stripped gloves

For Grandpa

To match his scarf and hat.  I love this pattern; I may never use another to knit gloves again.

I am finally making a little bit of progress on my holiday knitting!  ... but not nearly enough.  I had grand ambitions which will ultimately not be realized before the 25th of this month.  Now I am having to backtrack and think of non-knitted gifts.  How does everyone do this every year?

Mostly what I've come up with is pretzel  and popcorn snacks, bottles of homemade wine, or jam with labels.  Does that sounds good to you? What do you make for the holidays?  I hope you are enjoying the season so far....

~ Happy December! ~

purgatory chasm

Another good knit for the cold moths: fingerless gloves

 

I used the stitch pattern from Woodsie Gloves, but I did not like the glove construction of this pattern, so instead I used the basics of this pattern.  I am very happy with the results.  I named it after a hike that I did with my FIL last year, as he was the happy recipient of the gloves.

If you bundle up enough, the cold weather can't stop you from getting outdoors.  Let's get out and go hiking!

the great christmas tree hunt

The Christmas tree is a long (and tall) standing tradition, and finding it is serious business.  Every year after Thanksgiving, the whole family (Mom, Dad, brother, SOs, cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents) makes the trek into the high country National Forest.  We enter the park with our tree ticket, choose our path carefully, and then set out on foot in our epic quest.  Every year, we come home with an 18-20ft tree.  It is no easy task; selecting the right size tree, with a good face of full branches, as close to the road as possible.  When we have finally found the one, the men set to work swinging the axe to bring the tree down.  Then, we all help to carry it back to the truck and load in on the trailer.  Our prize in tow, we head down to the fireman's station to support the local community and buy steaming plates of chili cheese hot dogs and soda, greatly enjoying the awed looks of fellow tree hunters as they view our grand tree.  This hat and gloves are to honor this, one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

The hat is a Norwegian Star Earflap hat, knit from the top down with a garter st brim, and the gloves are made using the Cigar pattern, but I knit all the fingers to the top.  These are both excellent patterns, and turned out great using Lion's Brand Loden.

What are some of your favorite Holiday traditions?
Happy Holiday knitting!

keyboard gloves

For Ben, who loved these so much he didn't even wait for the 2nd glove to be finished before he started wearing the first one.


Remember when I knit gloves for Ben? He has been wearing them ever since, and finally hit their stride this past year when he lost one of them. These are designed to be even better!

Based on the manly fingerless gloves pattern, I knit these on 4s with a soft bamboo wool. I carried along a strand of light gray yarn on the inside of the glove for an extra layer of warmth, but dropped it for the fingers to add some extra dexterity.

Ben's opinion of the new design:

epaper mits

For Minda who called me yesterday to say that she will probably be going to Columbia soon for a month or so, you know, because why not.

I had a ton of fun with these. Min had been admiring the pattern of the endpaper mits that Carrie had made for me for my birthday, and also wishing she had a pair of convertible mittens for her archeological field adventures. So, starting from the basic pattern I designed these myself!

Working with Lions Brand wool and size 5 needles, I cast on 40 sts and reduced the pattern to a 10 st repeat. I Increased for the thumb gusset in 10 rows, pulled out for the thumb, and knit to the fingers. Then I knit front and back across the 20 sts across the back of the hand, working with three needles so that the back sts would be in pattern, and the front would be MC. Finished the finger ribbing in MC and BO.

Then, I CO 20 sts, and did 5 rows of ribbing in MC, then attached to the 20 extra sts on the back of the hand and knit in the round in pattern. Then I attached the edges of the ribbing to the sides just under the fingers- makes for a nice snug flip over! I was rather proud of this.

So Merry Christmas Minda! May these do you well on your most random and wonderful adventures.

lover's mittens

For Adrienne


Just because you want to hold hands does not mean they have to be cold. These are the Lover's mittens. Above, you see the normal mittens for the outside hands, and below you see the joined glove that they can hold hands inside of. Que the precious AWWW... but seriously, I couldn't let the DC winters get in the way of blooming romance, so these are for Adrienne and her Ben. Knit in big chunky yarn and stitched with warm fuzzies inside, these may be slightly silly but they are also toastaly endearing.

hogsmede mittens

For Mommo


Made using the Charmed Knits pattern for fan's of Harry Potter (the blue blog), these are the mittens Hermione wore to Hogsmede in the third movie. Aside from the dorkish reference, these mittens have a beautiful pattern and come out warm and elegant in soft white yarn. The bobbles were especially fun to knit, and my Mom was very impressed by them and wore them constantly with her matching white scarf. Merry Christmas Mom!

griffin gloves

for Tristian



These gloves were fun because I made up the pattern as I went. CO 30, rib for an inch, M6 evenly, work griffin pattern, BO 6 for thumb, work even, BO in turn for fingers. The mitten flap was worked separately and stitched on . The yarn is actually a fun story too: nice thick , soft brown yarn stuffed in a goodie bag with scraps of red mulch chunky for $2. Who would have thought they would work together so well?

Gloves for Ben

After refusing to wear any of the hats I made for him, Ben finally admitted to me that his hands were cold. These were personally sized about every three rounds, so they fit very well and he does indeed wear them.

which is why it is more fun to knit things with people in mind. something about the fact that it fits them, in more ways than one.