FO: Blankets and Baby Hats, Booties

Christmas is less than 36 hours away and I still find that I am not done with my last minute gifts, and I swear I just Favorited three dishcloth patterns that I would love to knit by tomorrow night. Yes, you don't need to tell me. I know I am crazy! Well, maybe insane is more like it.

My eyes are tired and my fingers ache from knitting all day so I decided to take a little break and blog about some things that I finished for Christmas knitting. Some I finished in June and others I finished yesterday. Yes, I will admit it!

First up, we have what I call "The Name Blankets". You see, last year, I stumbled upon Knitting Nonsense. We has some wonderful cloth patterns, and I fell in love with all of them. So, I thought I'd knit a bunch and make them into blankets for the girls I babysit.

This is Hannah's blanket:



And this is Gabby's:


The patterns for the letters and slowers came from Knitting Nonsense and the pattern for the butterflies, hearts and stars came from another wonderful site Designs by Emily.

And the last of the FOs for this post are for my little cousin. Now, technically, these aren't really a Christmas present since my sure to be adorable cousin is set to make her appearance in January, but for the possibilty that I will not see her mom until possibly March after Christmas this turned into a Christmas gift.




The hat was a super quick knit and I just love it! It is now officially the pattern that I will have on stand-by for last minute baby hats. The only thing I did differently was crochet a chain in black yarn to weave through the eyelets instead of using ribbon. You can find the pattern Knitting on the Net.


The booties are made from my quick knit go-to pattern. I love them! Michelle from Ooo Baby Knits had the adorable pattern.

Okay, so that is all for now. Enough of my procrastinating. I really must finish some knitting!

FO/Pattern Baby Ugg Inspired Hat

First off, I love knitting for babies and it is so much fun to knit for winter babies! And when you have a family as big and "close knit" as mine, there always tends to be a new winter baby almost every other year (or two or three in the same year!),

Moving on since I am sure you don't care....

This hat was inspired by Jen Gontier's pattern for adorable Baby Ugg Booties. If you haven't made a pair, you really should! You can look her up on Ravelry to find the pattern.

Click here to download the PDF or go below the jump to view the pattern.

FO: Ruffle Hat and Scarf

Going through some files recently, I discovered that I had several FOs filed away that I never blogged about. Hmm. I think my New Year's Resolution will be to work on my blogging abilities, yes?

Anyway, I knitted this hat and scarf a few months ago after my friend asked me to knit something for her little cousin.

The hat pattern came from Knitting on the Net and I made the flower from a pattern that I found at Flowers to Knit. It was the first hat I knit in the round, and I was actually pleased with the outcome.

FO: Pocketbook Slippers

Every night, I intend to log on and post something new, but every night time tends to slip away a little too fast.

So, here is the post that is long overdue.






I finished these slippers a few weeks ago from a pattern I found here. It was a really quick knit and the results are adorable.

I followed the pattern exactly for the blue pair, but they came out a little too big, so I adjusted the creme pair a tiny bit.


I only increased to 40 sts and knitted for 5-1/2 inches instead of 6 inches. They fit perfectly!

* Please pardon the awful pictures. 1) It's hard to take pictures of your own feet.
2) I need a new camera*


Also, I hope to post more frequently because I am on a time crunch for my Christmas knitting! I am no where near being done, and I only have 25 knitting days left until I need to be finished. Uh-oh!

Cardi-Shrug

...I finally have the time to post about the Card-Shrug I made in August to wear at a wedding a week ago.

Some of you may remember when I posted pictures of the dress --



(click for full-size)


For the Cardi- Shrug, I used a wonderful pattern by Jennifer Jones from The Knit Monster. It was a fantastic, easy to follow, and easy to knit pattern that only probably took me a week of random - knitting time. (And the style was perfect for the dress!)

So, without further ado, here is the finished shrug.


(click for full size)

Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder

Recently, I bought myself a present - this " Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder" and I am in love!

It runs on the market for about $89.99, but I had a coupon for Micheals to get 50% off any one regularly priced item, so the grand total for this gem came to be about $48.00! Can't beat that! As in love as I am, though, I wouldn't have paid $90 for it,  that's overly priced in my opinion.

It is great, though! It's so much faster than winding yarn by hand (with a crank/dial) or the umbrella swifts. I love that with the electric motor, it's almost hands free! All I have to do is thread the machine and feed the yarn through every so often if it gets caught before it gets back on track again. It's perfect for rewinding partially used skeins that take up a lot of space in my yarn stash (perhaps, this will be my new excuse to by more yarn...now that might not be too good!) The new balls are compact and easy to store!

(click on all pictures for full - size)
It turns this messy skein....


Into this....


It even makes this messy, dyeing experiment gone wrong...


Look semi- decent....


I rewound all of this...


In less than an hour! That's SO much faster than hand winding!

So, if you are in the market for a new yarn winder, I would highly suggest you check this out!

Free Pattern: The Dad Hat

This is the year of knitted gifts. I am determined to knit something special for the important people in my life for Christmas. It is easy to knit for my mom and grandma and the children I baby sit, but it is always hard to knit (or buy) something for my dad. After giving it some thought, I decided to make him a hat for those cold Ohio winter months when he is either shoveling the driveway or walking the dog.

So, without further ado, I present "The Dad Hat" modeled by my brother:

The Dad Hat

Level: Very easy

Materials:
About one skein of Plymouth Encore Yarn 75% acrylic, 25% wool (I used Navy)
One pair of size 9 (US) needles (I used circulars, but this isn't knitted in the round so long straight needles would work fine, too)
A tapestry needle

The Pattern:

CO 84 sts.
(To change the size of the circumference, increase or decrease the number of CO sts by multiples of 8)

*K4,P4* across row (ending on a P st)

Continue the K4, P4 rib until the hat measures 10 inches from the beginning.

Now, start the decrease rows:

Row 1: *K2tog, K2tog, P2tog, P2tog* across the row
Row 2: *K2, P2* across the row
Row 3: *K2tog, P2tog* across the row
Row 4: *K1, P1* across row

Cut the yarn leaving a long enough tail (better safe than sorry!  I usually cute a 24 inch tail.)
Thread the tail through the tapestry needle and carefully slide the stitches of the hat off of your needle.
Thread the needle through every stitch and pull tightly, then seam the side of the hat and back stitch 4 or 5 stitches to secure the seam.

Fold up the brim and you are done!

(C) Amanda_Knits
If you do use this pattern, I would love for your feedback. This is the first time I've written a pattern and it was test knitted by me, so please let me know if it worked out okay or not. Thank you!)




Click here to download PDF