Christmas Gift-a-thon: Mittens and Gloves

Wow. After gathering photos, I have decided to split this into two posts: one for Christmas hats, and one for mittens. Let's take mittens and gloves first, shall we?

You will find below all of the Christmas mittens given to various family members in 2009.

Some of them have already been blogged, but now hats have heads in them and mittens have hands! I think this makes said accessories feel much happier in life and look much better in photos. This pairing should also make the aforementioned appendages happier. I know the gator mittens have been featured in daily life, Facebook photos, and a friends' reality tv/home video "show."

Only minimal pattern information is included. May be expanded later, but... probably not!

One of the things I like most about this series of pictures is the different ways in which people interpret "let me take a picture of you wearing your new mittens/gloves/hat!"

Because kneeling on the ground made sense to her... These are Brooklyn Flood's Almeara Gloves, done in Knit Picks City Tweed DK. A lovely gray colorway.

But going up three stairs and demonstrating the chomping action of the Gator gloves made sense to her. These are See You Later, Gator Gloves from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. I really like that book. I haven't loved all of the patterns in it, but when I was first starting to knit, it was an exciting and thorough introduction to modern knitting. Very not-your-grandma's-knitting.

Oh, and these particular Gators are made in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Worsted. Grass and red, with scrap yarn for the white teeth, and 14mm googly eyes. When buying the googly eyes, I really struggled with size, but ended up with these because they're not big enough to mess with your mittens or look like muppets, but suit the size of the puppet/mitten well.

These Herringbone Mittens are a free download from Elliphantom Knits and are great. I especially liked the thumbs and cuffs. Once again, these are in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes. And an afterthought modification was added: photographer's shutter finger. I did single crochet around a hole worked in the afterthought method, and she loves it! In fact, I'm working on a special request for next year's gift.

Finally, a pair of mittens worked from leftover Christmas yarn. Why yes, it's from Knit Picks, too, how did you guess? These are leftovers from the projects in Palette. The yellow is called Turmeric, and I just love it. It's rich but vintage with the cream. Don't ask me how a color can be vintage, it just is. They match up perfectly with my reddish-brown leather jacket. It's the kind of look that aviator glasses would complete the look. I made up a pattern for these. Should have made the thumbs a bit wider, but nobody's perfect.

A post on hats is forthcoming!

Nora's Hat

Pattern: Kim's Hats

Source: Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson

Yarn: Scraps of Tahki Donegal Tweed (Oatmeal) and ~50 yds of my very first handspun!

Needles: US 7 dpns

Started: November 20, 2009

Finished: November 21, 2009

Modifications: I did a garter-stitch brim here, with no earflaps. I don't know yet how well this pattern fits, but being that there is no ribbing for stretch, I find it frustrating that the only printer sizes are "toddler, child, adult" because kids come in a lot of sizes, and I can't measure the 6 year old girl that I'm making this for. It was a great way to use up some of my heavy worsted and the fuschia stripes make it cute and girly. The cousins have largely been forgotten in the Christmas batches of knitting because they are funny-sized. At the very least, I plan to have a hat for each. Maybe I'll get around to making them some mittens, too. Poor leftover kids. That's what you get for being small!

Fishtrap Aran Hat 2

Pattern: Fishtrap Aran Hat

Source: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Blue ink, 2 skeins (220 yds )

Needles: US 7 dpns

Started: November 8, 2009

Finished: November 20, 2009

Modifications: Version #2 of this hat - the other pictures show of the cables much better. Theoretically this hat is supposed to be for a colleague for Christmas. But he has kind of been peeving me off "demanding" scarves and socks and all sorts of ridiculous things, and when I suggest they will take forever and maybe he should learn, he says, "Oh, no, that would take forever." ...But continues to list off all the things he wants. It will probably go into the Christmas mix for the family and if it comes out the other side, I suppose he can have it. But he'll have to do something really nice for me.

Not-really Turn a Square 2

Pattern: Turn A Square by Jared Flood
Source: Brooklyn Tweed Blog by Jared Flood
Started: November 15, 2009
Finished: November 17, 2009
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes
Needles: Set of 5 US #8 dpns

Modifications: I changed the rib to k3 p2 and continued it all the way up. The striping and decreases are based on Turn a Square, though. I think that qualifies it to be the linked pattern, right? Right?

Ok, I did not think this through carefully enough. It turned out fine as a shallow beanie but (1) stripes do not look the same in stockinette and in ribbing. I do not like stripes quite so much when the purls show too, as inevitably occurs when a ribbed hat is worn, and (2) cute turn-a-square decreases don’t work when ribs get in the way!!! Nor is the typical k8, k2t the same speed of decrease as the “mitered” decs on the original hat.

So my new one is about one inch shorter than intended but fits me nicely, which means it will fit many people, since I have a giant head. There. It’s fine. Mission accomplished.

Wavy Japanese Pattern Socks

Pattern: Undulating Rib Socks
Source: Favorite Socks by Interweave Press
Started: October 24, 2009
Finished: November 10, 2009
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock in Rainbow (not real name of colorway)
Needles: US Size 2

Modifications: None. This yarn is supposedly well-loved, but it's a little steel-wooly during knitting. This project was a little bit of a surprised for me, since not all of the colors were visible in the skein of yarn when I started. That wouldn't be a big deal except I thought that I could see all of them. So after knitting merrily along, I discover that this is a full-stop rainbow colorway. Love it!

Craft Show Fun!

Well, fun but low-key on the Craft Show part. My Etsy shop is stocked by both myself and my mom, and her office building (about 500 employees) has a yearly craft show. We did it last year and at least made enough money to cover our purchases at the other booths... but it was way worse this year.

Last year, the recession had just hit in the summer, and the thought was, "Gee, this is pretty low traffic and lower spending. Doesn't look as crowded in the booth arena as last year, either." This year, the though was, "Dang! Where the hell is everyone! Do you not take lunches? Do you not Christmas shop? How lame!" And the consensus is no more free craft show that no one cares about. *Sad face.*

However, Brown-Eyed Purl is doing better than in its first few months. We haven't put up a lot of new items, but people are buying, at the crazy rate of about one order per month.