Yarn Along: Christmas Hats Edition

{Yarn Along with Ginny today}

I mentioned last time that my craftiness for this holiday is a little limited by time and work so I had to pair down my "maybe" list accordingly.


I finished the last of the kids' hats over the weekend, and I'm pleased with all of them. I tried them on each kiddo and then told them that they were invisible hats and they would totally forget about them between now and Christmas- which means they ask me EVERY DAY when they can wear their new hats. Then I have the honor of playing along and saying, "What hats? I have no idea what you're talking about."

This is the Wurm hat I had begun last week. It's a bit stretched out after a wash, but it will bounce back quickly, especially being worn by one particularly busy boy of mine.

This it the Lacy Julian Hat that I've knit 4 or 5 times now. I love that it goes so quickly. I knit this for Ellie from start to finish on Sunday afternoon, even with an extra repeat of the lace pattern.

This is a little hat I improvise for Ender. That's the great thing about hats- they are so easy to just cast on and go! I added my notes on ravelry.


I'm still reading Ann Voskamp's The Greatest Gift, savoring a bit each day through this season.

What are you knitting and reading this week?

Quick Question

A quick question for my yarn-y friends...

What on earth do you do with all your partial skeins after finishing a project?

A few {admittedly weird} things you should know before answering:

1. I have a serious aversion to partial skeins. I can't bear the fact that perfectly good yarn is sitting there unused.

2. I knit in a lot of different weights, so I've got leftovers for pretty much every weight but bulky. If I had mostly one weight I think I'd be okay with figuring something out. Maybe.

3. Yardage has been known to be the deciding factor on whether or not I will knit a project, and not in the usual way. Let's say a project calls for 3 skeins of yarn but I'm only going to use a third of that last skein I'm unlikely to knit that particular project.

4. I am unlikely to knit a project that is seriously long-term. Knitting squares out of leftovers and then sewing them into a blanket after 5 years of acquiring squares will probably make me crazy. Maybe that's crazier than I already am.


After knowing those few little things it probably goes without saying that I really love projects that allow me to get down to the last scraps of yarn. Anything else feels like a waste.

So... what do you do with your partial skeins?

21 Days

{Yarning Along with Ginny today. Will you join us?}

Maybe you didn't need a reminder, but there are 21 days until Christmas.

I'm ready with everything but handmades. I didn't promise the boys sweaters for Christmas (even though I did plan for them to be Christmas gifts), but I did promise them in time to actually wear through this winter. Ender's sweater is taking shape- 2 long black sleeves and about 4 inches of body. Ezra's has yet to be cast on. Maybe they will be finished by mid-January while we have plenty of cold days left in the season?

I had to put them aside temporarily in favor of Christmas knits. I'm aiming for a knit hat for each kid, and a new sewn stocking for each of us. There are also Ezra's mittens on the needles, and Ender asked for another pair as well out of the fiber he picked out that I finished over this past weekend. Right now it is Ezra's hat on the needles: Wurm by Katharina Nopp. I've seen this hat just about everywhere amongst knitters online and it is such an Ezra hat. I hope he likes it as much as I think he will.


I'm using magic loop for this hat. I haven't been a fan of this particular technique in the past, but it's growing on me for hat knitting. We'll see if I like it as much by the end of the project. I cast on on Sunday so it's going fast enough with as little knitting time as I've had in the past 48 hours, but it does continue to grow and hopefully I'll be one hat down by the end of the week, 2 more to go.

Now to decide on a hat pattern for the baby and another for the big brother. Suggestions welcome.

Ann Voskamp's The Greatest Gift has been such a lovely addition to my advent preparations. In the past I've focused so much on Advent readings and activities for the kids that I haven't had something to read myself and this has been great. Fairly short readings that fit in even on the busiest days and, of course, Ann Voskamp's inspiring writing. The boys and I are also reading Jotham's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide this Advent season.

Spin It Up

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday if you were in the States for Thanksgiving last week. It was nice to see family and catch up with friends.


I totally thought I'd get a knitting post in before the holiday last week, at least in time for the weekly Yarn Along, but it just didn't happen between work and holiday prep. To be honest, I haven't been knitting more than a little bit at the end of the evening. It's Lola's fault really. All my dedicated creative time has been going to her, and now I have a little bit of yarn to show for it:

The blue is a mystery wool that I received in class 2 weeks ago when I first got my wheel. It was good practice and while it's not as even as I'd like, I definitely got better as I went. I ended up with about 150 yards of this one in a mostly fingering weight 2-ply. No knitting plans for it yet, but I'm happy with how it turned out for my first yarn that wasn't just trying to figure out how the wheel worked.


The fire-y colored fiber is 4 oz. of Polwarth from Nerd Girl Yarns, colorway: Firebender. Ender picked it out at Maker's Faire back in June and requested mittens, which I think I can manage after spinning this up. It was really easy to spin. The blue wasn't difficult by any means, but this Polwarth seemed to just *want* to be more even, and it was a lot easier to make it so. This yarn is also a 2-ply and I got about 170 yards. This one was also interesting to spin due to how the colors worked together. I wasn't sure if I was going to get longer stretches of color some of the time or if the plying would blend the colors so much that there would be no discernible change. I'm excited to see how it knits up.

Yarn Along: Sweater Edition

{Yarn Along with Ginny today, sharing current knits and reads. Will you join us?}

I finished the Shapely Boyfriend Cardigan! I could practically shout it from the rooftops. I started that Cardigan back in January (!!!) and it is finally complete after a few time-outs and slogging through those sleeves. The button band was done in no time and I ran out and bought buttons for it last week. Now- to put the buttons on, weave in ends and get it blocked so that I can actually wear it... The pattern itself is wonderful and fine- it was my own short-comings (mostly impatience with sleeves) that made this project take 10 months for no good reason.

I also cast on for Ender's Soledad Sweater this week. He is very excited and keeps checking to be sure I am primarily working on his sweater. It starts with the sleeves (getting the hard-for-me part out of the way) so I am carrying sleeve #1 with me everywhere to get the inches on there quickly. 'm knitting the sleeves with magic loop instead of DPNs for the first time, and while I'm still getting used to it, I'm thinking magic loop may be the way to go on sleeves for me for now on. I love my DPNs, but for sleeves it just... well, I need something magical to help me through them.

I have a super crazy goal to get his sweater as far as possible by November 30 (the crazy part is hoping that it is mostly done by then) so that I can cast on for Ezra's Soledad December 1 and have them both completely finished by Christmas. I haven't promised them as Christmas sweaters, but I'm secretly hoping for that.


In reading, the boys and I just finished listening to The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. They really enjoyed it, so much that we are listening to it again. I'm still working slowly through Emma by Jane Austen on the kindle, but mostly because my reading time has all but disappeared lately due to extra stuff in our schedule. It will all clear up by the end of the month and then I'll be able to catch up on things again.


I'm also working through Maggie Casey's Start Spinning again, this time as a new wheel spinner. Did you hear the news? Lola joined our family over the weekend, so creative time is being poured into her as I learn how to use her.