Finally, the fury continues. I decided to make my friend a set of sewn things, since she’s not so into the knits. Starting with…

(see the coaster backs here)

The coaster redo! These are similar to the other coasters, but better sewn and better fabric composition. They also feature an elephant butt, as promised.

The pattern is from the Simple Coasters tutorial, with two small mods. First, I clipped the batting corners before sewing the layers together, which makes the batting trimming step easier and lowers the bulk in the corners. I also didn’t hand-stitch the opening part shut, I topstitched around the coasters instead.

The pattern for these potholders is from the Amy Butler In Stitches book. I absolutely heart that book - all of the instructions are crystal clear. As a novice sewer, I sit around, thinking questions like, “do I backstitch at the ends or not?” and the book answers them every time.

The potholder fronts clearly match the coasters, but I followed the pattern to the letter in potholder assembly. These coasters are like little quilts with handles in the back. I’m especially impressed with the binding step - binding attachment is so clever! This pattern is the perfect thing to make if you’re interested in dipping your toe into the quilting pond. I have to say I’m eager to make a larger, quilty project!

I do need one thing before taking that leap into quilting - a walking foot. I don’t have one, and contents definitely shifted as I quilted the layers together. My top and bottom layers shifted by about a half inch, which is pretty significant when the binding is only a half-inch wide. If you look closely at these, you can see that the patterned blocks aren’t all the same size, especially the elephant - he’s larger than the rest due to shifting. There’s also a few puckers that were introduced during the quilting step. I think these are the most handmade looking item in the bunch, which I’m sort of bummed about.

A couple of other, small changes: I skipped the grommet, because I didn’t want to slice and dice the finished potholders to add one. There’s no way that I was redoing these if I screwed that up! I also selected some heat-resistant batting instead of the high-loft stuff that was recommended. The batting looks metally-shiny, and makes a distinct crunching sound when you bend the potholders. I didn’t realize how noticeable the sound would be, and I’d definitely pick a different batting next time.

Ooh, one last thing that I almost forgot - to bias or not to bias-cut your bias tape? Thanks for all the recommendations when I asked this question - the consensus is that bias-cut tape drapes better and is more flexible than the alternatives. For these potholders, I cut the polka-dot binding perpendicular to the selvedge, and the scallopy one on the bias. For this small project, the difference was negligible. The polka-dot binding looks worse, but I think that’s because I constructed it first.

Placemats! These are constructed exactly the same as the coasters, just bigger. I had originally cut them to be 15 by 20 inches (the same dimensions as the placemats in the In Stitches book), but that seemed huge to me. I trimmed an inch off each side to make them 14 by 19 inches. The one inch trimming worked out well, since each color block is 2 inches (plus seam allowance) wide.

Staggering the color blocks was a very smart idea, as accuracy wasn’t my strong suit here. I’ve been using this cheapo rotary cutter, and the blade dulls extremely quickly. Would investing in a nicer cutter be worthwhile? The cutter itself is fine, it’s the cheapo blades that make me bonkers.

I used my two food fabrics for backings, then picked the others based on color. I want to run away and marry that number fabric, I keep trying to devise projects that need the number treatment!

All in all, these projects were a great way to use up some of my ever growing fabric stash. I’ve been buying lots of fat quarters and 1/8 yards of fabrics, and many are down to scraps after finishing these projects. If I were to make these again, I would cut the largest items first - I was struggling to find large enough pieces of fabric for the placemat backs, and just barely ran out of the brown cotton with one placemat front to go. Now to go and replenish that stash - have you seen the Echino Woodland Damask print? And the Full Moon Forest collection? Want!

If you’re a female in our family that’s receiving a gift from me, there’s a good chance that you’re getting a scarf!

Pattern: Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf
Yarn: Colinette Giotto, color Castagna

When we were in London last year, I actively sought out places to buy Colinette yarn, since the price is right when you’re not importing it into the US. My mother is allergic to wool, so I chose to buy some Giotto to make her a scarf. It’s a cotton ribbon yarn that’s half shiny, half matte. The shiny strands are unwoven, they run parallel between the edges of matte binder.

I swatched the yarn last year and have been trying to destash it ever since! I’ve come to realize that I despise working with ribbon yarns because the twistiness drives me crazy. Also, it’s entirely too easy to pierce the unwoven center of this yarn. I was determined to get this yarn out of my stash, and I now know to stay far, far away from this stuff in the future.

I found the pattern via Ravelry, and I think it works well with the yarn. One down!

Pattern: Cream of Spinach Scarf
Yarn: Brooks Farm Riata

We saw Rob’s Aunt last year and sort of dropped the ball, gift-wise, so I thought I’d make her a scarf this year. Again, I found the pattern via the Rav, and I’m really happy with the result. The scarf has tons of drape, and the one-row pattern meant that this scarf was finished in a matter of days. Riata comes in some huge whopping skeins (375 yards), and I had plenty leftover from this generously-sized scarf.

I won two skeins of this yarn last year at Kid and Ewe (a wee little fiber festival in Boerne, TX), and this is the first one that I’ve knit up. It’s gorgeous stuff, each of its three plies has a different fiber composition - fuzzy mohair, matte wool, and shiny wool/silk. I kept staring at the yarn as I was knitting it, marveling at the contrast of textures. Those Brooks Farm people really know how to make a yarn.

Pattern: My So-Called Scarf
Yarn: Brooks Farm Four Play

My family exchanges names for gift-giving for Christmas, and I pulled my aunt’s name. I figured that I should really make her a scarf since I’m making Rob’s aunt one, hence scarf #3.

Speaking of lovely Brooks Farm Yarn, I would definitely qualify Four Play as one of my desert-island yarns. It was incredible to work with, so so soft and shiny. Good stuff, there. Everyone and their mother has made one of these So-Called scarves, and it’s a great pattern. The best part is that it lies perfectly flat, no pins, sweat, or tears needed. I’m especially pleased that I knit the entire scarf with one skein of the Four Play (270 yards) - it’s on the skinny size (5″ wide), but will be perfect for my aunt.

This is the last of the holiday knits, whew. I’m working on one more item, but I realized that the colorwork hat on size 2 needles (with a full lining) is so not getting done anytime soon. It also turns out that our holiday deadline is extended a bit - we’re staying here this year, thanks to Rob and his whack back. He’s having a wee bit of outpatient surgery tomorrow, so it will be a very balmy holiday for us!

Here’s the first of four posts on all of the holiday gifts I’ve made over the past month and a half. I’ve been a crazy gift-making machine lately, due to a mix of mall-hating, handmade-wanting, and uncertainty of what to gift to Rob’s family. The contents of the last two posts aren’t finished yet, my fingers are crossed that I’ll have them done in time!

Pattern: Top-down stockinette over 58 stitches with a short row heel and your standard toe (closeup here)
Yarn: Lonesome Stone Mountain Feat in Cran Brulee

Boring old stockinette socks for my mother-in-law. She loved! adored! raved! about the socks I made her last year, so she guaranteed herself a handknit gift this year.

I swatched this yarn with a few different patterns - I wanted something with textural interest, but the yarn was giving me fits:

I’m not buying variegated yarns any more. No, really, I mean it this time.

I bought the yarn during our trip last month in Boulder, at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins. It’s produced in CO - the perfect souvenir yarn! The yarn was a bit thick-and-thin in nature, and it’s definitely the beefiest yarn I’ve ever knit socks with. I’m pleased with the final result, they’ll keep Rob’s mom’s toes toasty.

SS and S was a great yarn shop, huge and inviting with tons of yarn. I did have one issue with it - I was thisclose to buying some Koigu there, but they were selling it for $14 a skein! It’s usually $12, and the highest I’d previously seen it was $13.50 at Purl. I was priced out of my dear Koigu, so sad.

Pattern: Utopia Hat
Yarn: Malabrigo in Forest

A warm, cozy hat for my brother, who lives in the cold, cold land of Buffalo. I found the pattern via Ravelry - this will become a theme this year. I do wish that the pattern listed the hat’s finished size - I had to do some swatching and ripping and reknitting to get this to work. I knit the Malabrigo very tightly on size 4 or 5 needles, and added two pattern repeats (48 stitches) to the pattern. My brother has a monstrous head, and I’m not entirely sure that this will fit him. It will likely be too short, so I didn’t weave in the top end in anticipation of some holiday frogging.

The yarn was lovely to work with, as always. I have some Manos in the stash, but I think it’s a wee bit scratchy for a gift hat.

Next up: a bevy of scarves.

I’ve been hunkering down, crafting away in preparation for the holidays. I have a scarf, a hat, a pair of socks, and some sewing done, and I have 1.5 scarves, a colorwork hat, and more sewing to go. I’m going to make next week FO Frenzy Week, in high hopes that everything will be complete before we fly to far off lands!

Here’s quickie project to start off the FO frenzy - Coasters!

In keeping with my sew-straight-lines theme, I’m making a friend of mine a set of sewn square items. Coasters are first up, and can I just say that these are super fast to put together? I followed this Simple Coasters tutorial (which I found on the Sew, Mama, Sew handmade holidays list, which is full of good stuff) and had zero problems putting these together. I made one modification to the pattern - I didn’t stitch the turning hole closed, but instead folded it inward and topstitched the whole coaster. I picked up that idea from the Bend-the-Rules Sewing book. I’ll do anything to avoid hand-sewing!

The elephant is my favorite!

Despite the inherent cuteness of these little things, I’m making a new set. The anal-retentive part of me just can’t look past the non-centered squares and the sloppy topstitching. I’m almost done with version 2.0, and I can confirm that it will contain an elephant butt square. Because I am twelve.

A question to all you sewers out there - is it necessary to cut bias tape on the bias? Will my small project self-destruct if I cut it with the grain?

Kelly’s holiday sweatshop is in full swing, and I just enlisted a little helper.

Meet Mica, another Soto Softies creature (recall Igor, the stuffed praying mantis. Rob’s still scratching his head about that one). Maritza’s softies are so cute and so incredibly well made, it’s a wonder that I don’t have an army of them by now.

Mica arrived last week, and I’ve already put her to good use.

She’s almost at the toe for a pair of socks for my mother-in-law. I’m sort-of-maybe a bit behind on my ambitious schedule of holiday crafting, but I will not be deterred. You can expect to see a bevy of finished objects next week!

Here she’s helping Rob write a final exam. She has an amazing knowledge of robotics, who knew? I don’t recall if I ever mentioned it here, but Rob is teaching a class on top of his full-time work at a certain space agency. The semester’s almost over, and I for one welcome the return of Rob’s free time!

Ever since finishing the Endpaper Mitts (photos coming soon, once I’m home when Mr. Sun is out), I’ve been trying to tackle the holiday knitting. I’m only making a few things, but they’ve been All Wrong thus far.

I knit a Utopia hat. Too small. Now I’m knitting another straight from the too-small version. I’m using Malabrigo + a smallish needle (US 5) for a warm, cozy hat, and had originally cast on one extra pattern repeat. This would have worked fine for me, but my brother has a gigantic head. Boo.

Pooling, my nemesis. These were going to be Marina Piccola socks for my mother-in-law, and now I’m stumped for a pattern. Double-boo.

I also have a goal of finishing all of my wips before the end of the year, so I decided to revisit Petal. I set in the one remaining sleeve and tried it on, and it’s too short. I’ve been in a state of denial about this, hoping that the fit would miraculously change once I set in the sleeves. No dice.

I’ve already reknit the front and back pieces due to fit issues, and there’s no way I’m doing that again. It was time to take drastic measures.

I cut my sweater in half a couple of days ago! Well, I actually snipped a strand and carefully unraveled one row, but it was just as fun. Will Petal be complete before cold arrives in Houston? Probably, given the weather as of late!

It’s been a while since I’ve fallen head-over-heels for a knitting project, but I’m thisclose to leaving Rob for an Endpaper Mitt.

The list of loves for this mitt is long, and it starts with the yarn. The shininess of the Brooks Farm Acero combined with the matte Nature’s Pallette, and the tonal color scheme of two subtlely variegating yarns that climb dangerously close to the same color, but never meet. Swoon! Also, the colorwork is like magic - it’s amazing to see the pattern emerge and it seems that the somewhat complex knitting is just speeding by. Seriously, I can’t get enough of this project and I’m sure you’ll see a FO report in the near future!

The Endpaper Mitts are really just a warmup for a larger colorwork project.

More details to come, but this is the first of a slew of holiday gifts that I’m knitting this year. I’m super excited about this one and I can’t wait to see it take shape! I love knitting for the holidays (um, for those who appreciate it), and I love the prospect of finishing a number of smallish projects by the end of the year. Here’s also hoping that a couple of sweaters get finished soon, too - both of them are ridiculously close to completion!