Knitting in a Holidaze

My dad noted that I hadn't been posting a lot lately. And this is true. I have been busy with work and I have also been working on Christmas knitting gifts so I haven't wanted to spill the beans (not that any of the recipients read my blog). Now I can tell a little bit because I have given one knitted gift already, to my friend Stacey. She runs, and I thought this would be nice on cold days:

I used the Braided Ear Warmer pattern in Rowan Lima and it knitted up pretty fast on the metro and home after work. It is super soft and feels like it will keep her ears nice and toasty. I was worried that the cables wouldn't show up but they ended up much more defined than I thought.

Another gift I just finished and can share here is the Zelda Cloche from the most recent KnitScene magazine which I made for my husband's aunt using Karabella Soft Tweed. I loved the colors used for the hat in the magazine and the model totally worked it! I felt like my aunt-in-law would like something a bit more neutral, however, so I used a brown color for the contrast stripes. I absolutely love this yarn. I have several skeins of it hanging about and I want to make a Turn a Square hat in it for my husband, but the way my holiday knitting is going, I think this is going to be a 2012 project.

So here is the cloche. I will be replacing the button for a toggle button because I don't like the way this button looks. I was just curious to see how the loop worked.

Perfect Drive

Today my husband and I went clay pigeon shooting. It wasn't really my thing. I think I would be much better with a handgun (he disagrees, because he is scared) but it was fun to learn how to do and the weather was beautiful as were the surroundings. On the way back home my husband drove and I tinked the baby sweater I was making and re-cast on in a smaller size because another friend is due soon (and the originally intended baby has already been made to wait this long so what's a little longer) and I had made some sort of mistake I couldn't figure out on an earlier row.

One thing I found out (besides the fact that knitting while being driven around is wonderful) is that things are much easier the second time around and you also remember them a little bit. I remember when I was knitting my first sock, wondering what in the world was I doing, what would this look like, slipping and knitting and picking up stitches. I didn't know what would come next and each step seemed so bizarre. Now on my second sock, not only do I remember most of what needs to be done but it is so much easier knowing how it is supposed to turn out. Same with the sweater- I know how to do the seed stitch edging now, and when and where and how to make the buttonhole and when to switch to stockinette. I feel so validated and proud of my little brain for retaining this information.

Anyway, when I got home I began work on finishing a hat for my husband. He picked out the yarn himself from Rosie's Yarn Cellar which we visited when we went to Philadelphia. It is Rowan Lima, which is a baby alpaca, merino and wool blend and it is fuzzy and fun. It is finished and while the sizing is a bit off unique, we have made it fit, so basically it's perfect.