Pincushion

In January, I did a pincushion swap through a group in Ravelry. I ended up crocheting the one I made, and made it up as I went along. Behold, the sunflower:

The center is made out of Lion Brand's Fisherman's wool. I originally made a bigger center, and tried to felt it, but it didn't get nearly as small as I wanted it to. I ended up making a new one, much smaller, using a small hook to keep it tight, and doing a type of bobble. I made the center from the top down, and then stuffed it. I added the rounds of petal directly in the center. The yellow and orange petal rounds are made out of Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn in rounds of single crochet and the petals are similar to the crocodile stitch. 

I finished by closing up the bottom with a solid layer of single crochet rounds, so it sits flat.

Just the right size to fit in my hand! If I wanted a sunflower for a headband, I'd make it a bit smaller and much more flat.

Shaun the Sheep

Back in December, I made a birthday gift for a friend overseas who loves sheep. I started with the "Shaun the Sheep DS case" pattern http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shaun-the-sheep-ds-case and changed it up. I added sheep buttons, a flannel sheep lining, and made it a bit bigger so I could fit a crochet book and all sorts of notions inside. Behold, the revamped sheep crochet case:

BTW, the little sheep is a measuring tape. Pull on the tail, and it's the tape. Squeeze the belly, and the tape retracts. Love it!

Test Knitting Sweaters

Yikes! I have NOT been keeping up! It's time for a few catch-up posts about knitting and crochet projects, and then I can get into recipes again. I have a photo-documented calzone recipe, as well as Black Forest Cheesecake and maybe some others coming up.

Back in December, I test knit two sweaters for the designer Svetlana (tweedysheep on Ravelry), based in Moscow, Russia. It's fun getting to work collaboratively on a project across the world, and I'm thankful for Ravelry providing the means to do so efficiently. The first sweater I tested for Svetlana was the Momo Cardigan, in the age 8 size. (Available for sale on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/momo-2) This pattern caught my eye because "momo" means "peach" in Japanese, and I had a pet hamster named "Momo" after Momotarosan, the Little Peach Boy who is a folk story hero. The clever increase in the lace in the yoke intrigued me too, and I signed up to make this sweater without having a recipient in mind at first.

I ended up giving it to a second cousin. The photos aren't the greatest, another cousin took them while I was at work. This sweater was a quick knit, and fun. I used Berroco Vintage yarn, which is really soft and nice to work with. In the first photo you can see the heart shaped buttons I used. They aren't a perfect color match, but how often can you get away with using heart buttons?

While I was still finishing up Momo, Svetlana posted ANOTHER girl's sweater that I fell in love with and just had to test knit too. Since this second one had a due date of December 25th, I thought it would make a nice Christmas present for my cousin's 10 month daughter.
This pattern is Bloomsbury for Kids (both this and Momo have adult versions! I plan on making the adult verion with some lovely alpaca I got at a fiber fest this fall....) and it is also available on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bloomsbury-kids
My cousin, who lives in a warmer part of the country, was quite wonderful about taking lots of photos and sending them to me. Her daughter is ADORABLE with or without the sweater:

I can't wait until I get around to making a my-size one!! I love how the lace goes down the back and the sleeves, I find this construction interesting but easy to learn once you get started!

Christmas Gifts

In my family, we usually celebrate Christmas more than once, with different sides of the family. Besides the obvious benefits (having lefsa for one meal, and eggrolls for another) when "Second Christmas" comes in the beginning of January, it gives me a bit more time to get those presents made!

First Christmas:

Snowflake Cowl, pattern by Celeste Young

This is a 100% wool Norwegian star cowl for my mom. The pattern called for size 10 needles, I used 11s. I'm not the happiest with how it turned out, but boy, was it fast. I'd like to re-make it sometime, only double-knit.

My sister got the tam she had picked up and asked for before Thanksgiving:

 

Corinthian Tam, pattern by Angela Hahn

My grandma, who used to be a knitter before arthritis limited her crafting, got her first sweater from me, in her favorite shade of blue:

Marigold Sweater, pattern by Amy Polcyn

Grandma cried. I both am, and am not, proud of this sweater. Most of the body was knit while on the stationary bike at the gym. In December, I mostly gave up swimming for biking because you can knit and bike, but not knit and swim. I figure if you can wash manure and dirt out of wool, you sure can wash sweat out of it.
This was the only gift that technically wasn't done in time. The sweater had the buttons sewn on, and was blocked and dried but it was gifted with an IOU for the sleeves. Fortunately, I was able to knit and attach the sleeves within 24 hours. This is actually the third time I've knit this sweater pattern. I have one in teal, and I gave my mom one in pink for her birthday last summer. I love wearing mine with sleeveless dresses.

Second Christmas:
Christmas round 2 was actually a little harder to knit for, since they're the relatives I live with, which makes it hard to hide knits and work on them at the same time.

I have a musically-inclined cousin who doesn't talk much. I thought his present would be the easiest to hide, but no, he came into my room for the first time ever while I happened to be working on his hat:

Piano Hat, pattern by Lindsay Koehler

In typical teenage boy fashion, I can tell he likes it, because the only time he gets more excited than this is when food is involved.

My aunt got the second Xenia shawl I've made (I plan on making more!):

Xenia, pattern by Vanessa Smith

sooooo much lace

The most difficult present by far to keep secret was the afghan I joined for my cousin. I didn't actually crochet any of the blocks, but received them in a "Lily Pulitzer" color-themed swap in the Vanna's Choice Fan Club group on Ravelry.

Over the summer, I did crochet 20 9" blocks, but the ones I made have been dispersed all over North America, and the ones in this afghan are the ones I received back from others. While these aren't "my colors", I do love how cheerful they look together: so summery! The block that everyone comments on in the pinwheel "Beach Ball" block that incorporates all the colors.

I had to do several rounds around each block to ensure that they were the same size with the same number of stitches, then join the blocks and finally border them. I feel asleep several times late at night under this blanket while working on it after the recipient had finally left my room to go to bed. Although she had seen some of the blocks before, she didn't know I was joining them or giving them to her:

The day I needed to finish it, I actually brought it with me to Royal Grounds, so I could weave in ends in peace without her showing up unexpectedly. ;0)

Cake Pan Tam!

I am normally not much of a hat person. I like hats, and actually find many patterns that I want to make. Inevitably, though, I don't like the finished product. Either it doesn't fit my big head, or looks ridiculous on me. For Christmas, I had made the Corinthian tam for my sister, and I've been thinking about tams and berets a lot recently, but have been unconvinced that they'd work for me. When I heard that cold(er) weather was around the corner, though, I had to quit stalling and make a hat.
First, I scored the yarn with a 50% off coupon at Michaels. Second, this hat only took about 4 hours, which is not too bad for an adult hat. Third, I blocked this hat at 12:30 am, and because I was too lazy (and cold) to go to the kitchen to find a proper plate to block it on, I used a cake pan I had in my bedroom. (Doesn't everyone keep cake pans in their bedroom?) I should mention that at that point in the night, I either get really sleepy or really silly. Definitely a silly kind of night.

By the next morning, my  hat was blocked, dried and ready to go! Even though I was a bit sleepy and still had wet hair, I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out. :0)

Playing Santa

I love making gifts. I love kids. I love giving gifts to other people's kids. This Christmas I got to be Santa and made some gifts for two sweet kids, a brother and sister.
First, I found fleece on sale. REALLY on sale. With the help of my cousin, I made fleece blankets. The girl's has owls on one side (matches her bedroom) and butterflies on the other. The boy's has sports balls on one side, and dinosaurs on the other. When he got his blanket, he thought it was a superman cape (!).

I love fleece blankets. I was given one as a gift when I graduated HS, from Fran, a lady who I taught swimming lessons with. I still use mine! It's the green and brown striped blanket on my bed, which is the backdrop for many of these photos.
I also made similarly colored sweaters for these kids. The boy got a sweater vest that should fit him for a few years. I love, love, love sweater vests, and obviously the smaller they are, the cuter they are. His mom loves them too! This was a pattern from DROPS that I modified.

The little girl got the "Little Mary Anning" sweater by Mary Ann Cunningham-Kim, which has a shell pattern on it. I'd originally started this at the end of August, and have been working on it on and off since then. I had to rip back a number of times because I'd missed something in the pattern. I was happy to finish it, and have it turn out well. Additionally, while I thought I was making the 2 yr old size, I was actually working the 5 yr old size, but it fits her now and should for a couple of years. 

More holiday posts and test knits to come after New Years!

Mermaid Mittens

I just realized today that I haven't posted in over a month. That doesn't mean I haven't been knitting and baking- on the contrary! In addition to birthday and Christmas presents, I've been doing a number of test knits, part of the publishing process for pattern designers.
One that I worked on in November was a pair of lovely mermaid mittens. I actually only made one mitten, though, because I realized too late that they were going to be much too big to fit the intended recipient. I've got the pattern, yarn, and notes, in case I want to make the second (and keep them for me!).
This mitten was worked from the tip of the fingers down to the wrist, which is not the direction I normally work when making mittens. I did learn a nifty new way of casting on (involves a crochet chain, but instead of picking up the back loops as in conditional cast-on, you pick up stitches from both the top and bottom of the chain... very clever!)

I love the seaweed on the palm of the hand, as well as the lacy cuff that mimics waves! This Mermaid Mittens pattern was written by Julie Hamilton is available for purchase on Ravelry.