I've set a personal target with myself to finish off the Christmas knitting by the end of November. I'll be out and about tomorrow night, which leaves me with 3 evenings and 1 day to finish the gift knitting.
Finished gift #12
Debbie Bliss cashmerino2 booklet, striped cardigan.
I made only two changes, and that was to knit the bottom half, up to the armholes, in one piece (reducing the stitch count by four stitches to accommodate the seam stitches), and knit the sleeves in the round. These help to eliminate seams, not something that I'm fond of in very tiny baby sizes. At least give me a good length of mattress stitch, not a piddly 2 inches!
Nearly finished gift #13
Acrylic Doll. Yes, I stuck to my guns and knitted on this over the weekend (which was so horrible to knit with that it took me a lot longer to knit than if it had been washable wool or nicer acrylic). I found out that metal is far easier to knit with than bamboo.
Not quite finished. I need to stuff the doll, sew on hair, embroider eyes and lips. Probably an evening's work, but I think I can manage this part as it's the home stretch!
Oops! Here are the clothes - nickers, cardigan and skirt. And if I'd read the pattern before I started that skirt, it would have been half the width and taken half the time.
The pattern is in the the book Toys to Knit by Tracy Chapman. Now I can't vouch for the other knitted patterns in the book, but the ones I chose (clothes and various body parts) nearly all had errors, usually stitch count errors. NOT good! I also didn't like her method of knitting the doll in bits - arms and legs were strips of knitting with seams, body and head had two bits joining. Not good when you're stuffing it with toy filler and those seams stretch. Cute photos of the toys, but in my opinion go out and buy another toy book not riddled with errors.
Halfway finished gift #14 (the last!)
Just another ribbed sock for Chris. I'm very tempted to not worry about this one being finished by the end of November, because I'm pig sick of knitting big socks.
Especially as I haven't knitted up any of my Posh Yarns Sock Club yarn, and I've just joined another two sock clubs - Fyberspates and Red Bird Knits. Oops. And Victorian Lace is full of lace inspiration. Oops again.