FO Roundup

My friend's baby was baptized over the weekend, and as part of his gift, I made some knitted goodies. I'll warn you: what you are about to see is high on the cute-meter.

Pattern: My own, using a simple top down raglan calculator and measurements for a 1-2 year old.
Yarn: Leftovers! I ended up with not an inch to spare of any color, so I really think the knitting gods were looking out for me on this one. I used Knit Picks Swish Superwash in Charcoal, Dublin, Ocean and Capri Blue. The stripes were random and the buttons are little tractors from Joann's - they made the sweater!

Bill got me the book Itty Bitty Nursery for Christmas, and in it are the most adorable little pacifier clips. I knit up the elephant and froggie for this little boy. I wanted to keep the frog for myself - they are so cute! I bought the clips at Target. They took about 2 days to complete - lots of sewing and cutting, but well worth it. I used some Di Ve Zenith (which is very splitty but soft) and some leftovers from other projects. Another great stash buster.

I posted more pictures on Ravelry. I couldn't stop taking photos of these guys!

I know I promised WAY back to give reports on the Christmas scarves I knit this year. Well, here goes:

Pattern: One row handspun by the Yarn Harlot. I added a reversible cable to the center.
Yarn: Queensland Kathmandu Aran in hunter green, 4 skeins.

He likes it!

Pattern: Farrow Rib Scarf for my brother
Yarn: Patons Shetland Chunky Tweed, 3 balls in charcoal.

He's not smiling, but he likes it!

I know I also promised to tell you what all that red yarn is for. Well, I want to get some knitting on it started, but before I divulge the whole story, I can tell you it's a sweater (surprise) and it's in my Ravelry queue, if you really want to know. Starsky is almost finished (the collar is taking forever) and will debut in the next post.

'Twas the day before Christmas

And all through the house, not a knitter was stirring . . . not even me! Hello out there, dear readers. I apologize for going MIA for the whole month of December. I told you in my last post that we were starting a bathroom remodel. I am happy to say that the bulk of the work and messiness is over. We have 2 working (and beautifully tiled) showers and floors, 1 toilet and 1 sink all hooked up. A glitch with a large home improvement store that shall remained un-named (hey, it's the holidays) means that we still have to install the cabinets and countertop in my bathroom, but the house is clean from top to bottom otherwise and I am happy to be home!! I was living with my parents for 2 1/2 weeks, and Bill was at our house. Although we didn't decorate or do anything Christmas related at our house, we can't complain about a Christmas gift of new bathrooms!

I was very busy the past 3 weeks, but today is my first day where I could get out of bed and not rush out the door. I haven't done a lot of knitting in the past month, but here's what I've got.

Christmas gift #1: Bill's reversible cable scarf: Finished!

Christmas gift #2: My brother's farrow rib scarf: Finished!

That's all the holiday knitting I did for others. I'll write a proper FO post for these when I get some modeled shots on their recipients tomorrow.

I also finished up Fetching, knit with exactly 1 ball of Cashmerino Aran in color 25, without an inch to spare! These were my first dive into the hand accessory world, and I really enjoyed it. I'm going to try and make some gloves next. A HUGE thank you to Janet over at twistedknitter for giving me the yarn. Yes, she GAVE it to me. All I paid was shipping. Thank you, Janet!

Another blog reference I haven't mentioned is Claudia, who last month named me as a blogger who makes her smile!

I read so many blogs that is it hard to choose even a handful who specifically make me smile. Thank you, bloggers, for sharing your knitting woes and triumphs with us this past year. Every blog I read, I read because it makes me smile!

Here's the sole Christmas decoration in my house this year. Hope you all have a wonderful, blessed Christmas and all the best to you and yours.

Presents and new projects

Thanks for all the nice comments on Juno. I've worn it quite a bit and am pleased with how the Yorkshire Tweed is wearing (not much pilling yet). Here's what's been going on in my knitting world over the past few weeks. First, I told you I got some cool birthday gifts from Bill.

Has anyone seen or used these before? They look pretty cool. Here's a close up:

I haven't tried them out officially, as I'm not working on any projects with size 6 needles, but they do glow nicely in the dark!

See the glow?

This gift here took the cake, however. I don't know where he got it, but this swift is beautifully made and works great, as you can see.

For my WIPs, I've got quite a bit on the needles now, actually.

Fetching, using Cashmerino Aran. I've never knit a complete project on DPNs before. You know, I've used them to finish hats and stuff, but this is BIG for me. So far, so good. I'm not minding it too much.

I started another sweater: Starsky from knitty. I'm almost done the back.

This was a big disappointment for me. I got some Malabrigo in Olive for Christmas last year, and have been waiting to cast on for Wicked. I finally did, and I hate it! I'm alternating skeins of yarn of everything, but to me, this looks like army camouflage. I'm sad over it, partly because I've been so psyched up to start a project with Malabrigo. I think the green is nice, but there's too much dark color variations in it. Not sure what I'm going to do with the 5 skeins - this may go up on my Ravelry trade/sell page.

I've made progress on Bill's one row reversible cable scarf. This will be ready by Christmas. The only other Christmas knitting I'm doing is a scarf for my brother. I picked up some Patons Shetland Tweeds in charcoal to make him a manly scarf, too.

I also started Gretel. I am not liking working with DPNs on this one, so it will sit until I can buy a pair of size 5, 16" circulars.

Lastly, we are remodeling our bathrooms next week! Our house was built in the 50's, and we have the original tub and toilets, and possibly original tile (though we think it's more 70's tile). We are replacing the tile, toilets and tiling over the floors. New cabinets, mirrors and lighting, too.

Before: Bill's bathroom.

Bill's wallpaper. Giddee-up!

Before: My bathroom.

After pictures: stay tuned!

His & Hers Scarves

Wow, thank you so much for all the wonderful comments on the Cable Down Raglan. I am really flattered! Today's post is just a quick update to show you what I've been up to this week. I am actually wearing Bea right now as a type, but due to the much needed rain that finally arrived, photos haven't been taken. But, I will tease you all and say that this FO came out pretty great (given all the things that could have and did go wrong!).

At Stitches East, I splurged on a skein of Tilli Tomas Disco Lights. I have used this yarn before, in Sahara #1, and I used the Exotica in Sahara #2. I tried making my own beaded yarn with Ms. Marigold, but I realized that unless you can bead directly onto the yarn itself, carrying along a string of beads on thread is not easy (or really worth it, IMO).

Inspired by a modeled version at Stitches, I wanted to make a simple but pizzazzy (heh, is that a word?) thin scarf to throw around my neck on days when I need a little shine. A little panache, if you will. I tried several different stitch patterns, and I finally settled on this reversible cable stitch, inspired by It Ain't Plain, Jane! by Dorothy. It has a simple garter st border and cables that are similar to what I did in Something Blushy.

I also started a scarf for Bill using the Kathmandu Aran I got at Stitches. Inspired by the Harlot's One Row Handspun, this has a reversible cable in the center.

I'm sure most of you have seen the new Interweave Preview. I saw the cover Aran Cardigan at Stitches and must say, it looked really nice in person. I think this is going in the queue.

Juno is also progressing nicely. Just one sleeve, the rest of the collar, buttonbands and seaming to go!

Have a great weekend and stay tuned for Bea!