More Knitting, For the Record . . .

Colour and cutting adventures have not been the only knitting around here. Besides the mid-steek colour explosion above, blogged about the other day, I had a number of projects completed at the end of 2009 as Christmas gifts. With year-end busy-ness and my temporary blogging ennui and consequent hiatus from posting, I never did record these, so in the interest of keeping track, here they are. . . Sadly, the same combination of busy-ness and blogging ennui means I haven’t pictures of the completed projects being worn by the recipients, so you’ll have to fuel up your imaginations instead.

The scarf below is now in the possession of my daughter, Megan. Its fuzzy mohair should probably be reserved for the coldest of days, so I’m not sure how much she’ll wear it this winter. A stash-busting project using leftover Fleece Artist kid mohair, it’s shorter than I would have made it had I more yarn. To get around this problem, I knit a large buttonhole in the middle of the lovely undulating pattern (Misty Garden from Scarf Style), and sewed on a big (1 1/2-inch) natural wood button, so that it hugs effectively with still enough length in the ends. I like this button-featuring, yarn-saving look and would try this again, for sure!

I also made a cowl for my lovely daughter-out-of-law, Joey — it matches a floppy beret I made her last Christmas. I used the Quickie Cowl pattern, free, by Fawn Pea, and one skein of Lana Grossa’s Royal Tweed. This is a lovely yarn to work with, the pattern is truly a Quickie, and Joey professes to find the cowl both flattering and useful. I did get a photo of her in it, but it’s not as flattering as she deserves, so I’ll rely on this earlier photo I took of Aggie taking a turn on the catwalk (sorry!).

Another shot, so that you can see the pretty eyelet pattern.

And here is another Noro Striped Scarf. I finished three of these last year, so that each of my sons in-and-out-of-law could have one, making a total of four since I gave my son Zach one for Christmas 2008. Someday, I’ll have to get the four of them into one shot, all wearing their scarves. Meanwhile, I’ve been pleased to see them being worn — given how expensive the ingredients are (4 skeins of Noro Silk Garden EACH, at $15 per skein), and how much time each one takes — all that 1×1 rib, easy enough, but they’re long . . . . ., I’m glad they’re not just languishing at the back of a closet. My SOL, Rob, has been so good about wearing his every time he sees me — I’ve even surprised him wearing it once or twice, which pleases me greatly!

Here’s a close-up of another scarf/shawl I made — this one’s made from two skeins of Big Baby Alpaca — 22 stitches on 10 mm needles.

Again, no pictures of the finished product, but it’s very similar to the one pictured below, given to oldest daughter, Bronwen, Christmas 2008. 2009’s version had a similarly-sized button, but in a hot pink with an interestingly curved sculptural shape. This one’s a quick knit, a bit boring, really, but the result is satisfyingly versatile as the button can be fastened almost anywhere by stretching the large stitches around it.

So that’s the end of my Finished Objects for Knitting 2009 — and I’ve recorded them just before the end of January, not too bad, right?

Now to finish one of my UFOs for 2010 — I have a pair of socks that really only need a few more hours to complete; there’s a laceweight Alpaca scarf I could complete in a week or two if I picked it up again, my steeked sweater might be done by the end of February. Right now I’m getting impatient to make something else for little Nola and there are any number of cool projects clamouring for my attention, but I first want to complete the first FO for 2010!