A Very Warm Hat

  I wanted to get a little experience with stranded knitting to build up my confidence. I'm not a brave knitter, I take forever to get round to trying a new skill. This hat was for my sister Mrs B. Her birthday was back in March. One day when we were out together over Christmas, she mentioned that the last hat I made for her wasn't warm enough. I decided she needed an nice, bulky, warm, hat. The pattern I used is called Chance of Flurries and is free. I knit it up with Cascade Yarns Baby Alpaca Chunky in white, and Mirasol Yarn Sulka in raspberry. Alpaca is supposed to be even warmer than sheep wool and less itchy. I bought myself some pom pom makers, because this hat needed a big pom pom! I've not had much luck making pom poms before, so it was totally worth the purchase. I got my little Miss I. to model the hat, and then sent it off to England. She was having a funny five minutes while I took the photos, so they make me giggle a little.

For the love of Harry Potter

 While back in England over Christmas, we took a trip to the Harry Potter Studios, just north of London. This is something I had been really looking forward to. I love Harry Potter, and in my dream world, I would have a career making costumes for theater and film. I really enjoyed all of the studio tour, but especially seeing the costumes and talking to one of the staff about inspiration behind Luna Lovegood's costumes.

Hufflepuff Uniforms

Slytherin Uniforms

Hermione's and Krum's Yule Ball Costumes

Some of Luna's costumes.

 I came home determined to make house scarfs for my two oldest birthdays. I've been meaning to make them for ages, but always put them off for some other project. So here are my Slytherin and my Ravenclaw. The pattern is from Charmed Knits. Now I just need a Hufflepuff scarf, and my youngest needs a Gryffindor. My other half is a muggle, or just doesn't wear scarfs.

Haircut Cowl

  I got 10 inches cut off my hair back in January. My neck felt kind of cold after that. I know, I should have probably waited for warmer weather, but I was inspired by two of my sisters and a niece who gave their hair for cancer victims. I was kind of sick of my hair anyway, and so I went for it.

I bought the yarn for this cowl back in April of 2013, so it was time for it to get made. The pattern is called 'A Very Braidy Cowl' and is available as a free Ravelry download. I made one for one of my sisters a few years ago.

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The yarn I used is Debbie Bliss Cash Merino Aran in Mustard. I ordered it online from Webbs. It is nice, soft, and warm.

I think my little Miss M. is planning on borrowing it when she can.

I'll be back with more to share soon.

Shrunken 'Garden Trellis Mitts'.

 I'm calling these shrunken because I had been gifted one fifty gram skein of Classic Alpaca yarn. I wanted to use it for this pattern. I knit one and a half mittens following the pattern before it became obvious I did not have enough yarn to complete the pair. So I frogged them both and began again.

 I knit one less row of ribbing at the beginning. I then knit four pattern repeats instead of five. I knit only five rounds of ribbing for the cuff. This left me with enough yarn to complete two mitts. all was well in my world.

 I gave these to my sister, Miss C, along with her Jolly Robins, for Christmas. I forgot (or just didn't have enough time) to take any pictures of them. She very kindly took pictures of them for me. She knows how I like to document my hand made things. Looking at the pictures, I realize I really should have blocked them, but with all that frogging and re-knitting, there wasn't the time. Hand made Christmas can be a crazy life to live.

Your Personal Penguin

 Did you ever read any of Sandra Boynton's books? I have to say I'm rather fond of them. I decided my youngest sister's two little boys need their own personal penguins for Christmas.

 I found this free pattern for 'Cheerful Holiday Penguins" here. The pattern calls for DK weight yarn and size US3 needles. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease, which is aran weight, and size US5 needles. So obviously they turned our a little bigger the original penguin. As with the Owl Ornaments I made, I felt like these little guys needed some feet. I knitted some i-cord and shaped them into feet. I just used yarn for the beaks and eyes, because my two little nephews are still very young, I didn't want them to choke on buttons or beads.

I love them!

Starry Night Mitts

 My Mum requested a pair of long, black, sparkly, fingerless, mittens for Christmas. I wanted to just use this pattern. I had made them for her before in pink and white stripes, but I didn't want to buy yarn online if I could help it. My local yarn shop did not have the right kid of yarn, but it did have some 'Berroco Flicker', which is mostly alpaca, with a silver sparkle throughout.

 I started out following this pattern, but the yarn just wasn't right, so after knitting one mitten, I frogged it. I went up from size US4, to size US6 needles. I decided to knit them quite a bit longer. I didn't like the thumbs, so I did increases instead. I didn't bother with the folded cuff either.

The yarn is super soft and warm, and the mitts are nice and snug, and look great. Mum has informed she has received compliments on them. So despite the problems I had, I'm very happy with them.

Oh Christmas Tree

 I went home to England for Christmas this year. It had been 15 years since my last Christmas in England, so it it was some what exciting. I spent many weeks in the run up to departure knitting my heart out. I wanted give hand made presents to my family. Today I'm sharing with you the tree ornaments I made.

There were six owls, three white and three grey, for my sister Mrs M. The pattern is called 'Seamus the Owl' and is available for free from here. I added feet, because I thought the would be comically cute. They are knit up in Lion Brand wool-ease, as are all the ornaments I knit.

 There were four more 'Jolly Robins' to make it six for Miss C.

These mini mittens were for my sister, Mrs. B. I made six pairs of them, each pair was slightly different. You can get the 'Mitten Ornament' pattern for free from here. I think the possibilities for variations with these are endless. They are so cute, and remind me of a old movie called Mr. Krueger's Christmas.

I plan on making a couple of each of these for my own tree eventually. I love how they all looked together on the tree.