Here I am!
December 29, 2014
I am poking my head up out of the morass of Christmas knitting, which I can finally talk about! Actually, the projects are not many, but I worked on them a lot.
First is the tractor sweater that I started back in September. It's a small child size. The yarn needed to be the exact shade of yellow and green -- John Deere colors -- and the only place I could find both of those colors in worsted weight was Knit Picks, so I ordered it in superwash wool. It was a pretty quick knit.
The pattern was loosely based on Vicki Square's Knit Great Basics, and the tractor chart is adapted from the sock pattern Tractorsockor by Linda Högström, which is a free pattern on Ravelry.
I of course had to make a tractor hat for my brother to wear while he plowed yards with his John Deere tractor:
In July, I started a lace cardigan out of pink fuzzy yarn that my sister had, and finished it in early October. I could have photographed the heck out of it, and I meant too, but in the hecticity (I love that word! Thanks Kelley!) that was Christmas, I forgot and sent it up to northern Maine un-photographed. But, here is a picture of it without buttons:
The buttons that I got for it are very cute silver heart-shaped buttons with a lacey filigree on them. It's a pity I forgot to photograph them; they looked perfect and adorable on the sweater. This picture is one I took in a hurry, in bad light, unblocked. If you squint, you can sorta get the idea of how it came out.
The last present that I finished was a skirt for my 4-year-old niece who is secretly a fairy princess as her alter ego. I used Elann's Silken Kydd in Ballerina Pink to knit it (it's like Kid Silk Haze by Rowan, only far less expensive). It was a bit tricky to knit with at first, but I soon got used to it. I dropped stitches because the 'halo' of yarn makes you think you have nabbed the stitch itself, but you haven't, you've nabbed the halo. After I got used to stabbing the center of the stitch, it went fine.
The pattern was Little Cloud by Monika Sirna. It was easy enough to knit, even with beads. I found the perfect pink beads with silver linings at Earthfaire. I loved the beads!! So pretty! I giggled a little every time I put a bead on.
The final touch was the sequined, beaded sparkly bow that I found on Etsy that was a perfect match for the pale pink skirt:
So. I knit the top layer of the skirt first, with beads, and it went pretty fast. You know how Dr. Who has a Tardis that is bigger on the inside? Well. The bottom layer of the skirt was slightly smaller than the top later at first, and had no beads, so I was thinking that was pretty great and I was zoomng along. At six inches in, I had to increase a good bit, but that made it a little more than the stitches in the top layer, and I pugged away at it. But at eleven inches, just six inches from the final hem, I had to increase a lot of stitches -- making the total 576 stitches. Wow.
Knitting 576 stitches for six long inches was a haul. It took me about twenty-five minutes to knit one round. There were eight rounds per inch. All of a sudden I had an enormous time-sucking monster on my hands that threatened, like the Grinch, to steal Christmas! The cute little skirt for a four year old ate at my soul. I bitterly remembered saying to my sister in law lightheartedly, 'How long can a skirt for a 4-year old take??' and laughing. However, as I plugged away at it, the sparkle of the beads and the fluffiness of the airy fabric still made me smile, and eventually it was done in time for Christmas
The finished product:
She loved the skirt and put it on immediately -- but I forgot to get a picture. Sigh. It was really cute on her, too.
Anyway, by the time that Christmas had arrived I only had 30% done of the Aran sweater I was making for my husband -- but Christmas doesn't technically end til Epiphany, January 6, so I still have two weeks. I will keep knitting!