I received my first issue of KnitSimple over the weekend and read it cover to cover yesterday.  I like that it’s full of patterns and new sources to find yarn and notions.  They’ve also reviewed 10 organic and eco friendly yarns that looks pretty interesting.  This will come in handy this winter when I sit down to really learn more about the yarn I use in my projects.

There’s also a technique I’ve never heard of called Broomstick Lace which is used for the center panel of this bag. I like it.  I want to learn it.  I can’t wrap my brain around the instructions, but I’m definitely going to give it a try.  I have to start moving beyond the scarf and work my way up the knitter’s food chain.

Admittedly, this past month, or two,  I haven’t knit 1 stitch for some reason.  I blame the lazy days of summer, but, I have been planning for future projects.  The problem is I’ve been so busy knitting gifts for this Christmas that I haven’t made myself anything since last year.  I want to make myself something pretty and non-scarf related.  This made me think of all the WIP I have to finish up so I can actually make something for me, myself and I.

I pulled out all of my finished objects this morning and realized that I am practically done with my Christmas list.  Yay!!!  Mind you, this is the completely revised list of handmade treasures.  By my calculations, I have 1 wrap and 5 more scarves to make.  The scarves are knit on size 35 needles and done in a garter stitch so they go fairly quickly.  I’m using a colorful fancy fun fur paired with a worsted weight yarn.  Don’t worry, these are for the ladies.  FYI – this scarf is a great way to knit down your stash.

My only only task will be to block almost every piece I’ve knitted.  Yes, the stockinette stitch is to blame, but at least I’ll have another month or 2 before I have to start laying everything out.

I’m curious, when do you start making your holiday gifts?  Some people start in the fall but I can’t knit that fast.

This scarf was for my cousin Kam-Marie.  Like me, her favorite color is purple and I had a few skeins of nice variegated lavender, gray and black worsted weight yarn that I inherited.   It was knit on size 8 needles and took for-ev-er to complete.  This scarf is how I got backed up with making the other gifts.  This scarf is the reason why Aunt Glo did not get her pom-poms!  FYI – knitting up these gifts was a great way to knit down my stash.

I will say that, aside from the crocheted decrease fiasco, this was the most time consuming and complicated of all the gifts.  I know the point of making them was to learn a new stitch/technique, but I mean this one was a doozy.  I cannot tell you how many times I had to restart this pattern.  It was the first time I had to do an increase, and I had to do it one stitch and one row at a time.  I could not wrap my head around the instructions.  It was as if I could see it, but my brain kept saying “there’s NO WAY that’s right.  you’ve got to be kidding me!”  I finally gave up and put out a cry for help on the Ravelry.com boards and got an answer to my dilemma.

After finally moving forward (I was actually doing it right before I asked for help), I moved through the increase section without any more problems.  When I came to the straight section, alternating rows of knit and purl, I developed knitters ADD.  I could not stay focused on the scarf.  I got bored, started something else, worked on the crochet blanket (and you know know how I feel about crocheting!). Anything.  Finally, in June during the Philadelphia’s Writers’ Conference, I took the scarf along so I could work on it between workshops and on the train ride to and from Center City.  Once the straight section was completed, the decrease section went smoothly.

Because this project put me so far behind (it took me two to three months to complete) I didn’t get a chance to knit scarves for my uncles.  I also didn’t have time to block this one.  I thought I could get away with steam ironing it, but the sides eventually rolled back in on itself.  So, this one had to be returned so I could block it.

Before I start this post, I’ll confess that I don’t really crochet.  I have a blanket I’ve been working on for about two years and it’s not even half way done.

Now, having said that.  I decided to tried a stitch mom showed me to crochet my Aunt Glo’s scarf.  I thought it would be good practice for me and something different and vibrant to match her personality.  I used a variegated boucle yarn with a green, orange, pale yellow and white colorway.  I really liked this yarn and though it would look great with mini pom-poms or fringe.  I also made this without a pattern, so winging it was an understatement.

I got started ok, but half way through, I noticed one side was moving in on an angle.  That meant I was losing stitches.  I went to my mom to try and fix the problem.  The first question she asked me was “did you count your stitches?”  Count my what?  I don’t count stitches.  I just do the darn thing!  When I knit everything stays even and the same.  No counting (unless it’s a tricky pattern).  Only the solitude of two needles wrapping themselves in yarn.

Back to my drunk scarf.  I confessed I didn’t count the stitches and, long story short, I had to start over.  My main problem was figuring out where to pick up the last stitch in each row.  I would get confused and stop a stitch short causing it to decrease on the one side.  After frogging the scarf more than once, I finally got it semi-right and rationalized that the imperfection was the charm of receiving a hand made item.

I did have every intention of diverting the attention away for the decrease mistake by adding the mini pom-poms.  By the time I got around to tidying up all of the scarves, there just wasn’t time to make them.  I decided fringe would be quicker, but kept forgetting to do it.  My thought was, as a last ditch effort, I would give my aunt the scarf and then tell her I needed to add the fringe as a finishing touch.  Well, that didn’t work because she decided she wanted the scarf the way that it was.  I asked a few more times throughout the night, but she would not hand it over.

She liked the scarf and wears it, almost, all the time.  I do feel like I kind of jipped her out a fairly flawless scarf, so I’ll have to knit something fabulous for her this year.  Needless to say, all the other projects were knit.  That was also around the time that I decided to stick to knitting until I had that one down pretty well before going back to crocheting.  Going between the two was getting way to confusing.

I know I’m a bit late with the rest of the Christmas gifts, so please forgive me.  I have a good excuse, and as soon as I think of it I will tell it to you. :-}

So, gift #2 went to my Aunt Debbie.  It was the Green Apple Roving Scarf.  I already bought the Wool-Ease super bulky denim blue yarn for my Aunt Paulette’s drop stitch scarf and decided to use that instead of the apple green in the pattern.

This was knit on size 35 needles and knit up pretty quickly.  When I say pretty quickly I mean I was done in 4 hours.  I started this scarf in my Weight Watchers meeting, did a few rows at the diner while waiting for my food, and finished it off watching 20/20.  I have never knit something so fast.  I thought I was doing something when I knit a washcloth in 2 days, but this trumps that.

This pattern went so fast, I was able to knit two of them with the same skein.  My aunt loved it!  She just kept saying how soft it was and that she wasn’t taking it off.  She posed for her pictures and went about talking with family.  True to her word, an hour later, she was still wearing the scarf.  I would say this was another gift that went over very well.

So, the second scarf I thought I would keep for myself, even though I wrapped it up for a “just incase” gift.  If I was able to get through the family Christmas Eve dinner without giving it away, it was mine to keep.  Well, that didn’t happen.  My Aunt Paulette, who’s favorite color is anything in the blue family, started placing requests as she got her coat and goodies to go home.  She needed a purple and blue scarf to match her current outer wear.  With that, I whipped out the blue scarf and said “Here ya go.  Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa.”  Even though she was pleased with the additional scarf, I don’t know if it got me off the hook for the purple scarf.  I’ll see if she mentions it again before the fall rolls in this year.

Gift #1 is the Golden Drop Stitch Scarf. This golden beauty went to my Aunt Paulette.

Her favorite color is blue and I had every intention of making a blue scarf for her. I inherited a nice baby blue yarn and actually came up with my own pattern and knit a scarf for her. Why didn’t she get that one you ask? Well, as I said, it was inherited from the cousin of a friend who was a veteran crochet and knitter. She (or someone else in the house) was also, as I found out, a smoker of some kind. As I knit the scarf, I began noticing burns in the yarn. Hmm…hope it’s not going throughout the skein. Guess what? It did. So I finished the scarf with the thought of adding appliqués and never got around to it. Once I bought this book, that idea completely disappeared until now.

The pattern called for super bulky gold roving yarn and I bought a soft Wool-Ease Think & Quick super bulky denim blue skein of yarn as a substitute.  Once I made it through the first set of drop stitches, I noticed it looked nothing like the picture.  I frogged (undid everything) it and started again.  Needless to say, I frogged it about 6 more times.  I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong so I headed over to the Tangled Web.

What I learned was that the yarn used in the pattern was a single strand of yarn and I was using a double strand (two strands twisted around each other).  So, the yarn would work with the pattern, but it will look a little different.  Looking at the pattern and the color of the yarn, it dawned on me that the pattern would look better in the mustard yellow, because the blue wasn’t cutting it.

I fingered the yarn in the shop before leaving and decided to take the plunge and buy a nice skein of yarn called for in the pattern.  Afterall, it’s gift right?  I picked out a beautiful red skein of yarn and left the shop.  By the time I got home I was in full buyer’s remorse mode.  How could I spend $15 for 1 skein of yarn!  Was I nuts!  I don’t spend this much on yarn for me!

I talked to my friend Monique, who crochets, about it and she said she never spends that much on yarn for someone else.  It should be a treat for yourself.  That did it for me.  The first chance I got I took the yarn back and went to Michael’s for something more in my budget.  I settled on a mustard colored skein of Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn (yes, again!) and went to work.

The scarf turned out great!  If, and when, I make this scarf again, I will go down in needle size because the stitches weren’t as tight as I would have liked.  I also want to try it again using the yarn suggested in the pattern.  It will be a nice gift for me.

At any rate, it was worth all the drama.  My aunt loved it and loved how soft is was.  As she got ready to leave she mentioned how she’s going to buy a new coat to match her new scarf.  She also mentioned she would need two more in blue and purple to match the rest of her coats.  I had another Green Apple Scarf on hand, made from the original denim blue yarn, so I handed it over to keep me in her good graces.