The Village Knitter Holiday Party

I never posted pictures of our party!  Here's some of all the fun we had that night :o)

My eggnog cake, inspired by 55 Christmas Balls to Knit: Colorful Festive Ornaments--Tree Decorations, Centerpieces, Wreaths, Window Dressings.  Cake recipe from Sandra Lee here.

Of course I had to balance the Christmas with the Hanukkah :o)

Lars was in a holiday mood again this year and spread some cheer with a destash Grab Bag, including stealing!  (You can find Holly and Lars blogging, reviewing and designing over at suburbanknits.com)

Jess wrapped her group grab bag gift super well.  Poor Karen had to unwrap and open several boxes before finding her gift certificate to The Village Knitter!

Yet another baby blanket

So here it is.  The almost finished blanket I'm making for my soon-to-be new cousin.

We're big Mets fans in this family, especially my family in Florida.  They go to a bunch of Spring Training games each year, so baby Vinny will be all set and ready to go this March/April!

Dino thinks it's his blanket

 I used a cotton-wool blend since it doesn't get that chilly in Florida and especially since he'll be an almost spring baby.  This blanket doesn't seem to be coming out as big as I was hoping so he probably will only be able to use it for a year or two.  I didn't gauge at all so I guess I get was I deserve :o)

Why does blogger insist on rotating random pictures sometimes???

I was so not looking forward to dealing with this!  I spent all day Saturday weaving in ends.  But it wasn't just weaving I had to do.  I did a lot of pulling stitches.  Since the wool content is minimal in this yarn, I had a hard time keeping the stitch tension at the color changes consistent.  I had to go through almost every stitch inside the orange circle and tighten it all up.  Then I did the weaving.  It took me literally all day to get (I think) all the ends woven in.

Again with the random rotating pictures!

Looks like I missed some and I purposefully didn't weave a couple in yet.  I didn't cut the ends down all the way yet...not until after it's blocked.  I want to rough this up a bit and make sure the ends don't undo themselves.

On the knitting front, I have a couple more rows of stockinette stitch before the 20 row seed stitch border.  I might actually pick up stitches on either end to make the blanket longer.  Or I can stop having OCD and just let it be.  But it's really bothering me that the blanket is wider than it will be long.  Must. Stop. Obsessing.

Details:
Ravelry Page
Yarn:  Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Needles:  US 7
Pattern:  My own, unpublished as of now

Longest project ever is FINISHED!

We found out at the end of summer that my cousin is pregnant.  I've been procrastinating knitting a blanket for her because, well, she's not due until February.  And Christmas was coming.  And I've been promising my brother a Ninja Turtle pillow for months.  And she's not due until February.

It's January now.  So that baby can be here is just a few weeks.  That's not a lot of time.  Luckily, I finished all my Christmas gifts, as seen in the last post.  I also finished that damn pillow.  Let's dwell there for a moment.

BFF turtle pillows

I know I've mentioned the turtle pillow before.  On the right is the pillow my grandmother crocheted for Andrew almost 20 years ago when we were kids.  So many problems, I don't know where to start.  You may notice that the darker green doesn't necessarily match.  As in, she used 2 different dark green acrylic yarns to crochet him.  One was definitely thicker than the other.  If you were able to look closely, the turtle's head is stuffed with not only fiber fill, but also random yarn scraps.  Not green ones, but probably every other color you can imagine.  Now, I'm economical/eco-friendly in the same way, except I stuff my hexipuffs with yarn scraps.  Not a pillow/doll that's made almost entirely of loose double crochet stitches.  Another problem- his shell should be on his back, not his stomach.  I think I find that one the funniest!

Of course, this guy shows the wear of almost 20 years of lovin from my brother.  His face embroidery is almost all gone and his arms are barely holding on these days.  Which is why Andrew wanted me to make a new one for him.  This way he can keep the one Grandma made and destroy the one I make.

I tried to match Grandma's turtle as best possible, while making my own improvements.  For one thing, my turtle is almost entirely done in single crochet.  And his shell is in the right spot :o).  But I tried to shape the head to look like the actual Ninja Turtle and I crocheted the limbs, head, shell and belly together with that green panel (Grandma sewed her pieces together....I'm too lazy for that).  I tried to make the arms and legs muscular and "realistic" shaped*.

I took a ton of notes and wrote down every stitch I made.  Maybe eventually I'll write it up but I really need a break from this guy.  He's been in the works for about a year now and I just don't want to look at him again for quite a while.  Unless I'm in my brother's room to watch = 3 with him.

As for that baby blanket, it's almost done.  Hopefully it'll be in the mail by the end of this week.




*How realistic can it be when it's modeled after a cartoon ninja turtle??

Hope You Had a Happy Merry

I hope everyone had/is having a happy, merry holiday season.  I finished almost all of my holiday presents on time.  I'm lounging now in my new Christmas sheep pjs so here's a quick look at what's been keeping me away from the blog:

Working at the shop, Santa and Mrs. Claus needed a little help finding the insurance guy who is in our building.  I geeked out a bit when they cut through the shop to escape the rain :o)

I somehow finished the Umaro blanket.  This was my stepfather's Christmas gift.  He loved it.

The Brooklyn Fiber Arts Guild had an author panel for 60 More Quick Knits and I was surprised to see Lily Chin was part of the panel.  I loved these ladies...they were great!

I promised everyone I wouldn't go as crazy for the shop's holiday party as I did for Halloween.  So I baked eggnog cake and cupcakes, iced with eggnog frosting.  The cake was modeled after the Christmas Balls class we had earlier in the month.

Mom got me sheepy pjs for Christmas.  Sheep seemed to be the theme of her gifts for me this year.  I'll torture you with that another time though.