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?

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

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!

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.

This post is written while laundry dries all over my living room.  What a muddle.  My perfectly timed 8:00 PM laundry run was  more complicated than necessary–all of the machines were full (for the first time in my laundry history), and after waiting for 15 minutes I hijacked a washing machine that finished its cycle–I got my wash started in time (my building’s laundry room closes at 10PM)–but when it came time to dry it all, there was only one machine that was empty.

With my fingers crossed, I loaded 2 washing machines worth of clothes into one dryer–the one dryer that is missing a lint trap filter–but my money was already in by the time I realized that.  Needless to say, an hour later, I was faced with an oversized load of damp laundry which is currently drying in my living room.

In any case, I’m giving up on the laundry now, and focusing on my mitten in progress.  It’s my usual pattern, Fox and Geese from the book “Fox and Geese and Fences, a Collection of Traditional Maine Mittens” by Robin Hansen, and the yarn is from Topsy Farms on Amherst Island.  The pattern makes very sturdy mittens with long cuffs which I love.

Somehow now that it’s almost November it seems appropriate to be starting on mittens again.

This year I went home for the holidays.  Every year since I moved out I have returned home for the holidays–at most I am a 12 minute walk from home on most days, but for the holidays I pack my stuff and sleep over–this year we were all there, both brothers, my parents and me.  We take comfort in many holiday traditions, some of which have just sort of evolved over the years.  Take our Christmas Eve dinner–It has been lasagna ever since an unfortunate self-timing-oven-broiling-incident about 20 years ago; Mom had the timer set so the lasagna would be done after the 5pm church service.  Ever since I can remember we’ve all go to the midnight service where I now sing in the choir, and my brothers–both grown men–sing descants from the congregation.  From where I sit, I can usually see the giggles from my family, and others around them.  It is tradition to see choir friends returning from university, or from jobs far from here–some come with spouses and kids now!  After late church, giddy as anything, we head home to eat a Yule Log that my mom makes, and listen to a compilation of interesting Christmas music that my brothers put together before we hang up our stockings.

Christmas morning we open gifts slowly-a tradition that we didn’t really like when we were little, but we appreciate now that we are older.  I’m not sure how it is in most families, but I get the traditional gifts of shampoo, pantyhose, life savers, and gingerbeer every year!  A new tradition, that I’m not sure will stand the test of time, is that my brothers and dad grow Christmas mustaches–I bet that they will be gone by New Year!

grandmother's tree

We gathered for dinner at my grandmother’s house.  This is her 96th Christmas, and she had a great time.  Many days are spent in preparation for this feast.  My aunts and my mom and my grandmother all do lots of cooking and organizing.  We gathered on the 23rd for the annual smoothing of the table cloth and setting of the table.

We had a lovely turkey (note the mustache).  My mom and dad have been the turkey preparation team for the past few years.  It was delicious!

My grandmother made the pudding again this year.  Every year there is a concern about how the pudding will turn out.  It was delicious as always…

..and it flamed really well too!

The tradition of doing it all again on boxing day is something else I love.  We are dressed more casually, and can bring a gift to show and tell.  We used to play never ending games of checkers with all of the cousins, but this year everyone was watching football because their proline tickets were still good by 6pm.  It was an exciting time for them.

I knit more of my pathetically late secret santa mitten.  At least I’m knitting the thumb now–Deadline #2 is Jan. 3rd.  Fingers crossed it will be finished by then.What are your Christmas traditions?

For the last few days I’ve been having a rather challenging time explaining how to make a mitten thumb via email.  Here’s some pictures to go along with my words.  Hopefully they will help my friend Shawna, and others working on the same issue.

To make a mitten fit your hand, you need to make it larger on the thumb side.  The regular increases create what is called a thumb gusset.

image source http://www.jessica-tromp.nl

Here’s an interesting photo tutorial: I’ve got a hard time photographing my thumb gussets since I knit in the round, on DPNs.  I don’t know that I’d ever knit a mitten on two needles, but it’s neat to know that it can be done.

Once the gusset is long enough and wide enough, I always get someone to try on the mittens to check, I put the gusset stitches on a scrap of yarn and leave them until the hand of the mitten is done–I finish by knitting the thumb.

So, the gusset stitches are on a scrap of yarn, and you are ready to knit the hand.  My general pattern is to cast on several (note: this will change depending on gauge) stitches to finish off the thumb hole on the upper side.  To cast on these stitches, it’s probably easiest to turn the mitten over (so the wrong side is facing) and cast on, then turn back again.

When it finally is time to knit the thumb, you will use the stitches from the scrap of yarn, the stitches that you just cast on (pick them up).  This would make a nice mitten, but over the years that I’ve been knitting mittens I’ve had a pet peeve about holes appearing where the thumb meets the hand.  To avoid this issue, I pick up an extra stitch from a row back between the gusset stitches and the cast on stitches on either side of the thumb.

Here’s a view of me trying it on for size.  Click to make bigger.

thumb stitch count = gusset stitches + cast on stitches

or

thumb stitch count = gusset stitches + cast on stitches + 2

There are, of course, many ways to knit a thumb.  I’m eager to learn more.  What’s your favourite method?

P.S. Yes, this is mitten number 2 for my secret santa.  It’s been slow going.  Things like sleeping, cleaning, singing and holiday preparations have gotten in my way a bit.  I am here still, enjoying my holidays.  Thanks so much for the comments of concern!

Between baking and icing batches of cookies, and while watching a few mindless hours of television this weekend I’ve made good progress on my goal.

Today, while my family decorated the tree, I completed the first mitten.  It was lovely to sit and watch as all of our quirky ornaments were carefully unwrapped and discussed while they were put on the tree.  It seems that almost every ornament has a story, and means something to at least one of us.

Some ornaments are less permanent, but much more delicious!  The recipe is a traditional one passed down from my great-aunt.

Some of you may be wondering what’s going on….I’ve been showing lots of pictures of robot hats, and that’s about it.  There are some other top secret knitting projects going on, but most are for Christmas gifts, so they will be revealed later on. 

Something that I can show now is the new pair of mittens that I’m making.  We’ve got a Secret Santa going on at work, and this year (unlike last year) I got my act together and signed up in time!  I’m having fun thinking of small gifts to deliver each day, and at the end of the week have a pair of mittens waiting in their mailbox.

The problem is that the self imposed deadline is in a week…and I currently have only an inch completed.  I guess this means that these will be a traveling project….a spend-every-free-waking-moment-knitting kind of project…the kind of project that seems to pop up every year in December.

What’s on your December needles?