Knitted Gifts are Fun!

From one of my favorite books, One Skein, comes these two purses. The green clutch is for my oldest niece. It is knit of Misti Alpca hand painted yarn, machine washed and air dried to felt or full. The color becomes variegated in the washing. The buttons are from my collection and my mother's collection.

The drawstring purse, also from One Skein, is for the younger niece. The yarn is a mixture of wool and acrylic, and is knit in the round making it very easy. I hope they like these little gifts of love!

Merry Christmas ornaments

A slight side trip from knitting. I made these ornaments from inspiration found in the best little store: Smitten in downtown McKinney.
First I got some wooden disks at Michaels. Then I tore Christmas carols out of a hymnal - (okay, before you wig out, I did not steal the hymnal. I bought one at Half Price Books and used it.) - and applied them to the disks with mod podge. Used Christmas themed paper on the back, again from Michaels, and glittered the edges. Vintage seam binding made the hangers. By the way, the ornaments are hanging from twine strung across a screen door that came off of my mother's house before it was torn down. Kinda cute, right? One of the rewards personally was reading through the words of these very special hymns. It brought the focus right where it is supposed to be for Christmas - on our Savior!

Cason's sweater

From the book One Skein Knitting comes this darling color block cardigan for children. I used all of the yard left over from Cason's baby blanket. This was very easy to knit - I changed the pattern slightly, adjusting for the amount of yard I had. It is meant to be asymmetrical - that is not a mistake!
The trim around the neck and down the front is an attached I-cord. This should have been easy. It only took about 5 tries to get it right. Now I am going to use this trim a lot.

New Mother's Gift

This is a shawl for nursing mothers. It is a leaf lace pattern, very easy and very beautiful. I used Misti Alpaca chunky weight yarn in a dark green from Shabby Sheep. Because the yarn is handpainted, some of the dye washes out and it becomes several shades and hues of the green.The pattern is from Natural Knits for Babies and Mums by Louisa Harding. It is fabulous book available from any bookstore (try Amazon). It is a basic shawl pattern with the addition of buttons for modesty. The scalloped edge is a natural result of the pattern.

Cason's Blanket

It has been a joy to knit for Cason in anticipation of his arrival in March. The blanket colors are from the nursery which can been seen on Catherine's blog. The pattern is from Sublime - a book of baby knits - and is called Stripey Travel Rug. I modified the width of the stripes just for fun. The yarn is Berroco's Comfort and Berroco's Love It. Needle size was 8, although the label says that a size 9 could be used. Of course, I used by wonderful Denise needle set. Now all we need is Cason!

"From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise." Psalm 8:2

Christmas hats

For my brother and his son, my nephew, I made hats for their Christmas presents. The pattern was from a book called "Holiday Knits" by Sara Lucas and Allison Isaacs, page 17. It has a bunch of fun and quick projects. The yarn for the hats was Lion Brand chunky wool. I altered the pattern a little - I did not do the turn up brim because it would be too warm and heavy. I added the contrast rows further up on the hat. It is knit on circular needles. I did adjust the number of stitches due to the chunkiness of the yarn. Now I want to do a lot more - they are so soft and warm. And knitting presents for special people gives me a chance to think about that person, to pray for that person, and to picture them wearing these hats and hopefully know that I love them! Happy knitting!