We awoke to a snowy white Christmas here. A big, quilt-like blanket of fluff covered everything. The temperature hovered just above 32-degrees, so we were lucky that there was minimal ice—a good thing for the inexperienced, (non-Yankee) drivers around here.
I enjoyed making several hand-knit Christmas gifts this year. To match last year's scarf, the DH got a hand knit hat to fit his 25" head (yep, it's that big). And other family members received cowl-and-mitt sets (picture taken pre-snow).
The mitts are my own pattern in which I modify the top center to coordinate with the cowl's stitch pattern. The raspberry set (left) is 100% wool and inspired by the
"True Brit" Ponchette from Cathy Caron's book,
Cowl Girls
. The turquoise cowl is a variation of the
"Nitid Cowl" by Sarah Fama in Interweave Knits
"Holiday Gifts" 2010 issue made with a wool and bamboo blend yarn. For this cowl, I used the tubular ribbed cast-on method that I teach in my
Knitting II classes. A fun technique!
This lace wrap is a
Stephen West pattern called "
Collonade." Be sure you check out the picture of it laying flat on
Knitty.com as the photo of it on the model might be confusing when you start to knit.
So, I hope all you yarny, fiber arts fanatics had a great Christmas and either gave or received some wonderful hand-made items. These are the best kinds of gifts to give or receive. (Yarn, knitting and quilting tools, or books about yarn, knitting, quilting and fiber arts are great, too!)
<-- The neighbor kids made this snow person and put a Tennessee orange baseball cap on its head. If it had more of a neck, it could wear a knit gaiter... otherwise, a scarf.
Here's a great book for knitted gaiter inspiration:
