I take my hat off to teachers

I haven't posted a lot of the things I've made over the last several months because I've been a bit distracted (studying for the boards, playing with my game-obsessed son, cutting up all the veg in my CSA, etc etc).  I'll try to get back into it so we have something to talk about when you visit, Win :)

This is a hat that I made for one of E's teachers.  I ran out of time in the Christmas rush and gave her this:

And so we worked out that she wanted a thick warm hat with a brim that she could wear while standing out in the carpool line ushering kids into cars.  And she's all about the color RED.  So here it is.

Pattern:  Anja's hat

Yarn:  Berroco Vintage Chunky

Love the pattern so much that I think I'll make one for myself :)  but in a different color.  Perhaps a brown tweed?

Her ears were cold

Made for my neighbor - her choice of yarn and pattern.   Matches the scarf I made first for her. 

Pattern:  Parisian Twist ear warmer

Yarn:  Berroco Borealis

Now that I look back, I don't think I posted about it.  A relatively quick knit - love knitting with bulky yarn.  Messed up the pattern at the beginning and had to rip it out a couple of times.  She picked out the pattern.

Pattern:  Loopluftikus.

A new Angle for 2013

This week I have been madly knitting ... got a late start on my Christmas present (on the plane on Christmas day ...) to my favorite niece, who is also visiting here in Virginia.

A week and a half of steady knitting, and it is done!  Love the colors!  I found them at Stitches Midwest at Tucker Woods.  They offered "BB Cakes", small cake-like skeins of yarn in lovely saturated colors.  

I love this pattern for many reasons.  One, it is ribbing, so it will fit for a long time.  If you pull the ribbing apart, the valleys are a different color!  Very clever design.  Two, it is knitted in all one piece!  Just a little kitchener for the sleeves at the end, plus the border, is all the finishing it needs.  I like the punch of color in the front flap.

The button is also super cute.  I reinforced it with some sewing thread to ensure it never falls off.

Pattern:  Angle

Yarn:  Tucker Woods Molly's Toes, superwash sock  yarn

Cute cloche

A gift for my cousin Rosemary in Montreal, made to go with her gray coat and a pink-purple coat.
Very fast - sometimes I love crochet!  I'm really happy with the way this turned out.

Pattern:  Jeannette's Retro Cloche

Yarn:  Rowan Cocoon
merely inches left of the gray skein

Charmed

For some reason I've been into charm bracelets lately.  Was inspired by one in my neighbor's jewelry collection, and thought hey, it would be fun to assemble some charms with some meaning to me.   Turns out, kids love this.  It's a fun way to talk about things that have some meaning to me with kids - and we could all use an excuse to talk about meaningful things, no?  

So I recently put this one together for my best friend, who also happens to be a pediatrician.  Here are a few of her favorite things.

blanket

When I visited my cousin this summer, she took me to her local yarn store and she loved the colors of this yarn.  So I bought it and asked her what kind of baby blanket she might like.  Turns out she had already gone through Ravelry and noted on one of her 'favorites' - "Mel, can you make this?  :)"

Indeed.  Though she had to pick a pattern with a lot of purl rows :)

Pattern:  Mountain Chickadee
Edging:  found in a book ("Crochet Edging," appropriately enough) I found at a Stitches East book signing
Yarn:  Casbah.  Used every inch!
 rimmed with a sea green sock yarn I found at Stitches Midwest

Finally (in) his shell

Look!  I finally finished him!

5 years ago I started Sheldon, which was a popular pattern on knitty.com.    The thing about knitting toys is that there are a lot of fiddly finishing details. I finished just about everything except his eyes and limbs, and then I got discouraged when it came to putting the pieces together.  The shell and the belly are attached with icord, for example, and that was beyond my knitting skills at the time.  And so he seemed doomed to never be finished.

Then E comes home from school and tells me that their class pet is a turtle.  Named Sheldon.

So I resurrected him and finished him as a Christmas present from his teacher.  

She probably thinks I'm a bit crazy.  

But at least I finished him!!

Pattern:  Sheldon, on knitty.com

Yarn:  Knitpicks simply cotton

Be sweet

Visiting my SIL's darling little one ... Born late August, so cute! Here she is modeling a hat I made from a skein of Be Sweet cotton. The ball band pattern is cute, but the size was a bit off - it said it would fit a 3-6 month old, but even with using a size smaller needles the circumference was 19"! Into the dryer and got it down to around 15". And here they are.

Thought the yarn would transition between the color changes, but it turns out that it's merely knotted.  I took the knots out and wove the ends in so that no knots would end up by the baby's head.  Good thing it claims to be giving jobs to South African women, else I might be a bit more miffed.

Yarn:  Be Sweet Taffy (bamboo cotton blend)

Pattern:  Sweetie Pie hat (on the yarn label)

  (skipped the bobbles)

Wind beneath my wings

pattern:  Wingspan (over 4000 projects in Ravelry!)

yarn:  Noro Taiyo sock, found at the Midwest Fiber Fair

recipient:  a friend, for her 40th birthday

Love this pattern!!   Super easy - it's basically a whole lot of garter stitch and short rows.  Perfect traveling project.  Most of this was knitted at the pool this summer.  The original pattern is a "shawlette" and only called for 8 triangles, but I basically kept going till the end of the skein because I was envisioning more of a scarf.  3g of yarn left!

I think I see one of these in my future for myself ...

silk comfort

I made this for my friend in Houston, so I chose a fiber that was 100% silk by Araucania (Chaiten) - it's sort of a matte nubby finish, which is really nice and drapes really well.  I used the Lace Ribbon pattern that I love - so easy to memorize, easy to execute (once you get the hang of it), and looks complicated.  I made it a bit wider than the pattern so that she could use it as a shawl in the air-conditioned buildings that she works in.

It was originally intended as a prayer shawl of sorts - something to give her a modicum of comfort in the aftermath of her mother's recent death - but turned out to be a congratulations-on-your-engagement gift :)

you knitted what?

My best friend's mom recently passed away.  It's not much, but maybe my friend will feel a little love from me when she takes out a kleenex.  

Pattern:  Zakka tissue cozy

Yarn:  Noro Aurora, a little bit leftover from another project

(I love this yarn and am sad it's discontinued)

(if you ever see me contemplating a toilet paper cozy, you may need to stage an intervention)

Ruffle madness

The new fun yarn at Stitches last year.  One skein!  It's a ribbony yarn - you stretch it out, wrap it around a cardboard tube, and then knit into the edge.  So easy, fast, and gratifying.  This was a birthday present for a friend living in a sunny clime. 

Yarn:  Acacia Yarns, Flamenco

Pattern:  8 garter stitches

Needle size - doesn't really matter.  I think I used something around a 10.