Christmas Knitting

I am (as I believe I have mentioned) an ambitious knitter. I decided about a month into my knitting that I was going to knit everyone* something for Christmas. I made my mom a wonderful lace scarf. I made my grandmother in law a wonderful scarf. I made my most of my other family (mother in law [who I feel I need to add is getting something else as well], close cousins and aunts/uncles, married friends) all a set of dishcloths with a nice thing of dish soap. I made my cousin Natasha who is having a baby a bib. I also learned most of my new knitterly skills by doing so. I would test new stitch patterns on dishcloths. So, during these past 10 months I have been learning and gifting.

So, I have left a few people out and I wanted to share those two with you now!

My cousin Courtney has a beautiful little girl. She is barely 18 months old, but she is precious and sweet. I had decided I wanted to make her mittens. Then, Courtney hinted that she would love a grey scarf for her daughter. I made the scarf (Ruffle Fluff pattern on rav). During the process of this scarf I learned how to do a 3 needle bind off. Awesome. Then, over the holiday weekend I decided to try my hand at mittens. So, I cast on from the Knit Simple Workshops magazine the basic mitten pattern. It worked up relatively fast and I was able to do them in a weekend. I decided to hand stitch on them a “K” and a snowflake. Then I added a creamy white ribbon bow to the scarf and then tied the two mittens together with the same ribbon. They are not perfect, but the little girl in question is growing so fast that by next winter they will be lost or not fit. I understood that when I made them, but enjoyed learning the new techniques.

Knitting for children is really fun and fast I have found. I don’t have children, but I like knitting for other kids for the time being. Eventually, I will probably have babies to knit for, but at the present I am content to knit for other children.

 

The other present that I knitted up was for my sister in law. I know these self striping socks look pretty boring. However, I am extremely proud of them as they are my first pair of socks.  I was super proud of how they turned out. They are pretty much fabulous. The yarn got much softer when I hand washed them in Kokobura wash. They were a simple knit 2, purl 2 rib cuff/leg and then simple knit stitch the rest of the way. They are super pretty with no holes in the gusset! I tried them on and they fit like a glove. They are lovely. (Her favorite color is green in case you wondered. The yarn is from Knit picks.)

With all that said (!!) I have finished up all of my Christmas knitting! It’s not even mid-December yet and all my Christmas knitting is done. However, next year… I think I won’t knit so many gifts. It was fun and helped me learn a ton about knitting, but you know… it’s time to knit for me!

 

*Not literally everyone, but the people that we buy gifts for instead. I exempted the teenage boys, I would knit couple’s gifts, current knitters (this means you, Jen), and I would not knit for anyone I deemed unworthy. (Read people who I knew would not appreciate the gift, the thought, time or effort expended that made this gift worth more than a gift card.)

Sunny Happy Baby

It seems like life flows in predictable stages. When we first moved to NC, the mister and I attended wedding after wedding. We probably went to 50 weddings and we still have 2 to go to this within the month. But there has been a shift, now we get calls almost daily it seems like from a friend or family member who is pregnant. There is a rash of pregnancy going around. (I keep avoiding drinking the same water these girls are drinking.) New babies mean knitting small tiny things. I am pretty excited about this adventure. Admittedly, I won’t be knitting for all the people that are having children like bunnies. I am selective about who I knit for in general.*

All that aside, I will knit for my cousin Natasha who recently found out she is pregnant. She is so newly pregnant, she doesn’t know the gender of her little one yet. So, I am content to knit brightly colored baby things for her. (I don’t like to knit in “baby” colors or in “baby” yarn. Or acrylic in general.)

Having never, knit for a baby before I thought I would start with something completely simple. I turned to the girls of Mason Dixon knitting and made their version of the baby bib. It was a simple garter stitch pattern. It could be spiced up in any number of ways. So, I cast on merrily in a beautiful, happy cotton yarn in yellows and oranges. I loved the way the yarn was pooling. I loved the neat, tidy rows.

As I was knitting those tidy rows, I started to contemplate what I should adorn the bib with. (A wise knitter friend [who is also a mother of a toddler I might add] advised me to not adorn it too much, snaps are better, and to make it big.) So, I decided to do a quartet of small bright yellow vintage buttons on the bottom corner. I made the bib larger than the pattern called for and alas I didn’t add snaps. Buttonholes are much easier to knit and at the moment I pretty much suck at sewing. The overall effect was a precious, happy, cheery bib for her wee one on the way.

 

      

 

*(I won’t knit for other knitters. I won’t knit for people who won’t appreciate the sentiment and time I have put into a project. I won’t knit for people I don’t know who aren’t paying me out the bum. I won’t knit for people who are so picky that they drive me up the wall or people with bad taste.)