Many hands.......

If only I had all the hands to fit the projects I have finished this weekend! I would fly through the gift makes I still have to start :)

The Hitchhiker is no longer middle big girls yule gift, I just couldn't face the idea of having to knit up a matching hat and gloves in the KC Riot, it is such a fine DK it would take me all of the time I have from now to Christmas! Instead I cast on these on Saturday evening:

Middle big girl wants gloves she can wear whilst driving and thinks fingerless would work better, and she loves all the chunky cable designs that are everywhere in the shops right now. These worked up really quickly on chunky/bulky weight yarn and used just under 100g for both. And best of all I used stash wool, the Patons Symphony found at a car boot sale during the early summer, so super pleased.

I also managed to finish the bubble rib scarf for biggest girl this weekend:

 Worked in Stylecraft aran so that I wouldn't hear the news that she had shrunken it (last years pure wool Mirasol gift....!) this scarf has taken forever. I have picked up between other makes and tried to squeeze in at least one repeat every night, but this weekend I decided I just had to get it done as I was avoiding my knitting corner altogether to avoid this looking back at me. Very pleased with the finished result though and I hope biggest girl is too. Just a pair of gloves to complete the set.

But instead of casting on the gloves (still have the mans on the needles and one pair is enough for now!), I cast on an instant gratification knit:

Thick warm chunky soft mittens for tallest, smallest big girl. Worked in Wendy Serenity super chunky on 10mm straight needles, these were finished almost as soon as I cast them on. I used this pattern to make this an almost mindless knit, perfect for late night tiredness, waiting for littlest girlie to sleep. If you're thinking of using this pattern I have to tell you there is an error in row 10 and 11 which is easily sorted, but if you have any problems shout out.

And last, but only for now, I cast on this hat for middle big girl, to go with the fingerless mitts from the very first post:

I came up with the pattern to match the cable mitts and I'm very, very pleased with it :) I think it may even become the hat of the season, with one for grandgirlie, and maybe even littlest girlie too. Cast on, knit, and cast off all within an hour or two, just perfect for a quick gift. I may try writing up the pattern if anyones interested?

I still have a pretty long list to work through but it finally feels as I'm getting somewhere. And right now I only have three projects cast on, I wonder how long that will last?

Hope you're all enjoying your Christmas crafting and NOT putting yourselves under pressure to complete. It's fun first of all, remember ;) And I'll be the first to shout out when I've had enough!

-x-

Sometimes.......

.....I finish things too!

After sharing so many started projects, I thought I'd better show a finished one too :)

Remember the big hat I told you about? The yule gift for biggest girl?
How difficult is it to get a decent photo of a beret when it's not on a head?

First I tried a pumpkin:

And then the rest of the yarn pretended to be a head:

And I gave up on the crown and allowed it to look like a pancake:

So there we go, a finished project, and it's not cheating to show it now even though technically I could have shown nearly a fortnight ago, is it?

Right, back to the knitty business. And shhh, I'm off to check Ebay too.....

-x-

And a hat for John.

This was supposed to have been his valentine's gift from me, but given as I didn't actually start it until Valentine's night then there was no chance really. This was one of those knits that starts off really slowly and then becomes unputdownable. In the sense that I wanted it over and done with quickly so that I could get back to other things. Its worked in double rib using a thinner pure merino DK by Stylecraft and with a cast on off 170sts, so you can see why it seemed to grow so slowly. Started sunday night, picked up every time I sat down throughout monday, again on tuesday and then finished off at 6am this morning after both Heather and Cain decided 4am was a great time to start the day!



Excuse the poor photo but John was doing one of his "pull a face for the camera" poses and this was the only decent shot I could get. The rest made him look more like a thug or psychopath!
So now I'm back to the cabled chunky socks that I started whilst pregnant which hopefully shouldn't take too long. Well not so long as they have so far!
Actually finding it quite cleansing to work my way through unfinished projects and promised makes in this way, although I still have a fairly long list to get on with. But the more I make a dent in my stash the more I look forward to replenishing at the Aintree stitch and craft fair in April.