The Great Christmas Knitlist 2008

I’ve been wanting to post about the many items knitted for christmas gifts since I began knitting them, but as they’ve all been surprises that would have been a pretty bad idea. Typically, ever since I’ve been able to post about them I’ve been busy. Busy doing things like spending Christmas and New Year with my favourite people. A very good kind of busy.

I decided to knit everyone a christmas gift this year out of necessity more than anything. I’m completely skint. This makes buying gifts pretty difficult. Everything knitted for gifts uses either stash yarn or very cheap yarn from Boyes (which just opened a new store in Middlesbrough.. handily). This made it a cheap, if time consuming, way to give gifts.. and they’re all handmade too.. which I think is a rather nice bonus!

So, up first on the christmas knitlist was a scarf for Alice. It had to be pink, and this Sirdar Bigga (which I was devastated to learn has been discontinued, although that does mean it’s currently very cheap) was the pinkest yarn I had in my stash. I knitted her an ultra cozy scarf. It knit up incredibly quickly, as anything with Bigga tends to do, and made a really nice thick scarf that will certainly be cozy. I used two balls of yarn for the scarf and it was a little short for my liking, but there’s not much that could be done about it. If buying yarn for this project again I would certainly use three balls for what I think would have been the perfect length.

Next up was Dan’s gift. I really hate picking knitting projects for men, as it’s pretty much scarves and hats, but I found this wrist pad pattern while browsing ravelry and thought it would be a pretty quick and interesting knit. I knit it with two colours of Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran. It was my first time using short rows, and it wasn’t so bad! It ended up a bit wonkified, but I was pretty pleased with it overall. Not bad for a first effort.

At this point I started several projects all at once, as the rest were going to take a bit longer for each one and I’m easily bored. There were three more scarves involved. The first for my Mum, which is a simple twisted drop stitch scarf. I wanted to make it nice and long, so it took a while to finish, but it was a good one for doing while watching a show or a movie as it didn’t require any thinking about. It was knit with some cheap (10p a ball, I think, although it was given to me in a big bag) yarn from Home Bargains, but it was surprisingly nice when knitted up and didn’t look cheap at all.

The next scarf was for Dave and was inspired by a pattern in Louisa Harding’s Hats Gloves & Scarves, although I made some changes. I used some more cheap yarn, this time Boyes Chunky at about £1.20 a ball (I think I used 4) which, again, was nice and soft and didn’t feel cheap at all. It was knitting up to be a pretty thick fabric, so I made the middle third of the scarf ribbed to make it easier to wear. This one seemed to take forever to finish, but I think that was mainly due to doing it in secret.

The final scarf was not a christmas present, but a birthday present for Norma who has her birthday a few days before christmas. This was my fallback easy and quick scarf pattern (the one I’ve just taught Melissa) knit with more Sirdar Bigga. This took 40 minutes start to finish on 20mm needles. I love 20mm needles.

The next item is almost a scarf, but not quite. It’s a swirl neckwarmer for Dave’s sister, Katie. This was another gift I bought the yarn for, using two balls of Stylecraft Chunky Life (about £2 a ball). I really liked this yarn and would certainly use it again. The colours are gorgeous. I’d also definitely be making this pattern again, it knits up really well and is fairly quick. This is also my first time trying crochet, which my mum gave me some tips on, and I really like the effect of the button holes.

I’m nearly there.. I think. Just two more left!

The list didn’t feel complete without a hat somewhere, and with another man to knit for.. here was my chance! I decided on the Whiskey hat from Rowan Classic Winter, knit with one and a bit balls of Rowan RYC Soft Tweed. I really liked this and wanted to keep it for myself. I may have to knit up another one.

Finally (finally!) the last project was a tea cozy for Dave’s parents. I have a tea cozy I started for myself several months ago in a bag in my cupboard so I felt a bit daft starting another one.. but it seemed the perfect project for them. I used the shamrock tea cozy pattern with two contrasting balls of Stylecraft Life in DK, held double. I think it gave it a really nice look, and every time I looked at my knitting the colour combination made me think of biscuits (bourbons and custard creams of course). I finished it at 3am on christmas morning, but don’t tell anyone that.

Well, all in all I really enjoyed knitting the various things for christmas gifts. It got a bit hectic towards the end.. and it felt like all I was ever doing was knitting. I’ll definitely need to start much earlier next year! I liked the variety of projects and learnt a good few new techniques. I tagged each gift with a little tag I made myself with some tea stained card and some stamps to include some of the yarn information with each item, and I think (or at least, hope) that every gift was well received!

I gave myself a little break from knitting, but have just started Ysolda’s garter stitch mitts and after a little msn session with Melissa, who I was supposed to be helping learn to knit, I’ve managed to spend more money on some new yarns (some beloved Sirdar Bigga), so there will be some much needed hats being knit once that lot arrives.