The Christmas Sewing Round -Up

... and just in time for the End of Year Round-Up!

There hasn't been a lot of sewing this year, probably because my friend had my sewing machine for the entirety of 2008. I didn't mean for that to happen and neither did she but sometimes we just get lazy. I'd planned sewing projects, washed and ironed the fabrics but nothing happened until two days before I flew home for Christmas. First up were gifts for my lab's Secret Santa, which now I think about it was half-sewn half-knitted, but bear with me that it falls into my arbitrary two-post Christmas round-up thing, m-kay?!

My giftee was my lab manager, Jeff, who runs the lab while fixing all that is broken with general good humor, and also ran a marathon in five seconds flat this fall. This left him with an ailing foot that he has been heat treating ever since, hence - rice heat pack! Inside is a sealed cotton pouch filled with arborio rice (because it was all I had not because I thought he could make a risotto when he's done with it), and the outside is recycled wool felt (green on top, red on bottom) edged with vintage trim. I microwaved it for 30s and it got hot so I guess it's a winner :o) The second gift was also for Jeff, but the Jeff who cycles into work everyday with a dodgy foot in snow, in rain, in any post-apocalyptic weather scenario you can imagine. So I made him these:

... bike helmet earmuffs! (Made with less than half a ball of Cascade 220 superwash, no real mods on the pattern.)

Finally, the last sewing project had been a bee in my bonnet for a quite a while and I was finally spurred on to give it a go when my sister told me she had redecorated her living room in black and red. And really, every newly decorated living room needs a couple of log cabin cushions, right? A flurry of cutting and sewing and ironing and I had two of these!

I swear I ironed them but the crinkles just wouldn't come out. Never mind, I think they liked them!

There is one black and one white (because of gross underestimation of how much backing fabric I would actually need, and because this was all made from stash fabric), with a strip of patchwork along the back edge. They aren't bad for my first attempt but I hope they don't love them too hard or they might disintegrate!

The Christmas Knitting Round-Up

So now the big day is over I can finally reveal the other gifts I made. Yes there was more flying off the needles than just a couple of gnomes...

For my sister I made a matching set of gloves and a neckwarmer, matching in the sense that they were made out of the same yarn and followed the same cable-theme rather than that they were matchy-matchy.

Pattern: Chevalier Mitts by tikru (rav)
Yarn: 1 ball (plus a smidge) of Filatura Lanarota Chaco in Purple Tweed (513) on US6/4mm needles.

I modified the pattern slightly to make these flip-top mittens as per my sister's request. On the fourth row after the last thumb gusset decreases on the palm side only: K4 (P2 K2)repeat to last 4st K4 for 4 rows. Next row K4, cast off the ribbed section, K4. On the next row K4, cast on the same # st you just cast off, K4. 4 rows of K4 (P2 K2)repeat K4, then switch back to stockinette. Keep knitting the top of the mitten as per the cable chart while you are doing this, obviously!

Pattern: Celtic Cable Neckwarmer by Lindsay Henricks (rav)
Yarn: Just less than 1 ball of the same purple tweed on US8/5mm.

The red buttons came from Tender Buttons while the little pearl buttons I added on the inside for stability came from the stash.

My sister's verdict? "(Some lady I don't know) from the train is going to be well jealous", and "They're not itchy at all!" A job well done :o)

I'll show some Christmas inspired fabric escapades next time my dog lets me off the couch...

Getting Festive!

Orange Butter Cookies with candied peel.

Chocolate Truffles with cocoa...

... and peppermint.

And of course, Mince Pies!

Sit 'n' Knit Holiday Party (Or the parentheses Hello! post)

Immediately after the Knit.1 party I put my goodie bag to good use and cast on for my Sit 'n' Knit Christmas party exchange gift. Although the yarn was luscious (Hello Tahki Torino, you are fabulous!) the yardage was short, but never fear... Ravelry is here!


Pattern: Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves
Yarn: Tahki Yarns Torino, 1 ball in Pink (124)

I think Miukat liked them :o)

The party was a lot of fun (Hello open bar and fried food!), Anne-Marie is amazing. Just look at the cookies she made....


Since a day before the party all knitting has ground to a halt due to some unforseen back issues (Hello tonically contracted trapezoid, could you give me a freakin' break please?) I've rested up for almost a week and chewed on a hell of a lot of Aleve, and now my hands are twitching with pent up energy. I have a couple of quick knits I need to bust out before Sunday for the lab secret santa and then I'll get back to the schlumpy hat mach 2. And maybe then I'll try to design a sock over the Christmas break, and sew something, and bake and, and, and....

Knit.1 Magazine release party

I really don't know how I get on so many mailing list. Perhaps it's because of my past life as an online sweepstaker, perhaps it's because when offered something shiny in return for my email address you know I'm going to take the shiny, or maybe it's because I'm so wonderfully fabulous that people just can't not invite me to things. I'm guessing in this case it was the shiny's fault.

A while ago I got an e-mail invitation to Knit.1's Fall/Winter 2008 release party which took place last night at The Point, NYC. I've never been to one of these things before but it was interesting and fun and well, I got to out-camera everyone which is always nice.

The editors, Faith (l) and Tanis (r) were sweet and approachable, and it was interesting to hear about the thought processes that go into producing the magazine. This is a particularly fun edition since the first story is all about bloggers and as I'm sure most of you in the bloggysphere know, it contains patterns by several knit-bloggers. I might dispute a little the "most influential" part of the story but whatever, it's fun to see some familiar faces in print.

After the informal talk and Q&A session we were let loose to molest the samples...

... and try them on....

... and to talk to the designers (on the left is Kathy Merrick, designer of babette and the crocheted blanket in this issue of Knit.1).

All in all it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours and there was also the perk of cupcakes and a rather nice goodie bag. One of the skeins of yarn inside has already been knitted up into my new gift for Sit n Knit, I think I'm going to hang on to the Schlumpy Hat for a while until I get a chance to knit it again in the new yarn I bought last night :)

When is a cowl not a cowl?

I was casting around ravelry on Monday night looking for a pattern for the Sit n Knit New York gift exchange. I'd had a cowl in my queue for a while and thought I'd give it a whirl, except in my yarn it looked hideous. Never fear, I thought, I'll rip out back to the ribbing sub in another lace stitch and all will be good. And it was... until I realised that what I was knitting was more slouchy beret than neckwarmer. A few minutes of hesitation was followed by some nifty decreasing, and half an hour later I had what I'm affectionately calling my Schlumpy Hat.

I'm thinking of reknitting this and tweaking the numbers a little and maybe, just maybe releasing my first pattern into the wild. Whadduthink? It's not like there aren't a million other Schlumpy hats out there but this one would be mine.

Gn-one gn-last gn-ome

One last tweak...

... and gnome number three is done! I had fun with the styling of this one. As soon as he was all sewed up it dawned on me that he really, really needed a mustache. A couple of quick twists of fluff later...

SANTA!!