Holiday Knitting?

I stepped into a mall in the beginning of November, and already the lights were strung, the faux snow piled just so in the store windows, and the crowds were ravenous. It's also that time of year when most knitters seem to be churning out piles of exquisite handknits for all their friends and loved ones. Like most of the insanity during the holiday season, I prefer to take a step back. It's overwhelming, really. I'm not going back to a mall or any other large shopping venue until February 20th, or so, well after Valentine's day. I'm not knitting everyone gifts, either. I'm not sacrificing the enjoyment of my hobby, my stress-relief for deadlines and frustration.

That being said, I'm not entirely foregoing the holiday knitting. My dad's had a bit of a rough year, and he deserves a handmade gift. I'm working on another hat from Hats On!, specifically the All-Over Two-Color Patterned Watch Cap (bit of a clumsy name, if you ask me). I want him to actually wear it, as well, which means that it needs to be machine washable, and possibly dryable (my parents aren't too particular about those things), so I'm using Plymouth Encore in 217 and 389.

I made two swatches:


The swatch on the left was the first one I made, but I realized afterwards that the book had the colors reversed: the light color was the background and the dark was the pattern. I swatched both for the heck of it, but I still like the first one better. The lines are more crisp, which makes the pattern more defined. The hat has a folded rib brim, which will also be in black.

Swatches in colorwork are kind of fun. These went a bit slow, because instead of making extra long floats to bring my yarn back to the beginning of the faux round, I just cut the yarn and tied the two colors in a knot at the end of each row. Kind of tedious and renders the yarn useless in the event of a shortage, but my tension was much more even.

I would love to be able to make something nice for my mom, but she's so hard to knit for. Her wardrobe is rather utilitarian, and she buys herself what she needs. She won't wear a scarf (I made her one when I first learned to knit, and I wound up wearing it) or any other accessory. I'm going to make some ornaments for the tree this year. Next year, if I think to start early enough, I want to make Christmas Stockings for my immediate family. I think she would appreciate that.

I have a large extended family, but I only really exchange gifts with the two female cousins who are around my age (the rest are pretty much ten and under). I've ordered some allhemp6 and am going knit soap sacks. Accompanied by bars of homemade soap, I think it'll be a nice gift. I think I'll make one for my grandmother.

Happy holiday season, knitters! Take lots of breaks to stretch, do some breathing exercises, and if you don't think your gift will be properly appreciated, buy a gift card instead.

It's another hat, but it's REALLY COOL this time.

Let me tell you a secret: last New Year, I made a resolution. Nothing terribly lofty or ambitious, but I promised myself that this would be the year I'd venture into colorwork. That little voice in the corner of my mind has been reminding me of this for eleven months, questioning my project choice every time I picked up the needles. Well. I've finally made that little voice go away (and really, it's more innocuous that it sounds. We all have these Jiminy Crickets, right?). Nothing drastic, I just completed my first piece of standed knitting.

Ta da!

Take note of the picot edging!

The stats:
Pattern: Norwegian Star from Charlene Schurch's Hat's On!
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in colors 863 and 870, one ball of each.
Needles: US 3 16" Clover circular and coresponding Clover DPNs
Size: Medium (18 3/4" circumference)

This project was surprisingly quick and easy, completed over Thanksgiving break and the eight hour round trip car ride. I think it seemed to fly by faster than hats normally do (and hats are already my quick, easy and portable project of choice) because I was so interested in seeing the patterns develop. The hardest part was teaching myself to knit continental, so that I could carry contrasting color in my left hand. It's a very frustrating experience to relearn something in a completely new way when you already know how to do it perfectly well, but differently. Prior to this, I completed a wonky, continental knit, garter stitch dishcloth half fraught with tension issues (the other half is when I finally got that hang of it). It gave me new appreciation for those just learning to knit.

I adore this pattern. The book assumes prior knowledge of chart knitting, but I really prefer to work from charts, so that was a plus for me, I didn't encounter any problems or confusion with the directions. I'm really happy with the book as a whole, and I plan on making many more of the hats. The yarn is also wonderful. I hadn't intended on getting a superwash, but it's what was in stock at my LYS. Cascade 220 is simply a great, basic, worsted weight yarn for when you're on a bit of a budget and you really want the stitchwork to be the focus of your project. It has excellent stitch definition, decent yardage and comes in an endless number of colors. In fact, I love it so much, I would buy it even if I wasn't being cost conscious.

I made the hat exactly as specified in the pattern and was very pleased the with results. However, I decided that what I really wanted was a hat with earflaps and ties, so I decided to add them.



The most effective method of knitting the earflaps probably would have been to use slipped stitches to create a double knit earflap that was a color reverse of itself on the opposite side. However, I couldn't figure out how to do this on my own. I was staying in a hotel room and hadn't brought my laptop, so reasearch was out. I really wanted to incorporate the star pattern from the main body of the hat, so I went with what I knew. I used slipped stitch double knitting to create the earflap and carried the contrasting color along on the inside. As a result, I have an earflap that has the same design on both sides.

I made the ties after arriving home and used a bit of a shortcut: I bought a knitting spool. It made the I-cords so much less painful, and there's no awkwardness in the first inch or so, which is usually what happens to my icords. The tassels on the ends were made by wrapping the yarn around a chocolate bar, which was the only thing in my apartment that was the right size. I attached all the pieces together and blocked the hat on a balloon balanced on a glass, which was balanced on an overturned mixing bowl (I felt a little like MacGyver at this point, but, hey, whatever it takes). This was so that the ties would hang straight down without dragging on my window sill. The I-cords lengthened considerably during blocking, so it was a good thing that they were a little on the short side to begin with. They're perfect now,

When it's cold outside, I can walk to school all warm and toasty like this:

(Looooook into my eyeeeeeeees... Sorry, the pic's a little creepy.)

For those who are interested, here's a pic of the hat's guts:

I think that looks pretty nifty. The first three inches are folded under, creating the picot edge and an extra layer of fabric along around the tops of one's ears. It's a toasty hat.

I am totally in love with stranded knitting.