Do I have to give it away?

My sister's christmas gifts:



Even though I gave up on the Shedir plan, I still wanted her to have a hat to go with the scarf, so I busted out a Kim's Hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, combining the leftover Manos with some Rio de la Plata, which is honest to crap the softest yarn in the history of yarn. This stuff makes the Manos feel like a brillo pad. Why do more people not rave about this? (Price probably--$17 for 165 yards of worsted-weight at my LYS. I am a good sister.)

Oh. My. God. HOW CUTE IS THIS HAT? I want it, I need it, I have to have it.

But it is not meant to be. Right? It would be wrong not to give my sister a Christmas present, right? Like, really, go-to-hell, coal-in-your-stocking wrong. Dammit. There is no way I can justify keeping this hat, and that makes me weep a little inside.

But hey, weeping a little inside--isn't that the true spirit of Christmas?

Specs:
My So-Called Scarf
Yarn: 2.5 Skeins of Manos del Uruguay, Colorway 113.
Needles: Random Size 11s.
Started: Sunday, December 4
Finished: Friday, December 16
Notes: I worked a K2Tog bindoff, which looked better than a standard bind-off, I think.

Kim's Hat
Yarn: .5 skeins Manos, Color 113; .5 skeins Rio de la Plata in Pink Carnation
Needles: Size 9 bamboo DPNs
Started: Saturday, December 17
Finished: Saturay, December 17
Notes: Made hat a little shorter than the pattern suggested, and could have made it a few rows shorter still. Pompoms are a pain in the ass but super cute!

9 days left--the Shedirs are off the list. Because I was crazy.

But, the good news is I'm almost done with The Hawk Will Never Die:



Just one more sleeve, and then the neckband--and I'm not going to run out of yarn either! (Although I knock on wood as I say that.) I'm a little concerned about the width of the neck, as I'm not sure boatnecks are the best look for guys, but that is a detail to be contended with later, or not, depending on my mood and the date.

Last night I made the last of the mimi-sweaters too:



Another snowflake and a mini-Weasley. The sleeves on that one got a little out of control, and would probably fit only a mini-linebacker in the mini-NFL, but whatevs. They're done.

And then finally, my Plan B on the marshmallow debacle almost resulted in a whole 'nother kind of debacle:


Hi friends! I baked you up some shit for Christmas!

Luckily, after baking, these turned into gorgeous and shockingly delicious Chocolate and Pistachio Biscotti. Thanks Food & Wine!

Aran Shmaran

I got bored with my mini-Arans and switched to mini-Fair Isles instead.



It may look more like a sun than a snowflake--I charted it at 1 am, people, gimme a break--but I still think it is very cute.

Now I'm feeling like I'm not crazy. But I'm sure it will pass.

Mini-Aran #1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 8, whatever) takes a shvitz on the radiator:



And my Brand Spankin' New Dining Room Table (i.e. that which makes us truly Grown Up) models the body of the Hawk, which is about halfway to the 'pits.



Two days, two skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky. This make me feel good about things, because theoretically by the end of the weekend I can be done with the body and start on the raglan shaping. Which, it occurred to me only last night, can't be done in the round as I planned, because the sleeves and body are diffferenc colors.

I am a knitting genius.

Ok, yeah, I am actually crazy.

Why, why, why, I thought I could knit a sweater (a grown-up, man-sized sweater) during the 3 busiest weeks of the semester, let alone a sweater and all the other stuff, is beyond me right now. But I'm giving it all I've got.

Here's the sleeve, redone:



Much better fitwise, although it ate a LOT of yarn. I'm going to run out, I can feel it in my anxiety-ridden bones. Besides the size, I also changed the wrist. Parikha, you were right: the bulky yarn was too, well, bulky for the folded-over hem. Plus it wasted yarn, what with the folding over. So I'm going with the J.Crew-esque rolled hem, which will also be at the bottom of the sweater. Yes, it wastes a bit of yarn too, but only about half the rows of the folded hem. It really didn't roll as far as I'd thought. And, in the end, as you see, I did not rib. My conclusion was that if this had been a lighter-weight yarn, I would have, but with the bulky, poor Dino would just look lumpy.

On other holiday fronts, I've already let some of these escape without documentation (hey, something's got to give), but here is one variation of the Teeny Tiny Aran Sweaters that will accompany many of my Christmas gifts (and in some cases will be gifts on their own):



Please do not make fun of my fake tree. I was convinced that if I brought a real tree into the house, Bailey would mistake it for a giant stick buffet.

I think I can, I think I can...

First the good news: On Friday night I parked my ass in front of the TV, and a few What Not To Wears and some Law and Orders later, I had a whole entire sleeve:



Whee! I do love you, bulky yarn, I do! As you can see, I went with the majority opinion and did straight stockinette, so the only things I had to stop and think about ever were the increases. A no-brainer.

The not-so-good news: I have to frog the whole thing because it is too small. Which is what I deserve, pretty much, because I swatched and blocked, sat down, did the maths, cast on the first version of this sleeve, ripped it out because I thought it looked too big, and then cast on this version. Which, as previously stated, is too small. Lesson: Trust the maths, even though they are your enemy.

So, a-frogging I will go, but this whole experience is giving me pause with the stockinette idea, because won't ribbing give more flexibility in the fit? Hmm hmm hmm--I'm on the fence again.

Anyway, I also have gotten about 2 feet of my sister's My So-Called Scarf done, and it is going to be a hard one to give away.



Manos 113. Soooo pretty.

Pattern? We don't need no stinkin' pattern.

OK. See this maroon yarn (Lambs' Pride Bulky in Medieval Red, to be precise), posing seasonally with some cinnamon-scented pinecones?



This is the sleeves (and neckband) of my brother-in-law's baseball-jersey-style raglan sweater (to be named The Hawk Will Never Die, in homage to the mascot of the St. Joseph's University basketball team, which must flap its arms continuously for the entire game. It gets a scholarship for doing this). The Hawk, eventually, will have an oatmeal-colored body, whenever the yarn gets here, which better be soon, because...yeah.

But that's ok, because I still need to figure out the pattern. I mean, it's a raglan, so that's easy enough, but I need opinions on this topic: Sweater body: Wide rib (4x2, probably) or plain stockinette? Sleeves will be pain stockinette, I think, or should they be ribbed too? I'm so indecisive, which is not a good thing to be 25 days out.

Oh well. That's why I went with the bulky yarn.