Christmas Knitting

Hi all -

It's hard to believe it's almost Christmas again! The time between Houston and Christmas is always busy for me because I try to make most/all of my gifts. I do start a while before Houston, which is always at the beginning of November, but the push is always really on once I get home! In this post, I'm going to share the knitting that I did for Christmas.

A lot of my projects are designed by my favorite knitting designer, Laura Nelkin. She designs a lot of modern stuff that I think will appeal to my nieces. I'm too old to know what's in these days, so it's nice to have a designer who seems to know the trends! Her stuff also uses a lot of interesting techniques and usually also includes optional beads, so the knitting itself remains interesting. She has a subscription program where she sends out a new little project every month. Her kit includes the pattern, yarn, beads and a little knitting gift, like needle holders or fancy stitch markers. I love this program, but got a little bit behind because I felt a little intimidated as a new knitter, but I dug in and started catching up and I'm really enjoying making these projects and learning new things. That's why most of these projects are from Laura's patterns.

My first project was the Snazzy Scarflette by Laura Nelkin:

This scarflette pattern uses slipped stitches to do all of the colorwork so there's no carrying of the yarn behind the work, which is pretty cool. It also has a cute row of beads along the edges.

This scarflette is a present for my niece, Kelsey.

My next project is a cowl from the Jammie pattern by Laura Nelkin.

This cowl has a cute cabled edge and a little beaded wrap where the ends of the cowl are joined. This will be a gift for my sister, Sue, for Christmas.

Next were the Athwart Mitts also by Laura Nelkin.

These were interesting to knit because the rows go from the top of the mitt to the bottom of the mitt with the shaping done by short rows. This was my first time knitting short rows and it was really fun. This pattern doesn't include any beads, but it does have a cute lace panel running down the back of the hand.

These are going to my niece, Terra.

My nephew is really difficult to shop for. Even though he's young (late 20's), he's always been really responsible with money so can afford to buy the few things that he wants himself. He's also very picky about things, so I never know what he'll like. This year I decided to knit him a scarf, using the Speed Bumps pattern by Steepndeep Designs.

I figure it's fairly plain, so shouldn't be objectionable, but still has some style to it. And the yarn is nice and soft, so it should be comfortable. Hopefully, the length is appropriate since I'm never sure how long a men's scarf should be. This is for my nephew, Trevor.

Finally, I made my first pair of full mittens. I've made several pairs of fingerless mitts, but this is my first attempt at closing up the thumb and top of the fingers. It's from the Nugget Mitts pattern by Laura Nelkin.

These have a pretty beaded cuff, but the rest of the mitten is pretty plain. The tops of my thumbs came out a little pointy, but I'm still pretty proud of how these turned out. This was a really fine yarn so there was a lot of knitting involved. I made these mittens individually, but there's a magic loop technique that would allow me to make both mittens at the same time to make it easier to make them the same length. I might make another pair of these to try that technique. This pair is going to my niece, Kelsey, for Christmas.

I hope you enjoy seeing some of my knitted projects!

Nancy