A Lot of Catching Up to Do

Happy 2011!!!

I realized this morning that I haven't posted in AGES!!!  I was having a hard time thinking of posts since all of my knitting was gift knitting, and then we were out of the country for the holidays.  Needless to say, I'm back, and I have a lot to share. 

Here are some of the holiday gifts I wasn't able to post before...

Here is the winter hat I knit for my Mom.  We went out to Banff for the Christmas Parade, and after a stop in the Jacques Cartier store, I came home with some beautiful yarn.  It is 50% Qiviuk and 50% Wool.  The yarn is thin, but really warm.  I was able to make this cabled hat in a few days, and I gave my Mom the rest of the yarn...one ball made an adult hat with extra repeats and I still had about half leftover!!!  I am really happy with this project, and I think Mom liked it.

Next up, this super cute knitting basket ornament.  A bunch of my knitting buddies came over for a Secret Santa Swap Party right before we left on holiday.  My partner asked for handknit stuff, and mentioned ornaments, so I whipped this little guy up.  The original pattern suggests making mini hanks of yarn, but I made balls instead.  The knitting needles are made with toothpicks and beads.  I may make one for our tree next year!!

This next project involved some design modifications by Hannah.  We went through my yarn stash and she planned out the hair, tights, and shoes.  She even wanted to pick the eye color for each doll.  The blonde doll is made much more like the original pattern.  She has tights that go all the way up to her white bloomers.  The brunette doll (I don't have a good photo of her legs...sorry) has black shoes and white ankle socks.  We then carried the skin color all the way up to her bloomers.  These dolls took a bit of time, since every hair is stitched individually, and the doll is seamed, not done in the round.  I made them for our niece, and despite the effort it took to make them, it was well worth it!!

I had been wanting to try cables, so I found a pattern on Ravelry that everyone claimed was a good starter project.  The hat is based on one of the Harry Potter movies...I'm not a HP fan, so I can't give you much more info than that.  I made these before I made my Mom's hat, and I think that they gave me the courage to try hers.  The gray one was made for a friend of ours who is a huge HP fan (she saw the white one and knew what movie/character the hat was from without me saying anything!), and the white one was for my sister-in-law.  Not too shabby for my first real go at cables!

Finally, I made a bunch of dishcloths and hanging towels for my sister and sister-in-law.  They seemed to like them, and I hope they find them useful. 

Now that Christmas knitting is done, what does 2011 have in store??  Well, you'll notice that my WIP charts in the sidebar are multiplying!  We have several babies on the way amongst our family and friends, so I'm going to be making baby stuff like crazy!!  Two of the babies are due next month, so my needles are on fire!!!  After that, I have a break for a few months, with the next bundle arriving in early May.  So far all of the babies are girls, so the plan is to make a bunch of girly things and then just split them up. 

Wish me luck on getting through the To Do List!!!

Cheers!

Sharon