Christmas 2015

Hi everyone and Happy Christmas!  I hope you all had a lovely time doing whatever you do at this time of year.  We had a lovely time celebrating with my family, made all the more special now that both girls are old enough to really get into it all.  They have both been completely spoiled and our house is now full to bursting!

Aside from the girls my favourite part of the day was watching opening their handmade gifts.  I din't manage to make gifts for very many people this year, but what I did make went over well and that obviously makes me very happy.

For my Mum I made McCalls 6796, with full length sleeves and that wonderful drapey collar.  I used a lovely sweater knit so it is really lovely and cozy. This was mostly a really quick and easy project until I got to attaching the collar.  The instructions made very little sense to me so I did what I thought was right and ended up with the seam on the outside.  I unpicked it (no fun at all seeing as I'd sewn it on my overlocker) and resewed it so that the seam would be covered by the collar.  It could still be seen at the shoulder but that was easily seen to with a spot of handsewing, which I did at the same time as sewing on the button.  After having read a few reviews of this pattern I realise that I did actually sew the collar on correctly the first time, the idea being that the seam allowance is then sewn down on to the inside but I far prefer the way I did it in the end. I'm really pleased with this sweater and I think it is pretty perfect for my mum who also seemed to really like it.

The main bulk of my Christmas knitting, quite rightly, went to my as yet unborn niece or nephew.  I gave this modest package to my brother and SIL yesterday and they seemed really happy with it all.  I've told them that they can expect some more items, but they'll have to wait til baby arrives because I'm sick of knitting gender neutral things!  So what did I make?

For size reference!

Mosaic Blanket by Purl Soho.  I love this blanket!  It was super simple but looks really impressive.  The chart is easy to memorise and I just needed a quick glance at the beginning of every other row and despite this being quite a big blanket I did not get bored with it at all.  The only thing I will say is that the blanket makes your eyes go a bit funny if you look at it for too long but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.  I knitted it from DROPS Paris which is 100% cotton so it is quite weighty, but it will be easily washable and, because my brother and SIL live in a flat which is approximately the same temperature as the sun, is more appropriate that a wool blanket.  I also bought it in the Cotton Supersale in the summer too so the 13 balls I thought I'd need didn't break the bank at all.

Quynn by Woolly Wormhead.  Third time I've knit this, not much to say.  SIL says this is her favourite hat pattern so I think I'll be churning out a few more of these over the next couple of years.

BabyDROPS 17-11 in DROPSCotton Merino.  These are pretty cute, the pattern was mildly flummoxing but when I realised that the sole was knit flat from the front of the toe and sewn in place all became clear.  Not sure I'll knit them again though.

BabyDROPS 21-35 in leftover handdyed sock yarn.  These turned out a bit weird because for some reason I thought they had a foldover cuff and I didn't want that so I halved the number of rows for the cuff.  They don't have a foldover cuff so these are really short.  I like this little sock pattern, although I'll use a neater short row method,  though so I'll knit some more the right length soon.

Julian Vest by Raya Budrevich in DROPS Big Merino.  I'm already knitting another one of these so I'll talk about the pattern a bit more when that's done.  I'll just say that this is adorable and absolutely flew off the needle.  I'm completely in love with the yarn too.

Right, I'm off to eat leftovers and finish knitting one last present for this evening.  Happy Christmas!