Saturday, November 22

Christmas knitting

Until last weekend, I really thought I had bitten off more than I could chew with my promise to knit christmas gifts for my two niecelets. Not in terms of difficulty, but in terms of time.

The conversation with my sister went something like this:
KN: So any idea what I could get the niecelets for christmas?
My sis: Well, they saw these nice hat and scarf sets in the Boden catalogue and I thought they were a bit expensive..but perhaps you'd like to make them some?
KN: (confidently but with a slight feeling of 'what do you think I am, slave labour?!') yeah, no problem!

Luckily this conversation took place about six weeks ago, because the process did not go very smoothly at first. Naturally I had to source the yarn, not particularly easy when you are looking for specific colours and weight, but Scandinavian Knitting Design came up trumps with its Drops Alpaca yarn in umpteen colourways.

However the first scarf had to be frogged since it was too curly at the edges, and I didn't get round to admitting that to myself until way too late. The second scarf seemed to take FOREVER - the 4ply yarn doesn't help! - but luckily the first hat has been very quick (although now looking back at the picture of what it's supposed to look like, I may well frog it too and start again with smaller stripes!




The second scarf has now been started, and my confidence has returned. The return train trip to Bordeaux this week should help, although I have my suspicions it will be more like Bored-oh! with that scarf....

2 comments:

Laura said...

They look great! I wouldn't rip it. Good luck. I am also knitting for nieces and nephews. I already admit I won't have time to finish, but I continue knitting nevertheless.

Probably Jane said...

The scarves will be gorgeous I'm sure.

I've learned to confine my knitted gifts to the 'Surprise!' category as much as possible - I'm just too weak willed and distractable for deadline knitting.