How Christmas went

I dropped a lot of people off my knit-for list this year in order to have half a shot at getting it all done...and still didn't make it. But there were many successes!

Alas, my brother's cardigan was not one of them. The plan for him was to rip out the hoodie I'd made for him four Christmases ago (it was an extra-large, and he's since lost a lot of weight, so it was no longer wearable) and use the yarn to make Seanair. He's really into "grandpa" style sweaters, so this was guaranteed to be a big hit. Unfortunately, although I started in March and made excellent progress, other things kind of caught up with me and by Christmas day I had only the bottom fronts and the back completed. In addition, I had a sneaking suspicion that something had gone terribly wrong somewhere, because once I divided for the armholes and was able to lay the whole thing out, it looked big. Like, really, really big. Like, no WAY was this thing only 46" around big.

After he unwrapped it, I held it up to him and my fears were confirmed. Huge. Fortunately, he was really excited about it, even though he knows I have to rip it all out and start again.

I measured it yesterday. I am getting sixteen stitches to four inches in the gauge pattern...I'm supposed to be getting TWENTY-FOUR. I also measured the circumference: SIXTY-TWO INCHES.

Clearly, I will need to do some serious swatching to bring this thing down to size. I plan to do this in February after I've finished the knitting for my grandmother's 100th birthday and DD1's boyfriend's bar mitzvah.

My older BIL received only one sock on Christmas morning:

But I cast on for the second sock on Boxing Day afternoon and had a completed pair for him before I went to bed:

My niece got a Sugar Stick cowl, modelled here by DD1:

DD1 also got shafted on the morning of Santa Day, as I had only one Converse-style slipper done for her:

However, her reaction to just the one slipper was EPIC, and she happily wore the singleton around the house for two days until I could finish the second one:

She's ecstatic about them. :)

DD2 really loved her Citron cape:

DD3 adored her owl:

(Although the glue has come off around part of one eye; I'll have to fix that.)

DD1's friend got Florenz socks:

And then all the teachers got holiday presents. DD1's teacher got a hat I can't show you, because I designed it and submitted the pattern to a yarn company shortly after Christmas. But DD2's teacher got a Tartessos shawl:

DD3's teacher got a scarf to match the mittens I made him when he was DD2's teacher:

And DD3's ECE got a beret:

Finally, I managed to get gifts knitted for my cousin's children in time to pass along to my aunt for delivery before she left to spend Christmas with them. Their older girl got a poncho-y sweater:

And the baby got a little tunic top:

So there you have it - thirteen holiday gifts, twelve of them completed by December 27. Could have been worse.

As for myself, I got some lovely goodies. DH and the girls got me eight balls of Merino Mix DK weight yarn from Katia:

So many of the big items in my queue call for DK weight, and I never seem to have very much of that in my stash, so this was a very welcome present. I treated myself immediately after Christmas by casting on for Sotherton:

So much fun! Of course, as previously mentioned, I've got some hard knitting deadlines coming up in the next two weeks, so I'm going to be putting this away after today. It lives in my new project bag by JessaLu (thank you, Mom, Dad, and bro!):

I feel this is extremely appropriate, given that the pattern comes from Jane Austen Knits!

So it's been a good holiday season Chez Insanity this year. If you celebrate, I hope it's been wonderful for you, too. And all the best in the New Year for happiness and good health. As for me, I'm planning to get a head start by resuming the panic January knitting tonight while watching my new Battle of the Five Armies DVDs!

Happy birthday to me

My cousin's baby blanket was finished and sent off in time. I was fairly pleased with it, and it certainly got rave reviews from the various people I showed it to. So I did up a proposal and sent it off in the hopes that they weren't alone in their opinions. :) The baby herself has also arrived, and she's ADORABLE.

Many, many, many other things have been made and started since then!

I used up some of the leftover yarn support for Cervelli by making an Escargot for DD2:

I also started some matching Flappers mittens for her, but they're turning out too big, so I'll probably have to start over.

I finally finished her Pemberley Slippers, too:

(They then almost immediately busted some sort of weird hole, so I probably need to do some darning.)

I made DD3 a Hello Kitty hat for her birthday:

I finished another design prototype and submitted it somewhere, too. (No pictures yet, sorry!)

I felt like making a little something for the daughter of a co-worker (pattern is "Little Red (PDF)"):

I celebrated DD3's first day of school evar by making her her very own Parfait:

And I channeled my startitis into some good headway on the Christmas knitting. This Tartessos is for DD2's teacher:

This Necksome is for DD3's teacher, made to match the Handsome mittens I made when he was DD2's teacher about four years ago. I just finished it last night:

(I even did a single crochet chain all around it out of the leftover yarn from the mittens. Yep, crochet. Who even am I?)

I started Ignotus Peverell's Cloak for DD1 (it's much more advanced now than the picture shows, but I haven't taken any photos of it lately):

However, I recently discovered Reaverse Star Edition and instantly knew that I should be making that for DD1 for Christmas instead. I have cast on, but haven't taken any photos yet (and realised this week that I had screwed it up anyway, so I'm going to have to re-start).

I'm very close to finishing Sugar Stick for my niece (again, this photo isn't recent and the actual knitting is far more advanced):

So I think I'm in decent shape for the holiday knitting.

But wait, there's more...

I even dug a very old project out of hibernation and made excellent headway on it: the Hillhead slipover I had tried to make for my grandfather before his death. I'm going to give it to my uncle, who is battling cancer. You can't tell from this photo, which was taken shortly after starting the V-neck, but I'm just up to joining the shoulders together now, so it's pretty close to completion.

Some things I started were less virtuous and had nothing to do with upcoming deadlines. For instance, Geek Socks for DD2 out of the considerable leftovers from her Pemberley slippers, which I actually think I'm going to frog in favour of making her some legwarmers for skating class:

When Knitty First Fall came out in the summer, I absolutely HAD to cast on immediately for Dunfallandy:

(Turns out that wasn't so irresponsible after all, though, since my brother has a very close friend who's expecting early next year, so this will probably turn into a gift for that.)

I went queue-diving and started Christine's Stay-On Baby Booties:

I started the Twinkle romper for a family friend who's expecting her second child (don't believe the photo, it's actually quite close to being done):

I started Esther socks out of neon pink yarn for DD1 (haven't taken a picture yet, though).

And finally, I bought the yarn and got started on an Anatolia sweater for my grandmother, who is turning 100 (!!!) in less than three months. She's not in great health so I'm not actually sure it's going to make it to its intended recipient, but of course I'm going to try: