Still more Christmas gifts coming off of the needles

First, a ski mask... for little Aydan who REALLY, REALLY wanted a dragon... and when I offered to make him a ski mask instead decided he wanted BOTH a dragon and a ski mask....

This was made with Red Heart With Love... with a pattern I wrote as I worked it. I cast on the same number of stitches I would have for a hat, knit in K1, P1 ribbing for six inches (for a six year old) - older and adults, I'd go up to eight to ten inches...  Then I cast off half the stitches - for me, I used Jeny's Extra Stretchy Bindoff from Knitty. K1, P1, the other half of the stitches... then used Backwards Loop to cast-on the stitches I had just cast off. I knit in K1, P1 ribbing for a good inch or so... then changed to stockinette (disregard the one row of K1, P1 ribbing that slipped in there somewhere during a good part of the tv show I was watching. I knit it stockinette another four inches (would have done closer to six for an adult).  Typical hat-based decreases, I K5, K2Tog  repeat through end of row, K one row, Then I repeat each row decreasing the number of stitches between K2Tog until the last row which is just K2Tog all stitches.  Quick, fast and mindless knitting. Fun and bright... perfect for a little boy who doesn't like to freeze.

Second, a pair of simple socks. I used the Easy-Peasy sock pattern on Ravelry. Worsted weight socks are SUPER FAST - this pair is in some Hobby Lobby I Love this Yarn in Ombre print.

He's growing so fast, and he's had to give up several pair of outgrown hand-knit socks this fall. He loves these socks, though they are almost as thick as slippers... but they keep his toes warmer in winter, and what's not to love about a little boy who loves socks that his mom makes him?  I want to knit him dozens... lol.

Lastly a set of bells... these were made following project notes out of the left overs from  the Red Heart with Love yarn from the ski mask hat...

One for me, one for little 'a', one for big 'A', his fiance 's', her son the littlest 'a' and the rest will go to teacher's with the teacher's gifts. Super fast at only an hour or so to make each one. The only thing stopping me is that I ran out of jingle bells. I have added a jingle bell inside each bell as a 'clapper' so that when 'rang' there's actually some noise.

I love following the tradition of hand-making ornaments every year and gifting them. It was getting to be a chore at one time when the number of nieces and nephews getting them were getting a bit 'numerous'... but after cutting back to immediate family and teachers, I can start enjoying it so much more again. I love finding a new pattern. And while I enjoy the more tedious projects as well, you just can't beat something that turns out this cute and is so super fast! These were made with a thick worsted yarn and came out to about four inches tall, three inches wide... but I was thinking some fingering weight yarn? might turn out tiny bells? and wouldn't that also be soooo cute?!

A couple of gifts down

First, I finished a hat for little 'a' a bit ago... then yesterday I managed to finish off a matching scarf. He has TONS of hand-made hats. But they are all 'special' and draw attention. And in the fourth grade? Drawing attention to yourself is not in his comfort zone.

But these should be cozy and warm for him this winter!

The next one is a secret project... for another little boy... who has asked me to make this exact item - and I told him that I didn't want to make it.... but decided today that if I could whip it out, it'll be great in his gift at Christmas time. I'll probably stick it in the bag of clothes (ooh - yuck... clothes for Christmas.... ugh - LOL).

I still have another ski mask to make for Christmas gifts and the Mario blanket to finish up ... making December a much lighter pile of knitting tasks than usual.

Pikachu is finally done

I'm not quite sure he looks like the character... but I did what I could.

Here's the finished Pikachu:

Yeah... not perfect.... but eh... my son loves him anyway.

The yarn I had started him with was more neon-shaded... but I ran out and couldn't get more... so the new yellow is a bit brighter than the photo would appear... it's a good color.  I didn't get the face/head quite right. But I love the ears and the tail. Tail is made in seed stitch with lots of zigs and zags and a bit of darker color at the base. I added stripes to his back with duplicate stitching.

Sadly, he looks a bit more like a pillow than a pikachu... but I can live with it since little 'a' loves him all the same.

Of course, five seconds after he took Pikachu back to his room after he was finished he came back to me asking for a Snorelax... because it 'ought to be easy and really good for cuddling'.

While he ought to be easy enough to make.... I'm not sure I'm ready to sign up for coming up with him from scratch with no pattern... not yet anyway. Maybe. Good news is that his face is pretty straight-forward embroidery - so at least I'd be less likely to mess it up. So, for right now,  little 'a' is just going to have to settle for 'let me think about it'.

Pikachu is in the home stretch

I've finished the body and head which felt like a total slog.

The ears were finished last night. The arms are over half done today. I think I'll manage to whip through the arms and legs tonight. That leaves me the tail to knit tomorrow... and seaming and making his face on Sunday.

It's just streaming along now that I'm through the worst of it.

Super-fast necklace

A couple of months ago there had been a class prompt that asked you to use some metalic colored yarn as one of the options. I wasn't going to do it... but in the craft store I stumbled onto a rack of Lion Brand BonBons and kept eyeing the package of metalics.  The package contained six little 35-ish yard mini-skeins and the metalics package had silver, gold, copper, etc. Super cute and super fun... and I broke down and brought the package home.  I ended up whipping out a super-easy, super-fast bracelet...

Basically, I knit three different I-cords; then braided them... which was inspired by a thought I had around making a braided rag rug - but instead of using rags; I wanted to use scrap bits of yarn and make I-cords from them. Making the bracelet  helped me think through the process and experiment a little.

This month, along comes another prompt... this time it was to be inspired by keys... and I couldn't resist adding a necklace to match:

It took only about 5 yards of each yarn. I used big needles to make it go quick... an dit did. About one hour from first cast on to trying on.

Pikachu to 50%

It's felt like a total slog. I suppose in part, because I had over 30 hours of work in before I had to restart it. (Never really helps the attitude of 'is this ever going to end' when you do things like that).

And of course... just when I decided the head section was long enough... I convince myself it needs another half inch. Then after placing the eyes in when I thought I was done with the length I realized I placed them where I thought they should be from the top as if there wasn't going to be a good half inch to three-quarters of an inch taken up by the seam/top of the head section. And of course, being safety eyes, removing them to move them wasn't easily done. Sigh. So, I had to knit some more.

But, last night - I finished the head and body section and grafted the top of the head closed. Not my best grafting effort... but it's DONE. Now, it's onto the ears, the arms, the legs, and the tail. Then the embroidery and seaming....   I figure  I have about a week worth of work left to do on it... can't wait to show him off!!!!

Still churning away on Pikachu, start of a scarf

Working on the pikachu is pretty tedious, but finally progressing.Right now it's just stockinette in the round on tiny needles (so tightly knit). I've got about one more inch on the body/head section to do before I move stitches from either end off onto waste yarn (for the ears) and seam the top. Then there are the small diameter ears, the small legs and arms, the tail and the finishing embroidery/facial pieces.   I'm hoping to get him finished by the end of next week.

Since it's soooo tight knitting and slow and a little boring... I started a scarf for little 'a' to match his black hat. I'm using Red Heart With Love yarn which is dense and thick and really nice for an acrylic. I'm basically knitting a tube of stockinette, but with a ready made seam at the bottom and it will end up having a seam at the top. I'm also adding a single stripe at each end about 6" from the end... in part to help it match the hat and in part to help give me something interesting. I'm at about 10" now, so a good LONG while before I get to the next stripe. And it's basically stockinette in the round - but in black. Good news is that I'm using size 10 needles so at least the knitting is nice and loose and relaxing. I'm spending a lot of time while knitting it thinking about how the thick scarf is going to be very warn and sooo soft due to the yarn... and hoping it will help keep hims a lot warmer this winter.

Normally I have a half-dozen projects in play at any given time. I've got a couple of WIP projects that will either get frogged or worked on next month. In the meantime, I'm down to one WIP that I started a couple of months ago. It's a scrap yarn project to help me use up a ton of tiny 'ends'. I was using bits and pieces that were averaging around 1 - 3 yards to knit on the 3 I-cords and the braiding them... to eventually get wound up and sewn into a braided rug. Because it had been almost a week since I'd had any ends to add to it, I dug into my scrap basket... and found a couple balls of yarn that are probably 5 to 20 yards. I took the time to add three of them to the length... and have one more that I can add today... and I am sure that I can dig through the basket to find more. Funny enough - being I-cords... it's basically 6 knit stitches, repeated... which means that it's probably been a week since I've done a purl stitch (except in knitting classes). But by adding the variety of colors, and the unpredictability of working on a scrap I-cord braid with whatever colors I find next... I'm really enjoying it. I can't wait to see what the next section of braid is going to look like.