Merry Christmas, and final FOs of 2011

Thank you for reading my blog. In November I had the most number of monthly readers ever, which was quite nice. I do wonder who on earth finds this stuff interesting, since I still seem to be writing this blog merely to amuse myself - but I do appreciate you for popping over and partaking of my ramblings. I hope you have a lovely Christmas and a very merry New Year.

Here are my final FOs of 2011:

My Christmas Hat



Pattern: Peace Street Hat by Grace Akhrem, again
Yarn: The so-lovely Araucania Azapa, about 3 metres less than a skein
Needles: 4mm and 4.5mm
Mods: I thought I knew better, this time around, and added an extra stitch in the garter edge on the right hand edge to stop the brim edge from curling. Turns out I hadn't thought it through properly, and I should have added it on the left hand edge; so when I was time to pick up stitches for the crown I had to do it opposite to the pattern, which meant I had to knit an extra row before I did the increases (I purled it instead of knitting so my hat had a solely stockinette crown), and the button flap is on the opposite side. But it was OK.

I finally used this very special Victorian glass button I have been hanging onto for a while:



I put it with three grey-black glass buttons I scavenged from Gill, who comes to the Get Knitted knitting group and is unfailingly generous with her buttons and brought in the entire collection for us to rummage through a few months ago.



I really love this hat. Like, really. Like, so much, it has bumped the double-pointed Santa hat for the last few days before Christmas, which is kind of sad really because the Santa hat can't be worn any other time of year. So much, that I got it cast on and finished in less than 48 hours. Just have to make sure I don't wear it when I'm around Elise.

Another chevron headband



Pattern: Made it up
Yarn: Rico Design Creative Poems Aran
Needle: 3.75mm

When I went up to look at my stash this jumped out at me for my friend's Christmas present, so I knit her a headband with it. It's the same basic pattern as this one but I decreased towards the crown so that it bows inwards a bit, more like a hat. Quite pleased with how it turned out.

By Ravelry's reckoning, that's 15 projects FO'd in 2011, slightly down on 2010's 17 but I will take it, since many months seemed to pass with no knitting happening at all. Eight of those were stashbusters, and I have a further five new projects on the needles; one is this rose chair which is going to be a long, long WIP, and the other is a two row lace scarf I keep for when I need something easy and portable. I have nearly finished my first sock - maybe for next Christmas. That gives me 365 days, since it's a leap year. Better go and get started now....