Holidays and Hurried Gifts

My poor blog and knitting projects have been neglected for much too long as I have been pulling my hair out over my finals at school. But all that is coming to an end with Christmas just around the corner! I just love this time of year, with the gift giving and celebrations posing perfect opportunities to create new knit projects. I think my family has accepted the fact that they will always get homemade gifts from me, especially if I find some fantastic new yarn. I was blessed this year with a whole bunch of free yarn that has come in very handy for Christmas presents. 

Speaking of which, here is a cute set of fingerless mitts which I am in the middle of making for my pastor's daughter; I made her a set last year but apparently new ones were in order. The pattern is a simple rib and moss stitch design which I slightly altered for sizing. Unfortunately, I think they may end up being a little on the small side. We'll see how they turn out. Still working on finishing the cowl for my sister and then I think I am finally done with making presents(what a relief!). I'm not likely to post again before the holidays are over, but by January there will be many posts with pictures of everyone enjoying their knitted gifts. So for all you crafty knitters out there scrambling to finish last minute gifts...  

Merry Christmas!

Sarcasm and Stockholm

Photo Courtesy of Ravelry

So I did a little Christmas shopping yesterday afternoon and I think I nearly smacked about six people; who goes shopping on a Tuesday? I thought I would be safe from oblivious shoppers who pay no attention to others who simply want to browse the clearance/discount bins...but I was wrong. Despite these setbacks, I did manage to find some deals on unique presents that cost my purse very little.

As far as knitting goes, I plan to begin the unfinished half of my sister's present, a lovely cowl pattern I snatched from Ravelry. I'm not much of a pattern creator, but I spend a lot of time hunting for amazing patterns. The Stockholm Scarf is beautiful and not too complicated, which made me fall in love with it. With Christmas coming up, I thought it would be perfect for my sister so I bought some Simply Soft yarn in teal to make it with. I have worked one half already, so now I need to finish and seam it up. Will post more on this project once I'm nearly finished. I'm going to attempt to "kill" it, or at least soften it up a bit. We'll see how it goes(needles crossed!).

Now on to other annoying setbacks. We got our first snowfall up here in central Maine and needless to say, we will have a white Thanksgiving. This has caused issues with my rear-wheel drive car which my poor husband was stuck with today. I just can't seem to cough up the money(might have something to do with my yarn spending) to fix our other vehicle, which is a snow-beast. To cheer myself up, I searched for some sarcastic relief and discovered nataliedee.com. This little comic just about describes how I feel towards shoppers who don't get out of my way fast enough :) Hope this brightens your day.

Wrapped in Pink

Over the last couple of days I have completely reconfigured this blog and added some nice new features. Now all can see the main knitting websites I draw from, as well as some more personal touches. It's not finished but it is much better than it was. Now I hope to be able to post some actual patterns and projects with more ease and simplicity.

To start off, I have been working on a bright and stretchy little scarf for my sister-in-law, who happens to be just eleven years old. She got a brand new, very pink snowsuit, so I decided she needed a scarf to go with it. I ended up with this great stash of yarn from a lady in my church who recently moved and did not want to drag all of her yarn with her. Can you imagine just giving away trash bags full of yarn? Most of it is acrylic worsted weight stuff, but it suits my needs for inexpensive Christmas gifts this year. So here is the simple(and I mean SIMPLE) pattern for the scarf and feel free to experiment with funky weights and colors. It's turned out really nice with a bright shade of magenta pink. Leave a comment or link to what you came up with for your version of this scarf!

Wrapped in Pink

Scarf Pattern:

Cast on a multiple of 3 sts, more or less depending on how wide you would like it.

Add on 2 sts to have an edge, or not if you don't prefer it.

Work every row by k2, p1; it turns out an interesting and stretchy pattern.

Work for as long as you'd like or until you get bored, it all depends on how long you want it.  

I used a worsted weight yarn with size 10 needles, and it turned out like this:

 

If you want a tighter, less stretchy scarf just switch down a few needles sizes. I think this scarf would be nice in almost any weight or fiber(would love to try it with some wool ease or chunky yarn). As far as I know this pattern isn't copyrighted, since it is just a modified rib-stitch repetition. Have fun and enjoy!

Mixing Metaphors

As I am sitting here in the early hours of a rainy Saturday, I contemplate how much knitting affects my life. Knitting brings me much joy but I fear that others find it dull or outdated. I find there is nothing quite like watching bits of yarn morph into an adorable sweater or a cozy scarf. There is so little I can produce or even provide that crafting gifts is a great solace for me. If life were as simple as picking up a stitch or casting on again, I am sure that I would be more successful in understanding it. My overstuffed bags of skeins and needles encourage me to believe that I am making my mark on the world, one knit at a time.

Wise Men and Foolish Woman

It is amazing to me how tedious and time consuming it is while attaching sleeves to tiny little i-cord arms. Must little details be oh-so complicated? Which puts to the question why I keep punishing myself, since I have now made close to four figures in this manner.

The answer is really simple: too cheap to buy a nice, porcelain nativity set. Plus, who wants a set that you can't even pick up for fear of dropping it? Maybe I am the only one who is chronically clumsy though.

So the fall semester has now commenced and I have even less time to become one with my sofa and knit for untold hours. But I am determined to finish this project to display before Christmas. I think I may be sabotaging it though because today I found myself looking up patterns for tiny, adorable little sheep. I can only shake my head and wonder how I ended up being the woman who leaves yarn scraps and fuzzies everywhere she goes.

Life As a Tangled Skein of Yarn

Sometimes I wonder why it seems that no matter how much organizing and scheduling I do, my life turns out to be so messy and disordered. It's like there is this unseen force which just goes around tweaking my well-ordered plans in ways that drive me absolutely crazy. Of course it doesn't help that other people generally don't seem to be on the same page as me. But enough of my whining, on to more important matters of wool and synthetics and fuzzy goodness.

I have been trying to motivate myself to work more on the nativity set, but I can't seem to scrounge up the right scrap yarn for the donkey figure. I would really like to work on a fall/winter wrap for myself but as a poor newly-wed, yarn money is hard to come by. Perhaps I will chance upon some clearance yarn which suits me and my oh-so-limited spending budget.

Joseph and Baby Jesus

So I haven't posted in awhile, but two more figures are complete! I was going to start working on the donkey but then I realized I don't have the right color yarn...so I'm going to have scrounge through my closet to find something acceptable. Not really in a knitting mood lately, which does not bode well for finishing this nativity before Thanksgiving. Will post photos later, but they came out very well.

Mary, Mother of Christ

Mary is finished! Only took me 4-6 hours but she came out lovely, and much more put together than I expected. When I was only about halfway through, she would have looked really cute as just a regular doll(which gave me some other good ideas). Regretfully, I have at least two more figures as well as an animal to do before this will look anything like a nativity but with this done I feel more inspired to finish the rest.

 

First of Many Unintended Projects...

There is no better way to introduce myself than to jump right in and welcome you to my tangled up life, full of crazy knitting and random projects. So here I am, making a Nativity Set, when it is only July! I can't help myself when I see such adorable patterns...they just scream "Make Me!" 


I think if I took all the time I spend looking up and making ridiculous projects, I might actually be able to accomplish something noteworthy...but the likelihood of that seems slim. Anyways, you're not here to pass judgment on how scatterbrained I am(but then again perhaps you are) but you can't say that I did not give you fair warning. Welcome! Please enjoy any projects, patterns, or other nonsense I may post here and feel free to comment or make suggestions. 


...Oh, and more updates to come on the Nativity Set...