So, Once Again I'm Sorry

I'm fairly certain we don' t have any readers, but I'm going to apologize anyways. First, I apologize for doubting your existence in case someone does actually read this, and secondly I apologize for the serious lack of updates. You'll hear no excuses from me. I know it's unacceptable, and will attempt to rectify my slacker nature regarding posting.

Now, onto the good stuff.

For Christmas, I finished my mom's Glynis socks. They turned out wonderfully and it was really hard to wrap them up and hand them over. As I mentioned in my last post, this pattern is great, but there is a mistake printed in the book. Definitely check out the errata on the Interweave site (link above). I knit these using the magic loop method on 2s with Knit Picks stroll. I love the color, which I believe is called "Sparkle." Overall, I loved the pattern even though it was a bit of the challenge, and the yarn was great to work with. My mom was so excited to receive these. She constantly is telling everyone how great hand knit socks are, so I think just about all of our family members have asked for some socks.

The only other Christmas present I managed to make this year was for my brother. I make him something every year. I try to make something useful, such as gloves or scarves. He doesn't like useless stuff, but I ignored that and decided to make him a toy this year. As a native Texan, he's loved armadillos his whole life. I found this (sorry, ravelry only link) pattern and immediately knew I had to make it. He was a blast to make, and I'm now on the lookout for other cute toys. I believe I knit his body and appendages on 2.5 dpns. His shell was knit with 8s. His body is made out of Bernat Bamboo. The pattern called for another Bernat natural blend that I couldn't find. The bamboo actually worked out perfectly. He's very soft and cuddly! His shell is Bernat Alpaca. The eyes were the most challenging part of the whole project. The pattern linked to a great tutorial. The method sounds a little crazy, but the results are ideal.

I was in Dallas for a wedding at the beginning of January. Every trip to Dallas means a visit to Hobby Lobby. By far my favorite large chain craft store, I miss it dearly when I'm here in Arizona. So, anyways, a trip to Hobby Lobby led me to pick up some fuzzy Yarn Bee Surprise. I'd been wanting a mindless knit, and immediately cast on for a simple garter stitch scarf. I made it a bit too wide, so even using every yard of the skein, the final result is a bit too short, but I think it works well tucked into my coat. It was knit on 10 1/2s for a super, super quick, instant gratification sort of project. The width I randomly chose worked really well with the self-striping nature of the yarn and it's very cozy. Super satisfied with the result, and the skein I bought in a different color is going to very quickly become a very similar, if slightly narrower, scarf.

So, I've had a skein of Manos del Uruguay sitting around for very close to four years. It was sitting on my table tempting me a couple of weeks ago, and I finally decided on a pattern for it. I chose the Big Blue Beret. I love the pattern, though I made some pretty severe changes in the decreasing. The pattern tells you to knit for about 8" before beginning to decrease. I knit about 5" and then decreased very gradually for a few inches. I used the last scraps of yarn to make the pom pom because I firmly believe that all hats are better off with pompoms.


I've got a couple of different sock projects on the needles right now, but I'll save those for sharing later when I have something worth showing off.

In other exciting knit news, if you're on ravelry, I just got asked permission to have a photo of one of my projects used on a pattern page. I'm really psyched about it. Check out the Toasty Twisty scarf pattern here on ravelry.

Again, I apologize for our extended absence. I hope no one missed us too much. I might promise to not disappear again, but you know what? I feel like we'd never succeed in that mission.

<3 uhlissa