Holly Jolly Christmas

Whelp.... the gifts are unwrapped and all are aware of what I've been working on- so I suppose it's time to reveal them to you.

The Shark Blanket!

 

Pattern: Shark Attack Blanket by Kari Provencher (I went to high school with Kari and I still think of her with her maiden name... I do this to all my friends I knew before they were married.  So, apologies to Kari and her husband whom I'm sure is lovely, but this was made by Kari Dennis in my mind!)
Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky Solids in White, Red and True Grey
Needles: US 11 and US 13
Notes: I modified the teeth in this pattern to be garter stitch vs. lacey and my mods were:

CO 5 sts

Row 1: K1, M1, K4
Row 2 (and all even rows): Knit
Row 3: K5, M1, K1
Row 5: K1, M1, K6
Row 7: K7, M1, K1
Row 9: Bind off 5 stitches, leave one stitch on the right needle, knit 2, M1, K1

Repeat until necessary.  (I needed 12 teeth also)

As we learned previously, I am terrible at reading patterns but had I read through the pattern initially, I would have known how simple this pattern was.  I will admit that the 35 inches of stocking stitch nearly killed me.  Like DEAD.  God I hate stocking stitch.  But otherwise this project was very simple to "whip up".  Which is probably good since Parker is now requesting his own shark blanket... but that's not going to happen for a while yet.  (sorry kid)

As predicted my sister loved it.  She totally didn't see it coming and there have already been various stuffed animals and her dog "being eated by a shark".  (Apologies to Etta who will probably endure many "shark attack" photos.)

The socks came down to the wire this year, BUT, on Christmas eve I managed to weave in the final end and wrap up the socks for my dad on Christmas morning.  (Unblocked... GASP)

Pattern: Globe Trotter Socks by Jodie St. Clair
Yarn: Lang Yarns Super Soxx in colorway 630.0427 (sexy name!  Sorry can't find a link for these) and Lang Yarns Bebe in Navy blue (discontinued so no link- this is possibly one of the oldest yarns in my stash so yay for it being done!)
Needles: US 1
Notes: I find whenever I knit a men's sock yardage is usually a problem.  That would have been the case here, but I decided to do contrasting cuffs, heels and toes and that stretched my yarn enough so that I had enough for the very end.  As usual, I went to great pains to line up the stripes to match, which was hard in this yarn because the color transitions very gradually and you had to look really closely.

Dad loved his socks- and promptly wore them on our cold Christmas day.  He frequently takes his dog Jennie for a walk and these socks will hopefully keep his toes toasty warm.

The week leading up to Christmas was challenging- I had intended to blog and finish those socks waaaaaay before Christmas Eve but distractions got in the way.  Both of our kittens got quite ill and didn't eat for several days.  Our best guess is that the bag of food was tainted.  Anyways, a couple of visits to the vet later and an immediate change in food, both of our kittens are back to themselves.  (THANK GOD.)

My child celebrated the cats getting better by coming down with a very nasty and snotty cold.  :-(

He's a trooper but poor kid would love to have a break from having his nose blown.

On top of that Christmas baking needed to be done and I couldn't help myself... I made Christmas gingerbread kittens!

Now that the Christmas knitting is done I've had to dive head first into the next couple of challenges.  Tomorrow is the annual boxing day sale at Pudding so I will save the next blog post to tell you what's coming up next and what I got for Christmas this year.

Merry (belated) Christmas to those who celebrate and I'm looking forward to cutting my teeth on some new projects in the new year!