Holiday Knitting Revealed

Well, here it is, the last day of December. I told you I'd blog every day this month, and I've made it! By the way, would you kindly remind me next year that this is too ambitious a goal for me in the month of December? If I'm gonna blog every day in any month, I really should choose February (the shortest month), or perhaps one of the months that is NOT in the middle of all the fall/winter holiday seasons! In any case, the Secret Knitting Review has become my end-of-December tradition, so here is the knitting I could not blog until after Christmas Gifting was complete! Links are included below each photo...enjoy!

First up are socks for Snake and Dollface! They both love hand knit socks, so I try to manage at least a pair apiece for the holidays! Matching yarn and different patterns made these super fun to knit!

Traveling Socks for Snake and
Toe-Riffic for Dollface.
(There may or may not be more secret socks on the
needles for a January birthday, as well...wink!)

I think this next one may have been my favorite holiday knit...fingerless gloves for Mindy, and I was not sold on the project until it was actually done, but I love how they came out! The purples cycled through with very long repeats, and a very subtle color change that I could barely see until I was photographing the finished mitts, but they are stunning! The alpaca halo to the white yarn adds a touch of elegant fuzzy to them...what more could I ask for?

A pair of Endpaper Mitts for Mindy.

There were also toys for Peanut (of course!). This photo represents one doll, of the "topsy-turvy" variety, with some fancy, Photoshop fun going on! See the pink and green at the very bottom of the dresses? Well, if you turn the green doll over-and-inside-out, the pink doll emerges, and vice versa! Pretty neat, huh?!?

Sisters doll for Peanut.

Then, because Mindy's mitts wouldn't match anything I had knit her in the past, I hurried to crank out a scarf with purple in it. I picked a pattern, but heavily modified it almost as soon as I started. It's blocking in the photo, so you can really see the lace pattern, and the color progression...I think it turned out pretty well!

Leafy Columns Scarf for Mindy.

Next up were the Jelly Bums. I think I have about 10 of these animal patterns, and it was difficult to decide which one to make for this Christmas, but I settled on the giraffe! Ain't (s)he a cutie? (I am sure you will see more of these in 2013!)

Jelly Bums Giraffe for Peanut.

Knowing that Dollface has a green scarf and mittens, and that she has lost the hat that matches them, I thought I'd try to make her another. It's a different yarn, and probably a different green (the others were done in a DK tweed-y yarn), but she said she likes her hats REALLY BIG, so I went with this...

A Big, Green Hat for Dollface.

After I had finished that hat, she informed me that she'd like "one of those hats that doesn't close at the top." "You mean a headband?," I asked. So that's what I did...twice, because I could not decide on a single pattern. lol!

Hats Without Tops for Dollface.

Last, but certainly not least, a hat for Mork! Knit to the specs for his dad's hats, this is a little small on him, so I'll have to make the next one bigger.

A Hat for Mork, that he may or may not wear.
But after all that knitting for everyone else,
I had to knit something for Mork!

Soooo, that's a lotta knitting! But, in all fairness, we had a lotta Christmas here, and the gifties were all well-received. Yay for everyone! I hope that your gift-giving went as well as mine did, and that you are looking forward to another good year of knitting in 2013! I think I'll cast on something fun today, as part of my new year's eve celebration, and I hope that you will get to do the same!

As for tomorrow, I won't be blogging...I'll be sleeping in. After that, there will probably be some pantry- and house-cleaning, as I prepare to get back to the healthier eating-and-exercise lifestyle I have strayed from these past 4-5 months, and hopefully you'll start seeing less Pretty in the next few weeks! I'll see you around the Internets, and on the blog on Wednesdays and Saturdays, as usual.

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!