Category Archives: advent calendar

Door 4 – overcoming the hat trauma

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Every time when I discuss with people the hand knitting business, they suggest that I should knit hats. Which is probably a good idea, you can do lots of different, very individual things, they aren’t huge and knit up quickly and would therefore be affordable. But I really have a hat trauma and haven’t knitted any hats since many years. They never really fitted, often too short and not covering the ears properly but I guess that was mainly because I did not use proper patterns or could not measure the heads to not spoil the surprise. So it is quite a homemade trauma, I have to admit.

Anyway, I have a few Debbie Bliss Rialto Chunky in different colours in my stash, and when one of my friends suddenly started wearing a brownish/reddish jacket in more or less the same colour than the one in my stash I had to knit her something in combination with her favourite colour which is this kind of light sea green. After days of casting on and ribbing various neck warmer projects which all just didn’t seem right, she finally lost her green hat. So I realised that rather than knitting her a ridiculously small scarf (out of two brown and one green balls) I should make her a hat. Instead of looking for a pattern for that kind of yarn I adapted this one and the result fits fairly well, maybe the ribbing is a little on the loose side and might need some elastic support one day.

I guess, considering that I was still unable to use a matching pattern/yarn pair means that I still haven’t fully overcome the hat trauma but I am halfway there and it made me just realise that I should actually challenge myself rather than always go the easy way.

I wonder if any of you have this kind of knitting traumas? Maybe that would also be a good new years resolution 🙂

Door 3 – same procedure as every year

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I have already finished this years woolen jumpers for my children a couple of weeks ago but hadn’t had a chance to put them up here.

I have used the Little Hoodlum pattern like last year but in the most simple version without hoods or pockets as I had realised that even though it looks really cute it is not practical under a wintery top layer.

IMG_1303I have used Adriafil Knitcol, 100% merino DK but I found it thinner than expected. So I had to knit bigger sizes but never mind. It is also a bit itchy, not really what I expect from pure merino. Not sure if I am going to use it again, definitely not for anything I would have to wear directly on my skin.

But the pattern that the yarn creates once knitted up is really beautiful, big effect for just plain knitting in the round and without much weaving in 🙂

My daughter is really pleased with hers, my son hasn’t even tried his one yet. Just never ever suggest anything to a grumpy two year old, he will say no and then not even forget about it 🙂

Door 2 – I proudly present…

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These are just a few examples of what my knitting class students have produced. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take pictures during the classes but two of the new knitters kindly gave me those pictures to show off here.

There were quite a few who have made at least one garter stitch bow for some very special girls and they have all been a huge success. Even a few nursery teachers have asked for their very own 🙂

So I am glad that I can actually present the most sparkly one on here.

bow1

I am also very pleased with the phone case as a mini project as it is also great to learn how to sew pieces together.

And of course the mouse is the master piece as it includes all the techniques we have learned.

mouse1I slightly adapted this mouse pattern to make sure that the increases and decreases were the ones that we had learned.

24 little doors of magical surprises – door 1

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IMG_1340Reading through  the latest posts on some of the great blogs that I am following (Knitting to stay sane and Stitch and Purl) I suddenly felt the need to include blogging to my advent routine. If I had planned it better I could have created a blog advent calendar but I guess that is a bit ambitious…. especially as I am already a day late 🙂

Anyway, we have started preparation for christmas, our advent calendar is made of 48 (2 children) red and green bags which I have actually sewn last year already. They are filled with small things like ballons, fancy straws, a sheet of stickers or some slightly more interesting things like small animal figurines. I wanted to include something handmade, like cloths for the dolls but obviously I ran out of time. I might still swap some of the more boring contents if I ever manage to make something.

And 10 min after opening the first bag, my daughter wanted to go to bed again as she couldn’t wait to open the next one 🙂

We have also sort of made our own advent wreath, well I bought a simple one and put candles and bows on it. And we sing songs every morning and have already started the traditional biscuit baking…. so not that much time for knitting one would think. And I really want to use up some left over yarns instead of buying new yarn (apart from some gorgeous merino/silk from DyeForYarn) But that I will need for some christmas presents, honestly.