Great knitting gift ideas....

I have a group of very close friends that meet every Wednesday for knitting.  We've been meeting for about 4 years now and it's been a blast.  We exchange gifts every year and this year was by far the most creative year to date!  I just wish that I had come up with the ingenious ideas myself.....

Beginning with the most prolific and creative knitter amongst the group, Sherri.  She knit up these adorable Santa Bags and filled them with a knitting ornament.  What an amazing idea!  Ornament was purchased through:  http://www.agoodyarnshop.com/

Our most savy Raveler in the group is Sue.  She manages to find the best patterns on Ravelry and seems to know every yarn, pattern, and website and what's the hottest, must have  "knitting" gadget, bag or color.  She's our Go To person in the knitting world.  She came up with the most ingenious gift - a purchased pattern waiting in our Ravelry message box.  What fun to open up mail and find a pattern waiting to be downloaded!  Not only that - but she managed to find EXACTLY what I would have chosen.  I don't think I would have been able to pull that one off myself.  Pattern can be found:
http://thebrownstitch.com/2010/11/common-ground.html

The other great "knitting" gift was from our most compassionate knitting friend, Kristen who donated a knitters Basket on our behalf through Heifer International Charity.
http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.6329407/?msource=TH1J100025 
OMG - what a perfect idea!  She bought a llama, a sheep, an alpaca and an angora rabbit!  I love this idea! 

As for our other knitting buddy, Leslie, well, she's a canning fiend.  She preserves anything and everything so we got a few of her very time consuming jars of jelly and a Christmas towel - which I have none of and needed!

As for me, well I was far from creative.  I gave everyone a Lantern Moon knitting purse.

So - for you knitters out there, here are some great ways to make a knitter happy.

Boot Topper design

Boot Topper using fingering weight sock

This boot topper was designed for Crown Mountain Farms - Knit for Fun Club (http://www.crownmountainfarms.com/).

It's a simple design that starts with a ribbing and finishes with the visible cuff.  It prevents the boot from chafing your leg and also keeps snow and cold air from sneaking down the boot.  It also glamorizes those drab boots!  Pattern is currently available through Crown Mountain Farms.

Barista Mitts just need test knitting

With all this inclement weather, I've gotten quite a bit of knitting done.  It doesn't help that my husband has been working into the dawn hours and I feel obligated to stay up and knit with him to keep him company.  Ok - so that's just another excuse to knit all night!  I've received this big Ole box of Cascade 220 sport yarn and I'm now enthralled in all knits worked on size 5 needles. 

This Barista Mitt idea came from Lois at Allyn Knit shop (http://www.allynknitandspin.com) who had these fun coffee buttons and a new shipment of 220 sport.  My initial idea was to work the mitt exactly like the Northwest Button Band hat - moss stitch cuff and plain knit for the rest - but I got bored with plain knitting and the mitts don't fit quite as well.  You need some shaping to fit snug on the hand so I added a center cable and love it as is.  However, I am going one step farther and having my test knitter work the same mitts only with a variation of the cable.  This way, I can offer to cable styles.  I figure if you're going to charge for the pattern, you need to give lots of variations to make it worth its value.  I'd like to offer one other style with no cables for the beginner in mind as well.  We'll see. 

Do you like??

Scrunchy Hat due out soon

Crystal Palace Mini Mochi

This scrunchy hat was designed for the Knit for Fun club (http://www.crownmountainfarms.co/) - using fingering weight sock yarn.  I had it test knit in Crystal Palace Mini Mochi (http://www.straw.com/).  I call it a scrunchy hat since the cable pulls the hat in and scrunches it up.  Once on, the cables lay flat with a tad bit of wave.  The cable used is your everyday cable only with half being in the knit stitch while the other half is purled.  It gives the cable a bit more dimension. 

Crystal Palace Mini Mochi

Crown Mountain "Aris"

Still knitting...even with no power

After a windy storm - loss of power for over 13 hours and a 2-hour late start for school - I am still able to knit.  I have a great camping lantern that can light up a room so knitting wasn't too strenuous on the eyes.  Funny thing is I just taught my neighbor  (like 2 days ago...) how to knit and she was knitting by flashlight (teenage boy trying to hold still with the flashlight so she can finish her row!), while another crazy knitting friend is knitting by candlelight!  Now that's tough on the eyes.

So - this is what I was working on.  Yea, yea, it looks fabulous, I know (it's a Nicky Epstein design and she's fabulous) - but there is a mistake in the center cable that must have happened during the excitement of the power outage.  Good news is that I did a quick duplicate stitch over the mistake (had a cable going the wrong direction) and only I can tell where it was.  I just hate ripping back such tedious cables in fear of not being able to get back on track.  Besides, I now have a story and memory about the sweater that would be lost if I ripped back.  Some things are better left as is - makes for a great conversation piece!

Sock Monkey Hat

At the request of my sister-in-law, I have made a sock monkey hat for her grand-daughter.  I liked the yarn - it's a chunky weight Farbo something - acrylic yarn.  It turned out okay -
My next attempt is to make a winter ski cowl neck sock monkey.  Same concept and design only in a cowl neck.  She's a ski instructor and wants to be more visual on the slops so her students can see her better.  It's not my thing, but it was good for me.  Besides, how cute will it be on her 3 year old grand-daughter!

It must be sock season

It must be sock season - or at least for me it is.  I just finished the last sock club pattern for Crown Mountain Farms (http://www.crownmountainfarms.com/) for this year.  I had to wrack my brain to come up with something different than all the other socks - and after some 15 different swatches, I decided to copy my Northwest Button Band hat idea and work the same concept onto a sock.  I must say, I'm pleased with the outcome.  Different heel flap for me - I used a combination of wyif, sl 1, wyib, k1 on the wrong side of the flap to create this sturdy seed stitch look.  I'm thinking this sock could be adorable on a toddler or babies foot in some pink tone with a fun button and some Mary Jane shoes. 

 These socks were designed for Frog Tree Yarns (http://www.frogtreeyarns.com/) - using their new Pediboo 3-ply sock yarn.  Both of these socks were test knit for me and both knitters raved about this yarn.  This sock will be at TNNA, Long Beach at the Frog Tree Booth.  The heel flap is the standard heel flap (sl 1, k1) - only done on the wrong side so that the bars would face the right side tot give some needed texture.   

This sock was intended to be reversible - but after asking the opinion of my 3 test knitters, they all agreed that they prefer the knit side up with the cuff folded down - so no need to offer a reversible option.