Handmade Gift Recap - Part One

Now that the gifts have been handed out, I'm free to post all the handmade items I made this holiday season. First up are the items I made for my sister, a set of mittens and fingerless gloves. She loves fingerless gloves and this year I threw in mittens that she could wear alone or under the fingerless guys. She's just relocated to Maryland from Texas which means that her gifts this year are made from WOOL (bye bye cotton!)! Well, at least the fingerless gloves are. The mittens are made from a beautiful tonal blue baby llama yarn. Sooo soft and so fun to knit with. 

My camera doesn't do this blue justice. 
I love that the gloves will slouch a little at the wrists.

The fingerless gloves were a formal request and she specifically asked for a neutral color. I think camel is a safe bet. I used a fingering weight yarn and tiny needles. I think the little cables and lace are so cute. 

New Hoods, New Photos

 

Yay new photos! I'm so happy with the way they've turned out. I feel very lucky to have such talented family and friends. Thank you so much Chris, Nikki & Adam!

I've updated the Etsy store with more new photos and hoods, hopefully in time for the holiday shopping season. And the shipping is FREE. Spread the word!

And Rosebud Wins

I managed to finish 90% of my holiday gift knitting before we left for our Thanksgiving holiday. Knowing most of my gifts were done, I started a holiday travel project that was all for me! I ended up choosing the Rosebud hat pattern I had blogged about previously. I'm making the super slouchy version. I got a good amount done on the trip. It was a great plane project! Right now I'm trying to finish up while also finishing my last holiday gift project. I'm eager to gift my holiday knitted items so I can post all the photos here. I've been so productive these last couple of months!

Autumn Reading List

My mother-in-law is an avid reader (like myself) and when she's finished a few books she passes them around. I'm always excited to get a stack of books and consider her titles my seasonal required reading. This past summer she lent me a slew of great books and now she's provided me my autumn reading requirements:

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Berry

I just started reading this book on Monday and I'm really liking it!

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Looks promising!

 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

This one I've chosen for myself. I've already finished the first two books in this series and now it's time to cap it off!  The second book was even better than the first so I have high hopes for the third.

Dark Shadows

Since we've opted out of cable we're pretty reliant on Netflix streaming. As a result, I've recently become crazy obsessed with Dark Shadows. 

So moody, so mysterious, so good!

And then today I discovered that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are making their own movie version of this 1960s daytime drama. 

Check out this cast photo:

So awesome, I can't stand it! 

The movie is supposed to come out May 2012. I'll be starting the countdown once Downton Abbey Season 2 is over ... that obsession will be another post entirely ...

Winter Hat Debate

Looking through my stash of winter knits I've come to realize that I have tons of scarves, fingerless mitts and gloves but only a couple knit hats.  
The one knit hat that has been in heavy rotation is a beloved one but it's lacy and made of mostly cotton. Not ideal once the weather really starts to get chilly. I want to knit another slouchy-ish hat (something that won't give me a bad case of hat head) so I've been researching Ravelry and found some good contenders:

Cabled Beret

Garbo's Turban

Trinity Stitch Hat

Rosebud

 The hardest part now is just making a decision!

Bandana Cowl

Another Purl Soho project! 

I've recently completed the Bandana Cowl and I love it. 

It was a very easy knit and I made mine with some twist (wool/alpaca) yarn I bought at Rhinebeck. I'm sure this piece will be in heavy rotation this fall, or is it already winter since we got three inches of snow this past weekend?