Christmas Knitting and Spinning

Whew!   I did a LOT of Christmas knitting this year.  I didn’t start out with a bunch of plans to that, but sometimes, it just happens!

 

First off, I made another pair of bed socks for mom – I think she’ll be surprised.  After all, she JUST got a new pair for her birthday, so she’s definitely NOT expecting another pair.    (The socks are graciously being modeled by my dog…)

 

I’m on a fingerless glove kick, so I knitted a pair of them for a friend of mine.  I used the  pattern, “Chunky Fingerless Gloves” by Simone Van Iderstine. I used Cascade 128 Superwash for these….definitely “trouble-free” care! I love the cables and the overall pattern, but I’m not that keen on the thumb attachment.  I think I prefer the patterns where there’s an actual thumb gusset.  These are great if you don’t really want to keep track of increases/decreases for gussets….and the result definitely is a cute pair of fingerless gloves!

 

Next on the list isn’t a Christmas gift, but actually a birthday gift for a friend whose birthday is Dec. 27th.   I can’t imagine having a birthday that close to Christmas!  Kim’s favorite color is brown, so I crafted these out of super soft Alpaca using the “Leaves” pattern by Valentina Georgeiva.   This had the thumb gusset shaping that I prefer.  

 

My final project was some Christmas Spinning.  I spun two sets of singles (about 22 yards each in length).  I then “deconstructed” some silk flowers and threaded them onto the first set of singles.  

 

 

 

Then, I plied the singles together to form a flowery novelty yarn.  I really like how this turned out.   The only tricky part was “coaxing” the flowers through the orifice of my spinning wheel….

 

The BEST part is that even though it’s not quite Christmas…it IS Christmas Eve…and we got just a touch of snow.  Perfect!  Enough to feel like Christmas, but not enough to make the roads slick!