Finishing off Christmas

I know I posted a lot in the months leading up to Christmas about my Christmas knitting plans, but I haven't posted completed photos of some projects yet. Also, as with so many things, the plans changed partway through, and, well, uh...moreprojectswerekindofaddedtothelistdon'tshootmeI'monlyhuman.

Firstly, after endless-seeming slogs, I finished my dad's Naniboujou socks:

They came out awesome, my dad loved them, I'm super pleased with how they look...I will simply never knit this pattern again. There's nothing wrong with the pattern, you understand, and honestly I'm not sure what's wrong with me that I feel this way because it's just made up of a simple colourwork motif that shouldn't be a problem at all...but actually making these things felt (for me) like it was taking forever. YMMV. (In fact, I certainly hope YMV, because those socks really look great.)

Also finished was my husband's sweater, which I'm not going to picture here because I haven't bothered taking a final shot yet. This is the sweater on which I spent copious amounts of time in 2014 frogging from its original version (made in size L), and (after meticulously soaking and stretching each ball of reclaimed yarn to eliminate the kink) re-knitting in a smaller size so it would actually fit him (size M). And what happened? It's still too damn big, is what happened!

So discouraging.

So I don't know what the future holds for the sweater now. I suspect I will be frogging it again, but I really don't have the heart to try and re-do it in the size S. I think, despite my (late) MIL's wishes for this yarn for her son, that I will find another pattern to use for this yarn. (She would understand. She definitely would not want me to lose my mind over this.) Perhaps I will even design said pattern myself. We shall see.

Another project I finished which was not Christmas knitting was my Water for the Elephants socks:

 

 

I LOVE THEM. I love them because they look fabulous and they feel fabulous, and Rose Hiver is a frickin' genius with colourwork.

And then, as Christmas really started getting nearer, I had an idea for more gifts. Because I am an idiot who doesn't know when to quit, apparently. I thought, wouldn't it be nice if I made fingerless mittens for all the other people in my cubicle foursome at work? Because it is always really freakin' cold in our part of the office? (Seriously. As in, my-nose-starts-getting-red-and-my-typing-speed-slows-way-down-because-I-can't-feel-my-fingers-properly kind of cold.)

Sure! Why not?

And so.

For my up-until-very-recently boss (we just had a re-org), who loves black and pink and sparkly things, I made Laura Rintala's Winter Twilight Mitts:

(You probably can't tell from this shot, but the pink yarn is totally, totally sparkly)

For my co-worker who has a very beautiful grey cabled cardigan that she keeps at her desk when she's in need of warmth (i.e. all the freakin' time; see description of cold office above), I made Nanika Bayliss's Fancy Gauntlets:

And finally, for my co-worker who has at least two different tops in an absolutely gorgeous purply-fuschia because she loves the colour so much (and looks really good in it, I might add), I made Victoria Anne Baker's Treads, adapted to be mittens instead of gloves because her fingers bother her a lot and it was more comfortable for her to not have them separated:

These had to be reknitted a few times, partly because I messed up the pattern and partly because I realised most of the way through the second mitten that I was going to run out of the main colour. So I did some stash-diving and found some leftover fingering weight yarn in the lighter pink colour you see there. I doubled it up, used it for the texture motif, and - bam! It looked even better than when I had made it in just the original darker colour. Fortuitous! (Annoying that I had to make about five mittens to end up with two, but still - worth it.)

All three of them were delighted with the surprise and I have been seeing the mittens get worn, which makes me feel awesome.

Many pairs of small things

(Almost done getting caught up on talking about my projects after months of blogless knitting)

So in my last catch-up post, I promised to talk this time about small projects I've been working on that come in pairs. There have been many of them!

For Mother's Day this year, I got two balls of "Darling" sock yarn, from Katia, in a really nice colourway:

I turned it into socks for me!

Pattern is "Viking Socks" by Karen S. Lauger, which has been in my queue for ages. Great socks.

Actually, I've been working from the queue quite a bit, because I also made some "Double Heelix" socks, by the lovely Jeny Staiman, for DD1:

DH got a pair of socks for his birthday, made from my ol' reliable Hat Heel pattern:

I used the same pattern in a smaller size for DD3, using the leftovers from my Viking Socks:

(She loves them.)

More queue-busting occurred when I made some more socks for me using the "Circinus" pattern, by Rich Ensor:

And the "Ornette" socks, by the ever-faboo Cookie A:

They were also for me. I adore them.

And the "Nemesis" socks by Susan Dittrich:

These are destined to be a Christmas present for my oldest BIL.

And the gorgeous "Jane Bennet Socks" by Rachel Coopey, for my niece's Christmas present:

And the amazing "Fightin' Words" by Annie Watts, for my brother's Christmas present:

At his request (he saw this pattern over my shoulder one day and went nuts for it), I recharted the right mitten so it would say "PLOW" instead of "POW". (He drives the zamboni at work, which is also referred to as "the plow".)

And for myself, I've almost finished "Water for the Elephants" by the very talented Rose Hiver - I just need to block them and weave in the ends:

And I got started on some "Stitch Surfer" socks by Louise Robert:

And I decided to make the "Naniboujou" socks by Chrissy Gardiner for my dad for Christmas:

Except it's just really tough mentally to wade through. Not the instructions, I mean; just the knitting of the sock itself. For some reason, for me personally, it just drags and I've been finding all kinds of excuses not to work on it. Sorry, socks. And sorry, Dad.

And (by golly I've been good about working from my queue, eh?), I got started on a pair of "Absinthe" socks by Sara Morris, for DD1:

(Sorry about hurting your eyes there.)

Michaels was having a sale on "Serenity Sock Weight Prints" by Premier Yarns, so I bought two balls and used my Hat Heel pattern again to make socks for my two oldest daughters. DD2 got a purple pair:

And DD1 got a cheerful multicoloured pair:

DD1 gives this yarn a big thumbs-up; she says it's not itchy at all, and she's quite sensitive to that sort of thing (I get complaints about the itchiness of her other socks a lot.)

DD2 needed a new pair of mittens this winter, so I sized down the needles on my own Minaret Mittens pattern and produced some:

In June, I started making another pair of Hat Heels for DD3 out of the leftovers from DD1's Double Heelixes:

...But I pretty much ran out of yarn after finishing the foot. I started using another yarn for the legs, but I ran out of that, too, so now I'm not sure what to do and it's been languishing for so long DD3's feet might be too big for it now! But every now and then she reminds me about them so I think I need to finish them soon or I'll be in trouble. :)

Wow...that's a lot, huh? Next post will hopefully be the last catchup one, and I'll talk about all the remaining projects I've been working on that are not small pairs of things!