the inevitable knitting blog post-Christmas Christmas gifts special

Now that Christmas is over and most gifts distributed to their intended recipient I can at last show off the things I’ve been working on for months.  I actually started knitting for Christmas back in the summer (that was my excuse for slacking off studying to knit -  it wasn’t slacking off it was getting ready for Xmas).

As this is going to be long and picture heavy, I’m using the fold so click on ‘more’ if you want to wade through everything my friends and relashuns got for Christmas (apologies for some poor quality pictures due to grabbing last minute shots before wrapping)

Rob - Lighthouse Socks

pattern: Lighthouse Gansey by Anne Hanson
yarn: Violet Green Stroud Supersock in Blues
love this pattern, interesting enough to knit but plain enough for men’s socks

Owen - Bones Illusion Mitts

pattern: Bones Illusion Wrist Warmers by Dawn Huddlestone; yarn: Sirdar SnugglyDK in shades 0312 Black & 0403 Wobble

He kept asking me for a Dark Mark scarf, but he never wears scarves and if he did, he’d lose them pretty quickly, so I did these instead. They’re knitted top down; I wanted to add fingers so I used the method from knucks; found this quite fiddly but am pleased with the finished gloves.

Brenda – Fake Isle Beret

pattern:  Three Tams by Angela Sixian Wu
yarn: Noro Kureyon in shade 52, Rowan Pure Wool Aran in shade 673 Cloud
I thought my sister would look very cute in this beret, and so she does.  ‘Fake isle’ with Noro Kureyon is teh awsum (see also fake isle hats below)

Dad – Scarf of Doom

pattern: Ruggles Reversible Scarf #1 byCatherine Wingate
yarn: Violet Green Hand-Dyed Bluefaced Leicester Aran in Chocolate
after a long search for the perfect scarf pattern, I found this one and I really like it, would definitely make this again.

Mother-out-Law – Lava Monkeys

pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Lipstick Lava
I was knitting my amethyst monkeys while visiting Rob’s family in the summer and mother-out-law was very impressed with them.

Jenny, Topsy, Mel & Jila – calorimetries

pattern: Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf
yarn: Noro Kureyon, shades 208, 180, 173, 124

Chrissie – Mint Choc Socks

pattern: kind of improvised, uses the fair isle pattern from Fake Isle Hat and clocks from Estonian socks by Nancy Bush
yarn: Wendy Sunbeam St. Ives in 3105 Heron, Violet Green Supersock in Grasshopper

Raksha – Fake Isle Hat

pattern: Fake Isle Hat by Amy King
yarn: Noro Kureyon in shade 208, Rowan Pure Wool Aran in shade 674 Cedar

Ethel - Fake Isle Hat

pattern: Fake Isle Hat by Amy King
yarn: Noro Kureyon in shade 205, Rowan Pure Wool Aran in shade 674 Cedar

Tinks - Boteh Scarf

pattern: Boteh scarf by Kathy Merrick
yarn: Araucania Ranco Solid

Karl - Slytherin House Scarf

pattern: Dark Mark Illusion Scarf by Lindsay Henricks; yarn: Rowan Pure Wool DK in shades 004 Black & 019 Avocado
Used DK yarn because Rowan don’t have a suitable green in their pure wool aran range and cast on 37 stitches ie 31 pattern plus 2 x 3 stitch garter stitch border (to try to reduce curl)

Aunty Joy & Jenny’s mum – felted tea cosies

crocheted in double stranded 4-ply shetland wool, 4mm crochet hook, treble crochet

…. and also

Chrissie’s dark mark illusion scarf

pattern: Dark Mark Illusion Scarf by Lindsay Henricks
yarn: Rown Pure Wool Aran shade 685 Noir, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran shade 300502
I actually gave this to her back in October, in time for halloween, but didn’t want the photo showing up in my flickr photo stream before the recipient of the other one got his.

There is one more Christmas gift I made, but the recipient hasn’t received it yet ….