In Stitches

Last week I gave you a preview of the projects that made up the Christmas Project Countdown. As you no doubt noticed, there were quite a few scarves.

I feel like I'm finally starting to get the hang of this knitting thing. Now...that being said, I know I still have a long way to go.

But...considering that my skills started off with some miscalculation and this, I think I'm doing alright.

I've talked to you before about the fact that I'm all about taking the easy way out on things. So all of these scarves were knitted using a knitting board (loom). I have no desire to mess with needles. I'd probably just stab myself.

For the scarves, I used one that looks an awful lot like this :

I found that it's rather relaxing to do this while half watching a television show. I got through quite a few episodes of My Boys. 

The first scarf I made was this one : 

Originally I didn't know who I was making it for, but as I worked on it I realized that it just looked like it would be fitting for Collin's grandmother, Jean. Turns out...I was right. She sent us a thank you note the other day saying that she really likes the color. Score!

The best part about knitting these scarves for Christmas was that I got to try different types of yarn. For some of the girls' scarves I used angel hair yarn. This is typically a double stranded yarn. It's soft and pretty, but it can prove occasionally problematic if you're not paying attention to the strands.

This yarn is so soft in fact, that it prompted me to tweet this.

The softest yarn though was the one I used to make a scarf for my dad.

This is crazy heavenly. It's Goldenrod by Sensations. It's like a fluffy cloud.

I also played with some fun color combinations to see how the patterns came out. 

I really enjoyed how the pattern ended up coming out on Jon's scarf...a nice diamond motif.

I ended my endeavor by learning how to blend different yarns to make a pattern. I goofed up and don't have a good picture of it, but you can kind of get the idea...

I made that one for my grandmother. She's the knitter/crocheter in our family. She has made me some really beautiful afghans. And that brings me to my goals for 2012...

I'm going to keep working at the knitting and trying new things. I still have to break out the crochet hooks and learn that skill, but that's another story. For the knitting I have two 2012 goals. I want to make an afghan and I want to knit myself a pair of fingerless mitts. My hands always get crazy cold, so it would be really nice to have those handy. (No pun intended, but it certainly worked out that way.) I'm hoping to start on them soon (I need to go pick out some yarn) and have them finished by February at the latest. The sooner, the better. My hands will be very happy.

Also, Erin's girl loved her mom's scarf so much that I've decided to make a girly one for her. She's requested fuchsia so I'll be picking up some of that as well. Maybe I'll even try and learn a new stitch. Hey! Look at me branching out!

*** If you want to see an idea of the projects I'm thinking about trying this year, check out my Pinterest. I have a specific board out there just for knitting that I'm hoping to add more ideas to. ***