More Christmas Gifts

A lot of posts all at once, yessir. That's what I'm up to... mostly because I have been working ever so hard on my knitting and the like that I haven't had time to blog... and now I do. :)

Right, so my youngest sister was asking for an eternity scarf and a redo of her legwarmers (from Love to Knit) in basic black. (The legwarmers thing is a terrible story - when I was JUST learning how to knit, I made her a pair of legwarmers in white and pink, tres cute. However, I brought her with me to the store to pick out yarn. I didn't know the first thing about knitting and how important the yarn you select is for the project, etc. Well, the first pair of legwarmers are absolute crap. *sigh*.)

Legwarmers - in basic black - stylish.

Anyhow, so a friend of mine was doing a cute neck warmer / infinity scarf thing that she'd found on Pickles and I LOVED the pattern, but I wanted a longer, more dangly form of infinity scarf, so I adjusted until I had a pattern that was more suited to my project, which is as follows:

Scarf detail

Using a bulky yarn (5) and US size 11 (8 mm) needles

co 23 using the provisional cast on method
(RS) Row 1: k2, yo *sl1, k2, psso both knit stitches, yo* Rep from * to * until last 3 sts, ssk, k1
(WS) Row 2: k2, p to last 2 sts, k2

Rep 2 rows until desired length is reached ending on RS row.
Graft the live stitches on the ends together.

WOO!

The scarf looks really nice on.  YAY!

And if you're wondering what's up with all my headless models... that's the only way they'd model for me... if I didn't include their heads. :)

Merry Christmas with Joie de Vivre!

So, yet again, I decided this year it was a good idea to try to make all the Christmas gifts I was giving... well, at least those for my mom and sisters. This always seems like a good idea until two weeks before Christmas and I still have a project that I haven't even started. woops. Anyhow, this year, I actually pulled it off without a mad dash on Christmas Eve.

Anyhow, so what did I accomplish this Christmas? Well, for mom... I made a lovely sapphire blue sweater / cardigan. The pattern is Joie de Vivre from the book Sensual Knits... and I must say I find the sizing to be rather small. I used Patons Silk Bamboo yarn, which didn't quite give me the right gauge, but it was awfully close. AND... then I knit a LARGE... for my mom... who is a stick. I started and ripped it out because there was no way it was the right size, and then I started and ripped it out again, and then I decided it was going to have to be a large. BUT... eventually it came out right-ish.

I'm not fully convinced that this is the nicest sweater, but I tried really hard to get it right and the pattern is beautiful. Anyhow, my issues: 1. the sizing. Either the yarn I used is very very much the wrong yarn to use or my gauge is too tight. (I knit a swatch, it was darn close). 2. the ribbing! Knitting this up in one piece is TRES COOL! EXCEPT when it comes to sewing together the seams. I can't figure out how you make the ribs line up. Maybe it doesn't matter, but my ribs don't line up and that makes me sad. Hopefully no one else notices. 3. I didn't block mine, so the sleeves are about 1/2 length, which is fine, but I'd recommend making longer sleeves period. It wouldn't be that hard to do, just cast on ~34 more stitches on either side.

The pattern really is lovely and elegant. How much cooler can you get than an alternating drop stitch rib? I also LOVE how soft this yarn is... wow...