Birthday Cowl

It was my Mum's birthday earlier this month.  About three weeks before her birthday she was talking about "future ideas" for gifts for her.  She wanted an infinity scarf and it should be in a neutral colour.  My Mum is also allergic to lanolin so a nice bouncy merino yarn was out, which is a shame because infinity scarves are lovely in merino.  So, with these requirements in mind, I set to exploring my stash.  I quite quickly found a very precious skein, Skein Queen Oasis Grande (a camel/silk blend) in the Titanium colourway.  This glorious 4 ply/fingering weight yarn was a purchase from the 2012 Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show.

I had been saving this skein for something special, and I could only be prepared to part with it for my Mum. At least this way, I got to play with it while I knitted it, and it isn't hidden in my stash anymore.

Once I had decided on the yarn, I set about searching Ravelry for the right pattern for this almost solid, colourway and I really struggled to find something that would make it interesting enough to both knit and look at.  I wanted some texture rather than lace because I wanted to add depth to the cowl, and to help balance out the drape of the yarn.  I wanted to create enough volume to trap a reasonable amount of air. After quite some time spent on Ravelry I decided I would be better off searching my stitch dictionaries.  I was right, I found the perfect stitch pattern.

I love how this turned out.  It was a really fun knit with a very easily memorised pattern.  The pattern can also be easily read on the knitting, so it is hard to get lost.  The stitch pattern I chose works really well with this drapey yarn, and the fabric flows beautifully.

I cannot say how much it hurt to part with this accessory.  I adore it.  But the thing is, so does my Mum.

One of the things I am most proud of, with this infinity scarf, is the grafting.  It was invisible!  Please excuse this less than ideal photo that I took with my phone to prove it.  I was so proud of my grafting I had to share it on Instagram!  You can hardly tell, even before blocking.

My Mum was very confused as to how it had been constructed as she knows enough about knitting to understand the direction of the pattern and the stitches, but she could not see the join - YAY!

So now you have heard how much I love this project you will understand why I had to cast one on for myself. This time I'm using the bouncy merino I initially thought would be ideal for an infinity scarf.

I'm using Madeline Tosh Tosh Sock, that was given to me by the lovely Tara.  I think this yarn is going to work in a completely different way from the Skein Queen.  It will be bouncy and highlight the more "semi" part of this semi-solid yarn.  The colour is Saffron and it is glorious!  I am definitely enjoying my first adventure with Madeline Tosh yarn.

By the way, if you haven't entered in the Scrumptious Collection Volume 3 giveaway from yesterday, you have until Friday 7th February to leave a comment on the review post.

I'm sharing this with Tami, where you can see more Finished Objects. Click on the button, to check it out.

Scrumptious Collection Volume 3 - Review

If you've read this blog for any period of time, you will be aware that I really, really like Fyberspates yarn. Fyberspates is an unusual yarn company.  It was founded in 2005 by Jeni Hewlett when it was established as a traditional indie dyer studio, with Jeni doing all of the dyeing personally.  Gradually Jeni decided that she could step up production and established her Scrumptious range of yarns, which is a full range of weights of yarn made of 45% silk and 55% wool.  Those yarns are dyed commercially and sold wholesale to retailers as well as directly through her own website.  Since the advent of Scrumptious, Jeni has subsequently added Vivacious and Gleam to her range of commercially dyed yarn.  In addition to these commercial yarns, Jeni still dyes yarn and fibre in her own studio to sell on her website, direct to the customer.  The Scrumptious yarns are available widely now, both in the UK and overseas.  I love that Jeni's business model allows her to maintain her creative individuality in her own studio but also gives a larger market access to her colour sense and yarn bases.

I've used Scrumptious yarns many times, the most recent use was for, my own design, the Refraction Shawlette, which used the 4ply/sport weight, but I've also used the lace weight for several shawls, and the aran weight for a hat.  It is a beautiful yarn, with deep and clear colours and a soft, drapey handle.  It is a pleasure to knit with and dream to wear the finished items.  Having a new book of patterns to inspire me to knit with this yarn again, would be no hardship, so when I was asked to review the new Scrumptious Collection Volume 3 and be part of the blog tour I jumped at the chance.

© Jesse Wild

Other bloggers, who have been part of the tour have focused on their own designs or their role in creating the book, but I come at this book as fan of the yarn and as a knitter.  I am currently in a bit of an accessories phase and because of this, those are the designs I shall talk about, especially as I plan on knitting at least two of them, if not more!

My stand out favourite from this book is the Simene Stole, by Melanie Edgar.  It uses a single skein of Scrumptious Lace and have already bought the yarn to knit it.

© Jesse Wild

As the book is designed to support Scrumptious yarns, it only gives information on the number of skeins of Scrumptious that a pattern may require, and not the exact meterage that will be needed for a project. A skein of Scrumptious Lace is 1000m, which is a generous meterage, so you might find it difficult to use a substitute yarn, without buying more than you might need.  However, I didn't want to use a substitute, I wanted to treat myself to a skein of my favourite colour, Teal.

I plan on casting this shawl on very shortly.  It is a beautiful showcase for this yarn, with it's bold and graphic lace.  The shawl is knit in two halves and grafted together and the patterns are written out fully as well as charted, which I prefer for lace, but I know lots of people prefer the written instructions.  Having both options is always a big bonus and shows attention to details.  The charts are really large and clear and as I have the PDF version to review, I can use knitCompanion on my iPad to keep a good track of where I am in the charts.  My fingers are itching to cast this gorgeous stole on, but I am suffering in our recent bout of cold weather and need I to knit the next project first.

© Jesse Wild

I adore these Lerryn Mittens by Rachel Coopey. I know they would be so much fun to knit, and will feel decadent to wear on my fingers.  I love cabling, especially without a cable needle, and these mittens look like a perfect candidate for using that technique.  This pattern uses the DK version of the yarn, which would mean the mittens could be used for Spring and Autumn as well as the majority of the Winter in the UK.  I need to cast them on immediately.

However, as you know, I have a weakness for hats.  I love them and have LOTS in my box of woolly wonders. I really shouldn't be knitting more hats, but the hats in this book are gorgeous!  I may have to knit a hat before I knit the mittens or the stole. The first hat on my list of gorgeousness is Kenwyn, another pattern by Rachel Coopey.  The hat is part of a set that includes a matching cowl, but it is the hat that makes my heart sing.  It has gorgeous lace and cables with just the right amount of slouch to give it a hint of sass without distracting from it's elegance.

© Jesse Wild

The crown decreases are so pretty and clever, I know I will be knitting this hat, despite not needing one, especially as it only uses one skein of Scrumptious Aran. Any project that uses a single skein will always be a winner in my book.

The other accessories I am very tempted by are the cover hat and mittens, once again by Rachel Coopey.  I am becoming a real fan of her work.  The Divelish Hat and Mittens are made with stranded colourwork, using the 4ply weight version of the yarn.  The cuff and brim of the set are worked as a cabled rib, which run into the colourwork pattern, seamlessly.  This set is a stunning masterclass in design and attention to detail, that uses one skein of each colour to make one set.

I am also very tempted by the lace cowl, by Judy Furlong, Loveny Mantle.  This is a more complex lace design than the stole I am planning.  It is very much thinking lace but the finished item is very pretty indeed, and I think when my mind is focussed enough it may be a wonderful challenge to take.

© Jesse Wild

I have focussed on these projects as I really want to knit all of them.  There are some gorgeous garment designs, but I'm not sure if they would suit my body type, and my budget doesn't really stretch to knitting garments in Scrumptious yarn, not matter how gorgeous they are.  My budget does stretch to these smaller projects that use one or two skeins of yarn and the accessories will feel so glamorous and indulgent I will feel as spoiled as if I were wearing a whole sweater's worth of this lovely yarn.

Over all, I really like this book.  There is a wide range of patterns, which are targeted at a range of knitting skills and techniques.  The patterns are written out in full as well as very clearly charted, which means they are easy to follow.  The photos, taken by Jesse Wild, in the book are fabulously clear and show off the knitwear brilliantly, as well as making the models look great.  Clear photos of knitwear AND nice looking photos sometimes doesn't happen in knitting books, so it is lovely to see it working so well in this book. Scrumptious Collection Volume 3 is very definitely a book designed by knitters for knitters. The layout, charts, schematics and photography echo that sentiment throughout.  Each pattern can be printed out without referencing anything else in the book, as the abbreviations and notes are all given within each pattern.  It's a small detail that makes it easier for the knitter, but I think is a very good example of how well thought out the whole book is, down to the smallest detail.

The book can be purchased in both print and digital form at a price of £12.00 or $26.00.  The digital version can be purchased through Ravelry or in physical form from Fyberspates, or your local Fyberspates Retailer.

Fyberspates have very generously offered to give a reader of this blog a copy of the book. If you would like to win a copy you should leave a comment on this post, explaining which of the designs in the book you would like to cast on first.  The winner will be drawn at random on Friday, 7th February 2014.  (Note: Your comment may not be visible straight away as all comments must be approved on this blog, before appearing)

This blog post is part of a tour, and though I was given a copy of the book to review, all opinions given in this post are completely honest, and my own.  If you are interested in some of the other patterns, their designers, and the work of some other people involved in creating the book, you can read the other posts in the tour (there might also be other chances to win a copy of the book too).  Full details of the tour can be found here.

Spinning Catch Up

I thought this morning I should write a blog post.  I feel like the new levels of meds I am taking now are finally starting to balance out, or should I say I have started to find my balance with the new drugs.  As I sat down with my laptop I couldn't think what should be the first thing I would write about, and then I realised it was Tuesday and Tuesdays are "write about spinning" days.  Inspired by this notion, I went to my Ravelry Notebook and took a look at what fibre I have spun lately and not told my lovely readers about.  I then realised it was quite a lot.  I actually spoke about my spinning on the podcast in episodes 9 and 10, and done show notes, but I haven't caught up all my spinning on here.  This blog post will hopefully get my caught up, so I hope you don't suffer from information overload!

The first fibre I spun was Hilltop Cloud Blue Tit which is a lovely blend from the Birds Series, and is comprised of 56% Merino/26% Shetland/16% Kid Mohair.

I started spinning this fibre on the Rakestraw but didn't get very far, as I got distracted when I got my first support spindle.  I decided it was best to start again from scratch on the Tibetan, as it had sat, unloved, for so long. The resulting yarn is quite uneven and it is a two ply. It’s a fingering/sport weight, and I got 165 meters from the 80 grams I had left.

As I had started to look at some of my older fibre, I decided to tackle The Yarn Yarn Superwash BFL Blackcurrant Sorbet.  I spun this fibre on the Lightweight Wildcraft Tibetan spindle,and decided to chain ply it. It's 157 meters of a sport weight and weighs 106 grams.

I love how plump and round the yarn is from doing a chain ply.  It was well worth making the chain and creating a plying ball, before putting the twist into the fibre.  This blog post from Studio Strategos shows quite clearly how to make a plying ball.  I decided to use a plying ball, despite having a Lazy Kate, because it doesn't put tension on the singles when they are being plied. As a result it is hard to control the plying process.  Putting balanced tension on the singles and winding them into a ball, creates a much more even plying process, with much fewer swear words.

When I did the KAL last year, Deb at Fondant Fibre, donated some prizes, but she also gave me a give of some matching Fondant Fibre Shetland Pink Gradient which was a colour that I wouldn't normally buy for myself.  As such it was great fun to play with.  I really enjoyed spinning this lovely bouncy fibre and I will definitely seek out Shetland fibre again. (93 grams, 135 meters)

I spun this fibre on the Medium Wildcraft Tibetan spindle.  I decided to run with the bouncy nature of the fibre and spun quite thick and airy singles.  Then I made a a two ply yarn that barber poled beautifully.  It's soft and springy and a DK weight.  The resulting yarn weighed 93g and measured 135m.

The good news about this fibre, is that there is some left to be won as a prize for someone on the blog or podcast in a few weeks time, as I am thinking about running a Spin-a-Long after the Ravellenics Games is out of the way.  I'm actually running a Winter Warmer KAL (#stwwkal) over on the Ravelry Group, if you hadn't spotted it.  It's a fast and easy KAL, requiring the completion a single Winter accessory.  Come and have a look if you want a chance to win a prize, or just to see what people are making.  Full details are available on this thread.

Next up was some fibre from All The Pretty Fibres, who are based in Germany.  It was my first experience of spinning a batt.

I think I would have been more successful spinning it woollen style.  However, as I have some more of this particular fibre, in a pretty green, I can actually try that experiment.

The resulting yarn is merino/silk and I got 238m of a fingering/4ply weight yarn.  I spun it on my Wildcraft Medium Weight spindle and the yarn is 2-ply. I spun worsted which is the way I have spun most of my fibre up until now.

My first attempt at spinning woollen style, using long draw, gave mixed results.  I used the embedded video to learn how to do woollen spinning using a supported spindle, as I found it quite hard to get my head around the techniques being demonstrated on spinning wheels and translating it to my supported spindles.

The woollen spun yarn was made using another blend by Hilltop Cloud called Jane Seymour, which is part of her Queen's series. The blend is made up of 50% Merino/25% Shetland/12.5% Milk Protein/12.5% Firestar and was nice and airy to start with, which made spinning it from the fold much easier.  The resulting yarn is 150 metres, of sport weight yarn, made as a 2-ply using an Andean Plying Bracelet and it weighs 99g.  I used a book and a chopstick as a tool based on a tutorial by Rosemary Knits to make the bracelet, rather than my hand.

As a first experiment into this new technique it wasn't a complete disaster and I do want to try again, maybe with some lovely punis I got from Fondant Fibre.  The new issue of Ply Magazine is all about woollen spinning and I am slowly working my way through it.  There was also a really interesting guest post over on Sarah's blog, by Alicia Landi, about the preparation for spinning in a woollen style, which I found really interesting.  I am now beginning to think I would like to invest in some hand cards, to make the preparation for woolen spinning easier.

That does seem an awful lot of spinning that I forgot to tell you about. I hope you will forgive my tardiness in my big reveal!  I will share this post with Sarah's spinning post over on Crafts from the Cwtch. Then maybe I should start thinking about how I can use this wide variety of yarns in such small quantities.

Posh Refraction Shawlette

I just realised that I didn't tell you about a little shawlette I made before Christmas.  It got missed out in my big disappearing blogger act.  The shawlette is a pattern you have seen before, my own design, Refraction Shawlette. I decided to knit another version of this shawl because I gave the purple Fyberspates Scrumptious sample I made, whilst testing the pattern, to my sister-in-law for Christmas, because I knew she would adore it. I have lots of purple shawlettes, she needed it more than me.

I was prompted to make the pattern again when I bought a special skein of yarn from Posh Yarn, Pamela Sock in the "I'll Get You My Pretty" colourway.  It contained all my favourite colours AND it had sparkle too.  How am I supposed to resist such glory?

Purple, pink and teal - it is pretty much my ideal blend of colours.  As soon as I got the skein of yarn, I had to cast it on.  I decided that it would be a good opportunity for me to try my pattern in a variegated yarn.  I decided that even if it hid the lace I wouldn't care because the colours were so nice.  Despite my worries, I was delighted with the results.

As the first lace section has quite large stocking stitch portions, the yarn gets a chance to shine, without the lace getting lost.  The bottom lace section gives creates little sections of knitting that cause the lovely colours to "pop".

I couldn't be more delighted with the results of this pairing.  The yarn is a true sock yarn as it is comprised of 75% merino/20% nylon/5% other(sparkles).  I think it will be hard wearing, and I would be happy to use it for socks, but it is still soft enough to wear next to my skin.

I have been wearing it a lot.  It's a lovely bright accent of colour that keeps my upper torso warm and it I'm so happy I tried this experiment.

I have to confess, I liked it so much, I might have bought another skein of this yarn, in a different colour, "The Door Just Opened For Someone".  I wonder what I'll do with this one.

Isn't it nice?

By the way, did you know Episode 10 of the podcast is now live?

As I have a finished object, on a Friday for once, I shall link up with Tami for the first time in ages.

Hand Dyed Purple Sockhead Hat

After dyeing my last skein of yarn, the gloriously purple Blue Faced Leicester 4ply yarn, I decided that it would match incredibly well with one of my favourite shawl/scarfs, the Fluvial.  As I had very itchy fingers for this yarn, I didn't even stop to think, and immediately cast on another Sockhead Hat.  I love this pattern, it's simple to knit and the hat suits me really well, and gives me options on how warm I want my ears to be.

One thing I learnt from my last version of this pattern, is that I wanted the body of the hat to be shorter. Instead of knitting the stocking stitch portion of the hat to 9", I knit it to 7" before carrying out the decreases. This means the hat is almost beanie like when the brim is rolled back.  It means the body of the hat isn't pulled tight, so it traps lots of air around the head to help keep me warm.

I adore this hat.  The fabric is even and smooth and I didn't have to block it at all.  I know that in future, if I get a chance to buy BFL yarn to dye again, I grab it with both hands.  It dyes well, without there being too much risk of felting and it is a lovely yarn to knit with.

When I'd finished my hat, I had some of the yarn left over and I didn't want to waste any of it so I decided to add it to my "leftover sock yarn, which will be used one day, somehow" bag. This bag was initially intended to be used to make a Bee Keeper's Quilt, but after a few hexipuffs, I found it just didn't appeal to me as a long term project.  The pile has threatened to topple over a few times, and when I added the scraps from this project to the pile, the bag tipped over.  I decided it was a sign, and found a new project to use it.  I'm doing the Sock Yarn Square by Shannon Geddes pattern, but instead of knitting into the back loop of the yarn over increases, I'm just leaving them open.  I'm knitting 15 increase rounds to get a nice sized square and I'm using 2.75mm needles, and knitting with 2 circular needles.

I think this project will work better, for me, than the Bee Keeper's Quilt.  I don't need another heavy blanket, I've already got a couple.  What would be nice, is something lighter weight and these squares would form a light and pretty blanket.  The pattern is straight forward and can be easily done while socialising. I think you will be seeing more of these squares than you did of the hexipuffs.  In the meantime, I shall continue to enjoy my new hand-dyed hat!

More Dyeing

After my last dyeing adventure I was very keen to have another go.  A new bigger pyrex dish arrived (eventually, after some fun where the first one was lobbed over the 7' gate to my back garden by the delivery guy, and of course smashed). The dish I bought was the biggest I could find that would fit into my microwave and it has much more space to dye in, which makes it easier.

I decided I wanted some purple yarn so went heavy on the purple and red and added a dash of blue colouring.  I might have gone a bit too heavy on the dye.  It took eons to rinse the yarn as there was so much left over after the yarn was saturated.  I learnt that I really don't need very much of the Wilton's Gel. The resulting yarn, however, was amazing.  I was so happy with it.

I also really love this yarn base.  I may have to order some more BFL yarn because it resisted felting really well, despite all the rinsing that was required.  On the same day, that I dyed this, I decided that I would try dyeing some of the Superwash Merino fibre I bought.  I wanted to try a completely different colour scheme, so went with the cream and yellow colours.  I mixed it throroughly together and used a lot less of the colour.  I added the soaked fibre to the mixed dye and then when it had absorbed the yellow dye, I added a couple of splashes of green to the top.

I love the vibrancy of this fibre.  The fibre is still amazingly soft, which I was not expecting, for some reason. I would never buy this sort of coloured fibre normally.  I normally only buy my absolute favourite colours of fibre, which means there isn't much variety in my fibre.  Dyeing the fibre myself is giving me free rein to choose different colours to my normal top of the list choices.  I've started spinning it already because it is perfectly sunny for the currently grey weather.

I'm using my brand new Enid Ashcroft Bocote spindle that I managed to score on an ETSY update.

I was amazed that I managed to find this spindle because it is meant to be quite difficult to find the updates for this maker, as they are not frequent and the quality is meant to be excellent.  I just stumbled over the spindle when I was browsing supported spindles on ETSY and when I saw this for sale, I knew it was meant to be mine!  It is amazing.  It spins like a dream.  The sample above was made from some merino and sparkle punis from Fondant Fibre.  It was so much fun to spin as both the punis and the spindle were gorgeous to use.

If you are in the market for a spindle and you ever stumble over an update, I urge you to not hesitate.  There were some gorgeous Turkish spindles in the shop yesterday and they are now gone.  I was tempted to buy one, despite knowing I can't use a drop spindle, because they were so beautiful.

I am not spinning my yellow fibre with any kind of intention, I am just spinning it for fun, because it is pretty and it makes me happy.  I'll dye some more fibre when I get near the end of this. Dyeing is so much fun and I can't wait to give it another go  I'm so glad I bought a decent amount of this fibre because it survived a learner dyeing it, and is still lovely to spin.  I think it's just as well I am too sick to dye often because I would be over-flowing with hand dyed fibre and yarn within a very short amount of time.

Test Knitters Required!

Hello everyone, I have finally managed to get my Ribbon and Rings Cowl pattern written up.  It's a very simple, yet effective cable pattern, that shouldn't take much time to knit.  The pattern writing has taken so long because of Christmas delays, but it is done, at last, and is ready for testing.

The cowl is fastened using three ribbons (or in the above sample's case, i-cords).  Having ties for the cowl means it can be adjusted to fit the wearer on any given day with multiple options for styling and comfort. However, I know that some people would find tying three ribbons each time they wore a cowl annoying, so there is also an option that closes the cowl using 6 buttons.

The cowl uses either 1 x 100g skein or aran weight or 1 x 100g skein or worsted weight yarn.  The pattern is both written out in full and charted, so I would really like testers for both, to be sure all the instructions are covered.  Equally, I would like testers for both buttoned and ribboned fastenings.

I would like to get the testing finished before 31st January to ensure the pattern can be released while it is still cold, so please only volunteer if you are sure you can get the test finished in time.

I have opened a thread for interested testers which includes more details.  If you are interested, please reply in that thread and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank You!

Christmas Knitting

Sorry I fell of the face of the earth in December.  I am pretty sure, that if you are regular reader, you understand the craziness of the Christmas season for someone who has poor health.  I concentrated the whole of December on creating Christmas gifts.  I also went up to York to see my family and a consequence of this visit, was my inability to think straight for the next 3 weeks.  I didn't even manage to spend a weekend with my OH's family, which I was so sad about, but couldn't face sitting in a car for 3.5 hours on the day of travel.  In the end I was glad I didn't go, because that journey took my OH more like 4.5 hours which would have been hideous for me.

As a result of my painful Christmas and New Year I have decided that I need to see the doctors about tinkering with my pain medication again.  Whenever I have an increase in pain levels it always takes me time to adjust mentally and physically, which is why I disappeared.  I'm hoping that changes in medication (when it happens) will help me quickly and not leave me too spaced out.  In the meantime I will try and catch you up with the stuff I created for Christmas.

I made 5 gifts, 4 of which were for children. The non-child gift was a shawl for my sister-in-law that I made earlier in the year, so I'm only going to focus on the children in this post.  I used Cascade 220 Superwash for all of the children's gifts. It has become my "go to" yarn for children's knits because it is a nice bouncy yarn, that is machine washable, but is also wool so it is warm and breathable. It also comes in lots of colours and is reasonably priced. I get mine from Nutty Knitting Supplies.

Firstly I made a whale for my niece, who's favourite word seems to be FISH at the moment.  It was a crocheted whale made from a free pattern by Stacey Trock, who is my favourite amigurumi designer.  The pattern is M.Richard the Whale.

I used embroidery thread for the face and I am really happy with the way it turned out.  I used less than 50g for the whale, so I'm tempted to make another one for me ;-)

For nephew A, he needed more clothes as he keeps growing in spurts. He hates having anything pulled over his head and he suits nice rich brown colours, so I decided to give him another Beyond Puerperium, but in worsted weight and with long sleeves for the colder months.  Apparently it is a little big but I think that is much better than being too small, as he'll grow into it, and it means he can have layers underneath.

The button bands were knit simultaneously with the body of the garment, so I used intarsia to make the button band in a solid colour.

The buttons are made of plastic but they go really well with the cardigan.  I used embroidery thread to attach the buttons and I found a really good match in my old cross stitch thread collection.

I make a shaft by wrapping the thread around several times underneath the button, but above the knitted fabric.  This means that the button doesn't pull the cardigan out of shape.

For my other two nephews, O and K, they requested more monsters!  There was discussion about colours and types and there was several mentions of Mike Wazowski from Monsters University and I had to say that there weren't any patterns for Monsters University because of licensing issues.  THEN I discovered this blogpost.  A FREE Mike Wazowski pattern from Stacey Trock.  I was so pleased that I didn't have to disappoint the boys and got crocheting.  It took ages to make because there were lots of fiddly bits and, in fact, this quick snap was taken on the evening before it was wrapped to be delivered.  I cut very close to the wire.

I used a safety eye instead of felt for the pupil, because I think that gives more life to crocheted creatures.  I used black fleece for the mouth, because at the last minute I discovered I didn't have black felt (I'd already decided not to use it for the eye).  I decided not to put the teeth in, as I like this look better.  I'm really pleased with how he turned out and I was assured by my OH on his return from his family that K, loved his monster and wanted to make sure that my OH told me so.

O's monster was from Big Book of Knitted Monsters by Rebecca Danger and it was the Toothy Joe the Mailbox Monster pattern that I chose this time.  I decided to make my version toothless though.

He looks slightly sad from this angle, but from above he looks like he smiling (honest).  I love his long limbs too.

He is a perfect sitting monster, which I thought was more suitable for my eldest nephew.  Again the recipient made sure to tell my OH that he loved his monster and to tell me that.  They are both such polite boys as well as being great in all other ways too.  I am so sorry I missed seeing them at Christmas because they are getting quite mature now, and though I'm looking forward to getting to know who they become as teenagers and adults, it makes me sad that this might be the last time O admits to wanting a monster for Christmas.  He will, however, always be knit worthy as he has always loved my knitting and the knitted gifts he's received.

For O and K's younger brother who is a toddler, I got a long sleeved t-shirt in the same green as the knitted monster, with big scary monster eyes on it, so the boys all matched, gift wise.  I just didn't have it in me to do another crafted gift and he got a whole quilt last year.  I'm pretty sure he didn't mind ;-)

I hope you haven't fallen asleep with this massive catch up, and I hope that my next post won't be quite as long in coming, because that way I don't have as much to write ;-)

I hope you had a great end to 2013 and I look forward to spending 2014 with you.