Last Projects before Christmas

.
I managed to complete a few more knitting projects just before Christmas. These were mainly my Ravelry Nerd Wars entries, but they also helped serve as "holiday de-stressors"!

Believe it or not, one of my projects was "Caution Tape". It was my Nerd Wars entry that that represented a scene from "Big Bang Theory" - specifically, the scenes that include the caution tape clad disabled elevator. I used the duplicate stitch (learned at the Margaret Fisher retreat in November) to add multiple instances of CAUTION to the "tape". I knew the skills I learned at the retreat would come in handy!

I had purchased 5 skeins of Poems for the felted bag that I made late last month, but it only used 4 skeins. I decided to make a felted bowl from the remaining skein. I really liked the design that the variegated yarn formed when knit....so I went out and bought two more skeins of Poems so I can make a couple more bowls!

Before fulling...

After fulling...

Another little project I completed was a coaster and mug cozy. I'd never done argyle before, so I thought I'd try it. I used the Poems scraps (left over from the bag and bowl) for the colors. I'd always had some sort of mental block when it came to argyle. For some reason, I believed it was difficult to do, but found that it wasn't really difficult at all. I was quite pleased with the results - and now probably have one of the most "fashionable" mugs around!

For my next project, I made a couple of ornaments from the Christmas Acrylic - a new ornament or two...especially hand made...is my annual tradition. This time I made a miniature stocking (using Jean Greenhowe's pattern) as well as a miniature Nisse hat of my own design.


My final knitting project before heading off for the Christmas holidays was a "Sully Market Bag" made from 2 1/2 skeins of Sugar 'n Cream Stripes. It was supposed to use only 2, but I used a full 2 1/2 skeins - perhaps I made it a bit longer than it was supposed to be? I love the size - it's the perfect bag for fiber and yarn shopping as it expands to hold lots of fibery goodness.

I also finally tried out my "Weave-It" - a cute little palm sized loom that I believe was sold through the 1970's. It's a nice compact loom and produces neat little squares. The first one I tried didn't quite turn out as expected...there was an extra line of "warp" that had not been properly woven in. The other two came out perfectly! I plan to use them as coasters. Now, I just need to perfect the "joining" process so I can weave more than just coaster!