Christmas projects.. progress!
Ho Ho Ho! So I am getting into the holiday spirit... I finished two hats over Thanksgiving, and started another. I am having fun just playing around with ideas using Nicky Epstein's book as a springboard. First hat - using the reversible rib as a pattern in Cascade 220 (I LOVE this yarn!) in a heathery gray.
I didn't knit it as long as I could have (as the pattern called for) but I think it works. I love the stitch definition this yarn produces... you'll see more of this yarn soon...
Below is a Berrocco yarn in a red multi... same pattern though I knitted it to the pattern so I'd have a cuff and as you can see, it does look different (ok I added a pom pom too) just due to the yarn quality. This is one of the things I love about knitting and yarn!
I made this cool little bag from a pattern in a Martha Stewart magazine - it called for a zipper. I so thought that was way too much work for such a small item... so I did this -
I used the left over yarn from the scarf project, added an I-cord and a cool button and voila! It can be used for glasses, sunglasses, a few odds and ends, whatever. The other thing I realized was that if I added an I-cord wrist handle (or a braided cable type cord), it could be almost self-contained... perhaps for the next one!
Now for stuff on the needles
I am trying to make a cool bag of some sort with this yarn that I got at the dollar store for $1... I got three skeins so I have options. I am thinking of making a big rectangle shape and gathering it up a little like a pouch kind of bag. I still need to work it out but heck, I can always go to the frog pond.
Lastly, this is a hat that I suspect I will end up making more of... I found the pattern on line. Whatever did we do before the Internet? It is called "Love Nugget" by Rachel "Ivy" Clarke. Again, Cascade 220 in a gray - it has a little blue tinge to it. It is more than halfway done as I only need to do one more pattern repeat of 16 rounds and then the crown shaping. I expect to finish it tonight or possibly tomorrow morning. I need one of these for me. This one IS a gift however...
Just two slightly different angles...
So, the challenge is to find time to get my knitting projects done and still have time to write cards, make & bake cookies, decorate my house, and oh... that pesky thing called work! I am thinking of doing the ornaments using swatches as shown in Interweave Knits Christmas Project magazine... that is quick, inexpensive and an unusual gift. I like that.
Until next time, happy holidaymaking!
Some Writing
Sad Scene of Children Playing (originally written 10/25/93)
The filthy, trash-laden streets are the children’s playground. From the alley, an overpowering smell of rotting garbage permeates the entire block, trash and food scraps overflowing onto the ground to be picked over by mangy stray animals and desperate homeless people. Laundry is strung between the tenements, looking not a whole lot cleaner than it was to begin with.
Whipping around the corner, a group of youths – four or five of them, ages six through twelve – search for excitement. It is extremely difficult to determine the boys from the girls. Winter is upon them and they dress in layers of tattered, ragged, soiled hand-me-downs, grubby, threadbare hats on each head. Their faces, covered with the grime of the city, give a haunting look – a look of innocence betrayed, of shattered dreams, of incredible hardness. Malnourished, one of the gang clutches a prize – a piece of rock candy. He holds it high in the air while the others push and shove, pummel him, leap in the air trying desperately to claim the prize for themselves. In an instant, the candy is shaken loose and tumbles onto the pavement – splintering into a hundred pieces. Scrambling furiously, the urchins wrestle for a sliver of the heavenly confection.
The children are only partially satisfied with this, restlessness reigns supreme. A slightly built boy, the one always picked on, pounces upon a crushed tin can, kicking it down the street. Another scrawny child, perhaps a girl of seven or eight, sprints down the block after the can. The children spread out in a pattern of some sort (like a ballet), a few on the sidewalk, one covering the entrance of the alley, and two others in the street itself. From one of the grimy windows above, an exhausted woman yells out at the kids in the street below – she fears they will come to some harm but cannot express this concern adequately. A particularly bratty, sullen girl shrieks back, “Mind your own business, old hag!” Just then, from around the corner, the neighborhood policeman approaches, spying the truant children playing. The scrawny boy shouts out, and the children speed down the alleyway, scrambling up waiting fire escapes, shaking off the cop’s pursuit.
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