October | 2012 | fridica

Oh, those two dreaded words… Christmas knitting!

Well, this year I’m getting a head start on all my Christmas presents. Several have already been bought, and so far I have managed to resist the urge to give them away immediately (that’s my problem usually, once I have a good gift, I want to see it with the recipient straight away!). Others have been put on lists and are patiently waiting for their turn. And the handmade ones are also in the planning. Actually, one is already done!

Fetchings are a freely available pattern that everyone and their great-great-aunt have already made. And rightly so, as the pattern is straightforward and yields a lovely result. I did make some modifications, but none that others hadn’t made before. You can find lots of good advice about this pattern on Ravelry (though it would also be fine if you just knit it as written). The knitting itself is super fast, as we are talking worsted/aran weight here. Actually, so fast that I did not feel bad at all about ripping out one whole mitt after I had finished it, because it was a bit too big.

The yarn I used, DROPS Nepal, is just a perfect blend of wool and alpaca. Enough wool to give the stitches beautiful definition, enough alpaca to make the material smooth as a baby’s butt. :) I will definitely be using it again.

Now I just have to resist the other urge: to keep these to myself…

What about you? Have you started your Christmas knitting? Remember, the countdown has begun… :)

This hat has some problems with timing, my friends.

Originally queued: 12 October 2010
Cast on: 12 November 2011
Cast off: 13 November 2011
Photographed: 28 October 2012

Yes, the actual knitting took less than two days. Actually, less than 4 hours, my notes say. Yet the deciding to knit and the photographing took one year each! Well, talk about being overdue…

But finally, it is finished. So, without any further ado, here’s my Amelia.

She is lovely. She was easy, but interesting, to knit (great for practicing short rows). And she is certainly not the kind of hat you find in a shop!

After I finished it, I wasn’t too sure about the look, I thought I might just look bizarre in it, like a Dutch peasant woman or something like that. But the more I wear it the more I like it.