A Gift

My long time girlfriend was having a party for her birthday which I was going to miss due to being out of town.  So, instead of my presence I decided to knit her a present to celebrate her special day.  I sent it off in the post today even though she only lives about 20 minutes from me because we both LOVE getting packages in the mail.  We don't always exchange gifts, but sometimes the timing works out and I can knit something special for her.  I even shopped my stash for this one, Madelinetosh tosh dk, and COMPLETELY used up the yarn only having a few snipped off scraps leftover.  Yay!  I adore using up all my yarn on a project.  Leftover yarn seems sad and burdensome to me; it wants to "be" something, but it's never enough yardage.  

This is the pattern I chose for the hat which I followed to the "T" only adding a pompom at the end.  It turned out more beanie than slouchy as the pattern described, but I think that will fit Emily better anyway.  I used this fun free pompom maker for the pompom which you can simply download and cut out.  It works surprisingly well albeit a bit fussy.  The mitts I knit loosely based on this pattern and you can see my notes as to the changes here.  The combo is pleasing to me, but with one catch - if it's cold enough to wear the hat, you won't likely wear just fingerless mitts and if it's warm enough for the mitts you won't likely need to wear the hat.  Hmm... To solve this dilemma I purchased these stretchy gloves (which are also conductive so she can use her i phone with them on) to wear with the mitts on top of them to make them pretty.  Sorry no photo of this combo, as the gloves arrived in the mail after it was too dark for picture taking.

Now, I'm off to Washington DC for 3 nights and 3 days to spend with another longtime friend.  She is single with no children so it's an all girl, all grown up weekend and I couldn't be more excited!  I'm bringing my souffle dish in my carry-on bag along with truffles, tea and knitting - all the necessities in life ;) 

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along and Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On.

Leftovers - An I-Cord Necklace

Left over yarn drives me nuts.  I love using up every little bit on a project, but rarely does this happen.  Then, what do I do with the leftovers?  The little itty bitty bits go into making pillow stuffing like I mention here and the longer yarn scraps I use to continue my snail like progress on my I-Cord Rug, but this time I thought of another I-Cord idea - a necklace.  I usually don't wear necklaces because the weight pulls on my neck and gives me a headache, but a knitted necklace weighs almost nothing so I gave it a try.   

Here are the results below.

Thanks to Sam's pumpkin for modeling.

I knit all my leftover bulky weight yarn from my cowl and mitts into a long 3 stitch i-cord.  Then, I wrapped all three loops with a piece of plant dyed felt in a light orange also a left over but from toy making.  Finally, I snugly wrapped some sport weight yarn in dark orange and brown around the felt.  All this wrapping keeps the loops in a fixed position and gives a nice color contrast as well as a focal point to the necklace. 

   

Remember from this last post how I was debating on whether or not to embroider the backs of the mitts?  Well, I decided to stitch some very simple randomly placed orange flowers with brown french knot centers to coordinate with my new necklace.  What do you think?  I am really quite pleased with the overall look even if it limits their wear-ability to certain colored clothing.  

Orange, turquoise and brown just really jibe I think.

Here they are together.  Honestly, I like them both better than the cowl which was my original intention with this yarn.  Funny how limits, like short yardage, really can inspire your creativity.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm and Craft On.

Stashbusting - A Cowl and Mitts for ME!

I've been knitting a lot for my etsy shop lately and feeling like all my personal projects are backing up and stalling out.  That afghan I was knitting on earlier in the week has already been put aside to make some knitted chickens for the shop (I'll post on them later) as they are small and easy to finish.  All my other knitting seems to be big and long in process so I decided to stash bust a few bulky skeins from Luna Grey Fiber Arts.  Something quick and easy seemed just the thing to give me a sense of accomplishment and some much needed forward movement.  Below is what I came up with a simple loosely knit ribbed cowl and some matching fingerless mitts.

The cowl was knit with size 13 needles and took me a mere 2 hours last night to knit.  And for the record, I am a slow to average knitter so this was really fast for me.  As you can see I already have it blocking and this morning I knit up one of a pair of fingerless mitts.  Hopefully this afternoon I will finish the other of the pair and that will be two skeins out of my yarn stash knit into useful items.  I will still have some leftover yarn, which drives me nuts by the by, but maybe I'll knit some kind of bracelet/cuff  just to use it up.  What do you think about doing some embroidery on the backs of the mitts?  I was thinking an orange flower/s might be fun as almost everything in my wardrobe (if you can call my collection of clothes that) is solid colored, but then it might also limit their wear-ability.  Any thoughts?

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday on a Saturday.

Gratitude Friday and Gift Giving - Hat and Mitts 2

How's your week going?  I was in a bit of a funk for a good part of my week, but managed to turn it around by the end.  What caused this funk eludes me, my mother claims it was the solar flares, my friend the full moon, my husband claims it was my sore throat, but all I really care about is that it has lifted.  So, what am I grateful for this week?  Take a look.

1. Craft Night with my homeschooling mom friends.  It only occurs once a month as schedules are so busy, but it's worth the wait.  

2. The book The Yarn Harlot: the secret life of a knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.  I haven't had such a good laugh in a long time.  Reading about projects gone awry, works in progress and endless amounts of yarn - what's not to love?

3.  Packages in the mail.  I LOVE getting mail and a package is the best.  The anticipation, the arrival, the moment of opening it all thrills me to no end.  Of course, the packages are usually yarn and you can guess how I feel about that.

My gift giving this week was another hat and fingerless mitts set knit in Malabrigo yarn.  The hat pattern is aptly called Who? and is free on Ravelry.  It was a fun, fast and clever knit.  I went to my local fabric store to get buttons for the eyes and was so disappointed by the lack of selection.  White was pretty much my only option in the size I needed.  Are people just not sewing anymore?  Or maybe it's another sign of people doing their shopping online? Oh well, I think it still came out looking sharp.  

The mitts pattern I used is again the 75 Yard Malabrigo Fingerless Mitts.  It's just such a solid pattern and being able to squeak out 2 gifts from one skein is fabulous if you ask me.  The colorway is called Vermillion and it's a very pretty soft, almost pinkish, red.

The recipient of these gifts was my friend Denise.  Again, I choose the receiver by the color yarn I was using and since Denise loves red they were destined to be hers.

Who would you love to give a gift to for no particular reason?

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Gratitude Friday and Gift Giving - Hat and Mitts

It's easy to get caught up in our problems and worries as life rushes past us.  To balance this out I like to "count my blessings" as my mother used to say to me as a child.  I now call it my gratitude list, but call it what you want.  So, I'd like to share with you the things I am grateful for this week:

1. My son finding joy and awe in a thunderstorm even when it woke us up at 5:45 a.m.

2. My knitting as it gives me a focus while calming me.

3. My mother (who lives with us) for helping out more on a week when I didn't feel so well.

One of the items that is always on my list is my friends and how they stand by me with my erratic communication skills and tendency towards holing up in my house (with knitting of course.)  They pull me out of my shell and keep me connected to the world which I so need.  To let them know how much I care I like to give gifts.  I don't usually plan it, but for instance I'll have some yarn left over from a project and think "this would make a great coffee cup holder, or fingerless mitts etc." and the color usually directs me to who it should go to.  

This week I gave a Christmas in July gift to my friend Kelly who is also my son's Daycare Provider.  I had almost a full skein of Malabrigo yarn left after making my Elizabeth Zimmermann's Mobius Vest.  The color is called Sunset and I knew right away it was perfect for Kelly.  The hat pattern I chose was Lotus and what a fun quick knit it was to make, but afterwards I still had a fair amount of yarn left.  Hmm...what to do?  Pull out my 75 Yards Malabrigo Fingerless Mitts pattern that's what.  I just made it with less then 12 inches left of yarn upon completion!  Oh how I LOVE using up every little bit of yarn!  Both knitting patterns are free by the way.  Here's how they came out:

My mother modeled that hat with the restriction of not showing her face.  Oh well, she is a sport to stop what she was doing so I could take a photo before I gave them to Kelly.  The hat just covers the tops of the ears.  I did 4 repeats of the pattern, but maybe could have done five.  I made a mistake that corrected itself over a few rows, but it's hard even for me to pick out so I think it's o.k.  The mitts came out just fine as predicted.  When I gave them to Kelly the first words out of her mouth was "I love the color!" which made me smile all the more.  What fun it is to give gifts for no particular reason!  I highly recommend it.  

What is it you are grateful for this week?