Christmas Knits

I've been on a knitting binge recently, and actually managed a couple hand knitted Christmas gifts. There was some very very last-minute knitting (I finished my mom's gift approximately an hour before my parents pulled into town) but I am happy with the results (and, importantly, so were the recipients).

1) Bill's Antler Hat

The combination of this awesome pattern and some gorgeous soft heathery blue wool from the new yarn shop down the street = Bill's Christmas present. His favorite color is blue, and this yarn is lovely to knit with. Having only ever knitted one other item in the round, it was perhaps a bit ambitious, and I cast on wrong and had to re-start after doing about ten rows (I'm slow to notice my mistakes), but I had a great time knitting it. Cabling is fun, and I really really like the look of the horn cables!

I'm not the most attentive knitter, which means that I didn't pay close enough attention to what I was doing in a few places, and the result was a couple of errant cables. Whatever, it has character this way. While I attempted to measure the height of the hat against another of Bill's hats, I didn't get it quite tall enough, but he says he really likes the watch cap nature of it, not quite covering the ears. Practice will make perfect, and I am quite proud of this, my first non-baby hat. Ravelry notes here.

[Bill realized I was making, and not buying, his gift, when he turned up at my apartment ahead of schedule one day and heard me yell "No! Don't come in!" and then had the door swiftly shut in his face while I scurried away to hide all evidence of the hat-in-progress before he was allowed to enter.]

2) Mom's ridged cowl scarf

I grabbed this pattern from Down to Earth awhile back, but I can't for the life of me find the post it was in. Anyway, credit for it goes to Rhonda. I worked it with size 6 needles and 100% Peruvian wool, for a woman who loves "deep greens and blues." In fact, on Christmas when my mom opened her present, she was wearing a shirt that perfectly matched the scarf!

I did commit the knitting sin of buying two skeins from different dye lots. Whoops. Luckily, for a scarf like this the difference in color hides pretty well. I'm learning, slowly but surely.

Easy and fast to knit...maybe I'll make one for myself next time. I put this one on Ravelry too.

Now, on to finish the knitting for all of these early spring babies that are on their way!