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.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was just thinking about how much we needed a new blog. I made a couple of things but gave them away before I took pictures--dumb!

You got so much done. I love everything. K's cowl is gorgeous and I already told you how much I love the Zach's hat but x3 they are awesome! The splat mats are very useful. Where did you find such cool patterns. Oh wait! G St.? I hate it that I am so far away from such a wonderful fabric store.

Anonymous said...

I'm really bad at that--getting rid of stuff before taking pics. Not sure how I remembered this time!

And no, it wasn't G Street! It was fabric.com, which I found by googling "michael miller laminated cotton". It was delivered really nicely, rolled up on tubes. I just edited the blog to include the tutorial I based them on. They are SO helpful! We use ours under the high chair all the time to catch wayward peas and yogurt.

Anonymous said...

YAY! Erica saved us from a months-out-of-date blog!!

I will definately post action shots of the cowl because it's freakin' awesome. The picture of it sans neck doesn't do it justice -- the color looks awesome on me and it lays really pretty around my neck.

My favorite part of the splat mat story is how erica held it together without pins. Was it binder clips or painter's tape you settled on e?

I wonder if I could make that hat in my size?

So if I were to host a girls weekend in Georgia, when would be a good time to do it? I'd really like you guys to come down.

abi's mom said...

I used painter's tape on my sewing machine to keep it from sliding and binder clips to hold it together when doing the topstitching--pins would have left, appropriately, pin holes.

You could totally make a hat like that for you, but it might require some calculating.

Oooh! A girl's weekend! I'm already leaving Rob alone for a night or two in Feb, so maybe March? I don't want to push my luck. Plus I'm pretty much tired of everything in March anyway--clothes, the weather.

Anonymous said...

When does it get warm there? I'll go any place that has no blowing, drifting snow, ice jams on my roof causing it to leak and where I could peel down at least 2 layers of clothing.