Christmas presents sneak peek

I'm getting really excited about Christmas being here so soon! I love making hand made gifts for people, it's something that was ingrained in me from my crafty parents since birth! Lately the gifts have been knitted items, from sweaters to scarves. Winter is the perfect season for knitting and I can't get enough! It's almost more fun to make the presents than it is to receive them (almost!). Anyway here is a quick look at a present in progress! I hope your holiday season is as fun as mine!

Colts Sweater Vest

I like to think the Colts beat the Browns this weekend partly because Justin was wearing this amazing sweater vest that I made for him! Go Team! Anyway, he requested a Mike-Ditka-esque sweater vest for football season and of course I was happy to oblige! I just finished it in time for the game on Sunday. I used a vintage knitting pattern and my own version of charted intarsia letters and stripes, using 100% wool yarn from Knit Picks. You can see the details on Ravelry here. I'm extremely happy with it and so is he which is a big relief. When making something for someone else, especially a sweater, it's like a guessing game up until the finish if they'll like it or not; luckily Justin really likes it!

Also, I really do clean my house, those cobwebs are for Halloween!

Yori's accidental sweater

I spent a few months knitting this awesome wool/silk blend sweater for Justin using a pattern from a cool 60s pattern booklet. The booklet is subtitled "Choose-O-Matic" because you can take any of the patterns and alter them using the weight of yarn you want and the size. That has nothing to do with the sweater except I think the name Choose-O-Matic is awesome. 

Justin picked out the color and the fiber blend, and I figured I would make the medium based on the measurements of another sweater that he loves. However, for some reason, even though my gauge was correct, the medium turned out to be a tad too big. And he really hates the "baggy" look, even if it's just an inch or two of positive ease. Arg! I was so frustrated. 

The worst part about knitting versus sewing is that you can't really make a test garment (muslin) beforehand to get the fit correct. Live and learn. So he wasn't going to wear it and I wasn't about to start hacking away at it with my serger to get it to fit (I already ruined a sweater doing that). So my next great idea was to give it to my brother in law! He's a bit taller than Justin and the medium ended up fitting perfectly! I am so happy that it could be "salvaged" and enjoyed for all its glory. 

And I'll get the sweater right for Justin because he's requested the same one in a small. Bring on the brown yarn!

My Reversible Handbag

searching through my new bag!

the other side!

another version, using Heather Ross fabric

Dwarves at work!

the button clasp

all my knitting projects stashed in my new bag!

 

Last week Betsy posted her version of the "reversible handbag" with embroidery embellishment. Here's a couple of the "reversible handbag" versions that I made! I'm using one as an everyday purse which I made out of the new Melody Miller "Ruby Star Spring" collection and the other one with Heather Ross's Seven Dwarf fabric which is so cute!! I'm using that one as my project bag, as you can see it is full with yarn already!

Projects and Motivation

A lot of people ask me if I ever sleep. Needless to say I have a lot of interests, hobbies, and activities I like to do. It can be overwhelming at times except that I am also insanely organized and love to map out my day, week, month, year with all the things I am doing, would like to do, and need to do (and then reorganize that for better efficiency). 

One of the things I have noticed about myself in the years since being out of school is that I love to have a routine, and the routine usually includes rotating through various activities after work. Such as, one month I'll be really into knitting; I'll breeze through ten projects, plan out ten more, and just become totally consumed with knitting projects. Then that will sort of wane off and I'll get some great ideas for art making, then the next month is spent deep in paint, pencils, and paper churning out vast numbers of large and small works of art. Then I'll get a sewing inspiration and have to spend the next few weeks creating a new wardrobe for myself and all my close friends and family. If you know me (or read any of the four blogs I write), you know I’m not exaggerating! I don't really watch TV, and if I do I'm knitting while watching. I don't go out to eat or drink much, and take very few mall or shopping trips. This affords a lot of time to be busy giving myself carpal tunnel! 

Currently "on my needles" are a two-color patterned vest in fingering weight wool (I have about 1/5 left to do!), a brown silk/wool fingering weight pullover sweater for Justin (just have to finish 1/2 a sleeve and seam it up!), a two-tone slip-stitch patterned blue cotton fingering weight pullover for me (started at my residency, finished the back and set it aside to chill), and a three-color funky patterned sock from "The Joy of Sox" (a present from Dana!) using stash wool/acrylic yarn (almost done with the first sock. This was a spur of the moment project I started because I just needed something different to work on!). I'm also getting ready to start knitting small sets of Christmas presents for my close family. These are currently a bit of a secret but they are multi-colored wool and I will post a whole series about the process after the new year! 

So those are my current knitting projects, next week I'll post about the awesome sewing collaboration project I started with Dana!