Recently Knitted Stuff

Thought I would post some of the things I have knitted lately. I have also been doing some knitting for Christmas, but those things are "surprises" - so I can't post them yet.

My mom and I had a rare opportunity to take a morning together to go shopping with no kids! Since we had some time we stopped by one of my favorite yarn stores, Castaway in Santa Rosa, and my mom found this really beautiful yarn (ggh "Vision) that she just loved. We decided that the yarn would be perfect for a short keyhole scarf. I researched patterns and found one called, Keyhole Scarf, by Kim Hamlin. The scarf pattern really kicked my butt, I just couldn't get the hang of the herringbone lace stitch. I must have pulled out and restarted this project 6 times - or maybe more! I even got some of the yarn so tangled that I had to snip it off before I started over! The other challenge was that the pattern is written for a single color yarn and not stripey yarn like I was using. So deciding how to do the keyhole without messing up the stripe was a bit of a worry, but luckily I untangled that green yarn I had snipped and could use it on one side of the keyhole, and then when I got to the next color I just had to improvise! I think it was worth all the work - we both like how it turned out. I am knitting one for myself out of the yarn in the pattern (Blue Sky Brushed Suri) in a pretty gray color.

(sorry I forgot to crop out the picture of my toes - way too lazy to fix it, at least my toenails are painted:)

I have been really into knitting hand warmers lately, they are so practical. These ended up being given to Jill as an early B-day present. I made these with some really nice Cascade Jewel yarn and my favorite cabled hand warmer pattern, Fetching by Cheryl Niamath, from Knitty.com. I reduced the number of stitches to 30 instead of 40 as the yarn is so chunky. They came out a little small and and aren't very stretchy due to the single ply yarn, but they fit Jill perfectly - so happy birthday Jill!

While I was working on my mom's scarf I started this other scarf that is a surprise gift for someone. I don't think she reads the blog or would assume the scarf was for her, so I don't think I will be ruining the surprise by posting it. This yarn just made me think of her and I already had a pattern for this yarn - so why not just knit it up - right? The yarn is Crystal Palace Mini Mochi and the pattern is Mini Mochi Rainbow Scarf in Beaded Rib Stitch. I am really in like with this scarf, it is soft and light and pretty. The only problem I had with it was with the yarn. In the middle of the ball the yarn was cut and drastically changed colors - sorta not so good when all the other color changes happen gradually? So, I had to spread all the yarn out and figure out how to piece chunks of it together to make the colors gradually blend. Since I am notorious for tangling yarn, it was kind of a pain! I only had one tangle and only had to cut the yarn in two places, but it was still some work. Glad it turned out so pretty and the color blips aren't too noticeable. Hope she like it:)

So if I have knitted all this stuff this month, when have I been working on Christmas gifts? I better get moving on those - it is November already! Aah!.