bioengiknitter

Happy New Year! Not dead, just busy. Still busy now, so this will be a picture-HEAVY post, finally showing much of my Christmas knitting. Some I had held off posting for fear that they would see it, and some I just didn't get around to.

I have to start out with the Christmas of the Pirate Hats! Talking with my SIL at the beach over the summer about what to knit for her kids (and our good friends' kids) for Christmas, she mentioned that hers would love pirate hats like I made for my boys last year. She has an 8yo boy and a 6yo girl. I immediately had an idea to do my niece's in purples. I didn't really like last year how the pattern got all mushed up toward the top of the hat because of the ribbed folded cuff at the bottom. I also had always wanted to try a hemmed brim like on the We Call Them Pirates hat. So this year's pirate hat modification was to follow the We Call Them Pirates hat a lot closer, using sport weight instead of worsted, and doing the lining with hem for the brim, but sticking with the chart from Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks that I used last year (which is also based on We Call Them Pirates). I did change the top, though, opting for a spiral decrease rather than the squarish shape of the original, as that shape was built into the chart, and the spirals would just be easier than reworking that into the single-color top I had planned. I had a ton of fun yarn shopping, as I wanted playful linings in variegated yarns that matched the outer yarns, as a bit of hidden fun for the kids. The pictures are modeled on my kids, as I don't have pictures with the recipients yet. I'll post a few of those when I get them. Here's what I came up with!

#1, for my niece (6yo). Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, in Lilac and Grapevine, with Purple Club for the liner, all purchased from emtnestr, my favorite eBay Lorna's dealer...er vendor. This was the first hat that I did, because it was smallest and I wanted to test the pattern on something that wouldn't be as painful to rip if I had to (I didn't).

click for bigger

click for bigger

And here's a peek at the lining:

click for bigger

#2 is for our friends' daughter (also 6yo). They live across the street from BIL and SIL (and just around the corner from us), and our three families do tons together. These girls are like another set of nieces to us, so of course they got hats too! This one is the exact opposite of my niece's, as they're the same age, same soccer team, you get the picture. Besides, doing it this way, I was able to get both of their hats out of one skein of each of the colors! Bonus.

Modeled by J--he wasn't crying, he was cold, complainy, and are we done yet? Yep, he's still 4.

click for bigger

click for bigger

click for bigger

#3 is for the older of our friends' daughters (10yo). She loves the combination of brown and turquoise, and brown and pink. So I knew I would do her hat in brown and one of these. I looked and looked and couldn't find anything that was just right, so I went back to Myra of Fancy Image Yarn, where I got the yarn for my dad's Husky socks. She had a brown and a brown and pink that I thought would be perfect for the main color and liner, so I emailed her to ask if she had a pink that matched for the secondary color. She wrote back that it'd be no problem, she'd just dye them all together to guarantee that they'd match. I figured since she was going to dye them anyway, it was worth it to ask if she could do it in brown and the Tiffany blue that's K's absolute favorite. I can't say enough great things about Myra. We emailed back and forth a few times, she told me to call to finalize things the next day while she was in the store, and when I called she already had the yarn dyed and ready to ship to me! I posted it before, but the beauty bears repeating:

click for bigger

And here's the final hat. The yarn is DK instead of sport, but that worked out well since she's the oldest and hence the biggest anyway. I love it!

click for bigger

click for bigger

click for bigger

And the liner, it spiraled! It was so cool to see it emerging.

click for bigger

#4 is for my nephew (8yo). Back to Lorna's Shepherd Sport, in Charcoal and Natural. I ordered some Aslan for the liner, but the grey wasn't dark enough to match the Charcoal. Oh, darn, now I have a skein of Aslan left over. Socks for me, here I come! For the hat I just striped the liner, and liked how that came out.

click for bigger

click for bigger

click for bigger

Phew! That's a whole lotta hats, and as much as I love them, I have to admit that I was pretty tired of knitting them by the end of the fourth one!

I'll just breeze through a bunch of smaller Christmas projects, this entry is getting long already!

I made these for the teachers--one for C, four for J, not all pictured. Yep, same as last year (details there). All very well received!

click for bigger

click for bigger

Then I made wristwarmers for SIL and our friend, moms of the kids of the pirate hats. These were super fast, and took just one skein of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes each. The pattern is A Little Twist Wristwarmers, by Wendi Dunlap. I mistakenly did a five-row repeat on the cables instead of the written 4, and didn't mind it so I kept it. I did the same on the second pair, just because I know I'd have messed it up changing it after already doing one pair. Anyway, the colors are Clematis Heather (my new favorite Knit Picks color, it's gorgeous!) and Indigo Heather, respectively. The Indigo isn't as bright as it looks in the photo, but it was the best I could get it before I gave up getting it to look right.

click for bigger

click for bigger

Having gotten all of that done, in a bout of really needing some instant gratification, I knit some of these:

click for bigger

click for bigger

And these:

click for bigger

Ahh, much better. The tiny projects, they are great for when you're all knitted out.

I have some other things to post, but they have nothing to do with Christmas, so I'll save those for another day!