Tag Archives: Gift Knitting

we gotta wear shades

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Fruity Pebbles~~Bam! Bam!

Last we left you I was moaning about my beloved’s surprising under appreciation of my knitting.  Today I have the same project, The Baby Surprise Jacket, knit in yarn of his choosing.  Apparently Fruity Pebble’s was his daughter’s favorite cereal growing up and the yarn does look surprisingly like FP so I have named the project Fruity Pebbles~Bam! Bam!    Loads of pictures.  First a close up of the sleeve shaping to show you the color in all it’s glory.  The yarn is the discontinued Regia Bamboo Color in a color way called ‘Clown.’  It actually hurt my gray loving eyes a bit to knit these up but truth be told the yarn has a lovely softness and sheen from the bamboo.

Next up we have a shot of the jacket with buttons.  I had great fun picking out the buttons and enlisted the aid of multiple shoppers who happened to cross my path at Michaels that day.  Somebody suggested velcro which I suppose would be a baby friendlier option but honestly the mom to be is the sort to notice a loose button long before it becomes a problem

Oh and I knit matching socks to go with since what is cuter than a baby item with matching socks {or hat/mitts}?  Nothing I tell you.  Nothing.

And here are the little socks all on their lonesome.  Aren’t they adorable?

I also finished my birthday pressie for myself which consisted of the stashdown approved purchase of Vostok kit.  It wasn’t really a purchase since I won a gift certificate to a shop last year and the GC covered the kit. It is blocking right this minute:

There are more baby items in the future.  Not so bright baby items.  Here is a shot of the yarn gifted to me by a fellow Ravelry member when I mentioned impending grandmotherhood.  Actually I was on a quest for a certain discontinued yarn and she sent me some as a gift.  This is a story to be continued.  But while perusing the yarn notice the nails.    The color is Runway Red-y by Revlon.  My husband apparently really likes bright colors because he picked this out for me.  I recently read that one can get 40 manicures out of a bottle of nail polish and I am slogging through this bottle to find out.  To date I am up to my 4th manicure.  Well technically my 3rd with one pedicure but I figure a pedicure takes about as much polish as a mani.  At least this sort of color is suitable for summer.    BTW, as a nail blog reader, I do have to say I never quite realized how difficult it was to take pictures of nail polish.  I took about a dozen and this is the only one that looked even half way decent.  No I have no plans to turn into a nail blogger just I am trying to take better care of them since it helps me be mindful of my eczema.  Which currently afflict my hands.

Being married to him is it any surprise my future is bright?  Yarny days and knitterly evenings 😀

Mitts Again

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

A while ago I knit up The Flame some fingerless mittens out of some long discontinued, and much treasured, Classic Elite Maya yarn.  Those Mitts pattern from A Friend to Knit With.  Sorry for all the hyper linkage but for some reason the link on her sidebar, as well as the one or Ravelry, is not working for me so I direct you to her post that describes them instead of the PDF.  Anyways The Flame wore his mitts daily, summer and winter, for a year and half or so until his boss’ boss noticed them and stated they were against dress code.  Stinky boss.  The Flame then brought them home to be washed and last weekend went hunting for them since his hands were cold.  They were not to be found anywhere 🙁

Another pair of Those Mitts then.  This time in some Rowan 4-ply botany held doubled and, I really hesitate to say this since he reads my blog, maybe a second ball of Dale yarns Baby Ull.  I say maybe because only one ball had a tag tucked into it {the botany} and I couldn’t tell any difference between feel or color however one seems a wee bit smaller and thinner than the other.  Either way he now has 4 black mitts and unless some hussy is grabbing at his hands nobody will notice the difference.  At least he will have 4 when I manage to locate the other two.

Interesting idea crossed my path while looking for the pattern was found amongst the toast comments~ of losing one and knitting another right quick.  Mismatched toasts and mitts sound like fun.  The Flame, being more conservative than I, just wanted black so the mismatched will be due to yarn texture not color.  Black Mitts:

Modified Flame Socks

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

The Flame appreciates hand knit goods.  He spent quite some time indirectly asking for socks.  You know how it goes:  Oh those look warm and I bet those feel good while looking at my hand knit socks.  So after much time I broke down and knit him some socks.  Your basic 80 sts short rowed heel and star toed numbers and made a couple of socks by that formula since he wears them almost every day.  Which gladdens a knitter’s heart to be sure.  Then I came across some old stash yarn and felt it would suit him much better than me but men’s feet are bigger than girl’s feet, generally speaking and I started worrying about the yarn running out.  Plus the 80 st socks have a tendency to look baggy around the ankles~ most likely because they don’t get washed often.  I turned to the most excellent Nancy Bush and her Folk Socks book, which I might add has been updated recently, and followed her Simple Sock pattern that calls for 64 stitches.  Voila Modified Flame Socks.  Of course I was on tender hooks wondering if they would be too tight or not fit right on the heel and toe so had to give them to him well in advance of his birthdate in March.   In use shots of my beloved’s feet in socks:

yarny days and knitterly evenings to you all, Elka

Uncertain

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Second pair of to be gifted Toast done. This time I inserted a finger hole by casting off 6 stitches on a row then casting on 6 stitches over… nothing fancy. Right now I am waffling over what to pick up next. I am expecting a package from Cascade Yarns tomorrow so I don’t really have time to devote to anything but I also am all fired up to be playing with yarn. Recently a list I belong to did a project roll call and it seems that everybody else is also fired up. I wonder if all the unrest in weather and economy and politics have people minding their stitches? Either way

yarny days and knitterly evenings to all