Holiday Handknits

The Holidays were good for the Dreams in Fiber Household.  We managed to avoid much of the illness that is currently going around right now (fingers are double crossed that we continue to do so), we spent time with family, we had a brief trip to Chicago to see family, and we hung out together.

Here are some pictures of what was made for the Holidays this year - in no particular order.

I got my weave on this past year and made a handful of scarves. Little miss received the pink one :)

 

 

This one went to Little man.

 

 

He also received a new pair of mittens. This is the Sea Serpent Colorway from my Fantastical Creatures Part 2 Series.

 

 

Little man got to pick out sock yarn for a new pair of socks and he chose my Mexican Red Knee Colorway from the Tarantula Series.

 

 

My hubby's Cousin E received this woven scarf.

 

 

She also received a new pair of mittens.

 

 

This woven scarf hasn't actually been gifted yet but I am pretty sure the recipient doesn't check the blog...

 

 

I showed this cowl earlier (I think), but this was gifted to the Principal at our school. It was made from alpaca in her favorite color :)

 

 

This scarf was also made earlier last year and went to my SIL K.

 

 

This next project was not made by me (well, I did a row here and there...) but I wanted to make sure to show it - this is a scarf that little man made for little miss. We went to the store and he picked out the yarn especially for her and got to use US 15 needles which he was pretty pumped about!

 

 

Didn't he do a great job?

 

The Korknisse went to a teacher at school. I whipped together a matching tree and will definitely be making more of these - a korknisse forest! Can't you just imagine it?????

 

 

Not shown are the scrubbies. I made something like 26 of them for people this year and didn't manage to take a picture of them. Oh well. I love these scrubbies though.  Seriously, it's the only scrubbie I make anymore because they're perfect - it's a pattern from a friend of mine. Go make some! I'll be making a few for myself so maybe I'll get a picture taken then ;)

And this is Wilfred.  Wilfred will get his own post :) 

As per my usual I did not get everything made that I wanted to.  Plus, I still have a few things to make yet....  I don't know what it is about the Holidays - I start out by trying to keep it nice and simple and then the Holiday Mania hits and I just want to make everything for everyone and then I'm vexed because I didn't get everything finished (or even started in some instances).  I guess it gives me a place to start for the next round of Holidays!

Snow Day

It turns out Draco had a bit of a bite to him and it was oddly fitting that the last day of Autumn should be the first Snow Day of the year.

I think we ended up getting somewhere around 10 inches of snow overnight with another 2 or 3 inches possible today.  The wind is what's really brutal though and the combination of heavy snow and wind has caused us to lose power a handful of times and it is still flickering quite a bit.  The hubby and I got up early to asses the snow situation and to start taking care of the drive and I was a bit worried about the hubby driving across town this morning (the whole state as under the "travel not advised" category) but before long we got word that they closed his office as well so we all had a bit of "fun" in the snow.  I say "fun" loosely because so far it's been mainly snow removal and fighting the wind.  I don't think the minions lasted more than 10-15 minutes out in it this morning.  Granted, they would have stayed out longer but I could see their little faces getting pinker and pinker so I hauled them in for some hot chocolate and chai.

 

 

They gave it their best effort though - little miss attempted a snow angel and little man was searching for "the biggest snowball ever".  They're going to have a ball outside once the wind dies down!

 

I'm off to my projects...

It's Starting....

... to snow! 

Winter Storm Draco (Love the HP reference!!!) has arrived, or at least rang the doorbell.  I'm not sure how much snow we'll end up getting as each station says something different, but we'll get some snow at least :D  I'll be shoveling tomorrow amid my dyeing and wrapping and knitting. 

A little recap:  Little man is feeling better, little miss is starting in with the lovely cough.  Saturday was a lovely baking day and the sugar cookies proved to be too much for my oven and I burnt out my heating element (fortunately the day after Baking Day).  Found a new heating element today, installed it, and the oven is heating up  nicely once again.  Total cookie tally:  133 sugar cookies, 3 dozen ginger cookies (my new favorite), 3.5 dozen chocolate cookies, and 2.5 dozen snickerdoodles.  2 more FO's to wash/block tonight, 2 WiP's nearing completion, 2 new CO's.  We're getting there!

Why is Simple So Hard?

Know your limitations.  Isn't that one of those catch phrases floating around out there?  Well, limitations suck.  There.  I said it.  It seems as though all of my days and weeks and months of late involve me not being able to accomplish everything I want to accomplish.  Granted, I am trying to accomplish a lot but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I have to edit and omit and postpone...

Where did simple go?  Simple is simple, it shouldn't be that hard.  Family dinners, homemade Holidays, time spent together playing a board game, playing in the snow (if/when we get any), baking cookies, reading a book, being present in the moment, even just being.  These are not hard things but with the all the other stuff/crap that I have to contend with it just seems impossible at the moment.  My house is never clean, the laundry never seems to be done AND put away, my WiP's remain WiP's because I don't have the time to work on them, patterns don't get finished as quickly because I don't have time to write them/knit them, projects don't get started because I haven't finished the WiP's, cookies don't get made because I am trying to ignore my dirty bathroom and put laundry away and read with my minions and make some sort of feeble attempt to find my floor, I lose out on full days at a time because my god-awful nursing gig only allows 12 hour shifts and the shifts themselves have been so bad (I don't remember the last decent shift I've had but lately they have been truly horrendous) that it takes a day (or more) just to even be able to focus on trying to do something remotely productive and if I'm lucky, creative....  It's all just negativity and I don't like being so negative.  It's overwhelming.  I just keep trusting in the hope that if I just keep plugging away eventually I will be able to see blue sky above me and will be able to breathe again.  I'll keep you posted ;)

Now that it's December, I can show my November Mystery Sock photos - Moody Stockings :)

This is actually the second sock that I test-knit for this pattern.  I thought I was losing my mind as I knit the first sock.  No, really,  I did.  To keep my needles organized, I keep them in their original packaging so I can just look for the size I need and grab them without measuring.  This is important to mention because I knit my socks using the circular needle method so the needles need to match.  As I was knitting my first sock, I would grab one of the needles and think, "wow, this needle is huge, this can't be a US 1".  I'd finish my round and would grab my needle gauge and would pick up a needle, "nope, US 1".  Okay.  I'd knit a bit further, "Seriously, this can't be a US 1!".  I'd try it again and the needle I picked up would fit perfectly in the US 1 slot.  This went on and on and on.  The sock fit further up my leg than it would normally have done given the CO number but I thought it was just looser due to the texture pattern, I knit fewer instep rounds than I usually do but still thought it must be some sort of fluke.  I couldn't figure out what was going on.  I finished the entire sock, kitchener'd the toe, and took both needles to the needle gauge.  I had knit an entire sock using a US 1 (which was the one I would keep grabbing when I measured before), and a US 2.  What I felt as I realized this was a mixture between Validation!  I wasn't insane - it was bigger than a US 1 :D  and wow, what a dumbass - why didn't you measure both needles at the same time before?  Then it hit me that I would have to knit 2 more socks instead of 1 for a matching pair and the validation elation wore off...  The second, well, third Moody sock is still on the needles and will remain a WiP until who knows when.  I'm not sure when I stuck a US 2 in a US 1 package and vice versa, but the issue has been sorted out and fixed and will hopefully not be repeated ;)  However, I am using the first Moody Flub Sock as a mixmatched pair so that worked out!

Another illustration of my postponements of late would be the following 2 FO's.  Last year the Dreams in Fiber Household went to the Indianola Balloon Festival and I had the thought - now wouldn't those make fun Holiday ornaments?  

 

I had the original prototype finished last Summer with the intention of releasing the balloon ornament pattern along with a few other patterns last December.  Nope.  Released them this December.  Hey, it's one thing that I could cross off my list!

The other FO that will be a Holiday gift for little miss is this Flip Top Bag.  Remember those sandwich baggies that were around before the zippered versions?  This is one of those only knit.  I've sewn a few of these bags before but thought it would be an easy way to use up scraps and to make a bag that can be used for Holiday wrapping or stuffing pj's in...  

 

This particular bag (minus the embroidery that I had planned on adding once upon a time) will be used to house some doll clothes.  I have always wanted to have a Molly Weasley Christmas where all of my minions and hubby would receive sweaters.  I have accepted that this would not be my Molly Weasley year but I still couldn't let go of knitting the minions sweaters.  So I knit them each a sweater for their stuffed animals.  They will get more sweaters, but I'm starting with one a piece.  I'm almost done with both - I think I need sleeves on one and sleeves and a collar for the other.  Pics will follow.  It is really an insanely easy project that didn't take much time - just a rectangle with some creative seaming.  This is the smaller version (again, knowing my, uh, limitations...) but I'll probably whip out a few larger ones next year.  There are only 20 days until Christmas and less than that until the Mayan Calendar runs out - should be interesting!!!

The third pattern that I released recently was finished and gifted last December - a wee doll blanket.

Little man had a great Birthday and THANK YOU to those that sent him presents.  I have every intention to send out Thank You's with the Holiday Cards but I seem to be on a roll lately so if they're late...  

 

The hubby had a nice birthday as well.  I don't know how well being in the "mid-thirties" range is agreeing with him but there's really  no helping that.  

We went down to the in-laws's lake house over Thanksgiving weekend and the minions got to spend some time outdoors.

    

The weather was a bit chilly and damp though so Grandpa H brought out a new "toy" for them to play with. 

I need to spend some quality time with my To Do List and clear out a few WiP's so I can get a few more projects started/finished.  I have a rule when it comes to the Holidays that each minion has to make something for the other.  I will help them, but it is their idea and if it is knitted, they are required to knit actual stitches in the project.  I haven't started either minion project and they're both knit.  Gulp.  And I still need to finish embroidering the stockings along with other things...  I have finished a few Holiday projects though, the tree is up and decorated, and I've even wrapped some presents.  I'm getting there.

Last One of the Year

This is that jolly time of year where we are supposed to reflect on the past year and speak of resolutions for the upcoming one. I'm not a big resolution-maker; I like to make lists instead. So instead, I'll show you a few pictures of the minions and one more Holiday project photo (since I forgot to take a picture of the finished pair of socks I gifted to the hubby's Grandmother, oops!).

An earflap hat was requested by my SIL so that's what she got - this was knit using my handspun (2ply, worsted/HW, fiber: Fluff Oatmeal BFL in the Frog Prince Colorway). I rather liked how it spun/knit up.

Technically speaking, I do have a rather crummy shot of my G-MIL first finished sock that I never uploaded originally because I was going to finish those socks in plenty of time to take a much much cooler picture of later. Ha ha. I finished that sock the night before I gifted them to her so there I was in the hotel soaking the pair and hitting them with the hairdryer so they'd be dry by the next morning :)

They were on time though! Actually, I was only late on 1 item that was gifted - the rest I'm not counting because I pushed them back into January/February anyway, so there!

All in all it wasn't a bad year for me fiber-wise. I ended up knitting 15.2 miles worth of yarn this year (though I did count the Dark is Rising Club spinning because A) that was a lot of yardage, and B) it took up a lot of knitting time. I didn't count any other spinning though). Combine that with last year's 11 miles and holy hell, I made it through my marathon! Woohoo!!

This year's project tally:
hats: 17
cowls: 6
pairs of mitts: 3
sock pairs: 6
bags: 2
scarves: 3
single socks: 7
pairs of mittens: 5
pairs of legwarmers: 1
ornaments: 6
eye pillow: 1
shawls: 2
gnomes: 4
misc little projects: 7
towel: 1
dishcloths: handful
new original patterns on Ravelry: 11

What else did I do in 2010? Both minions are in school now, I started volunteering in their respective classrooms a few times a week, the minions grew by leaps and bounds and did well in school and during swimming lessons over the Summer, I got my yard mowed in the Spring before my neighbor did (mwahahaha), AND most of our leaves were bagged up before the snow arrived (this is huge! trust me), there was a lot more spinning/working with handspun, I began stranded knitting and haven't looked back since, and I put on my first solo largish Yarn Club. Not too shabby. Though I really fell off the sock wagon this year - what the hell happened there? That will have to be remedied in 2010 -- Guess I have a resolution after all! The hubby and I will also be starting our second run-through of P90X so that will be fun. After I make it through the first week again anyway.... That first week is a killer!

I have the Knit In coming up at the end of January that I am busy dyeing for at the moment and I have some plans for new colorways and kits and Clubs and Collaboration Clubs... Busy busy busy and loving every minute of it! Goodbye 2010 and Hello 2011!

A New Post for the New Year

January is almost half over! That didn't take long. I think I left off right before Christmas. The Holidays were good to the Dreams in Fiber household. We were able to spend time with family and the minions were able to tear open many a package, not necessarily all theirs :) Here's a little mosaic of some of the festivities. It's rather difficult to take a good picture with all of the activity!Little miss was not overly thrilled about having her pictures taken so she ended up hiding and/or sulking off by herself for part of Christmas Eve. The other photos include my Grandpa B, my cousin D, my cousins J and R posing for the camera, little man, and my nephew T.

Early last year, my friend J and I decided that it would be fun to do a birthday swap and a Holiday Swap. In the package I received was a fabulous crocheted afghan
and my very own Dalek!
Also included in the package was a crochet answer book and some various edible goodies and fun stuff from Florida. It was perfect really, because I have had crochet on the brain lately! Part of the package I sent her included a secret keeper bag and an assortment of books and coffees.
All in all, my knitted in '08 list was pretty respectable. I ended up with 15 completed pairs of socks, 4 single socks, 5 hats, 10 mini sock ornaments, 3 scarves, 1 pair of mittens, 1 blanket, 13 round ornaments (which I still have yet to photograph!), 13 felted bowls, 2 pairs of fingerless mitts, 3 pairs of wrist warmers, 3 bags, 2 cowls, 1 oven mitt, and 1 mini thong. Plus a few projects straddling the years that I don't count in the overall totals. I should probably show you a few more of those completed knits!

Do not adjust your screen, these are two of my single socks. The sock on the left is for my MIL and the sock on the right is for my Mother.
Here is the pair of wrist warmers for my SIL A
and the pair of camo fingerless gloves for my Brother.
When I was knitting the scarf for Grandma D, my MIL mentioned that she liked the colorway I was using and since I had plenty of that particular yarn left, had asked if I could make one for her. I decided to use a different pattern. Pardon the bad photo, I was trying to get one up for my Ravelry Projects page and haven't taken a full view photo of her Scrunchable scarf.
My FIL is as difficult to knit for as he is to buy for. I told him that if he didn't give me a project direction he could end up getting whatever I came up with, including a rainbow thong. He chose a scarf. Again, sorry for the photo... I'll get a better one later.
Wrapped up in his scarf was a tiny little rainbow thong.
I drew my Hubby's Aunt K in the Chicago Family Christmas swap and chose a silvery gray Malabrigo. On the right is a simple cowl and the left is a pair of mittens. Originally I had a different mitten pattern in mind and halfway through the first mitten I noticed that it was going to be a tad too tight but would fit me just fine. I decided to create a new pattern for her mittens. I have always loved the textured patterns in the fisherman's sweaters and thought that a simple all-over pattern would work well for the Malabrigo. I'm working on a pair for myself in brown. I'll finish the original mitten pattern one of these days.
So what is in store for the new year? I'm not really one for making resolutions; I know what I want to accomplish, I don't need a new year to start to make any needed changes. I am working more from my stash and even destashing a bit. I'm not going to say that I wont buy any yarn in the new year because I know I don't have the needed yarn for some of the projects in mind for 2009, but the stash enhancement will probably be minimal. I mentioned before that I have crochet on the brain and I am doing my best to finish up some of my WIP's/yet to be started projects on my list before I get to work with a hook but rest assured, there will be crochet in my end of 2009 project tally! Coming up in Early February is the 3rd Annual Des Moines Knit In where I will be donating some of my hand dyed yarns and meeting some local Knitters. And I have started to attend a Knitting Group which should be fun :) I haven't been dyeing much this Winter seeing how it's a bit difficult to open up all the windows and ventilate the house but come Spring you will be seeing new skeins on my Etsy site. I have been working on a list of colorways and themes for the upcoming Spring/Summer/Autumn which I am excited to get working on. In the meantime, I am exploring some different non-yarn products to list on Etsy. I will also be designing some new projects for my friend J's upcoming Wizard of Oz Sock Club. And of course, there will be more fun and photos with the minions! So... it's a bit late, but Happy New Year everyone! With any luck, it will be a good year for all :)