Baby stuff and another Christmas FO

I just knit my dad's Christmas present - Skull & Crossbone wrist warmers! Cool hey? The pattern is Skull & Crossbone Wristwarmers by Kara Lyon. I knit them using some yarn from Manor department store (Yukon and Jasmine) on 3.5mm needles. They took me two evenings to knit.

I knit them for my dad because he plays guitar and often wears sweat bands on stage to stop the sweat dripping onto his guitar (nice) so I thought he could do with some funky bands. I'm not sure they will be particularly practical and will probably just go all droopy when they start to get wet but I still think they make a fun gift for him. I might make him something else too, maybe a scarf or some socks or some gloves, not sure yet.

I think I must be getting on well with my Christmas knitting, just my step-mother, Mr H and another gift for my mum for the main gifts (although I might knit up some beanies for my half and step brothers) and if I have time I might add a coulpe of other people to that list. The next project will be Fetching from Knitty.com for my step-mother, just need to choose some yarn, I'm sure I will have something suitable in my stash.

I have nearly finished my baby hoodie, all that's left to do is to sew on the pocket lining, which I'm going to do on the sewing machine (which means it will probably take me forever to get around to doing as I don't really have anywhere to keep my machine at the moment) and then I have to choose and sew on some buttons. It's really cute but the hood is a bit of a funny shape, I think that's a fault in the pattern rather than my knitting. I also didn't do a very good job of sewing up the raglans for some reason but it's mainly the back that's a little messy and I'm not going to undo it now, which is pretty good and relaxed for me, pregnancy must be having a positive effect on me and chilling me out a little. If you said that to Mr H, he would probably start laughing manically, he certainly hasn't been seeing a more chilled me, bless him.

I'm currently on call to go and babysit for a friend of mine who's due to give birth at any moment, she was actually due yesterday and thought she was going to be early so she's pretty fed up at the moment. I really think I should quickly knit up a little gift for the new baby. I think I might make a pair of booties. My friend Annelis made a load of really cute ones and I think I should make a few too...

She knit hers in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino but the pattern calls for 4-ply yarn and I have a load of Lang Bebe in turquoise, so I think I shall use that.

Two Gifts (kind of)

I have another Christmas present off my needles. I finally finished the scarf I was knitting for my brother for Christmas. It looks pretty good and I'm really pleased with it. I don't particularly like the yarn I used but it is soft and it's meant to be hypo-allergenic, which hopefully means it won't aggravate my brother's eczema.

I knit it using Patons Zhivago and it's the Elongated Cable Scarf by Jenn Nevitt. I used just under 5 balls of yarn.

Now that's off my needles I can get on with some baby knitting. At the moment I am knitting a baby beanie using Laines du Nord Baby Star. It's very cute and I'm about halfway through it. I am also knitting a little hoodie by Wendy in Wendy Peter Pan DK. There are so many things I want to knit for baby and occasionally it makes me want to find out the baby's sex but I'm staying strong and will wait for it to be a surprise.

I met a group of mum's to be this afternoon, which was really nice. I put an ad on the expat site here and six of us met up for coffee to discuss our experiences and share stories. It was so nice to meet other pregnant women as I don't know anyone else really here who's pregnant or who has children. Actually, I know one other girl with a child and she's been really great since I told her I'm pregnant and she knits too!

Lots of Stitches

My Debbie Bliss Bolero is coming along nicely. I did think that I was almost finished until I realised that I have to pick up 408 stitches around the entire edge and knit 34 rounds of ribbing, that could take me a while *sigh*. I'm determined to get it finished within the next couple of days. The cast off is also really fiddly as I have to cast off with a crochet hook and crochet at the same time (I'm not the best with a crochet hook) to create a picot edge. It does look pretty and I'm glad I've done it as I did consider doing a normal cast off but I think it looks much better this way. I'm just not looking forward to casting off all 408 stitches of the body!

I have some pictures of some of my Christmas presents. Having a mother who works in a yarn store means I always get spoiled with knitting goodies for birthdays and Christmas!

I got this really cute cupcake tape measure. I just hope I don't lose it as I have a habit of losing them all the time, either that or my cat eats them, which is why I have to have retractable ones. There are lots of different types of these. She gave me a sheep one to pass on to the owner of my LYS, Tricolaine, as she loves all things sheep.

Something I got which is more cool than cute are these fantastic Knitlite knitting needles that light up, how cool is that??! I imagine they will actually be quite useful when working with dark coloured yarn. They are surprisingly light but are a bit bendy. I haven't used them yet, they're 5.5mm, which isn't a size that I use that often but I will have to find something as I want to give them a go!

I went off to my Stitch 'n' Bitch group last night, all ready to show off my goodies but I arrived to find that Starbucks was closed, grr. If I had been on time, I probably would have been able to see if they went elsewhere but never mind, there's always next week and by then I should have finished my bolero, yay!

Christmas is Over

Well, Christmas is over and I managed to get all of my Christmas knitting finished. I was particularly pleased with the Snowflake Slippers. I only finished them yesterday, but they are going back to england with my mum for my brother. I can't remember the yarn I used as I lost the ball band, but it was an aran weight wool from Manor. I used an aran weight on 5mm needles as the pattern was only sized for children or women. The thicker yarn and larger needles worked perfectly. I just hope he likes them!

I was also pleased with the socks I made for my mum's partner, which I designed myself as I sent along. It's the first time I have ever knitted cables and I was pleased with how they turned out and I managed to get them finished first thing Christmas morning after having to undo my toe grafting the night before because I had grafted them vertically instead of horizontally! I guess I must have been pretty tired!

Lastly there were my mum's Synesthesia Socks. They turned out OK but I did make quite a few mistakes on them. I knitted the heel wrong and there seem to be some extra holes in the pattern. Mum mum still loved them and has worn them about 3 times already! I've been trying to teach her to knit socks but she just doesn't seem to have the patience. I know that she can do it but she doesn't seem to see the point to it all! I have to say that I have gone off knitting socks for just a little while!

Now that my Christmas knitting is over I can finally do some knitting for myself. I have started to make good progress with my Debbie Bliss Rialto bolero and I hope to have that finished in a week or so. Also, I finally got my Rowan Cocoon in Shale so I can knit the Iceland jumper from Rowan magazine #42! I have been waiting since before my birthday for this yarn but neither my mum or the knitting shop in Carouge have been able to get hold of it. As soon as I finish my bolero I will be casting that on.

I have a little more time on my hands to knit now as I lost my job a couple of days ago, I was working on a temporary contract and they have decided not to renew it, which is a bit of the pain as I could do with the money but I didn't like it there too much and I have been a bit poorly lately too, so at least now I have some time to get better. If I can get my confidence up enough I will go and teach English for a while as the hours are flexible so I can look after my health and by bank balance at the same time!