Holiday Project Extravaganza

I've been making some headway on Christmas gifts this year. Well, at least I thought I was until I started thinking about it.

I finally finished Baby Sweater #2. I may or may not save this for Christmas, as my friend's baby is due rather soon! But we'll see. If she reads this, I may just have to give it up sooner :P This time around, I cast on an extra 10 stitches so it wasn't so preemie-looking. After that, the patterns was still pretty simple. It took me a long time to make, though, as I grew bored of the pattern. I plan on taking any leftover yarn and making a pair of matching booties. I've never knitted booties, so I'm excited to try something knew.

I also started this knitted hat for Nick's friend's girlfriend. You can't see the detail in the picture to the left, but it's the pattern Foliage from Knitty, which I found on Ravelry (an addiction of mine). This is the third time I've started it, thinking the first time I had messed up the pattern and then couldn't count the second time when I was surrounded by poeple. Frustrating! But now, I'm realizing I was right with the pattern first time around, so I'm going to finally finish it, haha. Of course, this means another trip to ACMoore for more yarn so I can make matching mittens, since I threw away all of my frogs in frustration every time :)

Not to be forgotten are a bunch of crocheted santa faces Nick's mom would like me to make for work gifts. I made a bunch for the holidays two year ago - enough that they lasted me until Christmas the next year. I gave one to his parents in 2007 as a magnet and his mom loved them. I purchase all the supplies a few weeks ago, sans yarn because I think I had enough from the kit, and I'm patiently awaiting working on them. They were so fun to make and whipped up really quickly. Sadly, Mary Maxim no longer sells the kit or pattern, but I had ordered three to make them the first time around and found it a couple months ago. I didn't search through it, so hopefully everything's there, but maybe I could figure it out if I needed to again, haha. The picture is from the first round of Santa Faces I made in 2006.

It's funny how I've always had problems with knitting, even though I started when I was 11 years old. Then I recently realized there were really only two stitches to remember, and now I have no problems counting, reading patterns, or anything.

I ordered a million tunisian crochet hooks (and by a million, I mean five). I'm excited to try my hand at that one. For a practice piece, I'm going to make a cover for the top of our toilet seat in the man's bathroom. Nick is a big fan of keeping that room completely barren and it drives me up a wall. To add some color, I decided to make a black piece for over the top lid, since everything else is so white and there's a black shower curtain. I hope he doesn't mind. If he does, tough cookies. I figured it would be simple enough to practice with - a big rectangle, haha.

I also bought a hairpin lace loom, and I'm anxious to give that a shot. Oh, if only these blasted holiday gifts would be done!