Family Christmas

Today's post is dedicated to my family's Christmas, for which I back breakingly knit an assortment of holiday goodies. I am sorry that the pictures are a bit blurry. The lighting was terrible as it was taken at night. We decided to open gifts Christmas Eve this year.

To start off with are the man mitts. I know I actually talked a little about them a little earlier. Some of you might even recognize this Mech pair. I gave them to my brother Andrew, for which the yarn has been named. He is such a gamer and he love blue and black so I knew that these had to be for him. I still have kits and patterns (pdf / paper) in my shop if anyone wants to make their own pair.

The pair that wasn't shown was this Camo pair for my dad. He really loved them and I hope that he gets a lot of use out of them. He said that they fit perfectly, which I am very glad of. He has hands similar in size to Blair, so it made me very happy that they fit. Blair now wants a pair too. I'm sure I will be able to get a pair done for him sometime after I get his skull socks done. I have camo mitt kitts available in my etsy shop as well.

Here is my brother Matthew. Something most people don't know about me is that my youngest brother is handicapped. He has an addition on his 11th chromosome, which is a very very rare condition to have. He is a sweet kid though and really loves bright colors. Lately he has actually shown an interest in what I am knitting, so I thought that I would make this really fast and simple scarf out of Poof Color Orange Crush #9557. It is 13 sts on a size 15us needle and just knit until all the yarn is gone. It takes 2 balls. It makes a really super soft scarf that I am sure will keep him warm, and more importantly keep him visible to my mother when he is outdoors.

I've saved the best set for last. This is my mother (left) and her twin sister Linda (right). I knit Linda the fabulous scarf that is totally out of focus. It is knit with Malizia color #11. It has a very simple and fast pattern too. Simply cast on 11 sts, knit both sides, then every 8th row k1, yo 3 times, repeat to the end. On the next row drop all of the yarn overs. Fringe optional. It really is a great way to make a beautiful yarn go further and really shows off a fancy yarn like Malizia to its very best.

The sweater that my mom is wearing is the Sugarplum Pullover from Handknit Holidays. The pattern was actually pretty accurate except for one little part. When attaching the sleeves it says to attach one sleeve and then knit the back, but if you do this from where the yarn is at you are ready to knit the front. To remedy this I simply attached both sleeves as directed and then continued to knit until I was where I was suppose to be. This worked really well because I had a slight row gauge issues, so a little extra knitting didn't hurt a thing. As you can see the sweater fits her perfectly, for which I am very very happy. I just love this sweater. It is very gorgeous and very sexy. I knit it out of Nashua Creative Focus Superwash, which I got gauge with the recommended needle size. It is an awesome substitute, and even better because it is technically machine washable. Though my mother has promised me that she is going to handwash and use Soak, which she bought from Knot Another Hat.

That's it for my immediate family's gathering. The next post will be my grandparent's holiday bash, which I forgot my camera. Luckily I took pictures of all of their goodies before they left the house. Anyway, I think Blair and I are going to go sledding or at the very least go and try out his brand new GPS that I got him for Christmas.