For the last month or two posts saying things like "only 12 weeks to Christmas" have been popping up on my Facebook feed. I have been telling them to go away (only perhaps not so politely). After all, 12 weeks is almost 1/4 of the year, which is a lot of time.
Except the numbers have been getting smaller, and when you are planning to make most of the gifts you will be giving you do need to make use of some of those weeks. So at last my gift making has taken the leap from planning to on the needles/on order.
I usually get my gifts done in time, and then about a week before the big day decide I simply MUST make this extra thing, so no matter how well I plan I always end up frantic knitting towards the end of December. Let's see if that happens this year shall we?
On the needles:
So there is still designer work on the go, which I can't share. But also some gift knitting, which I can. I am making a fox scarf out of some stash acrylic. See off the needles for more details as it is the second one, just a little smaller as I am worried I will run out of yarn.
Off the needles:
Hooray! I have something to share today, in fact two somethings.
Last week this pattern for a fox scarf was on Facebook. I shared it, since it is cute, and it received positive comments from my sister. Giving me the idea it would be a suitable present for my nieces.
I made a fox in socks a couple of years back and the remaining yarn has been lurking in my stash, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it up. A hunt on Ravelry turned up the pattern, plus a second similar one. The second one has lots of awesome projects for inspiration- different faces and alternative animals.
I liked the more foxy multicoloured face so went with that. And since I have two nieces and no one wants exactly the same gift I opted to make a badger as the second scarf.
I used the general structure from the pattern, but changed the stitch counts, faces and ears and used DK held double.
They still need eyes, I am going to order some sew in wiggle eyes, because wiggle eyes make everything better.
In a spin:
I challenged myself to spin thick this week. I really struggle with it and tend to go really fine with my singles. Generally this is a good thing, but sometimes you want a thicker yarn without spinning miles and miles and having to make a six ply yarn.
I thought it would be a good chance to use up some random fibre stash as well. This is a mix of linen (the white bits) and merino (the red and black).
It almost qualifies as art yarn! (art yarn is not my thing).
It was SO. MUCH. FASTER! Honestly, the whole thing was done in about an hour.
Next on the go is some alpaca. Purchased as raw straight off the animal and put through the drum carder with more enthusiasm than skill (it was new, I was excited). There is the odd short cut and under-carded bit, but it is not too bad. Same drill on the spinning, aiming for a thick yarn. It is a little more thick and thin than the linen/merino blend but still ok overall- plying solves many issues.
I might ply the two together and make a cowl since it is going to be a bit of a random yarn.
OK, back to the fox knitting, I have sock yarn on the way for the next gift.
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