Getting Down to the Wire

It's only 7 days until Christmas and I haven't finished hardly any of my gift knitting. I will definitely be late again this year.

I'm currently working on a pair of socks for my niece. They are the cutest socks I've made so far:



I Heart Toe Up Socks by Wendy D. Johnson

My list includes this year:

Washington:
Sister - hasn't decided what she wants & Boyfriend - purple beanie
Nephew - black hat and scarf
Niece - socks (above)

Maryland:
Sister - cowl
2 Nieces - maybe socks or slippers
2 Nephews - hats

New York:
Sister - scarf
Nephew & Girlfriend - stockings (personalized with names)
Grandniece - matching stocking
Grandnephew - matching stocking

Virginia
Brother & Girlfriend - matching stockings (personalized)

Texas:
Sister & Husband - socks
2 Nephews - Texas Longhorn headband and socks

As you can see my list is long and I've only started on a pair of socks for my niece last weekend.

I did see this cool wrapping paper of a knitted Santa, that is being shared on Facebook which is only sold in the UK. I liked it so much I made my own chart from it and I'm sharing it with all of you. I hope you can get some use from it. I think I will be making some stockings with it.

 

I'm jealous of all of you who have finished your gift knitting, for those of you who are still knitting, good luck, I hope you get done in time!

Happy knitting, and if you get a chance come share your gift knitting here or on my Facebook page.

Got socks?

There are only 11 days until Christmas! How are your knitting projects coming along? I just finished the second pair of matching socks for the family our office adopted this year.  They came out so cute, the two year old can look just like her older six year old sister. It was great knitting two-at-a-time - so both socks got done simultaneously - which for those of you still doing one at a time - this is the way to go!

Check out this site that has videos for you to view KnittingHelp.com that teaches several methods including double pointed needle (dpn) - the one at a time method.

They came out really great - again they remind
me of Pippi Longstocking!

Some really great books that also include the two-at-a-time method are:

2-At-a-Time Socks: The Secret of Knitting Two at Once on One Circular Needle by Melissa Morgan-Oakes

Knitting More Circles Around Socks: Two at a Time, Toe Up or Cuff Down  by Antje Gillingham

 

Two books that I own from Wendy D. Johnson include: Socks from the Toe Up: Essential Techniques and Patterns from Wendy Knits and Toe-Up Socks for Every Body: Adventurous Lace, Cables, and Colorwork from Wendy Knits

Socks always make a great gift and you have so many different fibers and colors to choose from.  The self-striping are my favorite - they are so cool.  I am always amazed when I'm done at how the stripes come out. I like to use Trekking XXL, they have a large selection of colors especially some great self-striping, and is what I used to make the socks above for the sisters.

So if you haven't started already with your gift making, you better get a move on! I've completed two-at-a-time socks in a weekend depending on the size of the foot, but you don't have much time so get knitting!

So you CAN teach an old knitter new tricks!

So I was on Ravelry yesterday trying to scope out a new knitting circle to join.  Because I live in between Seattle and Tacoma a lot of the groups are located either in the South end or the North end and poor me is stuck in between with no place to go.  So I happened across a forum that has a knitting group "The Renton Knitters" that meets locally (well Renton local) once a week and I figured that was going to be as close as I was gonna get.  So I joined the forum and asked if I could join their knitting circle. 

I'm happy to report that they were very welcoming and it just so happened that they were meeting tonight (last night) in Kent!  Well I was exstatic to be joining a new knitting group - they were even showing a few new techniques that I just so happened to want to learn - knitting two socks at the same time, toe-up socks (two at a time no less), and the magic cast-on - being a self-taught knitter some techniques are not so easy to learn by reading instructions and looking at pictures. 

I prepared my knitting bag with what I thought I would need and made my way to the designated location.  It was a small group - a few people had already left by the time I made it there at 8:40 p.m.  But those that were still there welcomed me and I'm sorry to say that I never did get to learn everyone's name - but hopefully next Wednesday I will get introduced to everyone and will be happy to remember their names.

So the lesson was quick and seemed to be easy, well anything is easy when you have someone standing right there instructing you on what to do.  But I've been wanting to learn how to knit two socks for a while and I was eager to learn this technique, I only hoped that I would remember what I learned when I got home.  I so didn't want to go back to knitting one sock at a time on double pointed needles (dpns) or even circular if I could help it, because everyone knows that knitting one sock at a time (even on circular needles) is very time consuming and from my own experience they take so long that I end up not even doing the second sock - I have at least two different socks still on dpns that have not seen the light of day for a very long time and forget about starting a second one!

So I listened diligently and followed the magic cast-on instructions from Knitty and with guidance from the instructor, I had two toe-up socks started on my needles - how cool is that?  I couldn't wait to try this new technique out on this really cool yarn [Rowan - Calmer 75% cotton, 25% acrylic/microfibre 50g/175yds] I bought about a year ago intending to make a pair of socks for my nephew - at that time was two years old - but never got around to it, well now he's three and I still intend to make him his socks and now I can make them both at the same time.

I went home excited to put my new knowledge to work and after much trial and error, because of course I couldn't remember all the instruction and I kept having to pull my work apart I finally got the toes started and at 12:59 a.m. I finally put my work down and called it a night. Here is what I've got so far:
 


Yep those two triangular shapes are the beginning of
a pair of toe-up socks!