Santa’s Coming!

And he will have some more FO’s to give out.

Only Step-Son’s hat (my own basic hat recipe) I thought to follow the London Beanie pattern, and knew I would have to make it bigger. I measured head circumference against Wonderful Guy, and swatched, and measured as I went. I truly wanted this to be wearable. He may not like it, but not because it is too small! Right off the mark, I ribbed it differently, and I was going to make it all one color, and pretty soon, it was all my own recipe. I was almost finished with the decreases and realized it needed to be longer. So back I frogged. I am very pleased with my efforts to make this one work.

Only Step-Son’s Sweet One’s scarf. Eunny’s Spectrum Scarf, but without the spectrum. Lion Brand Prints makes it colorful, and a simple but interesting knit.

Sister’s Mister doesn’t want baked goods this year, so instead I knitted/felted some can cozies. Using this pattern, and 2 skeins of Lion Brand Prints, I cranked out 4 in no time at all. Or, rather, in about one day’s time. I used a smaller needle, so adapted the pattern a bit with another row of increases, increasing every other stitch. Also, recently having purchased my First. Ever. Brand New. Washer/Dryer, and the washer being a front loader, I lost that sure fire felting method. So I hand felted these puppies. Agitation in hot hot sudsy water in a soup pot for five minutes, then into icey water in other sink, and back again, warming up the water as needed. Took about 30-40 minutes and some good arm action, but all stitch definition is gone, and they all sized down very nicely. After rinsing and squeezing out excess water, I tossed in the dryer for 20 minutes, then let air dry, shaping on water bottles…since I didn’t have one soda can in my entire house! I am very pleased with the results. I hope he is, too, and doesn’t think the gift lame.

I found the new dryer handy when I was blocking the BSJ’s, too. The dryer has a nifty rack that allows for drying without tumbling. When the blocked out baby sweaters were just almost completely dry, I unpinned them, and put them on the rack, and let the dryer finish the job. Suh-weet! In 15 minutes. All done!