A Plan: Handmade Holidays

The school year starts off for us this week. Since we both work in academic environments, we're really tied in our thinking to the school year for planning and setting goals.  We've got a few new plans in the works that we'll be updating over the week.

I usually make several things as gifts for the holidays, but I'm hoping to ramp it up this year. I am always over ambitious, in everything really, but especially in knitting. I've laid out my super secret crafting schedule for the holidays. I have four major knitting projects, two smaller knitting projects and a large sewing project.

After knitting for 10 years, I'm finally getting to be a fast and decent knitter. I have made my brother a series of the most awful hats over the years. I had a real problem with gauge and accidentally knitted him a wide variety of rastafarian hats in the scratchiest wool possible. I'm starting to believe that knitting is very similar to playing a musical instrument. You're just really bad for the first few years, but your relatives tolerate your ridiculous attempts because they like you. The violinist in me is happy to have moved beyond the Suzuki stage of knitting.

I've started the most daunting knitting project by casting on 194 stitches and I've knitted 3 inches already. Any guesses on what it is? And it's not a terribly sized hat.

I've also finished knitting the body of a Halloween Buddy Bag for Mr. J. I just need to finish knitting the pumpkin pocket and sew in a lining and it's finished.  

Joey has also requested a "Bevo Texas" hat and I'm working on a pair of UT socks. I'm aiming to knock those out before Thanksgiving so we can wear them during the UT v A&M game.

We Made: A Sweater and a Quilt

On my list of tasks before my next birthday, I'd included knitting Mr. J a sweater and finishing a large quilt. Check and check.

When I got the estimate for the quilting lady to finish the quilting on the Robot quilt, it was over $250. Not really in the budget. So I just did it myself. It was not easy but obviously it was not impossible. The quilt is rather large and the space under the arm of my sewing machine is rather puny. I felt like I was trapped in a prolonged wrestling match with a blanket. But I prevailed with only a few missteps. I haven't gotten any good pictures of the quilt since there is a small boy always laying on it. And it now means that I sewed the whole darn thing myself.

Speaking of darning, I started Mr. J's sweater on the Canada trip. The body went really fast, but I made a bunch of modifications to the yoke to fit my child's big shoulders and giant head. The arms a little snug since my kid is built like a lineman, but I think they'll end up stretching out and being perfect.

Both of these projects were super fun and I'm very happy with how they turned out. I develop music crushes where I listen to an album with great intensity for a short amount of time (sometimes even one song on repeat for hours). As a result, certain albums become associated in my head with a very specific series of events.  So, Blind Pilot 3 Rounds and a Sound will forever equal the finishing of this quilt and the sweater. I'm still in the Blind Pilot obsession so we'll see what else it gets hooked onto.