Presents!

Is there anything better than sending something in the mail?

Presents for my friend Laura's first baby, the AH shawl, socks for her Leo and some day gloves for my newlywed friend MT yay!

Back to (sock) basics and hooking Paola

My friend Paola visited me this week and we got to do many of the things we love to do together: go window shopping and trying into stores to try on pretty (and sometimes ugly) dresses, look (and buy!) shoes and just have long, fun talks. This visit we started a new tradition: I taught her how to knit! This is a picture of her, needles in hand!

And this is a picture of me, also knitting (just in case anyone wondered what I look like with needles in hand!):

If you're wondering what I'm making, it's a pair of socks. The basic pattern for a 7sts per inch sock from my favorite sock book. I love knitting socks, there's something that feels a little like magic in turning a heel :) (this is the sock wool I used, and which I use regularly to make my little lovely presents

Leaves for Sara (or Shawls galore 2)

In my  never ending quest of making things for the people that I love, I gave the Emily shawl a try with the same lovely moss green I found for Eva's shawl. I realize I never write what kind of wool I use, but I will start soon (I promise to start right after this post! I already tossed all the little paper thingies that came with the wool!)

This is a picture of the pattern:



And this of me. I like this pattern, it gives a real sense of movement and light. I'm going to try and make it in orange too, also as a present. I feel like the little leaves can also look like candles!

Shawls galore! (1)

When I was still practicing for knitting the Kj shawl I made this Shetland border shawl out of the completely wrong kind of wool. I ended up just stashing it someplace but thinking I would revisit the pattern once I had more skills... and then the xmas season fell upon us!

And I have made the shawl again, this time for my lovely friend AH, who always ends up with my first tries at socks, gloves or hats but never with something I've already sort of mastered. This is a picture of a detail of the shawl:



And this is a picture of it being blocked in my living room carpet:





And of me, modeling it before packing and shipping it off to Sweden! Here's to hoping it gets to its owner before she goes home for the holidays (and that she likes the shawl!)

Kj's mittens (a walk through three Scandinavian winters)

This week I was gifted a beautiful pair of mittens! My friend and 'former supervisor' Kj knitted them for me. I have wanted to have something green for son long and she just hit the mark! I can't take any credit for the color scheme other than I asked for them to be green. Here is a picture of them:





Kj explained that she has made this pattern three times. The first time was in 1978, for a particularly cold winter (they hit -42C), those are the red mittens in the pictures. The second time she made them in blue for a winter circa 1995 and the third time in green for me, in 2012. Aren't they lovely?

And a picture of all three pairs together. I think the green ones are the prettiest pair, but I might be biased ;)

Poor Poet's Mitt's (again)

This is actually the third time I make this pattern, but I just think fingerless gloves are a fast, nice and thoughtful present. Currently, these have no owner. I have toyed with the idea of keeping them for myself but I know better: I always give all my projects away and can never manage to make anything for me. I guess it's because I already feel like I enjoyed the knitting so much that keeping it is selfish.

Go figure.

This is a picture of both gloves















And here is a detail of one, hopefully, my iPhone camera captured the little roses well enough

Xmas knitting: the Eva shawl

'tis that time of year when I am stressed out and worried I will not have enough time to finish everyone's presents. I did start a little later than I would have liked this year, since that whole PhD defense and getting visits from Guatemala ate up all my time...

I am back to my knitting stride and put a little extra work in for finishing my first project in record time. I had tried to knit this pattern before. In fact, it was my third lace project out of my 'Wendy Knits Lace' book. The first one had been the Poor Poet's Mitts that were super easy and then this scarf that came out all sorts of wrong, but that my mom still liked well enough. When I first tried to make this shawl, back in early February, l I had to rip it out and repeat it so many times. This was not long ago, but I have seen my knitting skills increase dramatically. I think it was because I didn't know now to read charts a year ago and now I can. Lace charts are fun.

So this is the first xmas project. I will post more pictures on other mini projects I have made in these days of late autumn darkness.

These are two details of the shawl

A detail for the shawl (note I blocked it before weaving in the ends. I really don't like that part and postpone it as long as humanly possible!

A more complete view of the shawl

I will make sure to upload a picture of the shawl with its owner after Jul!