Christmas FO: Slouchy Beanie

So I know I said back in January that I'd shared all my handmade Christmas gifts, but I kind of lied, lol. I shared all the ones I had photos of, but there were still 2 projects left - one that will be blogged soon, and this hat.

My sister, Marisa, specifically requested a hat this year. More than just that she sent me an actual pattern through Pinterest that she wanted me to make her, lol. Lucky for me it was basically the easiest crocheted hat ever. This is the Really Easy Slouchy Beanie pattern by Jennifer DiMaria. It's a free pattern, so that was an even nicer bonus. The whole hat is just double crochet with a single crochet brim. You increase out to the width you want, crochet straight, then decrease slightly and sc a few rows for a brim. That's it! So easy. This made it really easy to give my sister exactly what she wanted. Woo hoo!

Marisa requested either a black or dark red hat, so I went with Caron Simply Soft in the Autumn Red colorway. I figured the yarn would have a nice drape in this style. Being me I couldn't just follow the pattern when I disagreed with it, lol. So in the end this hat is different from the written pattern, but it still turned out slouchy. I just didn't think it was going to have enough slouch, so I added both width and length to it. We have large heads in my family (it's all the brains), so I just kept trying the hat on and adjusting to my preference. Didn't take notes though, sorry. It took about the course of one movie to make this hat, and Marisa was happy with the result :) So happy that she requested I make her more hats for the West Virginia winter (which you will see more of coming up).

And here it is on Marisa herself :) She recently went on a tubing trip and took pics of all her new hats for me. We'll have to have a chat about how to pull that slouch to the nape of the neck, lol, but other than that it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. I love the pop of color in the drab winter landscape. So I'm glad that I could give my sister just what she wanted for Christmas and have it be practical for keeping her warm too. Yay for people to make hats for!

Christmas FO: Justin's Chilly Podsters

This final Christmas gift of 2016 (that I'm blogging about - there are more to come in the future) was actually finished in 2017 - whoops! This one also has something of a back story, so read on!

Years ago (like literally multiple years) my husband really wanted a pair of gloves with cut off fingers but also with a move-able flap. He was working as a police officer at the time and was always having to take off his gloves in the cold to write paperwork, so I started looking for patterns. I discovered the free Chilly Podsters just in time for it to get warm that year, so I just kept the pattern in my queue and forgot about it. Fast forward to Christmas of 2015. Everything was falling apart between my husband and I, but we still were exchanging gifts. We didn't end up celebrating together until over a week later, but I just hadn't felt motivated to make anything for him if I'm perfectly honest. I was so frantic making things for all our other family members that I put his aside and just wrapped up a copy of this pattern with the yarn I was going to use and gave him that with the promise to make them soon. Shortly after that we split up, so I certainly wasn't going to spend my time making him anything. It's been a whirlwind few years, which I may explain one day, but things are looking a bit better lately and we have been "hanging out" (lol that sounds so lame, but I can't think of what else to call it). So when I started brainstorming for what to give him for Christmas, I thought it might be poignant to finally make him these gloves.

Little did I know how involved of a project these would be, so I only had one glove finished to give him for Christmas, and I finished the second one on New Year's Day. Ah well. At least he has them now, right? About 4 years later, lol.

So onto the pattern! Like I said, this is the Chilly Podsters pattern, which is free on Ravelry (follow the link). IT's really neat how you make these. You knit the ribbing first, then separate and make each finger, then go back and make the mitten top. I made this in a black acrylic yarn because 1) my husband loves everything in black and 2) he can wash them and I won't worry they are ruined. I picked this yarn up at a thrift store a while back, so I'm not sure what it actually is, but it worked great for this project. It's a hardy yarn, so not a lot of pilling going on, yet not so rough they itch or anything. Overall I found them very comfy.

I totally love the thumb! The gloves are really mindful of what people need nowadays, I think. Not only can you remove the cover on your fingers, but also on your thumb. This is part of what took longer in making them, but it was definitely worth the extra effort in my opinion. Now he can use his phone without removing the mittens.

They are a bit big on my hand, lol, but they fit my husband just right. It was a bit hard to gauge the size, so I kept having my dad try on the glove as I worked each section to make sure they still felt ok. Turns out they have similar sized hands, so it worked out.

Once I finished the gloves, Justin asked if I could add a button to secure the mitten top open with. I thought about doing it before hand, but I figured he wouldn't use that feature so I left it off. Whoops! It was really quick to add. The buttons are just 2 from my stash and I just made a single strand of yarn loop for them - since it's acrylic I don't have to worry about just one strand breaking with use. Hooray! I think the buttons are a nice finishing touch, so I'm glad he had me add them.

I will say I liked these gloves enough to want to make some for myself, so perhaps you'll see this pattern up here again. Maybe not til next year, but it will happen sometime. Aren't free patterns the greatest? I'm so glad this one is out there, and I definitely recommend it if you like the style.

So those are the Chilly Podsters and that marks the last Christmas gift post for the year! Hooray! You made it! lol

Christmas FO: Shannon's Stripey Plan-Frew

One of my only sewn items this Christmas was a refashion. I decided to give making a shirt for Shannon another try after I kept the one I made for her birthday, lol. The plan was to actually make the same shirt, just with more "Shannon" fabric. She's a big fan of neutrals, so when I looked through my stash, I knew this one would be perfect.

I purchased this skirt at a thrift store a few months ago specifically to refashion - it was a dumpy and boring knit skirt with an elastic waist originally, but the fabric is a lovely, drapey rayon jersey. I'll confess - I originally bought this to use for myself because the fabric was so buttery soft. But since I already stole one gift from Shannon, I knew I needed to make the sacrifice this time, ha ha. The skirt was originally a size 2XL and about ankle length, so I had plenty of fabric to work with. I was even able to salvage the elastic at the waist since it was just threaded in a channel, so now I have a nice piece of 1" wide elastic for a future project - woo hoo! Anyway, when I went to my stash, I knew this would be a great basic item for Shannon.

I went with my Plantain/Renfrew combo pattern since Shannon likes her shirts fitted at the bust and then flowy around the tummy. I was able to fit all of my pattern pieces on my fabric except I didn't quite have enough width for my second sleeve, so I will confess that I did a little creative piecing at the back of one sleeve. I don't think anyone would even notice in this basic fabric, but there it is, lol. 

And the back view - don't you love this tiny stripe on the heathered gray? Normally I shy away from stripes (and so do my siblings), but this one is so small I figured it would be ok. I mean, I would wear it, so there you go. I know it's hard to see the sleeves on the dress form, but can you see a seam back there? I can't either :)

I did have a little snaffoo with this project that I don't normally have (of course, because I was making it for someone else and I was on a deadline). I stitched the neckband like normal, and then top stitched with a twin needle all around just outside the seam. I was able to keep the neckband piece straight with the stripes which I think looks really cool, so I thought it was done and I was really happy. When I went to stitch the hem, I noticed that the neck band top stitching was already coming undone in the back - when I looked closer I saw the wool nylon on the bobbin thread had pulled out from under the top stitches with stretching the shirt. Not good! I tried to just fix that spot, but to no avail. I had cut the bobbin thread too short. I finally just ripped the whole thing out and sewed it again making sure to give a good overlap to the stitches this time and it worked fine. It's just so weird I've never had this happen before, but now it makes perfect sense.

And that is Shannon's shirt :) I'm sorry to say I have no modeled shots of this shirt, but considering there is quite a bit of snow where she is I'm willing to forego this time. I will confess that it took a lot of restraint not to embellish this shirt. It's a perfectly fine shirt, don't get me wrong, but it is undoubtedly the most boring thing I've ever sewn, lol. I contemplated putting a floral knit mini pocket on it or something, but then that would've been to my taste and not Shannon's. My mom and sister agreed that leaving it plain was the way to go. I hope she likes it!

Christmas FO: The Big Pencil

I always try to ask my younger brother what he would like me to make him for Christmas. He's really into tall socks right now, but there was no way that was going to happen before Christmas, so I asked him what else he would like. He really loved my Giant Roly Poly that I made a while back and asked me to make him a giant animal of some kind too. Easy enough, right? I just pulled out my copy of Hue and Huggable Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec and consulted my stash of big yarn to see which pattern options I had to choose from. I don't tend to use bulky and super bulky weights often, but I have been known to buy up a bunch of yarn if it's super on sale (especially when I first learned to knit, but didn't yet know about types of yarn) and I had quite a few skeins of Lion Brand Hometown USA in different colors from Walmart clearances. I wanted to make him a Capybara at first, but then I noticed it used just regular bulky yarn and I only had super bulky on hand. Bummer! That left me a bit dejected since my only remaining options I felt I had the yarn for and could tackle in time were the tooth brush and the pencil. I thought the tooth brush might be seen as a sarcastic jab (he is a teenager, after all, so the command, "go brush your teeth" needs to be given on occasion), so I decided to go with the pencil. Meet Arthur :)

Arthur is actually the only pattern from the book that is also available for free on the Lion Brand website, so follow that link should you decide to make your own giant pencil. This ended up being a far quicker knit than I anticipated and I finished it in about 3 or 4 hours. Pretty crazy!

Can you believe I had all the right colors of the recommended yarn in my stash already?! I know! lol. The only yarn I didn't have was the pink for the eraser, so I just doubled up and knitted with 2 strands of Red Heart Super Saver in the Perfect Pink colorway and it worked ok. I find that doubled up thin yarn tends to stretch more than the thicker yarn does, so you can see the channels between the stitches a bit more in the pink area, but it's not that bad and I doubt any non-knitters would notice.

I love hoe nice and orderly the top of the pencil is :) You start on the eraser and work your way down, which I was happy about since my decreases never turn out as tight as my increases on amigurumi - I'm still trying to figure out why that is.

The metal band under the eraser is the Dallas Gray colorway, the yellow is Pittsburgh Yellow, the wood tip is Virginia Beach, and the top is Okaland Black. The Virginia Beach really is just the perfect color for wood, don't you think? I love how the colors turned out. There are 2 rows of color work where the yellow and brown meet, but it was ridiculously simple to do. It gives that zig zag edge you get when you sharpen a pencil, which was a nice touch I thought.

I had quite the time keeping the pencil straight looking while stuffing - and man, did this thing take a lot of stuffing! I'd stuff in a huge wad of batting only to have it obviously need more, so the different wads became a bit complicated to smooth out. We got there in the end though. Also thebook recommends 15 mm eyes, but I used a pair of 18 mm eyes because I liked the look of them better. This gives a closer together look than the 15 mms in the example, which I tend to think looks better. Just my opinion though. And it was my pencil, lol.

And the back view. You can see a bit of the color jogs between rows, but it's not bad. This really turned out as a nice pillow size. I used it to lean on while I laid on the couch after finishing it, and I was perfectly comfy :) It's also a great size for a lumbar pillow or a neck pillow, so lots of practical uses for this seemingly ridiculous knitted creation, lol.

Completing this guy also inspired me to do a little photo shoot for the Mochimochiland Annual Photo Contest before I gave him over to Briggs for Christmas (look for a post on that soon too!) and he;s pretty fun to play with. My family all had the idea that I should've put an actual pen in the tip so it would really write, lol. Maybe on the next version.

So that was Brigg's Christmas gift :) He seemed to like it, so that's another win I say. Soon to come - more Christmas gifts! lol

Christmas FO: The Bro-In-Law Hat, 2016 Edition

Now that my year end wrap ups are posted and the holidays are over, I guess I should get cracking on the Christmas gifts I made. I've been making most of my Christmas gifts for the past few years - it helps with the expense of the holidays plus I feel like it's a gift that took a little more time and effort so it means a bit more. At least I hope so :) Each year I'm always at a loss of what to make for my brothers-in-law. Two of them don't live here, so I don't really know what they like to do and use on a daily basis. I started making hats for them a while ago, and that trend seems to have stuck on :) Last year I decided to make them the same pattern which worked out great (they live in different states, so there's no risk of them both wearing the same hat together, lol), so I went with the same idea this year just asking my sisters (their respective wives) what color they would like. And here they are:

This year I went with the Instant Love hat by Taiga Hilliard Designs, which is a free pattern that uses super bulky weight yarn. Perfect! I picked it because I like the knit rows that feed down into the ribbing, making it just a bit different then a plain old beanie.

This blue on was for Eric. When Marisa told me he would like medium to deep blue, I knew this Lion Brand Hometown USA in the Lake Tahoe colorway would be perfect. It was from my stash - yay stash busting! - so it was just a matter of casting on and getting to work. Being that this hat uses such big yarn, I was finished in about 3 hours. Woo hoo :) Personally I love this yarn - I love it's little flecks of colors like green and yellow. Subtle, but neat. And it's big and squishy. Hopefully that equates to also keeping Eric's head warm this winter.

The second version took a bit more planning. Shannon said that her husband, Justin, would want a black hat, which is all fine except that I didn't have enough black left in my stash in this weight. I didn't want to use thinner yarn because it would take longer to make and I really needed to get this one done quickly to get it in the mail in time for Christmas. I didn't have any time to go to a bigger craft store, so I was stuck with the selection at my local Michael's. I went to the store not knowing what they would have, but hoping I didn't have to go with their store brand which I have found to be rough and unpleasant to knit with. Thankfully they carried Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick and it was one sale plus there was a coupon off your whole purchase that weekend, lol. Score!

This hat turned out even squishier then the first one - I'm really surprised at how much I like this yarn! It did shed quite a bit (which made for a confusing experience when I looked down at my green skirt and found it covered in a dusting of dark hairs - I thought it was cat hair for about an hour before I realized it was the yarn), but that will stop after the first washing. And this is washable! I'm always torn as to whether I should make gifts in fancy yarn that would require extra washing precautions or just use acrylic so they can wash it in the machine and not ruin it. I generally stick with acrylic for guys, and my sisters I just make sure to give them explicit instructions if their yarn has wool in it. Hopefully they listen :)

So, those were this year's Bro-in-Law hats, and they turned out quite nicely if I do say so myself. I hope Eric and Justin liked them and that they keep their heads toasty warm this winter!

Up next will be more of the gifts I made this year, so check back!