'09 christmas gifts

A couple of extremely belated pictures of just a few of the handmade gifts I gave this last Christmas...


Matching pot holders and dish towel set:

A pretty green ribbon yarn headband and a cotton fall-colored scarf:

Knit washcloths:


A tea cozy:

There was a lot more, but I forgot to photograph most of it. Oh well ;)

Christmas knitting

After a summer-long hiatus, I'm finally knitting again. What with the economy being what it is, and my bank account being what it is, I figure that most of my friends and family are getting knitted holiday gifts from me this year, which means I had better get started. I have finished a few things already, and begun a few more. Below are a couple of pictures. In addition to scarves and the other usual suspects, I also plan to knit a few people laptop cases, so those should appear on here at some point.

future miss WIP

Inspired by this piece of gorgeousness on Fake Sheep, I got my paws on a few skeins of SoySilk Oasis (the color is Canyon):


I don't really have a plan for it yet, but who am I kidding? I'll probably just make a scarf out of it. It's too pretty for leg warmers or mittens or a hat (since I don't tend to wear those things often enough), and I don't really have time for bigger projects... I also got ahold of some Trendsetter Aquarius for a good price on Ebay. I think I'm going to use it to make a SNBN Yo, Drop It scarf for my mom for her birthday. I already showed her the yarn, and she got really excited.



One day, I swear, I'll knit a sweater or a blanket or something, but it's going to take a really good cause to get me to do it! Scarves are just such handy gifts, and such lovely, mindless things to knit before the telly. Weirdly enough, I have very little desire to progress in my knitting skills beyond where I am now. Patterns that try to entice you by promising "difficult lace pattern!" have the opposite effect on me. I knit to relax and tune out. I have enough stress in the rest of my life, enough "positive challenges." Maybe if I had more time it would be different, but as a grad student I work all day and all night, and am lucky if I can squeeze an hour in before bed a few times a week. Hey, I didn't name this blog Lazy Vegan Knits for nothing, you know? ;)

v's scarf...maybe

My best friend's birthday is at the end of the month, so I started this scarf for her. I'm using 100% cotton Cascade Luna Yarn and knitting it in a 1x1 rib (my standard scarf knit). I liked the way the yarn colors I picked looked when the balls were all sitting next to one another in a pile, but since I started knitting I have begun to despair. V. is a lady who can rock a bold fashion choice with maximum aplomb so I was going for big colors, but... is this turning out ugly? Also, I knitted the first two stripes a few days ago, when I was feeling pretty relaxed, and the next five stripes last night, when I had a wicked headache. This totally messed up my gauge, and plus I definitely missed a row or two on the red stripe. Sigh. I can't really bear to undo it all, though, and V. is a knitter herself so she won't care/will be totally understanding, but still. I guess I'll finish this and then see how it looks on. If it's too ugly I'll get her other stuff to even out the present, I guess. It's time spent and the thought that count, right? E for effort, and all that...

rowan calmer

I don't know why, but I have been fetishizing these 4 balls of Rowan Calmer yarn for almost 5 years now. Every time I started to knit something with them I got a little ways into it and decided that whatever I was doing was "not good enough" for the yarn and either ripped everything out and started over, or just bound off and made yet another dish towel or pot holder out of the piece, like so:



Now, why I have fetishized this particular yarn is a mystery. It's soft and I like the color blue, but, c'mon, it's not such a special yarn that I should have spent this long on it, right? Anyway, over the years I have frittered away most of one of my balls, so a few weeks ago I finally decided enough was enough, I was just going to make something already. I had a brainstorm about white trim, got a ball of white Calmer, and decided on a 1x1 rib. I had one false start, because I thought I wanted a skinny scarf but after knitting on it a while, decided I didn't and frogged the whole thing:


But now, finally, I think I've got it:


Simple and pretty. And it only took 5 years.

presents presents

It's funny: I don't knit for very many people, but for some odd reason I like to knit for my friend Amy. For her birthday this year (it's this Friday) I made her a blue scarf out of an acrylic stash yarn, knit in a simple garter stitch; a flower petal washcloth out of purple cotton chenille yarn (pattern from Weekend Knitting); and a hat out of a blue and gray cotton acrylic blend that has been lurking in my stash basket for years. For the hat I used the pattern for the kitty hat in Stitch 'N Bitch, but then just left off the ears. Amy looks good in blue and likes purple (if I can judge by my bridesmaid's dress from her wedding), so hopefully she'll like these presents. Happy 28, Ames!

leg warmers never get old

Leg warmers never get old... to me, at least. I wear them around the house all through winter, and occasionally out of the house under jeans or with a skirt and tights. I think the first time I knit them I used a pattern from Weekend Knitting, but now I just cast on however many stitches on appropriately sized dp needles and knit away. Leg warmers are so easy to make that it's pretty much impossible to screw them up. The above leg warmers were made with some cheap acrylic yarn I bought at Michael's years ago.

As a bonus, with the little bit of leftover yarn from your warmers, you can usually make a nice little iPod cozy for yourself (or a friend), like so: