I know I had lofty goals for my Christmas gift-giving. Especially since I hadn’t given myself the entire year to accomplish these goals. In the end, I did gift 4 cowls, 4 hats, 3 pairs of fingerless mitts, 2 wraps/shawls and 1 pair of slippers. One other hat and a lacy scarf are yet to be given, as I haven’t seen the recipients yet. 14 gifts. Not bad considering I also worked on larger presents that have yet to be completed. Overall, the recipients were happy and I have no regrets.
Here’s the parade of pictures:
Cowls:
Improvised simple cable cowl – Caron Simply Soft, held double. Beautiful wooden buttons
Pedestrian Crossing Cowl
Note the amazing wood buttons from PymatuningCrafts.
Lara’s Cowl in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky. Please give a shout-out to my wonderful model, she did such a good job for me
Marian Cowl in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick
Hats:
Improvised 1×1 rib watchman style cap in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick
Ribbed Watchman’s Hat in Caron Simply Soft
Finnigan Hat in Berroco Peruvia Quick
Modified Fusion First Bomber Hat in Caron Simply Soft
The Fingerless Mitts:
Simple Ribbed Fingerless Mitts in Caron Simply Soft
Note: these are two separate pairs of mitts – above is an amazing pattern that just took too long for me to replicate, but was amazingly stretchy and the thumb gusset fit nicely. Below, I improvised and did not do a thumb gusset, but instead added more stitches around for the entire mitt.
Improvised simple ribbed mitts in Caron Simply Soft
Improvised simple mitts in Caron Simply Soft
Wrap and Shawl:
Cedar Wrap in Spud & Chloë Outer, wood buttons to be added per recipient’s preference
The wrap above does still need to be blocked and once the chosen PymatuningCrafts buttons are added, a better picture may find it’s way over here.
Arroyo Shawl in Manos del Uruguay Maxima
As you may be able to tell, this shawl was longer than my dining room table and with my limited amount of blocking boards, it was a bit rough blocking properly.
Finally, the slippers.
Sunday Morning Slippers in Berroco Peruvia Quick
These were my biggest/only fail. They were so incredibly fast and easy to knit up. The pattern was simply a joy to follow. But then the felting happened. Without the aid of a washing machine. It was rough, and not in the ideal-for-felting-wool sort of way. To my dear sister who graciously accepted these slippers as a Christmas present, I am sorry. The good news is, they can only get better. Though I might have NO idea how to run the top-load washing machine that is in our apartment (something to do with rolling it up to the kitchen sink and attaching it somehow to the faucet has left me reluctant to try) and the washing machine I do use regularly is a front load completely incapable of felting, my sister is in possession of a top-load machine that may just do the trick. Either she may await my next visit or attempt this on her own (keep in mind they were SIMPLE to knit up, I won’t be offended if they end up a certain dog’s chew toy). As long as these slippers end up happily loved in some way, I will be satisfied.
Now, one may ask, what happened to those three sweater’s that had absolutely NO chance of completion by Christmas. One is halfway finished and I will be picking it back up again soon. The henley sweater for my father is still several inches below the armholes. Soon it will be less than several inches. The sweater fits fine in the shoulders, but is incredibly too large after the split for the sleeves… I mean two times the size of my father. I will be ripping back and doing some subtle decreases to maintain the positive ease…. but make it a touch less positive. The final sweater is for my mom and will likely be a late birthday present as we would both like it to fit her well!
Up next, the wonderful goodies received!
a singular knitter 