All I want for Christmas...

... is to get in one more blog before December is over as well (no post in November). Not much blogging, but I did knit. Lots of homemade presents again this year:

Socks for Wanda (who came for just a couple of days, but it was still great to see her!):





Remember the toe-up "circle socks" I made on our road trip around this time last year? The original design was on Ravelry by Anne Campbell. Yarn is Patons Kroy Socks 4 Ply.




Socks for Melanie (our new friend and fellow exchange student host mom):

Oops, it appears, I forgot to take a picture of them before I gave them away. I need to catch her wearing them...

A very simple Lion Brand Fun Fur scarf for her niece, Brianna, who, by the way is a wonderful, beautiful, I-am-running-out-of-adjectives young lady:



A chap stick or lip balm holder with Sugar'n Cream for Theresa:



And presents from the heart (with no material content) for Malinda and Gwen (the two invited me this year to come along on their annual pre-Christmas shopping madness trip - it was one of my best Christmas presents to hang out with them for hours while hunting for some last minute presents), Theresa and Katrina (not knitted, but hand-made, nonetheless):

Oh, and, of course, the usual barrage of cookies for friends and coworkers. This year, I had a lot of help with baking from Theresa, which was fabulous!!! It was so much more fun and so much easier. She loves to bake and decorate, but she also likes to eat cookies :), as do I, of course. Aside from tons of cookies, we also made the most wonderful cheesecake (with a few tweaks: add a little eggnog and reduce the sugar, no extra sugar in the crust, 6 eggs instead of 5 eggs and 2 yokes, and then drip a little eggnog on top, along with a little nutmeg and cinnamon) - a real joint family effort - it was quite cute, the four of us in the kitchen, all doing our part to make this work.

And then Theresa also made a super yummy and very light cake - Maulwurfkuchen - that was gone within minutes :).




Now, if that doesn't look yummy!!!!

What comes after Socktoberfest?? or "I felt your presents!"

My daughter thought if October is Socktoberfest, then November should be Knitvember... But what to knit in Knitvember? How about Feltvember?

The socks were done, and I didn't feel like another pair of socks right away. Not that I don't still have plenty of sock yarn sitting around the house.

I also still have some Lion Brand Wool left over from my very first felting project. It was a water bottle cozy that supposed to be done on a "Knifty Knitter." I bought the instrument in question, got started on the project and didn't like it. So I returned my not so "Knifty Knitter" and decided to crochet the water bottle cozy instead.


As I said, this was my very first felting project, so I didn't really know what to expect. And if you know me, you know that I am not good at following instructions. Not because I can't, but because I usually have some other ideas (call it ADD), and then things often turn out rather unexpected.

Anyway, I am not sure if you are still supposed to see the stitches after you felt something, or if that's because I crocheted rather than knitted, but...


So, I thought to test my own theory (that crocheting is not for felting), I will knit something with the same yarn (did I mention that I still had lots of yarn left over??) this time around to see what happens.

I found all kinds of really cool ideas on Ravelry and started knitting. The pattern I liked the most was Angela's Fabulous Felted Bag. But don't expect a perfect copy!

So here is my version:

Anita's Amazing Afelted (AAA) Tote

(of course you can use whatever colors you like and in whatever combination--be as creative as you like--I am just telling you how I made this one...)

I cast on about 80 stitches in black wool.
Knit back and forth for about 5 inches.
Then I picked up stitches all around my little rectangle and started knitting in the round. It's a little tight at first, but gets easier, as you get away from the bottom.
About 2 inches up from the bottom,
I changed to color #2 (in my case pink). Knit 2 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 4 rounds.
Switch to color #2 (pink). Knit 4 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 1 round.
Switch to color #3 (gold). Knit 2 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 4 rounds.
Switch to color #3 (gold). Knit 7 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 12 rounds.
Switch to color #2 (pink). Knit 2 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 3 rounds.
Switch to color #2 (pink). Knit 10 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 3 rounds.
Switch to color #3 (gold). Knit 3 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 8 rounds.
Switch to color #2 (pink). Knit 6 rounds.
Switch to color #3 (gold). Knit 3 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 2 rounds.
Switch to color #3 (gold). Knit 14 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 3 rounds.
Switch to color #2 (pink). Knit 6 rounds.
Switch to color #1 (black). Knit 12 rounds.
Bind off.

Create one cord of the same length in each color represented in your project (or just pick three, if you used more than three) either with a knitting spool (Strickliesel) or using an I-cord method.


Braid the three cords together and sew the braid onto your bag, starting on the bottom of one side, looping all the way around (the loop handle of your bag will be as long as you made your cords--keep in mind, though, that you will loose some length by felting) and going down the other side of your bag.


Voila! Done! Well, you got quite a few loose ends to weave in (the inside of your bag, of course). Oh, and you still have to felt, i.e., wash your bag in hot water and dry.

And here is a picture of mine after the first round of felting. I think I will do a little more...




I really like the way mine came out. I might make some more... I definitely dig felting! I am going to change my blog title from "What comes after Socktoberfest" to "I felt your presents!" Because that's what I am going to do this year. Felt my friends' presents...

I still had wool left over from the bag. So here are some more felting projects, inspired by Leigh Radford's Felted Bowls (note: this link is from Ravelry, but the pattern has been published in her book One Skein):

Cast on 64 sts
Knit for about 2 inches in the round on four dpns
Start decreasing as follows:
Every other round start each needle with ssk and end each needle with k2t, thus reducing by 8 sts every other round until you have no sts left.



And another one:



Cast on 100 sts
Knit in the round for about x inches
Start decreasing as follows:
Divide sts by five
Every other round start each set with ssk and end each set with k2t, thus reducing by 10 sts every other round until you have no sts left.



Then I started felting them. Hmmm. They just did not quite come out as bowls...

So, I tried shaping them by placing them under some kitchen canisters:



This still did not quite produce the desired results. I must be doing something wrong. I should buy the book...

Meanwhile, I kept knitting, using up the remainder of the wool I had. The next round (haha) I made rectangular (pun intended).

The first one I started with the pumpkin, aka burnt orange, color.
I made the "base" about 50 sts wide
and knit about 60 rows in seed stitch.
Then I picked up the sts all around
and continued in seed stitch in the round in black for about 10 rounds (roughly--I just used up all the black I had left).
Switched to pink and knit another 20 or so rounds, also seed stitch.
Then I bound off.





And started another one to use up the rest of the pink.
Also rectangular.
Cast on 40 sts
seed stitch for about 45 rows.
Picked up sts all around and continued seed stitch in the round until I ran out of yarn (about 10 rounds.)




Okay, and then I washed them...

Finally getting frustrated enough with the felting process, I went to the bookstore... And read the book... And learned a thing or two about felting...

One of the big things I did wrong was putting them in the dryer. Apparently, you wash them (with as much "agitation" as possible), then stretch them into the desired shape, then let them dry in that shape. And that worked much better! So, voila:


I am so excited!!! Aren't my four felted pieces beautiful?! I am off to the yarn store to buy more wool... A-felting I will go...

Ribbed Lace Boleros # 2 and #2b

So I made this Ribbed Lace Bolero for my daughter a while back. It came out great!


However, after she wore it just once, the whole thing stretched way out and completely lost its shape. I decided it was because I had used the wrong yarn (Knit Picks Shine Worsted), which was very nice to work and looked great, but did not keep its shape very well.

And because I liked the pattern so much, I decided to make another bolero (Ribbed Lace Bolero #2) with the right yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, lime.


I love the feel of the yarn. It is very nice to work with! I finished another bolero in no time.
















One thing I changed from my first attempt, was to cut the number of stitches dramatically. I only cast on 74 stitches for this one.

I had bought two skeins of yarn, but only used one skein (or not even). So I quickly decided to make another one (Ribbed Lace Bolero #2b).


Since we are going to see my husband's family in July, and my daughter is going to get to hang out with her cousin there, and the two girls will be BFFs for a few weeks and like to dress alike and spend every waking moment together, I thought it would be great if the two girls had identical boleros to wear (I will post pictures after our trip!). Now I am just hoping that these will hold their shape better than my original attempt, which, I think, might just become another market tote :). We will see...

Hugs, shrugs, cabled shrugs, boleros, and superchunky

Other than the "endless knot" socks, I am working on a shrug for my daughter right now. She takes a sweater to school every day, because she says it's always cold inside. Jennifer Thurston calls her pattern "Hug," and Jenna (knits & pieces) altered that original pattern into a "cabled shrug" (see Jenna's picture). This shrug is basically two long sleeves that connect around the shoulder, thus keeping all the parts warm that usually get cold. It is knit starting from one wrist across the shoulders to the other wrist. I am using Lion Brand Wool-Ease solid, looking pretty much like Jenna's picture here (color is called "Fisherman"). The original pattern was knit with Cashmerino Superchunky, so I am doubling the Wool-Ease to make it "superchunky."

It's really fast and easy, except I think I made the first arm too long, so I am waiting for my daughter, so I can measure it on her. I might have to open parts up again. As easy as these shrugs are, getting them the right size always seems to challenge me.

I made this other, really cool shrug, called Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher for my daughter. Instead of using Lion Brand Cotton-Ease like the "recipe" said, I used Knit Picks Shine Worsted, which somebody else on Ravelry had used. It came out great! Really awesome!! But after the first time it was worn, it "grew" to about double the width. The pattern completely lost its "spring," and I am totally bummed. I definitely want to make another one with the Lion Brand yarn to see if that makes the difference. By the way, I had the hardest time with the pattern at first (remember, I mentioned before that I have a hard time "reading" knitting patterns), but once I figured it out, it was totally, totally easy!