For all those celebrating this week, happy holidays! I wish you all peace, good cheer, warmth and love! Topaz says so too:
N and I are staying about the homestead this year, a staycation if you will. As of yesterday, I am off until January 5th! Wheeeee! Of course, I have a long list of things that I never seem to get to – always thinking, “I’ll do that at the end of the year”. But I am doing my best to slow down and savor this season ~ the twinkling lights, chill in the air, good food, extra servings of hot chocolate. I am also committed to plenty of fun time. In particular, I’ve just gotten the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and am awaiting some kitchen gear with which to try my hand at bread making. I am terribly excited, especially at the prospect of the house having that yeasty-tangy fresh bread smell. It’s a shame one cannot live on bread alone.
And certainly I want to carve out plenty of knitting time. I plan to start a gajillion projects, even if I don’t get that far on many. This way when work starts up again, I’ll have the “yarn selection, swatching, sizing, and testing” phase out of the way and it’s just grab and go! That’s the plan anyway. I have started one item; however, I will likely finish in short order.
I’ve long eyed many patterns in Robin Melenson’s Knitting New Mittens and Gloves, including the Accomplice gauntlets. And lo and behold I had the pattern yarn in the stash! After working with the Fleece Artist Kid Silk for my sis’s cowl, it was on my mind. It’s lovely stuff. A quick cast on, no swatching, and I’m almost done with the first:
Whether you are homesteading or traveling, I also hope you find time to relax with your obsession craft of choice in this busy time. I have a mammoth collection of patterns to share. They’ve been sprouting lately like elves at the North Pole. Many of these are smaller items that could be last-minute gifts, but mainly I wish that you find something new you want to make for yourself, now that the rush of the holiday season is nearly over.
Ooh, but first, I just got an email that WEBS’ year-end holiday blowout has begun!
OK – patterns! Where both a website and Rav link are available, both are provided, although sometimes only one or the other is available. Some links are to PDFs.
First head and neck warmers:
Twisted Road hat (Rav) and cowl (Rav) by Samantha Roshak
Tony’s Cashmere Scarf & Gloves (Rav) by Chris Abbott
Leafy Winter Head Band (Rav) by Elvira Massa
Slouchy Copy Cat Hat (Rav) by Terra Jamieson
Jim Hat (Rav) by Mira Whiting
The Armando Hat (Rav) by Gina House
Beaumonde-Inspired Hat (Rav) by knitsnthings
Simple Pleasures Hat (Rav) by Whit’s Knits at The Purl Bee (BTW – The Purl Bee’s blog pages have a link to “print article” at the bottom of each post that leads to a printer-friendly version of the pattern – so nice!)
Elizabeth Hat (Rav) by Jane Richmond
Mustard Scarf (Rav) by Jane Richmond
Cabled Button Toque (Rav) by Amy Swenson
Lisa and Katie (Rav) by Through the Loops
Wesley (Rav) by Kate Gagnon for Kelbourne Woolens (among the first of many gorgeous patterns I’m sure from these new purveyors of The Fibre Co. yarns!)
wham bam thank you lamb! neckwarmer (Rav) by Insaknitty
krtek scarf (Rav) by orlane
and just added: Jesse’s Christmas Hat (Rav) by Elspeth Kursh
also just added (they just keep coming!): Opus Spicatum (Rav) by Kate Gagnon for Kelbourne Woolens
Mitts, gloves, handwarmers, etc.:
Vineland Mittens (Rav) by Judy Scofield
Intercostal Mitts (Rav) by Jospeh Reinert
Thank You Mitts (Rav) by Ansley Bucholtz
Evenstar Gloves (Rav) by Audrey MacDonald
Cabley Mitties (Rav) by Allison Clayton
For wee ones:
Gavyn (Rav) by Amanda Blackford
Wee Leafy Baby Set (Rav) by Pamela Wynne
Baby Ball Rattle (Rav) by Jessica Gutowski
A sweater:
DROPS Design 83-1 (Rav)…inspired by this FO
DROPS has their Spring/Summer 2009 patterns up for review and voting!
Other miscellany:
Sundance Make-up Bag (Rav) by Joelle Meier Rioux for Classic Elite
the three dozen apple bag (Rav) by Sharon Maher (crochet!)
another added (I am catching up on blogs and ohmygosh All. The. Patterns.): Sante Fe Bag by Joan Tapper and Gale Zucker ~ this is especially nice as the authors of Shear Spirit are gifting a couple patterns that were cut from the book due to space limitations!
Modern Felt Ornament (Rav) and Felted Forest (Rav) by Samantha Roshak
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That’s it. Really. Find anything?
I don’t know if I’ll get to posting tomorrow – so if not I hope all of you celebrating Christmas have a perfect and wonderful day!
Here’s wishing you and Nate and the “kits” a very joyous holiday! We’ll be celebrating at home, too, in our “new” house. This will be our Nate’s first Christmas, and at 11 months he’s a little young but will still enjoy it; Audrey was so little last year, that this really counts as her first “real” Christmas.
Are you planning on joining the rest of us in our Cast On Like A Floozy GKA starting Jan. 1?? I’m going to get a whole lot of things organized so that I can just pick up whatever I feel like working on!
Love it! Looks like Topaz is singing a Christmas Carol 🙂
You and N have a fun holiday ~ it looks like you have plenty to keep you busy! I’m trying to keep focused on CRJ but I have sucumbed to some seasilk for a lace shawl. Oh well. I guess I’m just a girl that can’t say no!
Merry Christmas to you too! Thank you for the Drops link. I didn’t see anything for me this time but was excited to see they have girls’ patterns now too! (Maybe they always did but I didn’t pay attention)
Woohoo! I’m off until the 5th of January as well. It seems like a tremendous amount of knitting, crafting, baking, hanging out time. Let’s enjoy it and use it well. Merry Christmas!
Great gift of the links! Thank you! Happy holiday, Jillian!
Merry Christmas to you and N! And here’s to a sparkly 2009!
” a chill in the air “?????? hmmmmmm……..i don’t think soooooo
Hope you have a wonderful break (I am off until the 5th, too – whooo hoo!!). Thanks for all of the pattern love, and for including mine in the list. Happy Holidays!
Have a great couple of weeks off! Merry Christmas!
Hope you and N and the kitties had a very merry christmas! Jeff is off until the 5th too, so we’ll be hanging out at home. So many patterns! Enjoy!
Nice knitting energy – I’m in the phase of being glad I have the time to get going on a few things, but not quite having enough oomph yet to actually do it.
Really like the Elizabeth hat, and was nice to see the DROPS links, too.
Happy almost 2009!
thanks for all the linkies! 🙂 hope you had a relaxing Christmas and happy early New Year!
Now my queue is groaning! Thanks for all the links – happy holidays!
Thanks for the great linky dinks! Happy new year-
Hi, I was just doing some self-googling and found you had linked to my pattern (Jim Hat). I’m glad you like it. I now have a link up on my knitting blog in addition to the ravelry page, in case you’d like to update your list: http://miraknits.wordpress.com (on the sidebar at the top).
Best,
Mira