begins. So I i-corded (i-corded??) down the front, along the bottom hem, and up the other front. Then I created a regular unattached i-cord for about 30cm, then attached it at the top of the already attached i-cord, and i-corded up one side of the v-neck, around the neck and down the other v-neck, finishing with another 30cm of loose i-cord, thereby creating two attached ties for the sweater front.

the i-cord is much more noticeable when it runs horizontally, rather than along the vertical stitches, but I like how it defines the corners.

It's a nice finish, especially since I'm not that fond of the look of ribbing.

I'm very happy with how this turned out, and it was a quick knit because, as Eagle-Eye Brenda noticed, the parts were all done on the machine. Sewing and i-cording took a few evenings, and now I'm just waiting for the newly married Bea to return from India so I can gift her with this. (and see the silk she's bringing me back!!)

still hoping it works out

So, yes. I do work on multiple projects at once! (the socks, the friend sweater, the blanket, and some others that are still hanging around...) I've decided to do one of the sleeves first, then I'm going to cut the steek. I was going to cut the steek first, but I wanted to see if the weight of the sleeve would have an effect on how the yoke lies.

I've also ordered some more cables and connectors (and possibly some yarn...) from Knit Picks for my interchangeable needles - I want to be able to pick up all around the front, the bottom and the neckline at once to see how the edging will work out.

I know it looks funny here, but I have high hopes for this sweater...

on another note - I am spending the day working at home in between basketball games. My son's school basketball team is playing in the Area Tournament today, and it's at a nearby school, so between shuttling kids from our school to that one, and coming home between games, I'm getting a bit of work done. I have a very understanding boss, obviously! If they finish 1st or 2nd in their pool today, they have the playoff round on Friday. Luckily, I always work at home Fridays, so that's a little easier. I've sent the kids off with these:

You can tell we're a basketball family, when the only icing colours I have stocked in the house are orange and black. I'm hoping it's motivation for a win! Or at least a sugar rush for later in the day...

the barter system is alive and well

I have a friend that is in India right now, getting married. It's a two month affair, and I've been getting some pictures here and there of all the festivities. (It's a great story - the met here in Canada, fell in love, and approached the parents back in India about the relationship. Turns out the families are familiar with each other, and it's an approved and highly regarded match.)
Anyway, Bea knows I am a fan of the fibre arts. She offered to bring me back lengths of silk in exchange for a cardigan sweater. It took me about 0.00004 seconds to agree to that!

The colours in this sweater are a little rustier-orangier than they show, and are all the colours she wears and loves, so I'm sure she'll be happy with it. I'm doing an applied I-cord edging all the way around, and will extend it out from the centre fronts to be used as ties. I've actually opened up the neckline more than what shows here - it was a little too close around the neck here.

too much...

I have a lot of yarn. I admit it. Most of it I have for a good reason (It's wool, and I love it. reason enough). I usually know where I acquired most of it, but this stymies me.

This is a huge bag of Handicrafter Cotton. (that piece of paper on top is a regular letter sized sheet for scale)I know I went on a dishcloth binge a while back, but not to this extent. I'm not sure if I bought it all, or was gifted with some of it, but whatever the reason, it's a boatload.

Since I've gotten back to the machine, I thought perhaps I could knit up some stripes for blankets. Cotton blankets for summer babies are always a good idea. While wool is always best for babies (it won't melt if it catches on fire), Cotton is not a bad alternative for ease of care. I've knitted it kind of loose (the only way the LK-150 will handle it), and once the blanket is done, will wash it in hot water and toss it in the dryer. That should tighten it up and make it perfect for a baby.
At least, that's the plan - Susan will have to tell me if it works - I'm trading a cotton blanket for all the Pink Shine she gave me (that became my Sunday sweater), as well as assorted other wools and fibres she has given me.
I hope it works out.

update on travel socks

As you know, I knit a lot of socks while carpooling, and during swim lessons, basketball practices (when I'm not coaching), basketball games and tournaments.
My son's school team has had two tournaments so far, and another this week, all leading up to the Area Tournament next week. So far, they have been after school affairs, giving me 4 or so hours of knitting time. Plus carpooling nets me a couple of days a week as a passenger, Saturday morning league basketball is an hour, swimming is 45 minutes every Monday... and, well you can see where this is going.
I get a lot of sock knitting done.
My output since Christmas:

from left to right - A new pair I started this weekend, a pair of green tones Misti Alpaca Sock, and a blue/grey pair or what is probably my new favourite sock yarn - Tanis Fibre Arts Purple Label. Merino, Cashmere and Nylon. Yum.
The Alpaca ones are for my father in law - he loves this wool with the passion of a thousand suns. He has three pairs in it already, and some bamboo ones, but it seems he will wear the socks for multiple days. To combat the "eeewwwwww!!!" factor, I'm on a mission to get him at least a few more alpaca pairs. I don't care what he says, and how inactive he may be, wearing socks for more than one day is gross. Of course, he may be saying this just to move to the top of my sock queue...
The Tanis cashmere socks are for my husband. His birthday is in April, so I'm ahead of the curve here. I've got one heel put in, and will do the other one sometime before April 1st. (knowing me, probably March 31st...)
The variegated red is an unknown. Found it in my stash, already wound into a cake, with no tag. At first I thought Socks that Rock, but it's too crisp for that. Possibly Fleece Artist - it has the right kind of colouration. Or it could be something completely different. Whatever, it's kind of a small cake, so I'm going to add some black heels, and ribbing, as well as some stripes leading up to the ribbing.
These have not yet told me who they belong to - I was thinking my 31 year old nephew that lives in Montreal - he adores the hand knit socks, and I sent him some for Christmas, after I heard through the grapevine that he was hoping for some. HOWEVER... he got them for Christmas, it's now February, and he's 31. He has my email address. He has my cell phone number, and knows how to text. No thankee, No more sockee...

Also - someone asked me about the Steve Jobs book (seen in above photo). I started it, then took a break because some books I reserved at the library became available and since they were on a time limit, I read them first, and have now gone back to Jobs. I always knew he was somewhat tyrannical, and a bit difficult, but I tell you, after reading this, I has lost any respect I once had for him. He may have been a visionary, and he may have been brilliant, but he used people and their ideas, and was just the biggest dick of a person. I could forgive a lot of what he did, but the fact that he refused a "reserved for the CEO" parking spot, instead parking in the wheelchair accessible spots (often across two of them), well, that just did it for me. It's a fascinating read, but it has coloured my opinion of him.

why I don't write patterns

Who the heck could translate what is happening here?

The sweater continues, it looks the same as before, but with a body's worth (almost!) of a green stockinette tube under the patterning. I'm about to put the bottom stitches on a thread, and start the sleeves. Then comes the steek, then I have to decide on an edging. Again, I've consulted Susan, and we have thrown a few ideas about, I will swatch a few to see how they work, and I may post the results to get opinions. Or not. I may just go with what I like. Because after all, it's for me!

The finished Sunday Sweater*

*name courtesy of Brenda...

Here's the sweater in our office loo. I wore it the other day with grey pinstriped pants and a sleeveless turtleneck. I got a ton of compliments on it, which leads me to believe that maybe I should wear pink more often. I probably won't because it's not among my favourite colours, but it worked well in this case.

I used a bunch of Knit Picks Shine Sport. The exacting measurement "bunch" is courtesy of the fact that there were some already wound balls, and some rewound cakes from a failed sweater attempt earlier. The cotton modal blend was great for running through the machine, and created a nice fabric - very drapey, but with some heft to it. It was weighty enough to hang nicely with just the one button closure. (I actually had one lone pink button in my button stash! This was meant to be.)
I knit the sweater on my LK-150, using schematics from a pattern created in Sweater Wizard. I input the size, the gauge, the style etc. into the software, and it spit out a pattern with schematics. Great for the machine, as it gives row counts as well as measurements. I kit the pieces as is, using waste yarn at the top and bottom. After sewing it together, I picked up the sleeve hems, and around the neckline, using the live stitches were available, or picking up along the side. I debated an attached i-cord edging, but after consultation with Susan, decided on a garter edging. I like it. I know I can knit edgings on the machine, but I hate rehanging stitches, and hand manipulating the needles. The only hand manipulation I do is increasing and decreasing.
It's funny - although this was knit on a machine, and I've got the pieces of another sweater waiting for sewing and edging, and I have many plans for more machine knit sweaters, I don't really think of myself as a machine knitter. Yes, I knit by machine, but I have to say, I get way more enjoyment from knitting by hand. I use the machine when it's a sweater that is in flat pieces, when it's a cotton or cotton blend yarn that hard on the hands to hand knit, or when I really want a sweater quickly. (Because the machine is in the basement, it's also handy for when I want to get away from the men in my family!)

Lookie what I found...

Two cotton tweed sweaters that have been loved and worn and washed and worn, and then, when they stretched out of shape, relegated to the pile.

As you can see from the top rust coloured one - they are well on their way to becoming yarn again. (Actually, by the time you read this, they are both bags of yarn, rather than knitted sweaters.

These were both knit on the machine years ago, when I first got it. Simple raglan, 3/4 sleeve sweaters, no edging, nothing. It made it very easy to reclaim the yarn. And the nice thing is, the yarn is already washed and softened, and ready to be reknit. (I'm envisioning a colour blocked cardigan - I don't wear knitted pullovers, but I live in cardigans!)

The two colours look great together, so I will block out a pattern with them, and run it through the machine yet again. The Sweater Wizard software will come to the rescue yet again - as much as they say it's for hand knitters - it's a great tool for machine knitters, because it gives actual row count after you input your stitch and row gauge.

Don't think I'm abandoning my hand knitting - far from it. But I'm enjoying the speed of stash reduction, and getting enjoyment out of wearing some favourite yarns sooner rather than later.

what I did last Sunday

And I'm not talking about the blocking (I did that last night...) I'm talking about the actual knitting! Yep, I dusted off the ole LK-150 knitting machine, moved it out of the corner of our bedroom, where it has been languishing as a clothes holder, moved it into my nice bright basement, from which I recently removed about a metric tonne of out grown kiddie stuff, inserted a sorely needed new sponge strip, gave it a quick swipe with some mineral oil to get that carriage moving swiftly again...

...worked up a pattern for a raglan cardigan, using my Sweater Wizard software, and voila!

Thanks to Susan's generous donation of a bag of Knit Picks Shine Sport Cotton-Modal blend yarn, and a husband and son who left me alone, I cranked out the pieces of a sweater. (There are actually two sleeves up there - I block them on top of each other, to ensure the same size...)

I still need to sew it together, and pick up all the live stitches (yes, I know I can cast on and bind off on the machine, but I don't like doing that. I'd rather pick up and knit an edging by hand...)
Luckily, I like mattress stitch, and knitting an edging by hand lets me experiment with adding some interest to a very plain, but very useful sweater.
This machine will be seeing a lot of cotton run through it in the near future - I find cotton a bit hard on the hands to knit, so the machine is perfect for that.

still loving the colourwork

I'm still loving the colourwork, although in this particular case, I probably should have put more forethought into the pattern.
What I want in the end is a cardigan, with this floral motif running around the shoulders. I want it reasonably close fitting, although it will be used as more of a jacket. I just don't want it big and droopy. I did some math, and even took into account that colourwork draws in quite a bit. It's very (VERY!) snug around the shoulders right now, but cutting the steek should help with that. I would also like to add bands of colour to the front bands, increasing the amount needed on the shoulders.

One thing I need to keep kicking myself in the head about is to go easy on the colour when making charts in Excel. Three colours per row looks great on screen and admittedly looks great in the sweater (I think...), but is a real pain to knit. Can we talk tangles?? But I persevered - it was only about 24 rows, so it wasn't THAT painful...

The colours are a lovely rich mossy olive-y green, a little brighter than appears here, and a rich mustardy yellow and bright orange. (that checkerboard part you see is the steek where I will cut it open.) The neck looks larger here than it actually is, and I have vague thoughts of a turned over collar treatment.

You can tell I've really thought this through, haven't I... It's either going to be stunning or an epic fail.

birds and rodents

We have bird feeders in our yard - they are my husband's and we love having all the birds swooping down to the yard off the deck and kitchen.

Our favourite is this 12-perch one - we fill it with Nyger seed, and it is in constant use. There are often at least 12 birds on it, and many more swooping down, pushing off those that have monopolized it.

Though not shown here, we have a cardinal couple that often hang out - the bright red male, and the more brownish toned female, with the bright orange beak. I'll try for a shot of them.

These small songbirds have become so used to us, they don't even move when we open the door or walk by.

However, we also have a circular peanut feeder, because we wanted to attract larger birds like Blue Jays. Unfortunately, what we have attracted are annoying squirrels.

They are rather acrobatic, and can stretch in any number of ways.

We moved it from this "to easy to get to" perch, and hung it off by the basketball net.

Okay, so that didn't work...
 
But... we are not to be beat by rodents. My son recommended trimming some of the tree branches so he couldn't launch himself at it. That worked for a bit, but then the little beast found that while he couldn't CLIMB down the fishing line it's suspended from, he could SLIDE down (the feeder created enough of a landing area for him. )
As you can see from the above picture, he not only got to it, he taunted us!
 
We have since moved the stainless steel disc my husband fashioned from one of the feeders to the top of this circle feeder. I haven't seen the resulting squirrel slide, but the peanut level hasn't dropped in two days.
I think we've thwarted him for now...

sock washing day

I forgot to show you this with the leopard hat...

it was sock washing day...

leopard hat

***for those that were drooling over the caramel-pecan buns yesterday (and drool worthy they are...) the recipe can be found here.
Thank Susan for it - she showed me the way...


I showed a friend at work the tiger striped hat for my nephew (which was LOVED, by the way...) and she went bat-crap crazy for it, except she's more of a leopard girl, as she said. Now, I normally do not knit for co-workers, but A is special - she's that person that without her, this place would fall apart. Seriously. She handles everything. And on top of that, she's that person who is too nice to be true. (And yes, she's pretty as well - I should really hate her...)
So I decided to knit her a leopard hat.

I left it on her desk, and when she came in, she loved it. She asked how much the wool was (I told her), and what about my time? I told her she couldn't afford that, and she got it. She knows it's hand knit, she knows I did her a huge favour by knitting it, and she knew better than to try and offer me money for it. (No one is going to pay $300+ for a hat...) She gave the best possible compliment by putting it on, and showing it off to selected people (those that also know not to ask for one), and NOT showing it to people who would then ask for one for themselves.

For a non knitter, she understand the knitting.

Susan's cinnamon buns!

Susan sent me her recipe for cinnamon buns, and I was itching to try out the new Kitchen Aid, so...

These are SOOOOOOOOO good. I split the recipe into three, baked one pan off, and froze the other two. (One is a birthday gift for my boss, with cooking instructions), and one is for us.) What I love about these is that they are more of a caramel-pecan bun, which is my all time favourite. Luckily, it's also a fave of my husband and son, otherwise I would have eaten the whole pan, and that would be bad. (but oh so good...)

Hockey Mom MItts

My brother's wife is a hockey mom. She has little choice in the matter, with three kids that all play hockey at a high level. (My niece is in the Team Canada system, and played int he women's under 18 World Championships last year - she's over 18 this year.) She's also at Brown University this year, on a hockey scholarship, so my brother and SIL have made the trek to Rhode Island a few times to watch her play. She had Team Canada mittens as well as Brown University mittens, but wanted to support her sons as well. They both play in the Toronto Marlies organization (age appropriate levels, not the actual Toronto Maple Leaf farm team). Although, my 16 year old nephew has been in net for the Leafs during a light practice session. I gather he's pretty good...)

So, to show support for the boys, she requested some Marlies mittens. Since Mittens are so easy, how could I say no? A quick play around in Excel to get the chart right, and Bob's your Uncle! (actually, Bob is my uncle, and he's the coolest guy around. He's having some health issues, so if you have a stray good thought, could you could send it Ottawa way for him? Thanks.)

I used some Norweigan Heilo Wool in the appropriate shades of blue and white, and just noodled the pattern as I went (writing it down, so the second mitt would match!) These do not fit me AT ALL, as my SIL has these tiny bird like hands, but they should be perfect on her.

something for me!

I actually finished something for me recently. Actually, this is the time of year when I get a little me-centric with my knitting - the gift stuff is mostly done, so start thinking about ME!

Me knitting is usually sweaters (and there is one in progress - I'm just working out some logistical details on it...) but I started this scarf with someone else in mind, but once it was done, I decided to keep it for myself. It;s the Hitchhiker scarf, and it's one of those rare things - a garter knit scarf with shaping and flair. I can't remember where I first saw it, but I really liked it - enough to buy the pattern. It's straight garter stitch, and once you get the pattern, it's so easy - you don't even need to refer to the pattern. I used two balls of Knit Picks Chroma Worsted, in the Mesa colourway, and while it's not my typical colours, it's really pretty!

And the shape of it means it wraps around the neck quite nicely.

I can see making more of these for the gift box...

asked for knits!

I've mentioned before how the kids on my husband's side of the family shy away from the hand knits - they'd rather wear a cheaply made acrylic hat with the right "label" than a custom hand knit. Fine. It pains me, but I have given up trying to force feed the hand knits where they are not appreciated.

My brother's kids however, have come into the light. I made my niece a brown silk and mohair hat - nice and slouchy as requested, and brown. (She attends Brown University). She loved it. I seem to have brain-farted as far as getting a picture of it - too bad, because I have to say, it was really quite lovely! I hit all the parameters. Slouchy, but not a beret, no pompom, soft, and a milk chocolate, not dark chocolate colour. I love specifics, I really do.

The two boys were a different story - I hadn't had a chance to talk to them before Christmas, so I came prepared with a pile of patterns, and some wools. We spent a fantastic hour, looking at patterns, and wools, and comparing colours.

One was rather specific - tiger pattern. Could I knit a tiger pattern? So we hit the computer, and I did a quick Ravelry search, and found a tiger chart. He loved it, and then requested BRIGHT orange and black. Again, slightly slouchy, no pompom, not beanie like - a little longer than that, but snug enough to stay on his head.

The other nephew was also specific - blue and white stripes. (He plays hockey in the Toronto Marlies system - Minor Midget AAA) But, while he also wanted slouchy and longer, he definitely wanted a pompom.

So I left Christmas with all these instructions, and by the time we were headed to the cottage, I had materials in hand, (and the tiger hat partially started). The stripey hat was an easy car knit, and by a couple of days in, I had this:

Note - the stripe pattern was not determined until after a couple of rounds of texts back and forth between nephew and myself - I asked if he wanted skinny or wide stripes, he decided random, so I did Fibbonacci striping. We also narrowed down the pompom size via text - not too big or small, sort of medium...

Before we left the cottage, I had two hats, ready for blocking:

Once home, I used some balloons and blocked, and two more Christmas gifts are ready for delivery!

These kids can ask for anything, anytime...

hostess gift

My SIL hosted the whole family for Christmas this year (In my husband's family, we rotate each year between three of us - I get it next year). While we don't exchange Christmas gifts among our generation (it's mostly for the kids and the parents), I always like to bring a hostess gift to whoever is feeding us.

Of course, me being me, It's usually something handcrafted (even the bag!) And before anyone starts accusing me of going over the top (which I know I do on occasion...) sewing a bag out of leftover fabric from a recent sewing project took less time than trying to find a box to fit, and wrap it)

This particular SIL (wife of my husband's brother) and I are quite good friends (by choice, not just because we share a family!), and she had been hinting around for a while for a gnome. Her living room is mostly a mustard gold tone, with brown leather furniture, hence the colour choice - she had said she didn't want a particularly Christmassy one, as she planned on having him sitting around all year. Yes, the hints were that specific!

She loved him, and he immediately found a home on a suspiciously empty table (I think she had high hopes this year!) The funniest comment came from my other SIL (husband's younger sister). She hosted everyone last year, and for whatever reason, decided to serve dinner 3 hours earlier than usual, which meant they ate without us. (we were not going to cut short time with my family to accommodate that - especially since no reason for moving up the time was given...) We arrived to find they had all eaten, and were cleaning up, but had left us plates of food - "oh by the way, the microwave isn't working". So we were expected to eat it cold, all the while being rushed so they could open the gifts - "are you done yet - everyone is waiting!". (and this is the same SIL that brought the new boyfriend unexpectedly this year).

Yeah, there are some issues with my husband's sisters - I just try to ignore it.

Anyhoo, when SIL-1 opened the gnome, SIL-2 exclaimed "I love him! Why didn't I get one last year when I hosted?"

Two beats of silence, then I answered. "You didn't host us, remember? You ate without us".

She had the decency to look abashed. SIL-1 hid the giggles (she was appalled at what happened last year, and even sat with us while we scarfed what we could). It was probably the only mar on a great Christmas Day, but as my husband said after - it wasn't really a bad thing - his sister needs that kind of reminder.

Either way, another gnome has found a new home, and it's a happy one. That's the important thing.

Christmas dessert

My SIL asked me to bring dessert to Christmas dinner - since she was doing the turkey dinner for 14 (sorry, make that 15 with the unexpected boyfriend...) I was happy to help. I had some sugar cookies, some peppermint bark (thanks for the recipe, Stephanie!), and some fruit, but my favourite part was these Santa Hat Brownies.

 (Idea totally stolen from one of Robyn's Monday Link Loves). So easy - I baked a pan of brownies, cut them out with a circle cutter, piped some butter cream icing on top, added a fresh strawberry, and topped the berry with a little pompom of icing. Simple, yet so ridiculously cute! And really well received. I had also sent some to the boy's school for the last day party - again, well received. I can see doing these every year - not only do they look cute, the flavour combination of the fresh strawberry with a touch of chocolate and vanilla icing was delicious!

teacher gift

I finished a gift for my son's teacher, just before school ended. Originally, it was just going to be a pair of socks for Mr. L, but it morphed into something for his whole family. He let drop the fact that he and his wife were expecting their second child, and well, I get so little opportunity to knit for babies, I just had to whip something up. So I knit a Baby Surprise Jacket, out of Katia Jamaica in a long dead colourway of blue, turquoise, lime green and white. (The baby is due in June, and this is sized for a few months old, so it should be perfect for the fall.)
But then I realized I couldn't ignore the remaining two family members - that would be kind of rude. (especially his wife - she's the one carrying the baby...) So I dug into the gift box, and found a pair of toddler socks that had never been gifted, and chose a rainbow hued scarf.

It may seem over the top, but this is one great teacher. A terrific role model for my son as well as others int he class - he really puts EFFORT into teaching. We have been extraordinarily fortunate with teachers at my son's school - pretty much all of them have been great - really great. It makes me proud, as a parent, to see the influence they have on my son, and their efforts have definitely helped shape him.
And as many of you know - knitting something is often easier than shopping for something!

Happy New Year!

Sorry about that - I seemed to have ignored the blog for a while. Don't take it personally - I ignored a lot of things lately. It just seemed easier to concentrate on family and friends.
So there is a lot to catch up on. I'm going through my camera, and finding pictures of all kinds of things, so I'll be telling you about those things (mostly knitting stuff...)

We had a great Christmas - our family, my family, husband's family. My Mom and my in-laws are terrific, and the fact that they are all in their 80's (or close - my Mom gets there in March), means we are very lucky. My heart goes out to Marie in this respect, who lost her own Mom over the holidays, but if you want to read about how to "truly live before you die", go read. It's inspiring.

There were some interesting parts of Christmas (in this family, there always are...). Like my SIL deciding to introduce her NEW boyfriend to the clan. Unexpectedly. Like, just bringing him to dinner, while my other SIL (who was hosting) and I scrambled to find a spot at the table. Did I mention that my husband's family is large, and there were already 14 of us? Talk about trial by fire! I can't even tell you if he's a nice guy - he was trying too hard to impress. Really, he should have just stayed quietly in the background, but it was entertaining to watch.
And one of the best parts was me opening a huge box from my husband and son and finding the KitchenAid Pro Series I've been lusting after! I have the best guys in my life...

Now, we are at our favourite place in the whole world, spending New Year's with our friends at the cottage.

It's a pretty good way to start a New Year. I'll be back soon with knitting and other stuff.