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A Non-Knitterly Christmas?

I can’t say this Christmas was about the knitting. I did make some sort of promise to myself at some point that I wouldn’t be knitting any Christmas gifts. Just put a cute little face in front of me asking nicely and I turn into a puddle of goo and will agree to anything.

How can you say "no" to this?

 So the kids loved their hats….but why not? They picked everything out, down to the style and mommy whipped them right up. They were even done *before* Christmas! Holy crap, I made a deadline! Goooooooo ME!

So…I thought I was a pretty good girl this year…

I didn’t get any yarn…..

No needles……

No notions…..

No fiber-y batts of fluffy goodness….

But I did get an interesting present this year…

Huh?

A Snuggie? What?! Say it…..I know I did. WTF, right? Everyone I know is aware that I am ready to lead the charge in the “Anti-Snuggie” campaign. I mean, not only does it scream “I’m ready for the Kool-Aid now”…it isn’t made of natural stuff. I mean, this thing is quite literally, plastic. What?! No wool? No Alpaca? Not even cotton? ::faints::

So I sliced open the box and looked inside….

Awwwwww...

I got money for Stitches West in February. Yay!!!

Oh, and I got the Snuggie too. ::rolls eyes::

Tags: Christmas, FO's, gifties, hats

Holy *@!%! It’s Christmas already?

Man have I been a busy girl! It seems like December just flew by!

Well, as much as I said I was going to avoid Christmas giftie-type knitting, I just couldn’t. I say it every year and I always make *something*. This year I was prompted to get off my butt by my son. Even at 4 years old, that boy can appreciate Mommy’s crafting. He came up to me one night and flat out said “Mommy, I want a hat!” Thank goodness he asked for something easy! I walked him back to the stash and let him pick out his own yarn.

Of course, this also means I have to make a hat for my little girl too. She also visited the stash for some yarn.

So, in the midst of the Christmas knitting…I was working on my own projects. I finished my Vaya Shrug first…

Vaya Shrug on the duct tape form

Then I started and finished my Whisper Shrug…

The Whisper, in an unfinished state...

I don’t have any pictures of it completed yet, but it sure looks awesome blocked. I even bought some Habu Silk to make another…

Then I started a sweater that has no name, because it has no pattern. I am mixing and matching and making it up as I go along. I am knitting it with True Love Fiber yarn in Bruise that I got at Unwind. I am needing to get creative because I have two balls in one dyelot and one ball in another. So far it is looking pretty good.

I love this sweater!

OH….and that etsy shop I keep promising to start? Well, I am working on it, despite my not having put anything up online yet. I have been carding batts like a mad woman. I am sure poor Wendy would love her drum carder back…one of these days I will have to get one of my own.

The Drum Carder of DOOM!

I have gotten my fingers injured a few times while cranking these things out, but they look oh so pretty!

Alpaca and wool with a little glitz

Wool with a little carbonized bamboo and some glitz

So much to do this week. I am sure I will have more completed projects before Christmas actually gets here!

Tags: cardigan, carding, fiber, FO's, hats, Vaya Shrug, Whisper

Christmas Yarn

So, I finished the Christmas Lights yarn right under the wire. I think I had the stuff soaked and ready by December 23rd. The stuff turned out great! Of course the color repeats didn’t exactly line up, but whatevs!

The finished Christmas Lights yarn..

The yarn was great, and since it was for the Uniquely Yours spin-a-long, I was really trying to get it done by the Christmas Eve deadline. I was also going to try to make something with it by that same deadline, but the kids were sick and so I didn’t quite finish by midnight. I did, however, get my Christmas hat done Christmas morning and I got to wear it all day!

My Christmas hat!

I ended up using the Wooly Wormhead Rollin’ Beret pattern. I made it a little on the small side because I was anxiety about my yarn (seriously, I need to learn to *trust the pattern*). When they say it takes 135 yards, they REALLY mean they only need 135 yards. And, as if that little stint of knitting crazy wasn’t enough…

The return of the Poppies!!

The Poppies in front of the Empire Center - Burbank, CA

A lot of my friends will remember my poppy yarn. I had gotten myself a batt-of-the-month subscription on etsy from Loop. This was one of the first batts I had received. What she had done was requested we give her inspiration for an individual batt she would send us. For this particular month, the theme was flowers. She had asked us to go out, take photos of what flowers we would like to inspire our batt. I think she did a really good job! Her batts are simply gorgeous. I am hoping at some point this year I can get back into one of her Spontaneous Spinning Batt Clubs because Steph Gorin (Loop) has a great eye for color and her batts are amazing.

So back to what I was talking about. I had finished this yarn back in April and kept saying I was going to make a hat with it. In a couple of hours on Christmas day I had completed hat #2.

I had 140 yards of this yarn, but was being incredibly conservative with the yarn usage. I could have used bigger needles and made the hat a little larger, but I really thought I would run out. I need to TRUST the PATTERN. Of course that doesn’t always apply, I know there are tons of pages on the net with countless errata for all kinds of stuff, but when the pattern says 135 yards, I should just trust it. I know I didn’t use quite 135 yards because I did have a little ball of yarn left over. The hat is super cute though. It’s my new favorite winter hat because it is crazy bright!

Poppies Hat!

I have some silk poppies at home I thought about attaching to the hat, but I haven’t decided yet if I would feel a little too “Blossom“.

Tags: FO's, handspun, hat, knitting, yarn