January 01, 2013

Christmas Knitting Round Up

December was sort of busy.  I got into a big fun groove of Christmas knitting.  I didn't really plan to make things for everyone but since I wasn't running I had all this TIME, so I just started making stuff.

(And I want to say a big thanks to everyone who commented about my back and my decision to take a break from running.  It's been 6 weeks and I'm still cranky about it.  Having your stories of finding new physical activities and of recovery really helped me).

 

A hat for Craig

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He picked the yarn when we were visiting Kim and Ron of Indigodragonfly this summer.  It's hard to say no when your sweetie chooses a bright yarn and asks for you to knit something.

Simple watch cap.  A lot of ribbing.  Craig asked for it to be longer and it ended up too long.  It's pretty silly, but fine with the hem folded over. Seriously, I don't let him out like that.  

Pattern: Pismo Hat

Yarn: Indigodragonfly Merino Sock in Zen and the Art of Clown Disposal

A hat for Emma

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She chose the pattern and the inner liner colour.  I didn't have anything suitable in the stash, so I picked up this stripey yarn.  Emma has a yellow pea coat, so it's a good match.

Pattern: Brimley

Yarn: Biscotte and Cie Gobelin and Tosh Dk

Mittens for Xander

He asked for mittens.  That's a quick and easy project.  I tried Elizabeth Zimmerman's mitred mittens. Very fun.  All from leftovers.

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Socks for Mom


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By request.  I've made my mother socks before and she's only really liked plain socks in a commercially spun wool/nylon yarn.  So that's what she got.

I used Kate Atherley's pattern from her new book: Beyond Knit and Purl.  I do better with a pattern than when I wing it.  This way I have some numbers written down!

Pattern: Classic Top Down Sock

Yarn: Opal Feelings

A Scarf for my Memere

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It's hard to buy a gift for your 86 year old grandmother.  A handknit cashmere scarf really does seem like the most appropriate thing.

She doesn't knit so it's extra special (and she brags about me to her friends!)

Pattern: Miss Otis Regrets (fabulous 1 skein project)

Yarn: Handmaiden Cashmere

Something for Charity

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This was a totally last minute crazy idea.  We have a charity auction at the President's holiday party to benefit a mental health initiative on campus.  This year donations were down and when the call came out, I decided to knit up a scarf.  In a weekend.

It's not so hard when you have a yummy 50/50 merino silk single in the stash.  It sold for enough money to make me feel good about the donation (I would have bought it myself if needed) and someone has something pretty.

I confess I'm not keen on the colours, but the knitting was lots of fun.

Pattern: Noro bias lace scarf 

Yarn: Schaeffer Helene

Jan 1, 2013 2:42:41 PM | Hats, Quick knits, Scarves, socks

4 Comments

Love everything, but especially the Noro bias lace scarf. Happy New Year!

Posted by: bittenbyknittin | January 01, 2013 at 04:36 PM

That is an awesome amount of knitting. I gave away a lot of knitted gifts this year, but that was partly because I started making gift odds and ends pretty early in the year. I will probably do a lot of gift knitting this year too for birthdays and the like, because I need to clean out my stash so badly.

Posted by: Seanna Lea | January 02, 2013 at 10:10 AM

Lots of great gifts! You've chosen a great way to spend time not running.

Posted by: Allison | January 02, 2013 at 04:01 PM

Ich freue mich sehr für diesen Blog genossen. Ich fühle mich stark daran und lieben lernen mehr über dieses Thema.

Posted by: tee shirt burberry | March 07, 2013 at 01:30 AM

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Hitting the (Goal) Wall I haven't blogged much about running this year, mostly because I haven't blogged much about anything and because I was in a nice routine and routines don't really make more interesting blog posts. Except that stuff got pretty interesting and I don't mean the half marathon (which was great!) By interesting, I mean messed up, but it took me a while to get myself to the point where I would accept that I'm not going to make my running goals this year. Back in late June I started getting weird pain and numbness in my right leg. I had a really sore spot in my butt that I figured was a result of tight hamstrings or IT bands or something sport related. Ball hockey season was coming to an end and we had some pretty intense games, I got injured or something, no biggie. I would just take it easy and it would go away. Except it didn't. I couldn't sit for more than 5 minutes without pain shooting down my leg. I got another sore spot in the bottom of my foot. Google was saying sciatica AND plantar fasciitis and it was all sounding horrible. And ya, I shouldn't have googled...but I wanted to fix what was wrong with me and didn't think it warranted medical intervention beyond physiotherapy (which was helpful, but didn't make the symptoms go away). I was having a hard time at work (I sit 99% of my day) and I couldn't stand being in the car (of course this summer we drove almost every weekend, sometimes up to 8 hours on a trip). It was horrid. Did I stop running? Nope. In a lot of ways it felt better to move than not to move. It didn't hurt at all to run and the leg numbness would go away. So I kept at it. By September I realized stuff wasn't getting better. I finally went to the doctor. Turns out I have an L5, S1 herniated disc. Fuck. That's old, sedentary person stuff. Not 40-something, in the best shape of my life, happy healthy stuff. Turns out that sitting all day is one of the main culprits and that my active lifestyle and healthy weight kept things from being worse. No one is sure what caused the injury (usually there's something) though I suspect it's either ball hockey since there's lots of twisting and some body contact or it might have been my new bike. The much loved coaster brake took some getting used to and I'm pretty sure in the beginning I was coasting to an almost stop, stepping down and then using my body to come to a full stop. That's not a good thing to do, especially with a 22kg bike. I've really started thinking about how I stop and have tried to not do that anymore. Regardless of the how it happened, I now have to live with it. The treatment: core work. Pilates in particular. Also, lay off the...
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New Toes Generally I subscribe to the Yarn Harlot's "oh darn" method of sock repair, whereby one holds worn through, thin, hole ridden socks over a waste receptacle, says "oh darn" in a clear voice, and drops the socks in the waste bin. I figure I have lots of sock yarn in the stash and I like knitting socks, and sometimes the holes are just too big to deal with any other way. Not my Monkey socks. I like them a lot. They fit right and the yarn (Oak Grove) is pretty. I properly darned the toes on these a few times, switched the foot I wore them on to wear out another spot and I even babied them a bit. This winter when I went to wear them, I noticed another hole in the toe and that there really wasn't much left to darn. I decided to rip out the toe and add a brand new one. This is relatively easy on a cuff-down sock. First, snip the yarn below the lowest hole. Grab a dpn and start unravelling the yarn. I found I sometimes had to unravel a couple of rows because some of the darning yarn was in the lower rows. When I was done I had a little toe cup full of holes off the sock. Then all you have to do is put the live stitches back on the needles and work a new toe. I used Kate Atherley's method so I don't even have to graft. And, I found a teeny little bit of the original yarn so my toes match. Now my socks are good as new.

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