Christmas: A Conscientious Objector's Perspective

Last year I did not knit for Christmas. The year before I knit for everyone. This year I'm knitting for a lot of people but I've greatly scaled back. I'm making cell phone cozies for my BIL and SIL:




And then bookmarks for everyone else. BIL and SIL #2:




For two of the women I work with:




And for Emily:



And the thing is that I have really enjoyed making these bookmarks. Each of them was made from a stitch from the The Knitting Stitch Bible by Maria Parry-Jones. Each was made from stash baby cashmerino and each took a very short time to make.

The stats on them are as follows: size two Brittany Birch DPN's, stash baby cashmerino, beads from JoAnn Fabrics, secured with DMC embroidery floss. BIL's is made in a garter-basket stitch, SIL in stockinette with slip stitch edges and garter stitch borders, Emily's in a rolled rib stitch, the peach colored bookmark is seed stitch, and the blue one is a seed stitch rib pattern. The beads are all blue moon beads. I have a few more of these to make, and then I plan to make one for me too.

My wip's are coming along. The Trellis scarf gave me some problems today. I kept making mistakes in the lace pattern. I have turned the heel on Stephen's first thuja sock. Both patterns are moving along. I am working repeat 16 of 23 on the scarf. I'm a little sick of it at the moment though.

Road Trip Knitting

I decided this year that I basically wouldn't do any christmas knitting. Then I realized that I could make a few, simple projects using stash yarn and save some cash. Then Stephen suggested that I knit for everyone that we didn't already have a gift plan for. That's how I ended up with this:



Two cell phone cozies and several bookmarks. The bookmarks are just small rectangles done on size two needles in baby cashmerino. I used several different stitch patterns from my stitchionary. The cell phone cozies are socks, 32 stitches cast on to size two needles, about 10 rows of ribbing followed by 32 rows of stockinette, kitchenered shut. Easy and effective. I also knit quite a bit on Stephen's Thuja II socks. They are being made in Opal magic (grey-green, spring green and white with brick flecked stripes) on size one needles. Also very simple. His annual christmas socks.

Sweater Surgery

You may remember that when I first knit up my Greek Pullover the left sleeve was sewn in wonky and therefore too small. Well, I've been wearing it like that for a couple of years now and it always drives me crazy. I wore it again today for a baby shower and I decided that I had enough. When I got home I took it off and started surgery.

First, to detach the offending sleeve. The first thread that I removed turned out to be part of the sleeve knitting so all I ended up doing was creating a hole in the sweater. Small hole. I fixed it later. Then I pulled the seamed edges apart and found the seaming thread, snipped it and then unraveled it. Then I re-pinned and re-sewed the sleeve back in. Success. The sweater is still not perfect. If I were to knit it again I would probably make it longer. However, I always wear it with a camisole underneath anyway so it's more of a layering piece. I also have to say that it's not itchy. Maybe I just needed to wear it a few times but it does not make me itch. Lastly, I took off the chiffon quite some time ago because it started to unravel in a crazy making kind of way (and also made me look like I needed a little time in a padded cell.) I would like to sew on a ruffle again in different, ravel-proof, material. It would add to the length and the prettiness of it.