Happy new year to everyone!  I’m hoping that 2012 is full of as much excitement as 2011 was.  In our family, we gather to play silly games to ring in the new year.  Last year we had a moustache-themed murder mystery party.  This year we played the classic board game “Rat Race” the social climbing game where you strive to buy fur coats, artwork and cars to “keep up with the Jones’”.

We ended up laughing and carrying on until 12:03 before we realized that we missed the ball drop!  Luckily it was on youtube shortly afterwards.  Hopefully we wont be 15 minutes late for EVERYTHING in the new year.

During all of the fun I was working away on my latest pair of mittens.  I’m knitting “Avo’s Mittens” a pattern from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush.  {Ravelink}  It’s been a while since I’ve knit anything using a pattern book.  I think I’ll knit a few more pairs before the year’s done.  The yarn I’m using is Nob Hill Naturals which I’m really pleased with.  It’s 100% wool and is much softer than I’d imagined.

At the end of the evening, as per family tradition, we each lit a candle as we made a new year’s wish.  There are a few more of us this year in our family….It’s going to be an exciting 2012.

How did you celebrate this year?

Over the past few days since Christmas I’ve been hibernating.  It’s dark, and cold, and it’s cozy inside where I’m organizing things…cooking a bit…and knitting a lot.

Here are the hats that I’ve made over the past few days.  They have been made in preparation for the kickoff of the FIRST robotics build season (Jan 7th).  Our team is growing, and as such the new heads need new hats!

Hat #56 was started earlier in the month, but finished in the past few days.  The robot and number glow in the dark.

Hat #57 is a very stripey hat with bit of glow in the dark yarn in there somewhere.

Hat #58 is a little special.  It fits like a bucket hat, or a cow boy hat depending on how you fix the brim.  The brim is worked as an attached i-cord over a wire, so the hat can take on a variety of shapes.  This was a bit of an improvisational knitting task.  The original cast on edge which was going to be the brim ended up close to the crown of the hat.  Fingers crossed it will fit properly!Hat #59 is a more traditional hat, like the earlier versions…with robots knit right in.

Finally, hat #60 is knit in more subtle colours to suit the intended recipient.

I’m very much looking forward to handing out these hats on kickoff day!  For more information about our robotics team check out the K-Botics website and read the blog.

I’m looking forward to wrapping up some of my recent knitting, but decided to take some pictures of things first.

The first is the Lotus Hat knit from a bamboo cotton blend.  I LOVE the turquoise colour, and how the lace pattern works out, particularly at the crown of the hat.  The stitch definition of the bamboo cotton blend is lovely, but next time I knit this hat I will knit it on circulars.  The yarn is slippery, and when the lace pattern falls off the needles it was often tricky to get all of the slipped stitches back on properly.  I absolutely love the pattern though, and it looks much more complicated than it really is.  I lengthened the hat a little because this is intended to be a chemo cap, so the extra bit of length can cover the entire head comfortably.  I’m not sure how the bamboo/cotton blend will last–it is not elastic like wool, so it might stretch with wear.  It is easy to care for though, machine wash and dry.

The second project, fresh off the needles tonight is a pair of mittens.  These are the Spruce Mittens, from the Fox and Geese and Fences pattern book by Robin Hansen.  These particular mittens are knit in a dark brown and lighter brown wool (Georga wool, which is surprisingly soft and silky despite being 100% wool).  The cuff is seed stitch because I do not like to do a lot of ribbing.  I’m not sure who these mittens will be for–I took an informal poll at work today to see if they would suit both men and women, and the results were mixed.  What do you think?

If not clear from the picture, I’ve been busy with some baking and cookie decorating too!

100g of possum has slowly and steadily been turned into a pair of mittens.

This has been a very long process.  I’ve savoured knitting with such a luxurious yarn, so this has been the project that gets worked on when I’m in need of something warm and fuzzy to work on.They are the warmest, lightest, softest pair of mittens I’ve ever created.  If you’d like to create some too, get your hands on some possum yarn.  Check out Possum Tales for a detailed look.

My pattern is, as usual, Fox and Geese by Robin Hansen

This hat is a particularly special hat.  It is the first hat that I’ve ever knit out of sock weight yarn.  It was an experiment in the scale of a pattern.  The very same robot charts look quite intricate on this hat!

It is knit out of superwash merino wool, and it is so soft, warm, and stretchy.  All the additional time and care were definitely worth it!  I think that this hat will be worn lots, and appreciated for the warmth and care and time invested.  I look forward to see this hat on the head of a smiling K-Bot soon!

Last Christmas I gave my brothers soft squishy presents under the tree.  They unwrapped and found bags of fiber which I promised to make into something that would be unique and perfect for them.  I never guaranteed that they’d be done quickly or anything.  Here are the results of several months of spinning and knitting.

A cable hat for brother #1 made of merino wool

And…for brother #2 who can’t wear anything wool because it is too scratchy, a pair of mittens designed for operating an iPod or iPad made out of superfine alpaca.

These are hunting gloves, with a finger and thumb separated from the hand.  The tips of the index finger and thumb have conductive thread stitched in.  This is what lets the touch screen devices pick up the “touch” signal.

He’s going to have the warmest hands this winter–no need to take these mitts off EVER!

With a new season of robotics comes the new flock of robot hats.  Here are hats #53

And #54

We’re preparing for the kick off of the FIRST robotics tournament this January.  We work each Thursday building skills in technology and teamwork.  It’s a large group this year, but the good thing is that this year everyone is learning to knit!

Many of my friends are having babies these days, so I’ve started knitting some baby clothes to give them.  It’s a great way to use up some of my sock yarn/baby yarn stash.  The yarn is generally superwash wool or acrylic, which is suitable for baby clothes that tend to need quite a lot of washing.  This particular pattern is my new favourite.  It is the Garter Yoke Baby Cardi by Jennifer.  The pattern is so easy to follow, and is knit in one piece with absolutely no seams to sew up at the end.

To go with the cute sweater I knit up a “Top Down Bonnet” by Adrian Bizilia of Hello Yarn .  It is such a nice pattern that fits babies so well.  I just need to add some ties and it will be all done.

The combination will be packaged up, ready for the first girl to be born.

Since she was about 6 years old I’ve known Kendra as “The Sparkle Monster”.  I believe the name came from arts and crafts at camp, and grew into a bit of a sparkly obsession over the years.  Sparkle monster has grown up, gotten married, and now has a little sparkle monster of her own.  Baby Julian has made his arrival and must have some sparkles in his wardrobe.

The bonnet is the “Top Down Bonnet” by Adrian Bizilia (Hello Yarn) and the vest is an improvised pattern that ended up making a much larger garment than planned!  It’s a good thing that babies grow quickly.

I knew it would be very important to find the perfect yarn to knit a sparkly ensemble for young Julian, but I do not own any sparkly yarn.  It’s not really what I tend to collect.  I do often get bombarded with knitting advertising which led me to finding Gumdrop Sparkle Yarn in Lemon and Cherry.  I waited while this lovely package of sparkly goodness made its way through the postal system, and was delighted to see that the sparkly bits are not rough and scratchy.  In fact, the yarn is soft and slippery with a single thin ply of a shiny metallic thread throughout.  The slipperiness of the yarn led to issues when joining a new ball.  If you don’t tie a knot between the two balls of yarn they will slip and slide and stitches will work themselves undone.

This yarn did get a bit fiddly to knit with–the yarn becomes easily split, and the sparkly thread can stretch or bunch up, or sometimes get dropped or knit together with another stitch.  It’s worth it to get the sparkles though!  The glint shows up in the stitching really nicely.

As I was finishing the neck and arm edges on the little vest I came across another issue with this yarn.  There is really limited elasticity, so on cast off edges it was really really tight–so tight I had to undo it and redo it about 4 times before I could even imagine putting this over a child’s head.  I think it’s big enough now!

I hope that little Julian will enjoy being a little sparkle monster.  I look forward to meeting him some time soon!  In the mean time, this little outfit is going in the mail later this week.

The days suddenly seem very short.  November has been unseasonably warm, and I’ve not really realized how close we are getting to winter until I see the sun setting just after 4PM.  Having longer evenings is lovely, but I do miss seeing the daylight!  These pictures were taken in the afternoon sunset.

My latest knitting project is a pair of mittens that I knit over the past few weekends.  It’s my usual pattern, “Fox and Geese” by Robin Hansen.  I love the thick fabric created by the stranded knitting technique.  I enjoy the long cuffs, and know that they will keep me warm this winter.  I’m not thrilled with how the cuff tends to roll.  I know I should probably do a few rows of ribbing or garter stitch to flatten them out.Pictured with my new mittens is my new Christmas cactus.  There was a great deal on festive plants at the grocery store, and now I’m eagerly awaiting the blossoms.