Hedgehog Knits

Adventures in knitting from the eastern edge of Canada.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Gift Knitting

I have discovered yet another reason that I love our house: we're on the up-wind side of the street. I have spent a good deal of time these last few days digging out from successive dumpings of snow, but the folks across the street definitely have it worse. The wet snow has made for heavy shoveling, but it does make the neighbourhood look pretty.

The view across the street.

I have a number of FO shots to share with you, so I thought that today I would give you a round-up of the Christmas gifts. I tried to keep it under control this year, inspired by memories of casting off a scarf last year at 2AM on Christmas morning! The red sweater that I designed and knit last spring was a gift for my aunt, an accomplished knitter herself, and she was delighted with it. And my mom really likes her Swallowtail shawl.

This touque, in Smart Superwash, was a requested replacement for a similar gift last year which, sadly, was lost. I knit a different pattern this year. making it up as I went along, out of the same yarn to match the scarf given last year.

Gift toque, in Smart Superwash, 90 st with cabled ribbing, modeled by yours truly.

Then there was the rescue knitting for another aunt. She had knit this lace sweater up to the armhole decreases, but given the challenges of decreasing in pattern, combined with a really poorly written pattern, she passed it off to me to finish. The yarn, Mandarin Petit, is a fingering weight multi-ply cotton. It's quite nice and soft, and I would definitely use it again. The pattern though, I hope to never see again.

The rescue knitting sweater, pre-blocking.

And then, there were the jackets for the wee ones of the family. I chose to try out the Accordion pattern from Knitty.com in Knit Picks Swish Superwash.

Accordion jacket, size 2 Toddler, in Knit Pick Swish Superwash.

Gauge was interesting with this project. I thought that the recommended yarns were worsted weight, but I had to go up several needle sizes to get gauge with the Swish. I think my jackets have a lot more drape than the pattern version as a result, but they are cute and warm nonetheless. I added an inch of two to the measurements to account for the notorious vertical shrinkage with this yarn, and washed the pieces before seaming. The only problem this caused was difficulty finding zippers in odd lengths, since it was difficult to predict the finished length of the garment until after it was washed.

It was on this last jacket that I fell down in the gift knitting department. I didn't finish it in time, and I still haven't gone shopping for a zipper - maybe later today. It will hopefully be finished in time to be a New Year's gift. The recipient won't know the difference - he's three!

Accordion Jacket, Size 4 Toddler, in Knit Picks Swish Superwash.

Must go finish off the shovelling. Happy New Year to all!

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Happy New Year...love the sweaters and I may just try out this pattern for my granddaughters.

Linda

1:42 p.m.  
Blogger Glenna C said...

That is a fine amount of gift knitting, my dear! Nice job. And happy new year to all you folks too, say hi to your family for me :D

1:48 p.m.  

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