Christmas Knitting Revealed

K's Dad

Well, one bit of it at least.

December was a bit of a mad month for me, as evidenced by my disappearance from this blog. Sorry about that, didn't mean to.

Anyway, despite having one of the maddest months of a pretty mad year, I managed to turn out five items of Christmas knitting, in time for them to be wrapped and under the tree on Christmas day.

Item one was a hat for my boyfriend's brother. Tragically, I didn't get a photo of it, so you'll have to take my word for it that it looked impressive. I did a variation on Emily Spence's Sheep and Wool Hat, in black and light grey, modified slightly because I'm an idiot and can't count, and so made it five rounds of six stitch high blocks rather than six of five. I also made the crown stripy rather than plain. Even better, I think he liked it. He grinned and put it on immediately it got out of the wrapping.

Item two is the hat illustrated above, for my boyfriend's dad. it's a variation on the Circular Bicolour Prime Rib (Brioche) Hat and was inspired by Grumperina's Blustery Day Brioche Hat. I increased the stitch count because they grow heads big in that family, and consequently slightly messed up the symmetry of the decreases, but he didn't notice, and liked the hat enough to be seen wearing it in public, even if it was only the once, to be polite.

Item three was a one row handspun scarf, made in Noro Iro for my boyfriend's mum. There was a bit of comedy around the fact that the yarn is pretty harsh and ropey when you're knitting with it, and I had to wash and tumble dry it to get it to soften up. The comedy came from the fact that I had to do this in her house, with her tumble dryer, without her seeing it. I managed it, but it was a bit of a struggle at times.

Item four was a Marsan Watchcap for my boyfriend's grandad in a lovely sagey green yarn.

Last but not least, item five was a pair of bed socks for my boyfriend's grandma. I used the International Sock of Doom pattern for these, as it's a super-quick knit and used lovely purple Rowan pure wool dk to keep her feet warm in bed (and save her from having to warm her feet on her husband's back).

Everything was well received, and I got a lovely warm glow from having done it.

Unfortunately, item six - a hat for my boyfriend - was stopped in its tracks when he began having an asthma attack when I started to wind the skein of beautiful alpaca yarn I'd chosen for him into a ball. Doh. Will have to find something else instead.

Item seven - a pair of transformer mitts for my mum hasn't been started yet. Nor have the mittens for my niece, wristwarmers and hat for my sister, or hat for my brother-in-law, but I've got at least two weeks before those are all due, so there's still time.