What I Did on My Winter Vacation

Every year around this time we head out to the end of Long Island to stay at the house of my beloved Aunt Jane. We love it out there at this time of year - the bracing walks on the beach, the snuggly times reading in the cozy house, the local seafood. Heaven.

Also, I have a lot of knitting time!! Before I go on vacation, I start thinking about what I'm taking, knitting-wise, wayyyyyy before I think of packing stuff like, oh, clothes, toothbrush, those kinds of things...

I like taking small projects on vacation and besides, I'm in a very non-sweatery knitting mood these days. I started and finished these:

Shelburne Mittens from the latest Knitty.com. Great easy pattern. I do love a textured mitten!! The yarn is from an unnamed big box store. The yarn I brought was impossible to get gauge with, so I popped in a store (yarn emergency!!) and picked up a ball of this insanely bright fuschia yarn. I like it though, and they'll never get lost in the snow!

These gloves I had already finished before I left, but they felt short to me, so I picked up stitches around the cuff and knit a couple of inches of garter stitch. The wonky, Wonder-Woman type shape of the cuffs was because I had added a sort of tab to put the button on, but added it on the wrong side on one of the gloves. So I seamed the tab to the side of the cuff and got that weird shape. Which I like, so that's cool.

Garter Stitch Sideways Gloves, in Claudia Handpaints Fingering weight, Zecca buttons.

I did some Momogus knitting too. Here I am zooming up the 2nd of a pair of Totally Twisty Toe-Up Tube Socks. Some vintage Opal sock yarn from the stash. These will never get lost in the snow either!


Finally, I made an Easy Colorwork Headband for myself, but just as I finished a cold front swept the East Coast, and I decided to convert it to a hat. It was super-warm! I'm going to write up the conversion-to-a-hat instructions and add them to the Free Patterns page of the website.

Easy Colorwork Headband, converted to a hat! Brown Sheep NatureSpun yarn.

Stay Tuned...

I got a little off track there after the holidays, but I'm getting back in gear now. Right now, we're taking a little vacation out at the end of Long Island. It looks like this and it's heavenly this time of year.

We're heading back this weekend and then there will be some great Momogus Knits contests and patterns coming down the pike. Stay tuned!

Holiday Present Ideas

It's that time of year again - for knitters it's variously a fun and/or a stressful time. Yes, it's holiday knitting time! Honestly, I'm ambivalent about the whole prospect.

I used to knit for everyone - because I could and because I couldn't imagine anything nicer than a handmade gift. But then I realized that there were some people - smart, funny, kind, loving people - who just didn't appreciate the wonderfulness of a knitted gift. So they came off the knitted gift list. And soon, I wasn't knitting holiday presents anymore.

But then gradually over the years, I've dipped into holiday knitting again. For me, non-garments are the way to go. But your mileage may vary, of course. I still think a handmade gift is the best thing you can give someone. Here are some quick little fun projects that I've enjoyed making and giving over the years:

Beaded Bookmark (Ravelry link)

This is my new go-to teacher gift. Knock this sweet little thing out in an evening, enclose a gift card to a bookstore, and you're done! Fingering weight yarn and about 25 beads (added as you go). Easy-peasy. The pattern comes with a half dozen variations of the beading pattern.

Tiny Sweater Ornaments


Oh, don't get me started on these. Last year I made a half dozen of these. I gave these to some dear friends. They're fussy, but also awesome (the sweaters, not the friends). The cable is fun, but the pattern also includes a plain version. Fingering weight - another small project you can knock out in an evening or two.

Cable Hot Water Bottle Cover (Ravelry link)

My husband thought knitting a hot water bottle cover was absurd, but he doesn't have crazy-knitter genes. I loved this (and actually kept it for myself). Eschew all those high-tech polarfleece, electrical-corded warming devices! A hot water bottle (you can still buy them in any drugstore) with a handsome cover is like snuggling up with a warm, non-demanding companion. This pattern is written for bulky weight yarn, so it goes quickly. There are a bunch of patterns on Ravelry, but this one was my favorite. This would be a nice gift for someone who lives in a drafty old house, or a reader, or an older person (wait - that's me!)

Tiny Felted Hearts

This pattern isn't written to be felted and the picture above is pre-felting, but I ended up stuffing these with yarn and felting them. Then I added a ribbon and gave them as ornaments to the above-noted fussy but awesome friends. I didn't put eyes on them, but those amirugumi creatures always make me laugh out loud. Poke around her website - her patterns are delightful.

So there you go - some ideas for you. But don't feel like you have to knit gifts for people. Only do it if you enjoy the process (knitting should be a stress-reducer, not a stress-inducer!!) and if you realize that not everyone will get the wonderfulness of what you did for them.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love giving and receiving presents as much (okay, maybe more) as the next person, but this time of year, it's good to take a break from your gift list and think about how you can make your world better. Here's a link to Interweave Press's list of charitable organizations and their guidelines for giving. Boy, just reading the list gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling!

Though every one of these programs is doing fabulous wonderful necessary work, one of my personal favorites is Heifer International. They donate animals, trees and other stock to needy families around the world in order to increase sustainable self-sufficiency. They have a "Knitting Basket" donation that provides two llamas and two sheep to a family for income-producing wool.

Each year Gus and I go through the catalog and pick out an animal to give. Two years ago we had Merry Chicksmas and last year was Merry Cowmas. He donates all of his December allowance and then asks relatives to each donate a few dollars too. And that adds up to a lot of chicks! Or one cow!

Most of these organizations will accept donations on behalf of someone else, so think of it as a nice alternative to a gift card to the local mall. A donation to a charitable organization is especially nice for a teacher's gift.

And, as I tell myself 10 times a day this time of year, stay calm! Take some time to stop and smell the pine and cinnamon scents around us, hear the beautiful holiday music, watch the twinkly lights, sip some hot chocolate, and appreciate all the little good things we have in our lives.

New Pattern! And Yarn Giveaway!

So, since I published it I've had 725 downloads of the Infinity Loop Scarf. That's a lot of Infinity Loop Scarves, folks! I hope that there are still a few of you out there who are not making Infinity Loop Scarves, since I have a nice new pattern to introduce. New pattern time! And a yarn giveaway! Yee haw!

One of the many things that I love about knitting is fair-isle or stranded colorwork. Honestly, you couldn't pay me to do intarsia (all those ends and bobbins!), though I know a lot of people love it. Look at this gorgeous insanity ("Foolish Virgins" cardigan by Kaffe Fassett):

The woman who knit this said she had FORTY bobbins of different colors going on each row. Excuse me while I curl up weeping in the fetal position. But hey more power to her!

But give me a good two-color knitting pattern and off I go! I love this:

(Bird in Hand mittens)

And this!

(We Call Them Pirates hat - lost at school for 6 terrible months and then found in the Lost & Found on the last day of school! Didn't have to sell boy to the gypsies after all.)

In the spirit of all that colorwork, I came up with an easy and fun introduction to two-color knitting, Easy Fair Isle Headbands!

Look!

They're good for ladies and men! They're warm (double layer of fabric)! They're easy (no increasing or decreasing and only 16 rows of colorwork!) and don't use a huge amount of yarn. They look great on the ski slopes, on the sidelines of your kid's soccer game, or gadding about town. They keep your hair tidy and fabulous and your ears nice and toasty-warm. They'd make a quick thoughtful gift for a teacher (those cold afternoons on the playground!) or friend.

I love the classic look of the color combinations above, but thought I'd take one of my million balls of Noro Kureyon (a self-striping yarn famous for its insane combination of colors) and use that as one of the colors. Here's the result:

Waah! Super-love!

I'm giving away two copies of the pattern with the following yarn (delicious Mission Falls Wool).

Leave a comment below* or on Facebook with your yarn choice AND your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal. Mine is my mother's old favorite, mashed rutabagas. Also I love that jellied cranberry sauce - from a can!!

*don't forget to include your email address

To Infinity (Loop Scarves) and Beyond!

New free pattern alert!!

I was recently asked to teach an Infinity Loop Scarf class at The Tangled Web and so I knocked out a pattern and some samples to bring to class. If you're not familiar with infinity scarves, they are basically just a gigantic loop - no pesky ends to deal with - which you wrap luxuriously and fabulously around your neck.

The pattern I came up with features a Ruffled Infinity Scarf:

(sample done in one of the ten trillion skeins of yummy Malabrigo that I've accumulated over the years)

And a Non-Ruffled version:

(sample done in Noro Taiyo)

Infinity scarves are fun and easy! They're great for using up odd bits of yarn, combining textured yarns, using self-striping yarns, and are a great mindless piece of knitting to pick up and put down. And of course, the holidays are coming up - they make a nice gift too.

I posted this pattern on Ravelry this weekend and had THREE HUNDRED downloads in the first 24 hours! Yikes.

Anyway, here's the link - go download and if you make one, please email me a picture or post on Ravelry or Facebook!

Easy-Peasy Baby Blankets!

I've been busy, busy, busy lately! First, in non-knitting, there was this:

The boy's Lego minifigure Halloween costume that consumed most of my waking moments for the past few weeks. That's a lot of cardboard and duct tape, folks! I didn't realize how much time I was spending on it, mentally and physically, until yesterday when it was finished and he wore it in his school's Halloween parade. I came home and actually didn't know what to do with myself!

Fortunately, there is always knitting. I set myself to finishing my two Easy-Peasy Baby Blankets. Here they are:

I increased to 126 sts on each - worsted weight cotton on a #7 needle (though next time I'll go up to an #8 to make it bigger faster - those last couple of increase rows were reallllllly long....) They both ended up about 22" square, which was a little smaller than I wanted, so I did 2 rows of single crochet around the edges to add about another 2" to the total width.

I really enjoyed these little blankets; I think they'll be my go-to baby gift for the next couple of babies that come down the pike. I like their plainness/simplicity and their garter-y goodness.

Here is the link*, if you have babies on the way who need a quick gift. Next post, new pattern and giveaway! Stay tuned!

[ETA: *It's the Marina's Soap Sock and Easy Peasy Washcloth pattern. I took the Washcloth pattern, which starts at one corner and increases up to 44 sts. I kept increasing up to 126 sts to make a blanket.]