Post Christmas report

So things didn't exactly go as I planned. For Christmas day I needed four sweaters done, two hats and a scarf. I got them all done but it turned out that two of the four sweaters were to small. The sweater I knit for my Brother-in-Law Gary was to short in length and the sleeve lengths were a couple inches to short. It was also a bit tight around the under arms for him.

Once he put it on I also realized that I hate this colour for him. It looked so nice as I was knitting it and when I layed it down to take a photo of it when i was done I thought to myself how attractive it was, but then he put it on and i was disgusted by it. The blue is to bright for his complexion. I don't know what i was thinking.

I had also made a matching one for his 5 year old son, my nephew Gabriel but it also was to small. I did a size 6, according to the pattern, but it ended up fitting my almost 2 year old nephew Gavin instead of Gabriel. I think for this particular pattern I may need to do a men's small for him. I don't get why the size is so off. The colour doesn't look as bad on Gabriel but he is also more light skinned. Thank goodness the hat I made him fit and I did buy him a DVD of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog as well so he wasn't without a present after the sweater didn't fit.

He does look really cute in the hat.

The new plan is to redo the sweaters for them. I'm going to take this opportunity to select a more flattering colour for Gary. I'm thinking maybe a dark gray. Since I have to redo Gabriel's as well I can still do the Father/Son theme I was going for with matching sweaters.

I did have better luck with the other two sweaters I made for my almost 2 year old nephew's Gavin and Mosheh. I made them each little cardigans with bears heads for pockets. I wish I had gotten a picture of Mosheh when he figured out they were pockets. He walked around with his little hands jammed so far into them.

I must admit that the inclusion of a pack of lollipops in both Gavin and Mosheh's presents did over shadow the sweaters for them. They probably would have been just happy having only those. :-) The lollipops did help distract them long enough to get them each into their sweaters so we could take pictures and have some of the other family members open presents.

They both look super cute in their bear cardigans. My sister Lisa liked the style of the cardigan, specifically the collar that I think I may make a couple more of them, minus the bear pockets. It's an easy knit and the Bernat Satin Sport yarn is really soft and nice to work with.




The other hat and scarf were made for Lisa. She always has her hair in a ponytail and I hardly ever see her wearing a hat, I assume because of that. So I used the Hannah pattern i found on Ravelry.

The hat has an opening in the back which the hair can fit through. As well, it had a flap that buttons up rather than just having a hole that you pull the hair through. The flap helps to keep from messing the hair up. She was very excited about it. I also knit her a scarf using Paton's Melody yarn. She loves this yarn. I made a baby blanket out of it for Mosheh and she raved about how warm and soft it was. I like using the Melody yarn as well cause it knits up really fast on size 10 needles.

The final kicker of the past couple days was Gavin's birthday sweater. That is the train sweater i featured earlier on this blog. I have the front, back and one sleeve done and it was at this point that I realized that it too is way to small. I don't know what is wrong with my brain. I would look at it and think yup this is big enough, but then i put it up to Mosheh yesterday and it was even to small for him and he's smaller than Gavin. So tomorrow I'm going to do the mad dash out and pick him up a birthday present now that i can't give him the sweater on December 28th. I didn't want to go out today to do it because it's boxing day and I did not want to have to fight crowds of people looking for deals. The parking alone would be madness. As he did get Gabriel's intended Christmas sweater i don't feel as much personal pressure to knit him a whole new sweater and I figure I can finish the Train sweater and give it to my friend Erin who is expecting a baby boy in February.

I'm still working on two more sweaters for my friend Lindsay's kids. I have her daughter's sweater done but have yet to finish her sons. It's a seamless Yoke sweater so it's knit up in the round which is a pain when doing colourway changes for patterns. When doing rows on straight needles the yarn for each colour is left where you need it for the next row. When working in the round though it's always on the opposite side so you have to either cut it or pull it across and that could lead to bunching. When I got to that part today and realized this I said to myself screw this and picked up the Fisherman sweater I've just started. It is also knit in the round but it's all one colour so I can basically knit and not think right now which is what I need after all the disappointment of failed sizing.

So my new knitting queue is as follows:

- Embroider face onto Kittens on Leah's sweater
- Sweater for Andrew
- Finish birthday sweater for Mosheh (Jan 19th)
- Finish Train sweater which will now be for Erin's soon to be born boy
- Sweater for my cousin's new baby girl (already started)
- Fisherman's Sweater (the only sweater I really feel like knitting right now)
- New sweater for Gary
- New sweater for Gabriel

So that is where I'm at now after Christmas. Still have mountains of knitting to do.

So four days till Christmas eve, which is when my family opens presents. I have three sweaters to finish by then. I am really close on all three of them. I'm currently finishing the neck band on my brother-in-laws Raglan sweater. Then i just need to sew together the sleeves and side seams and darn in the ends. I'm making a cute cardigan for each of my two one year old nephews. Both have been blocked and sewn together. I just need to finish the button bands and then sew on the teddy bear pockets.

I have finished one of the Christmas sweaters though. The Raglan for my nephew Gabriel. I also made a matching hat to go with it. The sweater I'm making for my Brother-in-Law is the same sweater just larger. It will be so cute when they wear them at the same time.

Sweater 1 and 7 of 9

As you know i have taken on a hefty amount of knitting projects for this years Christmas/birthday giving haul. I am currently working on 9 sweaters as well as some smaller projects. I will feature sweater number 1 now, though technically it's not the sweater i started first, it's just the first one i finished blocking. This sweater is for my nephew Gabriel who is 5 years old. Over the years Gabriel has been my main focus for knitting. I have knit him a number of sweaters and toys since he was a baby. My sister even had him photographed professionally with two dinosaur toys and a dinosaur blanket i made him. I think that may have been more for my benefit though. I will post pictures of Clappy and Brainiac later. Those were the names we gave to the dinosaurs.

For Christmas i'm knitting Gabriel a raglan sweater. It has a matching toque as well that i did. Complete with a fun pom pom. I have done the sweater in a size 6 in Paton's Classic Merino Wool. It is 100% Pure New Wool. The colour i'm using is Denim Marl for the main and New Denim for the contrast colour. This sweater should be nice and warm and hopefully stylish.

The fun part is the Sweater 2 of 9 is a matching sweater for Gabriel's dad, my Brother in Law, Gary. It will be really cute seeing them dressed alike. I've got 23 days to finish all these sweaters. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

*UPDATE*

I got a lot done on the back of the Train Sweater for Gavin last night. I can already tell this sweater is going to be a darning nightmare. It is super cute though so it will be worth it. I'm surprised how quickly this is actually knitting up. I was concerned that with the 2.25mm needles it would take a whole lot longer but it's coming along nicely.

Once again i ran into where the graph was slightly off and i don't know why. It is specifically at where you start binding off for the shoulder. I usually photocopy the graph and then mark off each row as i go. Unless i missed a row, which who knows maybe i did in a sleep deprived knitting obsessed late night moment but i find that with these old knit o graph patterns that this happens a lot. What should be a knit row, where i am to then bind off for the armhole, turns out to be a purl row. I usually have to add in an extra row, which isn't the end of the world but still bothers me that it's off. I'm hoping to have this sweater's parts all knitted up by the end of this week. Then i just need to start sweater 8 of 9 and sweater 9 of 9. Oh did i mention that sweater 9 is done on 2.5mm circular needles using fingering weight yarn? Yeah i'm not going to be able to move my hands for like a month after all this.

Gift Sweater 7 of 9

Today i started sweater 7 of 9 for this holiday season/birthday gift giving haul. I have not only x-mas but three birthdays this December and January to knit for. My approach this year is to knit all the pieces of each sweater (front, back, sleeves) then start the next. What this will leave me with is a pile of sweaters to block, sew and do the necks for just before x-mas. I don't know if that is brilliant or stupid.

The Sweater started today is a Train Pullover for Gavin. My soon to be 2 year old nephew. Thankfully childrens sweaters knit up reasonably quick. I'm using an old Knit O Graph pattern from the 50's so i have to make sure to read it carefully as i find sometimes these patterns can be confusing. For example on another sweater I'm doing, which i will post about later, the graph doesn't match the written instructions. It's those small details that can drive you insane. This one seems to be rather straight forward though so i'm thankful for that. It took a little while to find the right needle size to get the gauge required as i'm using Astra yarn and that is a bit thicker than what the pattern calls for. I'm using super tiny needles for this. 2mm for the ribbing and 2.25 for the main body. I like how Astra knits up (for an acrylic) though so i wanted to use it, plus i have a lot of it in my stash and part of the goal for this years holiday knitopoluza was to use up a bunch of my stash and save money.

More to come later as i feature the other knit projects i'm doing for this holiday season.

My first Blog Entry

Everything has a beginning and this is mine.

Welcome to my knitting Blog. My name is Cathrine and I'm a knitter. This blog is going to be about my past, present and future knitting projects. My thoughts, emotional ups and downs regarding knitting.

Currently it is the end of November 2009 and I've been working on my Christmas knits for a couple months now. I plan on buying a condo early in the new year so this year for x-mas i thought I'd dive into my over flowing stash and knit presents for my family and friends. It's not bad when you can knock off 7 Christmas presents and 2 birthday presents all for under $100. Well that's not counting the money that was originally spent on my stashed yarn, but hey that money was spent years ago so that doesn't count right?

In the next couple days I'm planning on uploading photo's of my current projects and then over time start posting my past projects and the history behind them.