Christmas Knitting

Just finished blocking the second teacher's scarf. They turned out really well, and each has it's own character, due to the different yarn used. The pattern is Branching Out on knitty.com. These really were a fast knit. I'll bet you could knock one out in one day if you had a straight day of no interruptions. As it was, it took 2 or 3 nights of rink knitting for each.

I think the orange scarf is my favorite. Skye's teacher said her favorite color is orange, so I had bought a ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze from The Gourmet Yarn Company. Knitty's pattern directions say, and I quote, "if this is your first lace project, the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool is an excellent choice. It is extremely soft and light-weight, it does not split, it is easy to frog or tink if you make a mistake, and it has wonderful stitch definition. If you are a more experienced lace knitter, the Douceur et Soie makes a beautiful, feather-weight scarf." Well, I have knit lace before, have knit with the Silky Wool before and hated it, but the mohair turned out to be out of my league. Any pattern screwups could not be frogged without swearing and yarn breakage. So, in desperation, I went stashing diving (yay, me!) and came up with some leftover balls of Valley Yarns Southwick, which is a cotton/bamboo blend. Doubtfully, I combined the two together. It is wonderful! You get the soft, heavy cotton feel with a little mohair fizz for added luxury. It took two balls of Southwick and used about 75% of the Kidsilk Haze for 28 pattern repeats.

The white scarf is Elann Super Kydd (I had originally bought a package of three balls of it, one pink, one white, one blue for teacher's scarves and an extra, but the orange request threw that plan out the window). I didn't have any wool that was bright white and the cotton yarn was all 100% and too heavy, so I came up with a thin baby acrylic (Yarn Bee Baby Bee) that I had used for hats and was pretty soft and combined it with the Super Kydd. The result is nice. It has the light and lacy feel without the heaviness of the cotton. It's not quite as soft as the cotton/bamboo, but it's lacier feeling and still has the mohair fizz. I used probably about 50% of the Yarn Bee and 75% of the Super Kydd for 28 repeats.

I still have a blue and a pink ball of mohair that I may knock out last-minute Christmas gifts with, while the kids and I are home next week.

Elf Attire

Finished the Elf Attire for my son's play this Thursday (with 3 days to spare, oh my!). The hat pattern is on the Lionbrand website, Santa Claus Hat.



The boots are Curly-Toed Elf Slippers from Weekend Knitting. I used stash yarn (yay!), one skein of Red Heart worked doubled on #15s, and one skein of Lion Brand Fun Fur worked tripled. Unknown red stash scrap for the tassels.

Wet Fingernail Polish and other Knitting Roadblocks

Still plugging away on the kilt hose. One is completely finished with ends weaved in, the other is lacking 3 pattern repeats on the foot before toe decreases. I discovered yesterday that in my haste to fix a big problem and reknit the yarn laying in a tangled heap, (I failed to stop for the heel and did an extra 16 rows that had to be ripped back), when I did the heel flap I failed to add in the reinforcing thread, so now the heel feels floppy. I've gone too far forward, I've already turned the heel, picked up stitches and continued on the foot. I'll have to turn the sock wrong side out later and duplicate stitch the reinforcing thread in. I got the idea from Designs for Knitting Kilt Hose & Knickerbocker Stockings published by Schoolhouse Press. The author, Veronica Gainford, says you can go back and duplicate stitch the reinforcing thread on the wrong side of the sock, especially if you'd like to reinforce the sole but don't want to carry the thread across the top of the foot.

.With all of that going on, of course I've cast on for (Ravelry links) an Elf Hat and Slippers for my son's Christmas play next Thursday.

And I haven't even started the Christmas scarves and slippers.

So, with all of this going on, why am I pecking on the computer instead of knitting? Wet fingernail polish. Husband's office Christmas party is tonight at the Petroleum Club downtown. Now I remember why I stopped painting my nails -- decreased knitting time!