'Tis The Season

Isn't it weird how you forget you haven't blogged in a week or so because you're knitting constantly? Am I alone on this one? Anyone? Bueller? I normally start my Christmas knitting in January but somehow this year it snuck up on me. I've started three projects in the past week in preparation for the most wonderful time of the year.

I went through my stash and found a ball of Knitpicks Elegance in Fog so I started a cowl for my mom.



I used the pattern from Last Minuted Knitted Gifts for the Pashmina Cowl. My mom loves cowls. It's weird. It's even a weird word to say. Cowl. It sounds like a eugenics experiment gone wrong. "It hoots and flies but you can milk it too!"
I really love knitting it though because it's just round after round of plain stockinette. Unfortunately this project isn't a genuine stash buster 'cause I ordered 2 additional balls of yarn and I'm probably going to have one left over. So if we do our math, that leaves me with exactly what I started with. Oh well.

I'm also knitting a scarf for my dad.



The yarn is Cascade Pastaza from my stash, bought specifically for this purpose. I chose the color (Antique Gold) as a nod to his Alma Mater, Georgia Tech, which just coincedentally happens to be the rival of my Alma Mater, UGA.
I am a good son.

I added a last minute present to my list. My friend Atom is a good friend indeed, and I figured he needed a warm hat to battle the bitter Chicago winter on his bike. Enter the Army Earflap Cap.



I really like this pattern. I substituted Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Bulky for the Misty Alpaca to make a sturdy man-version of the Interweave Knits pattern. While knitting, I discovered that the increases on the center back create a lace-like eyelet pattern. I'm into it. Dudes need more eyelets. Thankfully this hat doesn't have to be done until after the New Year.

We leave for our holiday travels tomorrow so I'm going to be busting it in order to finish these projects by next week. I wish you all luck with your gift knitting and I hope you all have a fantastic holiday!

That's How We Do

I've been so busy with school lately that all of my knitting time comes in 20 minute spurts. After that, I'm overcome with guilt and must get back to my death grip on the semester. Couple that with the miles of brown ribbing I'm churning out and my knitting life seems to be rather lack luster. However, now that the semester is almost over, I allowed myself to sit and knit a project from start to finish.



I needed a gift for an exchange at work, so I decided to knit a hat. Unlike my usual M.O., this hat has color, stripes and the illest reindeer you've ever seen.



How 'bout we see that one more time.


That's right. Can you say dope?

I love this hat so much, I didn't even mind weaving in the mounds of ends.



I asked Andrew to model it for me:






The hat fits perfectly, which kind of sucks because it grew substantially after blocking. We'll see what it looks like when it dries. If it's still huge, I'm bringing the world's most bad ass tea cozy to the company holiday party.

Whew!

I spent about 30 hours silkscreening this weekend in order to get ready for my semester critique. A responsible blogger would have photographed the process so they could share it with the fiber-obsessed of the world. This blogger on the other hand, has failed you. I apologize. I was spending so much time trying to line up my screens, mixing colors that would transfer well and cleaning up gallons of spilled ink that my camera did not make it into the equation.

I do have more pictures of this, though:



It's snow. 'Bout six inches of the stuff. I'm still amused by it, but slightly intimidated by what six inches of snow before the start of winter could mean.



This is the corner of my house. I don't think I've ever seen an icicle that big before. It's practically a weapon!

Thankfully, my winter reading has started to arrive in the mail:



I think you all recognize Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac which is filled with awesome patterns and prose for the snowed in, and what's the holiday season without
Critical Art Ensemble's Flesh Machine:Cyborgs, Designer Babies and New Eugenic Consciousness? It's practically the new The Night Before Christmas.

As far as knitting goes, there's not much exciting progress here. I was able to knit on the second sleeve of the Zipped Raglan for a few hours last night and was pleased with how much knitting gets done when you actually, well, knit. I've been looking at other patterns and I'm afraid I may have to detatch the first sleeve from the body in order to knit a few more inches on the fronts and back of the sweater. I knit it to the length of the XL size, but it still seems like it may be about 3-4 inches too short.

I told you about the scarves my mom knit me:



They're knit in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and I think they are the most wonderful things I own. Funny how that works sometimes.

I knit a swatch for the army earflap hat using a double strand of malabrigo:



The origional pattern calls for chunky weight yarn whereas malabrigo is definately a standard worsted weight. The versions of this hat I've seen using a single strand makes a hat that looks almost unwearable, it's so small. Trouble is, a double strand works up to 3.75 sts/inch. it would be easy to adjust the pattern to make up for this if it told you at any point how many stitches around it is. i think i may just knit the hat as is and revel in the wooly gigantic-ness of it. if nothing else, it'll be amusing disastor which is always good blog fodder.

Anyway, keep warm and fed wherever you are and have a swell day.