Finally: A Picture Post!

So it came to pass that the people did gather around an indoor tree piled high with generous gifts and then did celebrate the acquisition of new shiny things with the consumption of copious amounts of food. Yes, Christmas has been and gone (thank goodness) and it’s time to wind down from the crazy-fast knitting most knitters dread.

I kind of love it though.

This year I didn’t gift presents to just anyone. Not handmade ones. My departure from Canada and my charming girlfriend coincided horribly with the lead up to giftmas so my energy was limited.

Still, I have tiny relatives to indulge. Beware the brilliance of crappy iPhone photos. (The worst part is it’s not even my iPhone… I am burdened with a Nokia held together with masking tape.)

My niece is a little cutie. I crocheted her a scarf out of hot pink malabrigo.

It’s easy to knit and crochet for most little girls thanks to the awful pink stereotype. I try to avoid it the majority of the time – there are so many other colours out there! – but I had the perfect amount of malabrigo leftover from another project and I couldn’t resist the snuggability.

Find the pattern here on Ravelry.

This failed.

My first attempt at a sweater seemed to be going wonderfully. I was knitting at a rate of knots (har har har) and I finished the pocket and body in no time. However the rest of the pattern was horribly vague and assumed previous knowledge of knitting raglan sweaters which I did not have at that time. After fretting a while I abandoned it and started again with only a week to go until Christmas.

Find the pattern here on Ravelry.

Somehow I managed this without completely destroying all of my tendons.

I succeeded! This may be my proudest creation. I got to squish my nephew in it and it was glorious. It’s nothing special in terms of yarn (there’s not much variety around here, especially if you’re skint as I am) but it’s soft and easy to care for which is important for toddlers. Jayden is a bit fussy (understatement) so I’m glad he wore it all day without complaining.

Honestly I still can’t believe I knitted this in less than week. Best thing is my almost-forgotten aim for 2012 was to knit a sweater. Level up!

Find the pattern here on Ravelry. As you can see I completely ignored the colourwork.

I also knitted a cowl for my sister but forgot to get photos of that. Aside from the above (and a leaf scarf for a dear friend of which I have no photographic proof) I didn’t give any other handmade gifts.

Well, not until I spent all of Christmas Day knitting.

This hat was originally meant to be for me…

…but ended up being filched by my big sister.

It turns out I can knit an entire hat in a day if I’m avoiding thinking about the fact I’m thousands of miles away from the person I adore on Christmas Day. I got this done in about six hours I’d say, maybe a little more. I spent a huge chunk of the day with the yarn at my side. When I finished, my sister had expressed such adoration for it I just chucked it at her and said Merry Christmas. It’s nice to have a creation appreciated and I think it made her happy so that’s a little more important than keeping my ears warm!

On Boxing Day I settled down to knit through slightly awkward human communication as is my wont. Also, it counted as a sort of physical exercise while I was eating my weight in cheese and Christmas Pudding (or that’s what I’m telling myself).

I got this done in the early evening and gave it to my mum who had expressed displeasure that Sandi had got a knitted hat and she hadn’t.

My mum seems pretty pleased!

The pattern for both these hats is wonderful and you can find it here. It’s the most popular hat pattern on the site and I can see why.

That’s a satisfying bounty if I say so myself, but I’m not done. Right now I’m sitting watching Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes which is a cartoon I’ve been coerced into watching by my girlfriend, not that I took much persuading and to occupy my hands I’m whipping up a hat for myself, since I gave away my store-bought bobble hat to my little sister who didn’t want to be left out. I started with a pattern but I seem to be thoroughly deviating from the plan. At the moment I’m deciding whether to keep it as a padded headband or whether to pick up some stitches and make it a hat. THEN I have to decide whether to make it fitted or slouchy!

It’s a hard life being an unemployed knitter.

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