Rockin' the Holiday Gifts

Meridith and I made a gingerbread house today. I bought the house parts at Ikea (no kidding), and we put it together and decorated it. Note the gumdrop snowman to the right- isn't he cute?

It has been a busy day on the gift-making front. Here you have Julian's bear- he has yet to be named and clothed. I've decided to just go with the scarf instead of the whole football jersey, so I should be able to finish that today and he'll be ready for his trip overseas on Tuesday.

I also finished Juan's mother's scarf. Thank you to everyone who contributed their suggestions to my dilemma. I finally went with what I know- the basketweave pattern. I really like how it turned out. The basketweave is my favorite scarf pattern. Some of you may recall that I made one for Julian last year in this pattern.

Here's a close-up.

Pattern notes: I knit this with a cream 70% alpaca 30% acrylic blend, double stranded throughout on 10 1/2 handmade cherry wood needles. The ends are each six rows of seed stitch, while the rest is: three stitches in seed pattern on the ends and five boxes of four stitches each. It is not a super-long scarf because it doesn't really get that cold in Vigo, so you don't need to wrap it around your neck too many times. It is very soft and has a much better drape than the all-seed pattern would have had.

I also made some fingerless gloves in my own pattern for my sister. I took the "Fetching" pattern from Knitty.com and shortened the cable and did it throughout so it is very elastic and fitted to your hand. The yarn is double-stranded alpaca from my friend Margaret's very own alpacas in Minnesota. It is an extremely durable yarn, but super soft, so I think it will be perfect for Meridith's dog-walking activities. I also made a pair for Amy in cream alpaca- very soft and luxurious, but I forgot to take a picture. So imagine this in cream :)