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Archive for January, 2011

One of the things I have committed to this year is knitting 12 sweaters (or larger projects) in 12 months. Due to some other projects that were on the needles, I didn’t get started with my January project until the 13th. I had planned on making Short Lucky by Thea Colman in Whirly Worsted, but I was really bummed to find out that I couldn’t get gauge (discovered at the Sit and Stitch when I took it off the needles and discovered it was probably 45″ around. Much too large for me). I was quite dismayed, so Whitney suggested a KAL to get me past my “knitterly misfortune” as she put it. Owls by Kate Davies had been in my queue forever, and I was going to use it this year as my ace in the hole so to speak. You know, on a month that was really busy with other things, I could knit the Owls up in no time. I just hadn’t planned on having to use my ace in the first month.

Gotta tell you, I am definitely not bummed now. I love this sweater!

Pattern: Owls by Kate Davies
Yarn: Cascade Eco Wool
Needles: US 10 and 10.5
Buttons: The Crooked Stitch

I absolutely love the combination of bulky yarn and a fitted shape. It is easy for sweaters done in bulky to look, well, bulky. This one is very form fitting so it allows the femininity to shine, rather than the bulk.

The buttons totally make this sweater though. It was cute without them, now it makes me giggle with happiness. And I was lucky enough that there was a huge box of matching buttons at the shop. Don’t the owls look like they have little eyelids? The shape of the neckline is also just perfectly designed – not too wide, not gapey, and the short rows at the back make it come up just high enough.

And the Eco Wool is a perfect yarn for this sweater. Not that I needed to prove my Eco love, but this certainly helped. For my size this is only about $18 worth of yarn too. Can’t beat it.

I know this is going to get a lot of wear, and it has already seen it’s first Sit and Stitch. I managed to get it done a few days early too, so I am off to the February sweater: Short Lucky in Berroco Remix. Miles of 1 x 1 rib…..

Although I live 12+ hours away now, I still have some “Auntie Dani” duties to attend to, namely Christmas and birthday gifts for my friend J’s adorable toddler. This year I saw a Sew Mama Sew post on gifts for little ones, and knew I needed to make this one for my “nephew”.

This super cute little bag from Amazing Mae seemed like the perfect gift for a 3 1/2 year old to carry around, well, the things that little boys cart around. Cars, dinosaurs, rocks, etc. And with the beener to clip it to his belt loop, it is harder to leave behind. It was a fun little project to make and it gave me a reason to use some of this corduroy owl fabric that I snagged a while back (and by snagged I mean bought everything left on the bolt. All of it. Because really? How could you resist?).

I have it on good authority that Auntie Dani scored again and the bag has already been put to good use. Is it weird that I considered making one for myself?

Even though I had spent so much time working with sock yarn, I still had some more UPP Merino Fingering in the stash that I wanted to use up. I had seen the String Theory pattern when trolling through good old Ravelry and knew it would be a perfect match for both the softness and the colour of the yarn.

Pattern: String Theory,
Yarn: Unplanned Peacock Merino Fingering in Robin’s Egg
Needles: US 4
Dates: Dec 21st – Jan 5th

This pattern uses twisted stitches and a really genius cast off to allow you to drop all those stitches for the stretched sections.

It can be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled around your neck as it is over 100″ long (yet you knit it on a 24″ needle. Love that).

I know I will get a lot of use out of this as a sort of necklace – I can see myself wearing it with a long sleeve white t-shirt. Someday it will be warm enough to do that again, I swear.

The softness of this yarn really makes this piece. It feels like you are wearing a cloud around your neck. Another awesome yarn from Natasha!

4 pairs of socks knit in a couple of month deserved their own post, I thought. In detail, may I present:


Mom W’s socks. Very obviously these are everyone’s favourite sock pattern – Monkey Socks. I did these toe up rather than top down, and I didn’t reverse the lace chart. I did a short row heel rather than a flap, and did a stretch sewn bind off at the top. The yarn is Unplanned Peacock Twisty sock (which is devine) in Magenta. I will definitely make this pattern again. They fit my mom quite well, which is probably because I have made socks for her before so I had the actual measurements.

TJ’s socks are a plain pair of toe up socks with a short row heel and toe with a provisional cast on. The yarn is Berroco Sox, and I really enjoyed working with it. Hopefully it wears well, because TJ is really hard on hand knit socks.

Mom R’s socks are Hermoine’s sock pattern, which is a purl/knit combination that appears like a basket weave. These were toe up, magic cast on, short row heel. The yarn is Unplanned Peacock Twisty Sock again, this time in Cardinal (can you tell I like this yarn?). Unfortunately these are a little too big, and they are even more so now that they have been washed. But I made it up to her by knitting another pair of Paton’s Kroy socks the next week.

The final pair are Dad’s socks. As a few of you noticed in the comments earlier this week my dad has long skinny feet (so do I). These are again plain toe up socks, but I did these with the magic cast on rather than the provisional cast on. I think it makes a bit more of a pointy toe, which is appropriate for Dad’s feet. These are in Berroco Comfort, which I love love love. I did these on 3′s, so they went a little bit fast that way.

I had originally planned on making myself a pair as well, but as time got tight I figured I would just wear one of the other dozen pair I have knit myself in the past instead. But Whitney came to the rescue and gave me my very own Monkey socks for Christmas!

Aren’t they gorgeous? Once again the yarn is Unplanned Peacock, but this time in Peacock Sock. This stuff is a dream to wear! And the colours of these are divine. It reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream.

Thanks Whit for the great gift and for saving the Christmas picture!

I think I might take a bit of a break from knitting socks now….. :)

This year for Christmas my family came down to visit – my Mom & Dad and TJ’s Mom. We had decided rather than doing gifts that we would just enjoy each others company as our gift.

(Our family in cookies – Dad with his Datsun key, Mom W with her crochet hook, Mom R with her lovely jewelry and glasses, me with my knitting and TJ with his tools).

We knit and crocheted together, went down to Raleigh for a hockey game, had some great food and did lots of baking.

Being the crazy crafter that I am though, I still wanted to make everyone something. How about socks? Yup, 4 pairs of them.

Click to make larger

I had this idea that I wanted to have our family picture this year with us all wearing hand knit socks. (Also, note the hand silk screened Virginia sweatshirts on the triplets there. Those were made at 11pm Christmas eve. All for a picture. But you have to admit, we look crafty). Needless to say I did nothing for the last couple of months but knit socks. Secretly. I knit at work (thanks Whitney!), I knit at home when I was supposed to be cleaning, I knit on planes.

It was a lot of knitting on little needles. In fact I am working on a sweater on 10.5′s now and they feel like primary pencils! By Christmas eve, I had managed to squeeze out 4 pairs of socks for my family. I hung them all on the mantle at 3am after everyone had gone to sleep so that when we got up in the morning they were all hanging there as a surprise. And I am happy to report that everyone loved them! I’ll give a more detailed look at each pair tomorrow, with pattern and yarn info. And tell you how I ended up with a pair too!