Belated gift, belated post...

Although I have been knitting and crocheting lately, this post is about a project I finished months ago. Last fall, I was invited to a wedding reception across the country. (Not the wedding itself: they were married in a small ceremony over a year earlier). Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the reception, so I decided to knit them a wedding gift. I chose the Moss Grid Hand Towels, from Mason-Dixon Knitting.



I figured I would give it to them when they came back to Seattle after the reception. Well, I wasn't quite done. I had just started the second towel and was kind of bored with the pattern. It was right before Christmas and lots of gift knitting needed to be done. Also, I realized I wouldn't see them before the holidays so I decided to put the hand towels on hold... and didn't pick them up again until February. Oops... When I did get back to actually working on them, I promptly finished the second towel. You're thinking I gave them the towels as soon as they were done, right? You would be wrong...

Well, first there was the baby shower and I didn't want to give the wedding gift with the baby shower gift. Then it took a while before I saw both of them together. I finally gave them the hand towels with some fancy guest soaps at the end of April. Which explains why I didn't post about them earlier. Funnily enough, I gave them their wedding gift 9 days before the birth of their son... (he's very cute).



Details:

Pattern: Moss Grid Hand Towels, from Mason-Dixon Knitting, by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne.
Yarn: Knit Picks Cotlin, in "Linen". 2 balls each.
Needles: US 5/3.75mm
Started: November 2007
Completed: February 21, 2008
Gifted: April 26, 2008

Although the pattern gets a little repetitive, they're actually a fun knit. I would simply suggest alternating with a different project to break the monotony. I like the natural color, it gives the hand towels a rustic feel. The Cotlin is actually very soft, even more so after a run through the washer and dryer. The fact that it's machine washable makes it a great choice for towels. The cotton gives makes it softer to the touch than some pure linen yarns.



The recipients seemed really happy with the towels. When I suggested they use them as guest towels, both of them rejected the idea flat out... They said they would much rather use them themselves! That makes me a happy knitter...

A Surefire Way To Avoid The Dreaded "Second Sock Syndrome"

Why, knit a sock that needs no mate, of course! What am I talking about? A Christmas Stocking. This is the (long-awaited) secret project that came from the yarn pictured in my last post. See, I didn't forget to tell you...



Details:

Pattern: Fireside Stocking from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007 special issue. The pattern is by Kate Gilbert (whose pattern are brilliant, in my humble opinion). Modified to add the personalized border.



Modifications: Knit the pattern as directed until the end of the leg chart. Then, instead of knitting the hem straightaway, I knit a two-color braid using instructions from Latvian Mittens, by Lizbeth Upitis. For the personalized border, I came up with my own chart (wrote it up in Excel: my brother was so proud, as he creates Excel spreadsheets for everything, but this was a use of Excel that he hadn't thought of before...). I got inspiration from letter charts I found on-line and in different knitting books, but eventually made up my own to fit the number of stitches I had on the needles. The chart was for half the number of stitches, starting in mid-front. I knit it twice, which means my nephew's name appears on both sides of the stocking (his name will appear with either side of the stocking facing out, to account for hanging it on either side of the chimney... or to ensure that Santa Claus doesn't miss his name). I knit another two-color braid on top, and then knit the hem in red and attached it at the bottom of the personalized border.



Yarn: Cascade 220 in two shades of red (5013, 9404), three shades of green (8267, 9407, 2429), and ivory (8505). Instead of the blues and purples suggested in the pattern, I decided to go for reds and greens which I felt were more traditional Christmas stocking colors. Basically, I substituted the blues/purples for greens or reds on alternating rows of squares. I kept the idea of going from dark to light to dark colors for the greens. Because I only had two shades of red, I used the dark color for the center rows.



Needles: US 5/3.75mm in DPN and 16" circular needle. I used a slightly bigger needle size because I tend to knit more tightly in fair-isle.



Here it is, filled with presents for my nephew! He's too little to appreciate the stocking (or the presents, really), but his parents were very happy! And the stocking will be used for years to come...

Next up: a list of finished objects from 2007, plans for 2008, and a few resolutions...

A festival of finished objects (part 3)

Even though the some of the coffee stands on campus are now serving coffee in compostable cups and sleeves, there's always room for improvement. For example, you can reduce the use of cup sleeves with a new reusable crocheted cupwarmer!



This was a quickie! The pattern was published last year in Crochet today! and I remember intending to make one at the time. For some reason, I never got around to it. Other projects kept me busy. But when my friend Nora asked me recently if I could make her a reusable cup sleeve, I remembered the pattern and looked it up.



I set out (with Nora's help) to find a L (8.0 mm) hook. Not an easy task: my multiple LYS carried crochet hooks up to J or K, and then M/N (9.0 mm). But no L. Even JoAnn's didn't have any. I eventually found a L hook at Fred Meyer (go figure...).

I whipped out some yarn out of the stash (originally intended for a scarf, but I didn't have enough for a whole scarf and never found the right yarn to combine with it to make a scarf). The cupwarmer took about an hour to make, from start to finish, including multiple stops along the way to make sure it fit on an actual cup.



Details:
Pattern: Java Cozy, by Vashti Braha, from Crochet today! (Oct/Nov 2006)
Modifications:
- Foundation chain: ch 28 instead of ch 19
- Crocheted two additional rows with M hook at the top, to increase the length.
- Didn't do the slipstiched edging (top or bottom)
Yarn: Di.Ve Fiamma colorway 17017 (browns/purples/greens/red), about 1/3 skein (1 skein: 55 yards/50g)
Crochet hooks: L (8.0 mm) and M (9.0 mm)
Started: November 28, 2007
Finished: November 28, 2007




Isn't it nice? It's so easy to make and practical that I'm planning on making myself one, and maybe a few others as gifts... Save the planet with crochet!