Post-Christmas Handmade Gifts Review

Hello everyone,

I know I’ve been pretty quiet, but if you had been crazy, like me, you would have been super busy last month trying to race to the finish line for Christmas gifts. I ended up making five presents and only two of them were “small”. Let’s take a look at my creativity gallery, shall we?

For my mother I made this beautiful shawl using the Color Obsession pattern everyone was gaga over. (I do have some tips for this one in my project notes). After having the edging snap apart while blocking, I was able to come up with a fix and part of that was to add a crochet boarder with the same color as the base color.

The finished, fixed product

Another angle

For my father, I made a pair of socks using Solemate. I was really happy with this yarn because I tried one of them on to make sure the claims of the Outlast thread worked (I washed the socks, of course). My results left me satisfied and my dad said they kept his feet very warm. I used an adjusted pattern called “Treads” from the “Son of Stitch ‘N Bitch” book.

Snazzy socks

For a friend of mine, I made an extremely modified version of the “Sólás Caomh” baby blanket into a gigantic 6’x4.5′ blanket. It took a lot of yarn, but I was able to rock that thing like nobody’s business. I’m extremely proud of this thing and all of the crochet cable-ing I learned! Because of all the awesomeness I accomplished and modified with this pattern, I shall have to write up a review in the future.

The beautiful Irish sea!

For my brother, I made him two different hats. The first is one that I (mostly) made the year before – but I had to finish it to give it as a gift, so it counts! I modified the “Wise Old Owl Hat” pattern to have only one owl – you know, the strong, silent type.

Manly hoot

The other one I made for him was a hat from the pattern “Berruti“. This was the second time I made the hat and I think my eyes were getting cross because I made a lot of unnecessary mistakes on a cool, but easy pattern.

Ziggy Zag

I made notes and mods on all of these projects I’ve stored on my Ravelry notebook. I hope you take joy looking at my Christmas presents as I did giving them.

Back to my Radiance shawlette,
-Stacy C.

 

All Easters Should Have Yarn

Hello my fellow yarn addicts. I hope everyone’s Easters (yes, it’s supposed to be plural – watch “Nacho Libre”), or Passover, was great. I had a whirlwind long weekend, four states in four days. Let me tell you, living on the East Coast with all these smaller states is something I’m still getting used to!

This is the kind of yarn I used

I had a lot of yarn woven in with all my other crazy family activities. I had to finish a birthday present for a close friend’s uncle, of course I didn’t clue in until Tuesday that I needed it for Saturday. I decided to make a man slip knot scarf in a basket weave pattern. Where’s the picture?! Well, in all my haste, I didn’t get one… I know! I know!!! You’d think I’d learn from having to back track for other projects and getting the picture retroactively. HOWEVER, it was a dark blue and not easily photographed anyway :-p

What I mean by a slip knot scarf, is that I bound off four stitches on one side of the scarf for four rows. After using the back loop cast on to get my four stitches back, I had a “hole” on one side. This way, you can just put the other end through the “hole” and slip knot the scarf to the neck. (Stop screaming for pics. I will make a lighter colored one later)

I will give you this basic pattern, feel free to have fun with it:

A Manly Slip Knot Scarf

Bulky Yarn (Weight 5)
Needles: Size 11 (8 mm)

Cast on 30
Garter stitch 3 rows
(For all rows the border is three stitches on each side)
Rows 4-8: K3, *K4, P4, repeat from * to the last three stitches, K3
Knit row 9
Rows 10-14: K3, *P4, K4, repeat from * to the last three stitches, K3
Knit row 15
Knit to desired length
Garter stitch last 3 rows
Bind off

For the key hole section: when you are about 2/3 – 3/4 done with the length you want, follow the pattern for the first 13 stitches, then BO 4 stitches.
K four rows to pattern, just skip those four BO stitches as if they were knitted
K 13 stitches to pattern, back loop cast on four stitches, continue pattern

There you have it, a quick and easy man scarf.

Back to my regularly scheduled program,
-Stacy C. Cervantes