Tuesday, December 13, 2011

12 knitting days left

Assuming you don't plan to knit a gift actually on Christmas Day - for example, in the car on the way to your parents' place for supper* - there are twelve days left in which to knit gifts.  So as a public service, and not at all because I am still scrambling myself, I thought I'd do a string of quick-knit suggestions for handmade gifts.  Sort of a 12 Days of Christmas thing.

So: Day one.  How adorable is this Sweetie Pie hat from Purlbee?  Thank you Jen!

And speaking of hats, I know you want to see what a hardworking hat looks like in a Toronto winter:


Yep, that's my Turn A Square after a walk and errands on a very cold morning - the one I'm keeping to match my almost-visible blue-grey coat there.  When you're piled up with layers this is what you get - utilitarian headgear and a supercrushed hairdo.  It's warm as can be but I think I should have blocked it before putting it on the first time; it's pretty scratchy, unlike the one I'm giving away, which I did take time to soak in Soak.

Speaking of which - here's another 12 Days tip for you. Soak is offering free shipping until December 14th.  Couldn't do without that stuff! and in fact I need to order more myself because I'm on my last bottle. 

Back to the hat.  Technically the big bonus of this project is the learning of jogless stripes, but check out how they look when you're using a variegated yarn for the contrast:


You can definitely see the start of the round, but it's a design feature now.  Love it.

And now back to my Christmas knitting.

* I have never done this.  Christmas Day is for eating chocolate and reading a book, not being selfless!

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