3 posts tagged “gifts”

My grandmother moved in with my parents this winter and is always cold at their house. My mom mentioned to me on the phone, Saturday before last that grandma had been wanting a new, springy looking sweater vest to wear, but that mom had not been able to find one for her. I immediately cast aside the boring sock yarn scarf, horrible to knit hokie socks, and tilted duster that I stalled out on 2/3's the way up the sleeves and hatched a plan to knit my grandmother a sweater vest. I headed down to the yarn shop that afternoon to buy the pattern and the yarn.

 

I decided on the Knitting Pure and Simple Basic Cardigan Vest for Women (pattern #995) because I thought it would be a quick knit. I chose Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Felt Me in the Strawberry Latte colorway. Grandma's favorite color is pink and this yarn just screamed Grandma S. to me. (On a side note, I asked D. if he thought the yarn screamed Grandma S., and he claimed that yarn does not speak to him the way it does to me. I think he's just in denial... or crazy. I then proceded to follow him around the house translating what the yarn was saying to me in a cartoony voice, but perhaps I'm oversharing now.) The colorway also struck me as a very Valentine-y colorway, so I got the crazy idea that I would try to knit this thing in a week and mail to grandma for Valentine's Day. I guess this is a heavy worsted weight, so I knitted the vest on size 10's. I think technically I should have used 9's, but my 9's were in the tilted duster, and I was too lazy to change them out. Plus I was already knitting the extra large and grandma likes her vests big and loose, so I figured having a larger gauge couldn't hurt. Since I didn't have her here to measure for fit, I didn't even bother doing a gauge swatch. I know, I'm terrible! 

 

I made two basic modifications to the pattern. The original pattern had you knit up to about the top of your breastbone and then start the v-neck by decreasing one stitch every row. I don't think grandma would like that high of a neckline, so I did a little math and figured out that if I started decreasing on the same row as the bottom of the armhole and only decreased one stitch every four rows, I would hit the end of the decreases a row or two before the shoulder. That's what I did and I think it turned out very well and will be a more comfortable neckline for grandma.

 

The second modification was in the button band. First the pattern had you do the band around the neck first and then do a band up each side. I hate picking up stitches and just wanted to get it over with all at once, so I just picked up stitches from one hem all the way up one front, around the neck, and back down the other front to the other hem and knit one continous band. I think it looks fine since I made the neckline more gradual anyway. I also only put one button on the vest. Mom said grandma wears her vests open most of the time, and I hate sewing on buttons. I thought about not putting any buttons on it, but I thought one button would give her the ability to just fasten it loosely if she wanted. Plus I found a really beautiful button at my yarn store that was just perfect with the colors in the yarn.

 

 The vest is packed up and ready to mail. I just have to get the box addressed and take it to the post office tomrrow. It'll be cutting it close to get there by Valentine's Day, but it's fine if it's a couple of days late. Now I have to get back to my other old, boring projects. I still need to cast back on for the jaywalker socks, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet. Maybe I'll do it tomorow night.

Whew! I made it. Barely. I finished the last of my Christmas knitting before Christmas.

 

This project isn't actually a christmas gift, but rather a baby gift. My brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first child in January. They had a baby shower for her last fall, but I was unable to be there, you know since I live 900 miles away, so my plan was to wrap it up in baby shower wrapping paper and give it to them to open on Christmas morning. Then last Wednesday I was informed that there would be a suprise family baby shower for her after the big Christmas dinner on Sunday. I knitted as fast as I could, but I ended up having to give it to her at the shower unfinished along with a note that I would finish it up.

 

 

I was only a few rows away from being done, but I was able to finish it up on Monday morning. This is the feather and fan afghan, which I made smaller to make it baby blanket size. I was shooting for a 36" x 36" blanket, and while I forgot to measure the completed blanket, I think I got pretty close. I was a little concerned by how small it looked once it was done, but my seven year old was able to curl up small enough that it covered her, so hopefully, they will be able to get a fews years of use out of it.

 

This was knitted on size 8 needles with 9 skeins of Knit Picks Comfy: 3 Pomegranate, 2 Creme Brulee, 2 Planetarium, and 2 Honey Dew. The colors aren't traditional baby pastels, but R. and M. aren't finding out the sex of the baby before the birth and neither of them strike me as being big into the baby pastels. This was the first time I've knitted with the Comfy yarn, and I loved it. It's a cotton/acrylic blend and it's sooo soft. Perfect for a baby blanket. Plus, it's machine washable, which I believe is a must have when it comes to baby things.

 

This sweater for my daughter was my final holiday knitting project. I finished it up about midnight on the 23rd. This is the Knitting Pure and Simple child's top down ragland sweater. The original pattern had a rolled neck and no ribbing at the the end of the sleeves or the bottom of the sweater. The pattern also seemed to be sized to be a pretty baggy sweater. M. tends to prefer her clothes to be a bit fitted and I thought she would like a ribbed neckline better, so I made a size smaller on the sweater and modified the pattern to have ribbing around the neck, sleeves, hem. This was knitted on size 7 and 9 needles out of Araucania Azapa. Azapa is a merino, alpaca, silk, donegal blend, which makes for a very soft yarn, and of course, I chose her, most recent, favorite color, pink!

 

I am a little bit unhappy with how the sizing on this sweater came out. M. is very willowy, so while I knitted the size 2-4 to get a sweater that was nicely fitted around, she is actually longer than the dimensions for the size 6-8 sweater. I measured 5-6 of her shirts to determine how long to make the body and arms of the sweater. When I bound off the hem, I realized that I'd mis-measured and the sweater was an inch shorter than I thought. I was really worried that I had just made my 7 year old daughter a belly shirt. Thankfully, that length turned out all right. Where I ran into trouble is on the sleeves. I made them exactly to the length that I'd measured her other shirts and yet they ended up just a little too short. As I was thinking about it later, it struck me that I don't think that M. has a shirt that the sleeves aren't too short, so when I measured her current shirts, I was actually measuring a too short sleeve. I guess she inherited my dad and grandmother's extra long and arms. Anyway, hopefully she can get at least one winter of good out of it and then we can pass it down to our neice. One final picture of M. in her new sweater along with her Hokie scarf and hat that I also knitted her for Christmas.

 

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Christmas!

There have been multiple occasions in my life when my husband does something so amazing for me that I'm just blown away by what an incredibly lucky woman I am. This morning was one of those occasions. I have been joking with him for the last few weeks that I would be celebrating my one year knitaversary on December 17th. I'm not actually sure that December 17th is exactly the date last year that my friend S. came over and taught me to knit, but it's within a day or two, so I'm going with the 17th. Anyway, this morning D. left a knitaversary gift sitting in front of my coffee maker. And yes, he has confirmed that he specfically chose in front of the coffee maker because he knew that was the one place I'd be sure to see it. Here's what he left:

 

And the inside of the box:

 

We have the hand salve:

 

 

My favorite part of this label is the "Are your hands.... Hateful?" The full label reads: "Are your hands.... chapped? dry? blistered? cracked? tingly? hateful? angry? Well then, try this hand stuff." D. said he did this label last and was starting to hit his creative max. Then there was a book:

 

The label reads: "You never thought it could happen to you... But it has! It's True. You're tired of knitting! Then you owe it to yourself to try the latest hip sensation! Millions of Americans are discovering a new and thrilling form of leisure-time entertainment! Reading!"

Note that it's specifically non-knitting related so that you can read it when you get tired of knitting (like that would really ever happen). Then we have some candy:

 

Label: "For the treatment of low blood sugar due to prolonged period of knitting or other creative tasks. In case of low blood sugar, take two and seek out immediate gustatory attention."

Because the best cure for low blood sugar is sugary candy. Also because he know how crazy focused I can get when I'm close to finishing a project. Next comes Dr. A.D. Vil's Wonder Drops:

 

Guaranteed to cure all your aches and pains. And finally, a bottle of single malt scotch:

 

This is the longest label, but also the best: "Do you have trouble clearing your head of thoughts of knitting? Do you dream in stitches? Does your brain keep knitting when your hands have stopped? Have your loved ones stopped trying to talk to you while you knit? If any of these sound familiar to you, you may be... Knitfaced. It may sound scary, but with a diagnosis comes the possibility of treatment. Knitface syndrom is all too often hidden in the shadows, a silent threat to your mental health. But there is no reason to feel shame if you recognize and treat the symptoms immeadiately. Many sufferes of Knitface Syndrome go on to live healthy, productive lives once they understand what is happening and how to deal with the uncontrollable obsessions of knitting. You too can live a normal life with this simple treatment. Don't let another day go by before you do something about it. You know what they say! When you're knitfaced, get shitfaced! When Knitfaced, drink one heaping tumbler to clear the synapses of errant purls. Repeat as needed"

 There was also an incredibly sweet letter, but I'm not going to recreate it on the blog here, because it does get a little mushy in spots.