Knitmas

This Christmas I tried out two new patterns to make gifts for my parents. The first was this awesome infinity scarf from Brooklyn Tweed for my mom. I learned how to nupp (pronounced "noop"), which creates these cute little bobble dots in the lace pattern. I think if I had used a different kind of yarn it would have shown through better. Oh, well.

The second was felted slippers for my dad. It was a pretty quick and simple pattern, but it was a bit of a guessing game when it came to size. I first erred on the size of too big - waaaay too big. After they dried, I stuck my foot in one and tried to remember the last time I stuck my foot in one of Dad's shoes. I remember the shoe being much bigger than my foot, but I couldn't remember if that was last year, or, oh, 20+ years ago. I decided the slippers were just too comically large, so I put them back in the wash. I was worried that after shaping and drying them that they wouldn't respond to continued felting, but there was another lesson learned. It worked! And according to my dad, they fit.

These were really, really fun to make. And after spending Christmas around another avid knitter, my mind is full of ideas. Socks in 2012!