Saturday, January 26, 2008

Christmas Knitting - Part 3

THE SCARVES

Sadly, the scarves to match my parents' hats and gloves are not quite finished yet.

For mom, I'm working on Danica from Knitty.


Danica, Seahawk Style*


I haven't started Dad's yet, but I'm thinking of either doing a scarf with narrow vertical stripes, or the similar-yet-different High School Colors Scarf.

ONE MORE UFO

For my niece, I have in progress the Matinee Coat from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby. I'm knitting the sides together with the back, to eliminate some seaming up. Over the holidays, I got so far as to reach the point where I finished the lace and then started working the upper, stockinette section... until I realized that at this point I needed to be knitting the back and sides separately. Much frogging and yarn detangling later, I am here:


Matinee Coat


THE HATS (again)


Mr. Tall on a snowy Christmas Day


Start-End: December 21 - 22, 2007
Pattern: A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend by Stephanie Nicole
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solid in #152 Oxford Gray
Needles: US 8 (5.0 mm) 16 inch circular Addi Turbos
Notes: I fell in love with the way the decreases in this simple ribbed hat worked. On one of my days off, I cast on soon after Mr. Tall left for work and finished late that evening (technically, early the next morning). Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour, but I was simply amazed. About a year previous, I spent a few weeks making my first ever hat (and knitted item) - The Chocolate Ribbed Hat. It was amazing to me to think of how much I learned in just one year.


Decreases on the Hat Fit for a Boyfriend Husband



Spiderman Hat for my nephew, Wyatt


Start-End: December 18 - 27, 2007
Pattern: We Call Him Spidey from PumpkinKnits, based off the Generic Norweigan Hat from Hello Yarn.
Yarn: Patons Fab DK in #2321 (blue), #2323 (red), and #2311 (black).
Needles: US 3 (3.25mm)
New-to-Me Techniques: Fair Isle Knitting, Continental Knitting
Notes: Despite using DK weight instead of 4 ply, I kept the needle size the same as in the original pattern. The resultant hat is too small for me, but still a bit too big for my nephew. I really enjoyed this pattern and could see trying to design my own chart in the future. I taught myself how to knit Continental so that I could speed up the colorwork by knitting one color Continental and the other using the English method.


Wyatt in his Spidey hat



* All apologies for the weird WIP photos in this post. I prefer to shoot in natural light, which has been lacking a bit lately in this area.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Christmas Knitting - Part 1

Ok, so I'm finally getting to the point where I can catch up and move forward. Luckily, not much else is happening at the moment (oh, except I got a new JOB!) so you're not missing much.

My parents are Seahawks season ticket holders, and have been for some time. Back in the day, they had four tickets as brother and I were a bit young to stay home. That was in the days of the Kingdome and the end of the Steve Largent era.

They still go to the games - no longer with brother and I, and no longer at the Kingdome. While Qwest Field is a nice stadium, it lacks something the Kingdome had - a roof.

To help keep my parents warm next season, I decided to knit them each a hat/glove/scarf set. Earlier this year, I found a bunch of RYC Cashsoft Aran on sale. Even better, in Seahawk colors!

THE HATS


Mom's hat


Start-End: I did each in a couple days, but I didn't write down which ones.
Pattern: "Classic Ribbed Hat" from Frugal Knitting Haus
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft Aran in Haze (#00004), Tornado (#00008), and Bud (#00006).
Needles: US8 (5.0 mm) 16" circular Addi Turbo.
Notes: This pattern was really easy to follow and worked up really quickly. I absolutely loved this yarn, it was like buttah - I am really glad it was on sale because I wouldn't have bought it at full price.


Dad's Hat


Next up... the gloves!

Friday, February 9, 2007

FO - Chocolate Rib Hat

Pattern: That Chocolate's Gone Straight to Your Ribs Hat
Wool: Paton's Fab (100% acrylic) in brown.
Needles: Clover Mamboo Needles 4.0 mm
New-to-me techniques: k2tog, working in the round on two circulars

I found this pattern really easy to follow and work up. As my first ever finished project, I was so excited when I finished that I ran up and had to show my husband right away, despite the fact that he was asleep in bed. I'm nothing if not enthusiastic :)



This above picture reminded me of something. It ate at me for awhile until it hit me... the way the hat decreases at the top reminds me of Dumb Donald from Fat Albert:



The hat was a Christmas gift to my brother-in-law, Matt. When I mentioned I was learning to knit, he asked me for a brown skull cap. Matt was an ideal recipient of my first ever FO because he is very laid back and easy going that I didn't have to worry about making it perfect or what his reaction would be.



Matt currently lives in Arizona, where it's been cold enough lately that I hear he's gotten an opportunity to wear it!

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