Purple santa pimpin'

Last night, Mr. C told me that today was wear a Santa Hat Day at school. I said great and moved on.

Then, as I perused the recent post on CRAFTSTER, I found a perfect knit santa hat that proclaimed its only taking 2 hours or less. Jokingly I offered to whip one out and deliver it to school later in the morning. He seriously accepted. Luckily, the pattern writer's proclaimation (click there for the original blog entry and pattern.) was accurate and it took me just under two hours, even in spite of my pattern adjustments.

The adjustments that I made for my dear, handsome man's big head was to increase the stitch count to 62 from 44; I also decided to do my decreases differently, esp. since I was on circ US11 instead of straights, by adding a mirrored decrease section in the middle of each round. I then achieved an equalateral triangle rather than the original's right triangle. I am just happy that he asked for a knitted good. There is a first time for all things.

I am planning to quickly stitch another with a red brim and black body for my musical bro, as I think that it will serve him well next year at gigs. I'll show you in a couple of hours. ;)

QUick QUick

Tis the season for teacher gifts. I do not know much about the two woman who have the pleasure of my son in their class this year. I made his main teach some potholders (to be seen here).
The little I know about her is that she likes to teach and to cook.

As for the other teacher, I have not even seen her. So, generic random gift it is.

There is a scarf pattern that has been a great hit at the shop. It comes from the makers of one of my very favorite yarns ever - Misti Alpaca. I am speaking of their Misti Chunky Ribs and Ruffles Scarf. We have been giving out a print out with purchase of the yarn and nearly everyone who buys a ball is back the next day wanting more. Did I mention that it only takes ONE ball? In my moment of project need, I decided to see what all the fun was about. It took me about an hour and a half to two hours and voila! The pattern calls for US13. The shop sample was knit on US15 in hopes of stretching the yarn. I made this one on US17 in further hopes of even more bang for the knit. It didn't help much. Shoulda stuck with the 15's.

I had this ball in my stash hiding out with two others, brown and tan. I am going to whip out the tan for my SIL for xmas and the brown for me (all 3 had been planned to be a big fat long ways scarf/shawl).

A sampling of holiday knitting

Wow, I am getting a lot traffic here when I had hoped to generate some traffic for my new sewing blog (and maybe my new foodie blog).

So,since you are coming, I thought that I should give you something new to look at.

Here is a sampling of some recently FO's.

These are my first completed pair of socks. I thought that I was procrastinating on the 4 or 5 pairs that I already had on the needles because I was dreading the heel and heel turn. However, it turns out after abreviating the cuff, that I love making heels and turning heels and do not love making the cuffs. I maybe a a confirmed ankle sock knitter. The recipient of these socks is my son, who I think will appreciate both my work and the thrill cool socks. (He happily wears Xmas socks in July just because it tickles him.) They are knit in Crystal Palace Maizy on US 2.5.

This holiday season is our first together as a new family and I wanted to make sure that we had a matching set of stockings. I made up the pattern and had not originally imagined it with such a short foot (the heel decreases pretty much lead right into the toe decreases). In the end, I really like the short foot which makes it look a bit cartoony or like a teddy bear foot. It was a quick knit, taking about a day's worth of work. I need to whip out two more though (in a big fat hurry). The yarn is a Lamb's Pride Worsted new color set from Brown Sheep - I think that they are calling these landscapes. The skeins range in color from dark to light. I love their yarn so much already with their rich saturated colors, but this dye job set is just that much better.

Then comes another Smonster, in Lamb's Pride Bulky on US9. The pair was knit for an impromtu craft fair at the end of Nov. to accompany the original two that never sold. The good news is that one of the originals sold, but not much else did. Bummer. Luckily, there was no fee to have a booth. All that was lost was a night's sleep and the money invested to whip up some more wrist warmers.

Hopefully, everyone is having lots of needling succes this holiday season. I have a ton of both knitting and sewing to complete this week, much like every year. I'll share more when more is finished.