In His Steps

It's time to make some gifts for the baby nephew! He needs mittens, so naturally I cracked out the leftover yarn from his Gnome Knot hat and whipped these mittens up to match it. Edit: 3.18.18; He outgrew them! I had to make him another fast set !

I'm preparing for Christmas and wanted to make Spousal Unit something useful. I had him choose yarn he liked and then I whipped these green slippers up in a week, finishing them yesterday. They are very stretchy and warm, so I hope SU likes them!

I've been working on a scarf for Douglas for the last year and it's finally complete! It's a double-sided scarf with inspiration from another pattern but the runes were mapped out and charted by me personally. They are dwarven runes from Tolkein's works and I chose three words with particular meaning for Douglas. I switched to circular needles from straight needles because the straight ones were getting too heavy with the weight of the project. And here is the completed scarf ! It took some time because the middle section was very... well, boring. It was so boring. But the beginning and ending sections were a lot of fun and I can't wait to give this to Douglas for Christmas!

I made a hat! With baby Alistair in the family, I felt he needed some winter gear and knit him a hat! I think the Gnome Knot hat is just so cute and I hope it's big enough to fit him for some time!

I started this pair of socks back in January and I have finally finished them! These are my Dragon Socks . I decided to have some fun with colorwork, so I grabbed some Noro and some purple yarn and set to it! Top of the sock, working toe up. Bottom of the sock! This is the first sock completed and probably my best picture set to show off the color and contrast. It took me months to finish these due to the colorwork and I switched each sock which yarn was the base and which was the contrast. I really like how warm they are--perfect for winter and showing off!

I got contacted by one of my sisters-in-law about her son's Halloween costume. He really wants to be Newt Scamander for Halloween and she decided to commission me to knit him the Hufflepuff scarf Newt wears in the movies. I, of course, accepted the commission and got knitting! I just finished it, so I can't wait to get it to them when they are in town soon! I'm just happy I finished in time for the holiday as well as a visit so it won't be late! Here's the Ravelry link! Edit: I got pictures of the whole costume and my nephew Daniel looks so very good in it! This last one is my favorite!

So... At knit night I decided to play with an app on my phone and make Chynna and her friend look silly. She's so cute!

My ward asked me to share my knitting ability, so I ended up teaching this past weekend! I bought plenty of needles and cotton yarn since I was teaching a basic washcloth to start, since a scarf can be a bit too large of a first project in my estimation. I also brought some of my other projects and different fibers for them to look at and touch. This is the washcloth I started as I taught, though I mostly ended up kneeling on the floor in front of each of my students to help them out and remind them to relax. I mean, I know I hunch my shoulders, but I know they don't have to learn my bad habit. Edit: Finished the washcloth in September!

With my new nephew coming premature and early, I knit these washcloths quickly so his mother could have them. He's still in the NICU and we're hoping he does okay. I had to play a bit of yarn chicken on the second one, but I had enough yarn for two.

Ahhhh!!!  He came last night and is in the NICU and I need to knit some washcloths for his mom in a hurry!  Oh my goodness!

I don't have final pictures of this project on my new nephew yet since he's not out, but here are some progress photos of the vest I mentioned in the last post! I was learning the gauge here and it came out pretty good! The babies in Spousal Unit's family tend to be chunksters, so I wanted to make it big enough to be worn for awhile. And here is the final picture I took of the vest before I had put on the button over the left shoulder and knit the border on the collar and armholes. It was still a really fun pattern and I ended up gifting it to the mother without a liner, so I hope that goes okay. Here is the Ravelry link to the project!

So I haven't had any crafts to show because nothing is finished. I have four knitting projects on the needles (edit: three now, finished one enough that it's off the needles but needs some sewing and then blocking before fully complete). It's kind of driving me insane to have so many partially completed projects--I am not a process knitter, so not getting my finished project fix is maddening, and there's still the dreaded startitis I must face. I have a baby vest for my brother-and-sister-in-law's first child, and have yarn for several more new projects for this new arrival. However, I need to sew a cover on the interior to hide the loose strands of the colorwork that I didn't 'catch' as well as I had hoped I would, and then it will be blocking time. I have a pair of colorwork socks half-completed, meaning I finished one of them and haven't begun the second, but I don't count this as the dreaded 'second sock syndrome.' I put it down b...

This Christmas I decided to make a small toy for my friend Aubree and her son, Ollie. I've never made one of these before, so meet my first reversible toy . Final frog side. Final turtle side. Here you can see how it works.

Some time ago, I got some beautiful hand-dyed yarn from Camilla in an autumn pallet. I spent the longest time trying to figure out what to make with it and finally found a pattern I loved and knew who to make it for. For Christmas this year, I knit Camilla a colorwork hat with the yarn she gave me. The pattern is called Twining Vines and here's my link to the Ravelry post I made for it. I had to keep it secret until after the holidays to make sure she got it first. This was my in progress shot but I was already feeling happy and confident about it. The fun with these hats was that they were fast and lovely. And the finished item! I'm super proud of it and Camilla was very happy to receive it!

This scarf was particularly challenging. It was my first double-knit anything  and I had to translate a mitten pattern into a scarf pattern. Thankfully, Rosslyn likes short scarves! First bit of progress, learning the ropes and beginning to like what I'm seeing. Finished my first set of three Feegles, with the next set on the way. And this was after finishing the blank middle which felt like forever  even though it was shorter than the ends. And done, with fringe added! I finished this over Thanksgiving weekend. It's so lovely!

I can finally begin posting Christmas gifts! Though only once the recipient has seen/received them. Tara asked me to make her some classy mittens, something to wear when she wants to look nice, something more subtle than the ones I made her last year. Having plenty of black yarn, I was happy to oblige. I like the fun little leaf cabling on the backs of the mittens. But, they are pretty hard to take a good photo of. Tara does seem to highly approve of and enjoy them, so they are a success!