Christmas Knits Recap

It's inevitable.  I start knitting holiday gift items in about mid-October, only to realize at the beginning of December that I haven't budgeted enough time to achieve my grand plans, especially when those plans include five pairs of socks.  When a good portion of your family lives across the country, (and you don't want to have to sell a kidney to pay for rush shipping) your available knitting time is even shorter.  (Nevermind that whole having a full-time job and a part-time one thing, either.)

I'm fortunate to have a family that is "handknit worthy", so I try not to leave anyone out, while also maintaining a tenuous hold on my sanity during an already-nutty time of year.  

I finished these gloves for one of my sisters-in-law just before Thanksgiving, and thought I was in good shape.

Pattern: Ringwood gloves, Knitty Fall 2010
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed (DK, though it's really more of a sport weight) in Watery, just over one ball


Then I got to work on a pair of socks for my other sister-in-law, using a ridiculously beautiful colorway, Madelinetosh Byzantine:

 
Pattern: Meg's Artichoke socks
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Byzantine


The pattern is well-written and easy to memorize but has enough variation to stave off boredom.  And did I mention that the yarn is GORGEOUS?  Because it bears repeating.

At this point in my gift-knitting, I was sitting pretty.  I'd made a big dent in a Different Lines shawl for my mom, using four different colors of Tosh Merino Light (an addict? Moi?! Yeah.) including warm mushroom, mulled wine, thunderstorm, and celadon.  I called it mushrooms and wine in a celadon thunderstorm.  No, I didn't.   I also knitted up a pair of cabled log cabin socks for my dad in a worsted superwash.  I don't have pictures of either of those, because I got a wee bit busy after that.

It all started with a Thanksgiving day phone call in which my sweet SIL casually dropped that my youngest nephew and brother-in-law were really jealous of the hand-knit socks I'd made for year a few years back, and if it wasn't too much trouble, they'd each like a pair of their own for Christmas.

Of course I jumped at this opportunity, since I would much rather be at home, on my couch, with a pot of tea and an audiobook or re-watching episodes of Doctor Who than out at the shops, braving holiday traffic. What did I do?  Triage:

Introducing: Almanzo!  He may not look like much, but he does the trick.  These are the pair I knit in Madelinetosh (you were expecting something else?) Tosh Merino Light in Teddy Bear, for my brother-in-law, because despite his rugged exterior, he's a total sweetheart. (Don't tell I'm I said that.)   The waffle-weave pattern is hard-wearing, but also enough to keep the knitter from dying of boredom.  I made a nearly-identical pair in Tosh Merino Light (it's a sickness. Don't judge.) in Thunderstorm for my nephew, except I mixed it up with a 1 x 1 twisted rib cuff, as I like to live dangerously.  I'm writing up the pattern shortly and hope to post it as a New Year's Day freebie.

But wait, there's more!  My next-littlest nephew said that he'd like a toboggan, if I wouldn't mind. Hello regional differences.  I sat there for a moment thinking, "he wants me to knit him a sled?"  Dear Reader (hi Mom!), I even looked up "sled pattern" on Ravelry. That's when I said to my husband, "So, um...why do you think he wants a knitted sled?"   Suffice it to say that there was a lot of laughing (on his part. I see NO HUMOR IN THIS.) and then some swearing (on mine).  I have filed this in the knitting library in my mind: toboggan = stocking cap/beanie/watch cap.  OK then.  Here's the finished project, improvised from the same deranged heeeed, in a worsted superwash:

Of course, I couldn't stop there.  There was also the Norwegian Star Ear Flap cap (brilliant pattern, BTW) in Rowan Cashsoft Aran knitted up for my next-littlest nephew.  (And by next-littlest, I mean he's 20 years old.)  Took me right back to the days when I was a Rowan addict.  Ah, 2007!  And, not to be outdone, I also whipped up a pair of worsted weight socks (icy blue with heathered burgundy cuffs, heels, and toes) for my uncle's partner.  I finished weaving in the ends on those about 15 minutes before we loaded the car on Christmas Eve.

And with that, I threw down my knitting needles and had a well-earned glass of wine.  Currently, I've got Audrey in Unst in Tosh Sport (yeah yeah yeah) on the needles, which is as brilliant a pattern as you'd expect from Gudrun Johnston.  And I am scheming up my next original patterns.  Next year, I'll get an earlier start on gift knitting, but don't I always say that?  At any rate, 2011, you've been a crazy productive knitting year.  Bring on 2012!