2012 Christmas Knitting

Christmas 2012 is now in the books: the gifts have been exchanged, opened and even worn. Now I can post about the stealth knitting I have been working on since last March! 

First up are the Melody Fingerless Mitts I knit for my daughter Libby. I picked up this kit at Vogue Knitting Live! in Chicago, and had fun knitting with beads for the first time. The yarn was JoJoLand Melody Superwash sock yarn. Beads were black size 6.

My daughter Kristen was the sweater recipient for this year, and she had chosen this Drops design last January, along with several others. That way I could pick the one I wanted to knit from her choices, and she would still be surprised! I used Berocco Vintage yarn, which knitted up beautifully. This cardigan, knit in the worsted weight yarn, is very warm. Even though there is waist shaping, the more boxy style will lend itself to layering very easily.

 I immediately thought of my son's girlfriend, Cassie, when I saw this Vickie Howell pattern in a recent knitting magazine. Knit with a bulky yarn, Sheepish, it was a fun pattern to knit up. And the yarn is deliciously soft and squishy!

The men in the family all received beanie hats this year. I was having lots of fun with these and ended up knitting one extra which will kick off my chemo hat donations for Knit Michigan in February. This basic men's hat pattern was given to me by my knitting buddy Janet, and I was able to memorize it without much trouble. The worsted weight yarns made the knitting quick and easy.

                              And what a good-lookin' bunch of fellows, I must say!

I have to admit that using March as a starting point for my Christmas Knitting really worked out well this year. I was finished with the majority of the knitting in November, with just the usual loose ends to tie up just before Christmas.

Now, I am nearly finished working on a commissioned scarf/wrap, and plan to cast on for the Claudia evilla  knitted skirt in the Kauni gray ombre colorway for me! I also have plans to cast on the Rockefeller shawl by Stephen West, and that's for me too. You can see I have some selfish knitting planned to kick off the new year :-)  And I had so much fun knitting with beads that I picked up 3 more packages of beads that match some of my stashed sock yarn, so more fingerless mitts are in my future, I'm sure! 

Happy New Year!