Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Christmas Crafting, Part the Second: Nativitatis Dona Familiae

Phew! My goodness am I having a hard time re-integrating back into my regular ol', non-holiday-related life. Neill and spent 9 days (10 if you count the travel day out there) in North Carolina with his family and just got back over the weekend. There was some driving around (Tennessee and South Carolina are now checked off my list of unvisited states), quite a bit of quality family time, a lot of sleeping, a WHOLE lot of eating, and it was great. Computer/internet access was limited (I didn't want to overstay my welcome on the in-laws' computer and my phone didn't get great service out there), but then it's nice to take a digital break every now and then (aside from the twitching withdrawals that is). Now that we're back, all this waking up early and going to work and eating things outside the candy food group is just...bleh. Though having the internets back is kind of nice.

So the following is what I did with 3 skeins of KnitPicks Swish DK in terms of some gifts for the fam:



Pattern: Spiral Cowl, by Keri McKiernan
Yarn: KnitPicks Swish DK, 1.5 skeins of Hollyberry (fitting for the season, eh?)
Needles: US6 circs
Start to Finish: October 31-November 2, 2009

The button is from a big bag of awesome vintage buttons received from Thea of BabyCocktails in exchange for some discontinued yarn I had in my stash.

This was slightly addictive, fun and fast, and my mother-in-law loved it.



And with the rest of the yarn:



Pattern: Porom, by Jared Flood
Yarn: KnitPicks Swish DK, 1.5 skeins of Hollyberry
Needles: US6 and US7 circs and dpns
Start to Finish: November 11-13, 2009

Beautiful pattern, and quicker than I thought it would be. The Swish DK grew a bit and got much drapier after its washing, which I think suited the hat well. As expected, my sister-in-law (who, really, looks good in anything) totally rocks this beret:



Happy New Year, all!

22 comments:

Thea said...

You both rock the beret - and I'm so glad to see one of my little buttons happy in its new home. Have always wanted to explore down South myself --- lots of good bbq?

barefootrooster said...

love the red. looks especially beautiful with that lovely blonde hair!

peaknits said...

What lovely projects - I love the red too! You and your sister-in-law both make lovely models!

Teresa said...

I'm going to have to agree with Thea and say you do both totally rawk the beret. It's lovely.
And I love getting reviews of Knit Picks yarns - knowing the way it behaves/feels IRL is good, and encourages me to buy more.
:)
Welcome back to the digiwebiverse!

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

Sounds like a wonderful time! I too am sad that the holiday treats are over and to be back at a regular work schedule - LOL

Beautiful shade of red ~ looks stunning on both of you!

Karina said...

Thanks for the link to the translation of your pattern.

I love the beret and cowl. The color is beautiful.

firefly said...

I agree that the red looks great with the blonde hair. Your Citron design is so petty too.

Nice finding your blog this morning.

Happy New Year!

~firefly

keri said...

You guys both totally manage to rock it - I always wish I could pull off something like that. Love the spiral cowl too! =)

Julie said...

Both are wonderful gifts, great job!! I love the colour, too. Sometimes those unplugged internet breaks are so needed- glad you had great holidays!

Bridget said...

Sounds like you had a great time and really celebrated.

I love the hat and the cowl - the patterns are lovely, but the color is just gorgeous!

Philigry said...

you both look great in the red! wonderful projects! happy new year!

jennifer said...

That colour is just great. Both of the projects look so lovely!

Boy, am I having trouble getting back to reality too! The holidays went by way too quickly (as they often do).

Eliza said...

what pretty reds! (and pretty knits!)

I sometimes wish I were cut off from the internet. It feels so good to be with myself sometimes. But yeah, it's usually accompanied by twitching.

Maryse said...

I really like the cowl! This red is really nice! Great gifts! Lucky SIL!

Karen said...

The beret and the cowl are simply beautiful! Good job!

Helga Marie Bee said...

...that beret is adorable! headed to grab the pattern now

a friend to knit with said...

okay... you BOTH are adorable and TOTALLY rockin both projects. since you gave both away, i'm thinking you need to make yourself both of them!
happy new year!!

Hadley Makes said...

Loverly!

juicyknits said...

That spiral cowl is mother-in-law-proof pattern. ;-) Mine liked it as well.

Journeying Five said...

I love your porom, it is beautiful on you!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
the Lady said...

I love that cowl and of course the Baktus, and I voted for the Gwendolyn foundation. I would have anyway, but how could I not, when that's been one of my favorite names acquired from young adult fiction over 10 years ago?