Christmas 2004 was quite a busy knitting holiday for me.  Of course all the planned gifts did not get completed.  I was lucky to get done what I did.  The projects not completed were sent after Christmas or I’m holding until another gift giving opportunity.

Firstly, for my Dad, this year I knitted a vest from “Men in Knits”.  I haven’t knitted something for my Dad in a while so this was a great new challenge.  Sizing was interesting, the stitch pattern was fun and I learned how to knit on a button band.

This vest was actually for his birthday.  It was knitted with Svale from Dale of Norway.  A cotton/silk/ramie blend which is the softest cotten blend I’ve ever felt.  It was knitted on a size US 6 needle.

The next gift was kind of a last minute cheat effort due to the fact that I couldn’t get the project done in time.  I’d planned it for a year, had the yarn in my stash, however, by November I realized with all the other things going on, I wasn’t going to get it done.  So…..I knitted it on the machine and finished it by hand.  

This gift was for my mother-in-law.  Last Christmas I admired a knitted red metallic sweater which she was wearing.  She said she loved it but would have preferred a long sleeved sweater as the one she was wearing was sleeveless.  I said that I could make her one easily.  Well easily if I had time…. So, during my week vacation prior to the family visiting on New Year’s weekend, I dug out my Brother Home Knitter and designed a sweater to fit the yarn that I’d been holding onto all year.  Here I am modeling the sweater minutes before wrapping it up and the arrival of the family!

It is a funnel neck, modified drop should sweater made with Lion Brand Glitterspun.  I hand knitted the cuffs and bottom in a seed stitch which gives a bead like affect due to the metallic threads in the yarn.  I haven’t knitted with the machine in more than 10 years so I really had to relearn things like tension, correcting mistakes, etc.  After completing it, I came up with another list of projects I could make with yarn in my stash which would be great knitted up on the machine.  (Knitting machines are great stash reduction tools!!)

Next up was the afghan.  Well, I worked on this from March until June, pausing for the summer due to the heat and picked it up again in September and I still didn’t finish it in time for Christmas.   In fact it’s getting delivered as I write this!!  It certainly was an ambitious undertaking. 

My Mom had asked for an afghan to fit the new decor of her house in Florida which has a soft mauve color scheme.  She of course placed her request right after Christmas of 2003 knowing this is a big (non-traveling) project.  Something warm she said. 

Well I love lace so much that I tried my hand at creating an afghan from a shawl pattern using worsted weight yarn.  The pattern is the Kilimanjaro Kat Shawl designed by Joan Schrouder.  This was knitted with Caron Simply Soft acrylic yarn.  Even though it was a shawl pattern, it is still only 60″ square.  The pattern is designed to use a fingering weight yarn to create a 40″ shawl. 

Here it is on the blocking wires.

 

Here it is draped on my chair.

(Remember all pictures can be viewed at full size by clicking on them) 

 I know I waited far too long to post anything recently, however, I will try to catch up with all the projects from 2004 in the next few weeks as soon as I get pictures taken of everthing.  Since all these were gifts, I took pictures of these prior to giving them away!