Thursday, January 29, 2009

Christmas has come...and gone


As most of you know, I've now got a "helper" in the crafts department.

Like a moth to a flame, as soon as I start knitting he's there, doing his best to unravel the ball of yarn or impale himself on knitting needles.

This cuts back on productivity.

But I did manage to make a few things for Christmas that I thought I'd share. Most were for my friend Deb's daughters, Kayla and Haley.

They both got splat mats, made from laminated cotton. (You can see the one I made for Zack in the picture above--it's the polka-dotted thing). (Edited to add: The tutorial I based these on is here, though I made some mods.)

I also made them hats, like the one that I made for Zack.
It's the Knitty pattern Toasty Topper, in the yarn called for. I made Kayla's (the purple one) a little bigger by knitting a little looser and adding a few rows, but I don't think I would have needed to.

I also made a cowl for K, which I suppose I should let her blog about, but she's busy with that new company of hers, so I'll post for her.
It's Anne Hanson's Spiraluscious pattern. I used Koigu KPPPM, which I'd heard people rave about before, and now I can understand why. It's really nice to knit with and I loved watching the colors change as I knit. The pattern was lots of fun, too. Except for the part where I realized that I was knitting the trim on the bottom completely backwards. Not only was I on the wrong side, but I'd been systematically reading the pattern backwards--brilliant. So I had to rip out about 1/3 of the trim and redo it.

Now K can post action shots.