Gift Knitting

Christmas has finally arrived, and I was able to knit a few gifts this year. I have a few rules that I follow when knitting gifts. First, make it small. This allows multiple gifts to be knit without driving you, the knitter, crazy. Second, make it machine washable, or at least easy to care for. Third, choose a pattern you enjoy. When knitting for someone else, just like giving any present, you can't be sure the recipient will actually like it, so you might as well have enjoyed knitting it.

Great projects that follow these rules include hats, socks, scarves or shawls, and items for the home. Below is Holden, a small shawl that I knit for my sister in machine-washable sock yarn.



A set of two organic cotton washcloths, All Washed Up and my own Corrugated Cloth:

Another set with Corrugated Cloth and Double Bump Dishcloth:

All of these gifts followed the basic rules for gift knitting, and I was able to add a little hand-knit goodness to my holiday. Bigger and better next Christmas, I hope!

Happy Holidays

Even though I am mostly all grown up, I am so excited about Christmas that I wake up ridicuously early not just on Christmas morning but also the two or three days prior to said event. I won't pretend like I'm not chomping at the bit to open some presents, but seeing family and spending time together is a larger contributor to my excitement.

And I'm giving some handknit gifts this year, of course. I haven't posted them here at Nothing Fancy Knits to avoid potential spoilers, but will be back next week with pictures of (hopefully) happy recipients with their handknit items. Until then, Merry Christmas!

New Pattern: Big Sweater, Little Pockets

I'm so excited! The pattern for Big Sweater, Little Pockets is live on Ravelry.

This sweater is sized for 2, 4 and 6 years and is intended to be oversized. Learn some new tricks, like the tubular cast on, and then relax with some stockinette stitch in the round. Two tiny afterthought pockets add a little interest to the front of the sweater, and bulky yarn means this project knits up quickly.




Buy it on Ravelry! See what some other fantastic knitters have done with Big Sweater, Little Pockets! Not a Ravelry member? Join here or purchase pattern without joining by clicking the "buy now" button below.

Striped Raglan Sweater

I've spent the last three weeks knitting a sweater for my 2-year-old. Due to his age and proclivity for messes, and my general dislike of handwashing, I used a superwash DK wool. I had a little bit of dark green left over from my ice cream cozy, so I added some stripes to keep it interesting. It's a percentage sweater. I used Elizabeth Zimmermann's wonderful book, Knitting Without Tears, and tried a tubular bind-off method for the first time. I can't say enough about the percentage method: you get exactly the sweater you want, and as EZ promises, you get it without shedding any tears.

White Caps Fingerless Gloves

As expected, this was the next project on and off the needles. I used much less than one skein of Knit Picks Palette in Rouge, which is an awesomely shocking pink-red.

Overall, a very well-written pattern, and I'm pretty sure my friend liked them. Sometimes it hard to tell with non-knitters, isn't it?

I Haven't Been Blogging, but I Have Been Knitting

School's in again, so while I've still been carving out time to knit, I haven't been as good about blogging. As a sort of apology, here's a quick rundown of what's been coming off my needles this month.

Most recently finished is a monster buddy for my son, knit with partial skeins of wool from my stash. The pattern is Adorkable Monster.



I knit a birthday present for my dear friend Frances, but used smaller needles than called for to get more of a neckwarmer. It's Lion Brand Alpine Wool, which is a lovely and soft roving-style yarn.

Simple Ribbed Cowl (pattern link):

Then there was Turn a Square. I actually made two of these: one for charity, and one for my husband, also in stash wool.

And last but not least, the Little Lebowski sweater has been done for a while, but fall is upon us and my son finally got to take it out for a test drive.

I just ordered more yarn (don't tell my husband), and I think these are on deck.

Tutorial: Make and Dye a Yarn Blank

I bought a great big skein of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool in natural cream and decided to play around with dyeing on Saturday. I used Paas Easter egg dye tablets that I bought on sale last April and a lot of vinegar to dye a yarn blank that I handknit.

Before:

After:

A blank like this could be used for a wide variety of projects, but I'm saving this one for a Fair Isle hat: all the color and half the work of a project that would normally call for six or seven colors.

Full tutorial can be found here, through Google Docs.