knit. drink tea. repeat.

In the beginning of October I had a surgery.

It wasn't really major, but the recovery was still long and painful.

I entertained myself by working on a couple of e-courses,

filling up an art journal, and kitting.

And now, even though I've healed,

the ridiculous cold temperatures lend themselves

to cozy curling on the couch with some yarn and a cup of hot tea,

so I've continued knitting.

These are the projects I've completed in the past few months:

Lucy Hat

A beautiful, elegant pattern.

(I learned how to make short rows!)
This hat was an instant favorite,

well-worth the price for the pattern.

Sweet Life fingerless gloves

I was using up leftover yarn from the Lucy hat,

so these are shorter than the pattern recommends.
This was a fun pattern;

I enjoyed learning the mock honey comb stitch.

Irish Hiking Mitts

Once again, these are short (and have funky colorblocked thumbs)

because I was using up scraps of yarn.

The mitts are stretchy and comfortable.

I gave them to my Mum for her to wear at work

because her office is quite chilly in the winter.

Lotus Hat

This is not really a complicated pattern,

but I had the hardest time not messing up my counting.

So much unraveling...

Lizzy Lid
This was really not the yarn to use for this pattern;

neither the lovely stitch patterns nor the striping in the yarn

is showcased in this combination.

Live and learn...

cable baby

This darling baby hat is very stretchy to grow with baby

and makes the perfect little gift.

I'll definitely be making more of these.

I am always amazed at the variety and quality

of free knitting patterns available.
Thank you, you lovely people

who share your patterns with such generosity!

knitting works in progress

I seem to go through stages in my artsy endeavors. Right now I am not in a knitting stage. However, I have a couple of works in progress that I thought I'd share. If nothing else, this will bring them to my mind one of these days when I'm just sitting around wondering what to do. Ha.

Okay, so this scarf is actually done, but I'm working on a grey and black one just like it. (I also have made a green one for myself.) I couldn't help jumping on the absurdly ruffly scarf bandwagon

even though they're so popular as to be cliche. It's just so fun to see the specialty yarn turn into extravagant ruffles! Plus they knit up so quickly and easily, making for great gifts. This one went to one of my pink-loving girlfriends.

These fingerless gloves were supposed to be my Mum's Mother's Day gift. I became daunted when Sweet Pea pulled one of the needles out, and I had to pick up the stitches and try to figure how how to fix the pattern, so they're still not done. This is the first time I've used such small needles and sock-weight yarn. I'm loving it, but it's slower going than I'm used to. Maybe I'll finish in time for her birthday. Or maybe Christmas...

Now I feel like knitting. This is good. :)

itty bitty fingerless gloves

After seeing how delighted Sweet Pea was

to wear my newest fingerless gloves,

I decided to make a tiny pair for her.

I just sort of winged the pattern

using all of the fingerless-glove-making-knowledge

that I've gathered over the last few months.

Thankfully they fit her perfectly!

Definitely the cutest thing I've made in a long time.

The best part?

She loves wearing them

just as much as I like seeing her wear them.

new fingerless gloves

As of very recently, we have a yarn shop in town!

In a town of 5,000 or so, this is a big deal.

(We also have two grocery stores now.

Woohoo! Things are hoppin' around here!)

Anyway.  I digress.

It is so nice to be able to go to a physical store,

to feast my eyes and fingers on the pretty yarns' colors and textures

and to chat with the ladies who gather there to knit and socialize.

(They all seem to think that I'm a sweet, adorable young thing

and are all excited that I value things like knitting.)

Even though the prices were somewhat higher at our new yarn store

than they might be in a bigger city,

I picked up a skein of pretty variegated yarn

to feed my fingerless glove addiction.

This time I wanted a simple pattern

that would really showcase my pretty yarn,

so I chose the Good Time Fingerless Mitts pattern.

It was a good choice.

The pattern was well written,

and the proportions are just perfect for my hands.

I love my new fingerless gloves.

And Sweet Pea does too. : )

my first fingerless gloves

I am outrageously pleased

with how my first fingerless gloves turned out.

Well, technically this is my second pair;

I used the same pattern and yarn for the first set,

but they turned out uncomfortably small for me,

so a I gave them to a friend with tiny hands

who will be able to enjoy them much more.

(It's a lot harder than I thought it would be

to take photos of myself wearing them.)

I used this pretty Three Leaf Mitt pattern.

It was very well written,

and I discovered that following

what I believe is something like a lace chart

is nowhere near as hard as I feared!

To make my second pair larger,

I simply added an extra rib on the palm (3 knits and 1 purl).

I also added an extra three rows

to the all-around ribbing at the top and the bottom

because I liked the way it looked and fit better that way.

Fingerless gloves are so quick and fun.

I could easily get addicted to making them.

Handmade Christmas 2012/grey hat for me

Benjamin's family draws names at Christmas.

That way each adult only needs to buy a gift for one other adult

(with 9 adults in the family, this is really nice).

This year I drew his middle brother's wife's name.

I got her a fabulous kitchen knife from her wish list

on a good Black Friday sale,

but I really wanted to use my new-found knitting skills

to make a pretty hat for her as well.

I entered my search requirements

into Ravelry's wonderful system:

the pattern had to be free,

include a picture,

use a size of knitting needles I already owned,

and be within my skill level.

One of the few patterns that met all of my criteria was

Hermione's Cable and Eyelet Hat.

I made a cute orange version for my sister-in-law

(I didn't have time for photos before wrapping and mailing it)

and liked the pattern enough to make one for myself as well!

For the record,

I chose grey because I liked it, not just to copy-cat Hermione.

I also tweaked the proportions of ribbed band and the cables

to be more to my taste.

Perhaps it's because I'm still pretty new at this not-flat knitting thing

(as in something other than a washcloth or scarf)

but I find how the decreases work and look

so fascinating and exciting.

I am really quite proud of how it turned out

and have been enjoying wearing it

on some of these chilly winter days.

Handmade Christmas 2012

My dad ended up being the lucky one

to receive two handmade gifts from me

during this year of minimal Christmas making.

He liked the boys' "helmet hats" so much,

(and he's a hat person, so to speak, so I knew he'd actually use it)

that I couldn't resist making him one of his own.

"helmet hats"

After using my new and exciting knitting knowledge

to make a few very basic little hats,

I thought I'd try making something just a little more challenging

with some leftover yarn given to me by Mum:

a still-basic hat with ear flaps.

I decided that I wanted the ear flaps to be a little smaller

than the ones pictured on the pattern,

so I knitted them on size 8 knitting needles,

switching to the larger needles on the last row.

The ear flaps turned out just about how I wanted them,

but the combination of the extra-fluffy yarn I used

and my mistake of using knitting needles

that were half a size too big,

resulted in a hat that was huge.

I was disappointed.

I had intended the hat to be for Brother,

but instead it was big for me!

However, the next morning Little Man discovered it.

And he loved it.

He calls it his "helmet hat."

Apparently it's perfect for jumping and spinning around the room.
His delight delights me.

Of course then Brother wanted a "helmet hat" too,

so I made one for him as well.

I tweaked the pattern to make it a little smaller,

and I'm afraid that it turned out just a tiny bit too small.

Go figure.

I don't really think he minds, though.

The other day he insisted on wearing it over his coat hood.

So funny.

Size issues notwithstanding, it was a fun pattern to make.

I really enjoyed learning some new techniques,

and the bulky yarn and large needles made it nice and quick.

I will say, though,

that the author's use of unexplained knitting abbreviations

drove me a little crazy.

(I'm stilla pretty inexperienced knitter, after all.)

Not that I have too much room to complain:

it was free, and Google is always willing to help.

: )

Sweet Pea's flower hat

Okay, I am not planning on turning this into a knitting blog.  That said, though, you'll probably be seeing quite a few knitting projects around here.  I'm so excited to be rediscovering and becoming more skilled at an old favorite craft!  Plus knitting is just such a perfect, cozy activity for long winter evenings, and its portability and sedentary-ness caters to my current beached whale stage of pregnancy. : )

I was so pleased with how the flower-embroidered baby girl hat turned out, that I thought I'd do something similar for Sweet Pea.  I used a different pattern for larger needles and some bulky yarn that my mom shared with me.  The hat turn out soft, fluffy, and warm, but it's still quite a bit too big for her. (Good thing there's always next year).  Plus the bulky yarn flowers just didn't turn out as well as the smooth yarn ones on the other hat (I'm not quite sure of the proper terminology yet).

I'm moderately pleased with how it turned out.  It's not a failure, but it's still not quite what I had envisioned.  I definitely was not discouraged enough to stop knitting!

for Baby

I feel so unprepared for this baby.

The months are just passing by in a blur, though,

and ready or not, he/she will probably be arriving within a month!

I did find a sweet gender neutral sleeper

for him/her to wear home from the hospital.

(I love the tiny chocolate brown giraffe print!),

and I made coordinating boy and girl option hats to go with it

from some leftover bits of soft yarn in my stash.

The boy hat was my first ever attempt

at using double pointed knitting needles

and knitting in the round.

I'm so very proud of how it turned out.

The chocolate brown and green stripes

make me think of an Andes mint.

Mmm...

I had to get creative when it came time to embellish the girl hat.

I didn't have enough pink yarn to crochet a flower for it,

so I embroidered a trio of sweet flowers

and added a few beads for sparkle.

I have boy and girl baby quilt options

made up and tucked away for the baby too.

They even coordinate with the hat and coming-home-sleeper colors!

Come to think of it,

maybe I'm not as unprepared as I feel...

P.S. This is the pattern I used for the little hats.