A Few Christmas Gifts

Happy 2009!! (And bad news if like me you never got around to acquiring 2000, 2001, 2002.....2009 comedy glasses. You've missed your chance! I've just realised that next year - the '00' is gone - 2010 just doesn't work for novelty glasses.)

I hope the New Year is a great one for all of you. My only resolution is to make the most of this temporary retirement. It's a great gift and I mustn't let myself forget that. (Or forget that it is TEMPORARY.)(I'll need to go back to real life at some point.)

After I got back from Canada I got to do Christmas all over again in London. As you know we kicked the festivities off here with the Gingerbread House. Unfortunately shortly after that I came down with a cold which wiped me out for a days and lasted until after Christmas day. Thanks to the wonder of Day Nurse/Night Nurse drugs I didn't have to abandon all the fun, but I did have to pace myself!

The first gift I knit was a whim. When the cold was at its worst I didn't feel like knitting at all(!) and as I started to improve I seemed to have a strange knitting craving. That's the only way I can describe it - a craving. I had no plans to make a hat, I didn't see any immediate use for a hat (I don't wear them) but the only thing I wanted to knit was a hat.

Luckily, I had just received the final shipment of my Lucky Lurker yarn from Duet Sock Yarn and with it was a slouchy hat pattern. Hurrah!

I satisfied my craving by casting on for the hat and a few hours later had a cute little hat that I decided would make a fine gift for Gorgeous Goddaughter Genevieve. It was a good choice. She put the hat on immediately after I gave it to her and has reportedly been wearing it pretty much constantly since.

I love Duet Sock Yarn - the base yarn is lovely and the colours are always amazing. The yarn club is a nice treat, and always includes interesting patterns and great treats.

With my weird knitting craving out of the way I was able to begin work on the two gifts I had planned. Starting with a Kim Hargreaves mini poncho thing-y - Aimee from Thrown Together. I modified the pattern quite a bit beginning with a yarn substitution - doubled KidSilk Night instead of KidSilk Aura. I did this because the KSN was what I had in stash -- but I'd recommend it as a great way to cut the cost of the project! I used about 3 skeins of KSN rather than the 5 skeins of KidSilk Aura called for.


It's a reasonably quick project, and a good thing to work on while watching DVDs - in this case the first season of Lark Rise to Candleford. I missed this last year when it was on. It is perfect comfort viewing and I can see why it was very popular on Sunday nights. Not much happens but it's lovely to watch and very more-ish even if the stories do begin to blur together.

When it was finished I decided to make a flower accessory to finish it off - and I'm quite pleased with what I came up with. It's amazing what a bit of scrap yarn, a crochet hook and a few beads can become.

Gen loves it - although it's fair to say she was a bit perplexed by what the tube was when she first opened it! It definitely improves on wearing.

For Caroline I wanted to make something with some of the lovely Posh Yarn cashmere I accumulated late last year. I picked out a gorgeous warm pumpkin coloured aran yarn and began looking for the perfect pattern. I started and frogged about 4 different patterns before settling on this design which I remembered from Knitting New Scarves. I didn't use the pattern, just cast 25 stitches on to 8mm needles, knit in garter stitch until it was a pleasing size (36 rows) and then on the next row cast off 12 stitches from one end and cast on 12 stitches on the other. I repeated that until I ran out of yarn.

The scarf is about 6 1/2 ft long and more importantly super soft and warm. She seemed very pleased with it and I've seen her wearing it a few times since so I'll take it as a success.

I've got one more finished project from 2008 to share with you which I'll do in my next post. Then it's back to real time blogging!