I ended up making up my own pattern for some fingerless gloves: (More details on my ravelry page here)
And she had told me she liked this hat pattern, so I was able to sneak in the Regina Hat as a surprise for her too:
I mailed them off this last week and I am happy to say she recieved them well! I love this pic she took of her in her matching set:
I love knitting for people who send pics of them/their kids/etc wearing the items!!!!
You can see my curly unraveled yarn. I think I've ripped out the yoke at least 4 times so far..... luckily OR unfortunately its not just a "user error", as other knitters on ravelry have said they've struggled too! Oops. Well my current plans are to make up some basic raglan decreasing and see if that works... OR rip it out a little bit more to separate the sleeves and body again, and then try one more time to follow the pattern. Argh! I'm kind of mad at it right now but I feel bad I might not finish it anytime soon. We will see.
In non-failure related news, when I was procrastinating the sweater in December, I decided I wanted to knit little stockings for random gifts. I searched for an "ornament" sized pattern, and started with this one: Mini Stocking Ornament
It came out a little big, so i ended up sticking a subway giftcard inside and giving it to my brother for christmas :) I think he was actually happy to get the stocking (as well as the card) seeing as he mentioned not having any christmas decor for his house!
In my second test, I went with this pattern: Mini Holiday Stockings (Seen here next to the first stocking I made!)
These came out more to the size that I wanted! On all of the stockings I made I kind of fudged the heel to follow more of a traditional sock flap heel (from some basic instructions that Cynthia gave me once upon a time!). I think they turned out okay. I made an additional green and white one, and then another red and white one. I gave them to various friends/family. I like these and I might have to make a bunch more for next christmas. So if you are my friend or related to me, please forget all about this post by next December so you can be surprised. Ha!
For one of Norah's little friends I whipped out these Sucky Thumb Mitts. You may recognize the pattern, I used it to make Norah's halloween costume mitts!
My husband had asked me if I had time to make something he could give to his secret santa at work for their "end of the week" gift. I thought, sure! Luckily I was able to whip out some Evangeline gloves with plenty of time to spare. I hope his coworker likes them! (Sorry no finished pic... here's one of it in progress!)
OK This post is long enough for now!!!! I have a few more little things to catchup on. My baby boy is going to be making his arrival sooner than later, so my blogging will probably be even more pathetic than usual after that... but I will try and cram in as much as I can in the next few weeks!!!
In other news, I am blocking a wee cardi for my friend's little boy. This time (first one I made see here) I did the tapered sleeves instead of the straight ones, as I think it will be better to stay close to little newborn arms. I still need to get buttons but here is a progress pic from when I was still knitting it:
Pattern: Puerperium Cardigan
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist - Baby Twist
Currently on the needles is a pair of fingerless gloves for my friend Natalie. She sent an amazing package in the mail which contained not only YARN, but hot chocolate mixes AND homemade (yes!) marshmallows. YUM!!!! In exchange all I "have" to do is knit the yarn up into things. The yarn is super amazing, so it's really just like one big treat for me!!!!
Yarn: Shepherd's Wool (Stonehedge Fiber Mill) - worsted weight
It's super springy and cushy for 100% wool! Plus when I was winding it up it DIDN'T shed little bits of fuzz like a lot of wool has in the past. I'm a big fan of this stuff! :) As for the glove pattern, she had sent me a photo of some gloves she had seen in a store that she liked. Working roughly from that, I am really just winging it with my own pattern. (scary!) Here is what I came up with:
I borrowed the amazing stitch pattern from this hat: Claudia Hat
The rest is cobbled together and I am hoping they will suit her tastes!!!! I will keep you posted to see if I can make the 2nd glove the same size/pattern. LOL. (I took notes but it's still hard!) I might also have some ideas for the rest of the yarn (seeing as I am going to have plenty leftover!).
Last and also least, I finally gave it up and frogged that sweater I had started for Norah. It just wasn't what I wanted, and I'd much rather make something we will both enjoy wearing and using. Oh well!
Back before it was Halloween (I need to keep up on this blog better!) I was working on my daughter's costume. We had these gorgeous monarch butterfly wings that she has gotten from my MIL sometime last year, so I thought a butterfly would be an easy enough costume! We already had black sweatpants, and I bought a plain black long sleeve tshirt. Oh and I found some cute antennae on sale - originally meant for a bumble bee, but the yellowish orange color worked well with her wings!
In that photo she is not wearing the part of her costume that I knit.... fingerless mittens! I assumed Halloween would be cold and dreary (and of course halloween night was GROSS out), so I busted out some wool in the closest matching shade I could find and made these:
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool (and some black scrap wool of some sort I had lying around for the hearts)
Pattern: Sucky Thumb Mitts
Mods: CO 26 sts. Followed directions except did K12 instead of K15 and left out a few rows of ribbing at beginning and end. Original pattern was too loose for my girl's hands with my gauge!
Since Halloween night lived up to its weather expectations, we added a winter coat and those mittens to her ensemble for trick-or-treating. Here she is all ready to head out into the drizzle.
I think we did 5 houses... it was enough for mom and dad! :-) We did get a few comments on the mittens, which was really fun for me to hear. Hooray for successful last minute costume knitting!
