My computer and I had a little trouble getting this post up on the blog yesterday, but better late than never! Today I bring you the 5th Avenue Cowl. It’s a great circular cowl in a worsted weight yarn. Quick, pretty and fashionable, the perfect last minute gift! If you are gifting the yarn to a knitter I suggest a treat of some Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes, Kynna says Aslan Trends Royal Alpacas is also an excellent choice!
5th Avenue by Margaux Hufnagel
As I sit in front of ‘White Christmas’ attempting to sing along (quite poorly I might add), sipping hot chocolate and trying my best not to eat all the Nanaimo Bars in the house, I reflect upon my own knitting favorites. For this relaxing evening I am knitting away on a pair of addi lace needles and the yarn of choice is my very own: Gourmet Crafter Cashmere. It’s the Whale Watching colourway and it’s lovely.
I’m working on a Simple Yet Effective cowl, an easy free pattern, and the simplicity of the pattern shows the pretty subtle variegation in the yarn. It’s a light, warm, soft, cowl for chilly evening while I hope for snow.
I am pretty enamored lately of the shawl collar. I want to put it on all my sweaters, but really, how many regular sized sweaters do I really complete? Lots of Hunter sized ones, but hardly any Alexa sized ones. This little cowl is just the ticket, all the shawl collar with none of the sweater knitting!
The Shawl Collared Cowl by Alana Dakos is knit up in a chunky weight yarn and features 3 lovely buttons, what more could I want in a cowl?
What does lace inevitably need? Blocking of course! While I normally don’t like blocking (I do it, but I don’t really LIKE it) I really love the way lace comes alive on the blocking mats, all pinned in the right places. Blocking turns a piece of weird looking knitting into something beautiful.
So what is the perfect gift for someone who loves lace? Blocking wires, T-pins, and (new to UY) blocking mats! It makes life so much easier and your hard worked knitting so much prettier.
The nice thing about knitting for babies at Christmas time is that you can pull off A WHOLE SWEATER with only a couple of weeks to go. That’s pretty amazing. If I started a sweater for a grown up right now I would be panicking and possibly running around the house pulling my hair out (we can’t all have the amazing productivity of the Yarn Harlot, even if I do sometimes try). So without further adieu I give you 3 worsted weight sweaters. Why worsted you ask? I said it was possible to knock out a baby sweater but let’s not get nuts! Leave the fingering weight for January my friends.
There are many needles in the world. Not just different sizes but double points, straight needles, and circulars (all lengths). With so many needles, what do you get a knitter? Why a Click set of course!
If you have a knitter on your list who seems to have all the yarn they need (first of all, they don’t and they never will have all the yarn they need but I digress) perhaps a fantastic set of needles is the right gift for them. Trust me, it will be amazing under the tree and even if you aren’t a knitter and can’t figure out why they might want such a thing, they will love it. My fave: the Addi Lace Click set, it’s got just about everything you will need for any knitting project.
I was working on my first Bandana cowl a few months ago and it’s been nothing but compliments ever since (except for one knit-nighter who shall remain nameless….). Not only am I thrilled with my own Bandana cowls (that’s right, plural), but it seems like every time I walk into Urban Yarns more people have knit one for themselves! It’s a great quick knit, only 100 yards or so of worsted-chunky weight yarn, it’s flexible and fabulouse, get knitting!
Quick, I need a ________! It’s a common phrase these days with the blanks filled in with such things as ‘pair of mittens for my kids teacher’ ‘scarf for Aunt Betty’ or ‘hat for my husband’. Well, here is a quick knit that is sure to please, the Stag Scarf.
This is a design of my own that I’ve knit for many a gal in my circle. It knits up nice and quick (I knit this white one in an evening) but it still has some nice cabled detail. I also enjoy anything that showcases a pretty button. 2 skeins of Spud and Chloe Outer, or perhaps some Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky and size 13mm needles are all you need!
Apropos
I recently posted about my very own Dashing gloves, a pattern designed by Cheryl Niamath. What to my wondering eyes should appear but a great little book of small knits by none other than Cheryl herself!
Bon Bon
Covet is a book of 6 small knits (hint hint: still time to knit these up!), each an excellent gift or perhaps a book for a knitterly friend! Apropos is knit up in Blue Sky Alpacas Sport, a lovely soft yarn in a rainbow of colours. Bon Bon is knit up in Blue Sky Alpacas Techno, a new yarn from BSA that already has a big following, it’s so soft with slightly fuzzy texture, just lovely!
Looking for something to knit for any boy or girl? Dashing!
Dashing, by Cheryl Niamath are fingerless gloves (for warm hands but usable fingers) fit for just about anyone. The elegance of the design is something to be marveled at, the shaping at the wrist is created by the cable pattern of the gloves, no need for increases or decreases! There are small and large sizes and they knit up in an aran weight yarn (about 18 stitches per 4 inches) I knit up a pair in 2 short evenings for someone deserving.
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