#5 Danish Forest Scarf

Hi everyone 🙂 I told myself that I wanted to post something every week, and I have 30 more minutes left of today (March 1st). My family and  are in Newfoundland for a week so we are in this weird timezone. So tadaa! This is a scarf I made for a coworker as a secret-santa gift a while ago. I really underestimated how long it would take me to complete  this gift – so it was a lot of stress. But when it was finally done I was very happy with how it turned out. The color is a very warm red, and if I recall correctly the yarn consists of 30% wool. The overall scarf is quite heavy, which I prefer for winter scarves as they add warmth. I’m very very pleased with it. It took me a while to get this post up as, in my hurry, I forgot to take pictures before I gave it to her – so I had to ask her to bring it into work.

Have a lovely week everyone! Stay warm 😀

 

Sparkles and Christmas cheer

Hi everyone! As the term is slowing down (only one more final exam to go!), I can spend more time on the blog. It’s almost Christmas time, which calls for snailmail and Christmas cards, my favourite! My family sends out Christmas cards each year, but I’m old enough now where I also write cards to my closest friends. As always with snailmail, I find joy in sitting down and spending time writing a message to a friend, and then sending it across the world. There is just something wonderful about opening the mailbox and finding a card that is addressed to you. This Christmas I could not resist the sparkles on the cards – which now means that my study notes are also covered in glitter, but that is allright. I just thought the birds were super cute 🙂 Some cards have already been sent, and these two will go in the mailbox tomorrow, so hopefully they will reach their destination on time.

Are you writing Christmas cards as well? Isn’t it fun?!

#1 of 2014 – the last Christmas present

Hello again 🙂 It’s Tuesday and I can post the last present of the 2013 Christmas batch. This one was a hat I made for my grandmother who lives in France. She likes to garden and be outdoors, so I thought it would be nice to make her a hat. It is very simple, a rib 3×3 to start and then simply knit around on round needles. I made the hat extra long so that the rib 3×3 part could be folded over and provide extra warmth around the ears. I was planning to sew the ribbed part onto the hat. but decided against it in the end. The yarn was fun to work with, it was a wool blend which was nice and warm. I also loved the colours – and so did grandma! 🙂

This was the first year that I attempted to knit and crochet the majority of my Christmas gifts. I really enjoyed it and think I will repeat the process for next year. 2014 here i come! (Although I should probably start a little early and thus avoid some of the stress – I’ll put that on my list of resolutions). In total I made 7 Christmas gifts (12 if you include the charity hat) and I am really pleased 😀 Can’t wait for what the next year will bring.

Have a wonderful, crafty, warm Tuesday! 🙂

#19 granny squares and 2014!

Hello everyone! Can you believe that tomorrow will be 2014? I find it hard to fathom, time just goes by so fast. Soon the winter holidays will be over and I will return to school and the usual routine. Christmas has been fun, and I can’t wait to see what the next year will bring. So with that – I wish everyone a wonderful, crafty, healthy, fantastic 2014! 🙂

My last blog post of 2013 is for a scarf I made for my friend Gaby; she is vibrant and I thought that this scarf would be perfect for her. I had been looking to do something with granny squares for a while, but always get discouraged about how many squares are needed for a blanket or pillow cover – not to mention the amount of ends that have to be sewn in. I was looking through ravelry and came across a modification – someone had made a granny square scarf! Brilliant! So I set about making 36 squares and sewing them together, and then finally finishing the scarf with a double crocheted border to unite the squares.

A fun project for a fun lady 🙂

#17 Christmas Charity

Hello everyone! It’s later than usual, but where I am it is still Tuesday. Today has been an exhausting day; I had 2 finals and had to pack up my stuff to go home for Christmas. All is done and over now, so I have time to write this post. Last year the knitting club at my university paired up with a local Vancouver charity – so we made them a couple of hats and mittens to add some spark to someone in need’s Christmas. I love giving people knitted things, but it feels almost better when you know that they truly appreciate and that it brings a smile to their face (and keeps them warm). Due to finals and everything else, I was only able to contribute 5 hats, but I quite like them. 3 of them are simple crochet hats with earflaps and a nice border. The other two were knitted on double-pointed needles and should fit a toddler. These were stash-eaters and kept me busy during my breaks in between studying – a healthy way to distract myself from the stress of university exam season.

Back to Christmas knitting 🙂   NO MORE FINALS!!

#15 for Daddy

Happy Tuesday again 🙂 Only 3 more Tuesdays until Christmas … yikes! I will have to knit fast to get all the presents done on time. I’ve decided to keep on posting once a week, so some of the presents may only be revealed after Christmas, that’s okay right?

This is a Christmas present for my dad – a scarf and a matching hat. I had initially found the pattern for the scarf on Ravelry (boyfriend by Lucinda Campbell). I thought it would be a nice pattern for my dad to wear to work. It gets very cold in Calgary, and so I wanted to make him something that was dressy enough to be able to wear to work over his suits. I think I succeeded in that objective. At the end of the scarf I still had some yarn left over, so I decided to make a matching hat. I had to make up the pattern as I went along, knitting in the round and gageing how much yarn I had left. It was a tricky situation, but I think it came out wonderful.You can’t really tell from the pictures, but every 2 rows there is a row of knit that runs through, making little squares and adding more texture than just knit and purl columns. I was also really excited to use ‘more expensive’ yarn. As a student I am usually only able to buy pure acrylic yarns, but for Dad I splurged and bought a blend that is 30% Alpaca. It was my first time knitting with an Alpaca, and it was a pleasant experience! I am really pleased with his gift, and I hope he will like it too. If he wears it to work, then this project will have been a success. 

I always find it so hard to find a gift for my Dad. I don’t know why, it always stresses me out more than any other gift for any other person. Maybe I am just a daddy’s girl, that might be it 😉

#14 een muts! a hat!

Happy Tuesday again everyone! In case anyone is confused – muts means hat in Dutch/Flemish. I just like the word, and I don’t get to say it as often as I would like. This is a quick update, as I really should be finishing my Sociology research proposal. I really like this hat, the combination of colours and cables, and the thought that it will make a great Christmas present. I hope the recipient will like it and that it will keep her warm 🙂

Must continue to knit the rest of the Christmas presents!! But first, this proposal – wish me luck 🙂

#13 brings good luck

When I say Tuesday you say blogday: Tuesday! Blogday! Tuesday! Blogday! Hello everyone 🙂

It’s November, and I am (just as many of you out there) working on Christmas presents. I hope to get them all done in time, but am not yet certain if that is going to be possible… there might be a few ‘belated Christmas presents’ this year.

This week I was working on a cowl for my 13 year old niece. She likes to wear funky things, and so I decided on making her a lovely cabled cowl. The cables were really fun, and the pattern was straight forward. I did have to break my rule and buy some more yarn to complete the project, but that is okay. I wore the cowl for a couple of minutes and I can tell the cowl will really keep her warm, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Cables always seem to make the project a bit more dense and warm. 

According to my ‘list’ there are about 9 more Christmas gifts that I should knit … looking at the list makes me a little hopeless. BUT there are a few small projects in there so hopefully with some dedication I can pull it off – and reduce my yarn stash in the process 🙂 It would be lovely to go on a ‘post Christmas’ yarn buying spree 😀

Have a lovely week!

#12 wiggle your fingers

Hello everyone, happy Tuesday!
This week I have been working on a couple (three pairs to be exact) of fingerless mittens. Another project on the double-pointed needles, I’m getting the hang of using them!

My mom had been asking if I could make her a pair of mittens, as it gets cold in Calgary. She said she would prefer a pair of fingerless mittens so she could take them to the barn and wear them while still being able to grasp things and use her fingers. I said “no problem”, not revealing that I had no idea how to go about making these mittens. Little did I know that ravelry has a huge selection of possible patterns, and so I stumbled upon a fairly simple one that I am now in love with. I casted on 32 stitches for the first fair (grey), but they turned out too big. Then I cast them on again with 28 stitches, and they are much more snug now. So I made mom a pair for the stables (grey) and another pair in superfun colors. The yarn was given to me by a friend for my birthday – and since mom loves red’s this was the perfect yarn for her. The last pair is made of bamboo yarn (blue). Last Christmas I made my best friend a headband in bamboo yarn, and so I thought it would be nice to give her a present this year that would match the headband. Fingerless mittens are great, but I would like to maybe also give her a pair of full mittens. I’m learning and fine-tuning my knitting skills, so maybe by the time Christmas rolls around I will be able to pull off fully-closed mittens. Maybe that will be my 2013 goal, haha!

These were fun to make! I wonder what will be next …

 

#11 eleven, onze, elf

Hello again everyone — hope you are all having a lovely day 🙂

This is my latest completed project – a pair of legwarmers. One of my friends transferred to a university in Montreal, and as it is a lot colder over there, so I thought it would be nice if I sent her something that would keep her warm during the winter months. When we were together in first-year, we attempted to knit legwarmers, going by a pattern we made up on the spot – the result of those knitting sessions did not turn out as nice as these legwarmers did. What’s really nice is that these legwarmers have a couple of subtle cables at the top, which makes it look more finished. It was a project that challenged me a little bit, as it had been a long time since I last knitted on double-pointed needles. Once you get going you get the hang of it though, and so the legwarmers went to class with me and took the bus on several occasions (you get really strange looks from people when you pull out 5 double-pointed needles and start doing was seems to be magic, haha). 

I really liked the yarn, it was a colour called ‘marble gray’ so it had little pieces of dark grey and brown in there. I find it’s always more interesting to knit with a yarn like that rather than a plain colour. And now I have successfully eliminated a yarn-ball and a half out of the pile of yarn I have stored in my room – making progress.

Another early Christmas gift finished, what will be next? Stay tuned …

Smile!