Vermilion Socks and HOTH!

After I finished knitting my first pair of socks, I realized why sock knitting is so perfect me.  Because I have such tiny feet; size 3 boys (size 4/5 womens at a stretch), I can finish a pair much quicker than if I had average size or larger feet!  So I quickly advanced upon my 2nd pair of socks in a monochrome Vermilion shade of Malabrigo 100% merino super wash yarn and finished them in less than 2 weeks.  Xena's middle name is "Vermilion", the color shade of one of the stamps that my husband collects and it's a favorite color among all members of this household.

These socks are so soft and warm and the perfect thickness for this time of year!

Today I am starting a new pair of socks in a different pattern that's mostly stockinette with sock yarn on 0's.  Wish me luck!  The yarn is variegated and I can't wait to see the results.

When I wasn't cooking or doing X-Massy stuff, I spent the bulk of X-Mas day crocheting a bikini top for my friend, Annie, back in Richmond, VA.  She requested something vintage and stringy looking so here's my interpretation based on hours of etsy image trolling and no particular pattern.  It's a size 34C, a size my tits literally haven't been for about 2 decades.  Thanks gravity!  So unfortunately (or thankfully) I couldn't model it myself but hopefully Annie will send me a (sexy) pic of her wearing it soon cause she's a total babe!

I crocheted it with a size 2 (2.25mm) hook and mercerized cotton.  

I have to admit, it was quite a bit of work for such a dainty little thing, especially hand stitching the cups to the bottom strap but by the looks of that gorgeous seamless edge, it was worth it!

My next HOTH were crochet scarves for the 2 sisters at my salon who regularly give me the best mani's, pedi's and massages ever.  One of them also cuts my hair twice a year.  I tweaked a pattern for Caron Cakes that I bought on etsy that I'm not going to mention because I don't really like the way it was written.

Self-striping yarn is convenient but ultimately I prefer picking and arranging my own color striping patterns.

 I may further tweak this pattern to crochet a wider infinity cowl with thicker color blocks.

My final completed X-Mas project was for Arianna, the newborn daughter of Mya, the owner of Dinamo, my favorite Italian restaurant in Richmond, VA.  She has filled my tummy with so many finely flavored memories over the years, I couldn't wait to really thank her.

I crocheted the 3-6 month size of the free Mon Petit Violon Craftsy cardigan that I've already crocheted countless times over the past year.

I used Knitpicks DK swish 100% superwash merino.

Looking back it's hard to imagine that Xena was ever this tiny!

This yarn has great dimension on a variety of stitches.

My seamless sweater knitting class starts in about 2 weeks.  I already knitted, washed and blocked my swatch.  I made the gage and I can't wait to start!

My first socks and more!

As I mentioned a few posts back, I've started taking knitting classes.  The classes are great!  I love my instructor and the other students are so fun and inspirational.  Last night I completed my first pair of socks.  They took 2 weeks from start to finish and now that I have the hang of them, I imagine I'll be able to knit them a lot quicker in the future.  Before I ever tried socks, because of the pretentious way other knitters had described them in the condescending way they tend to communicate with crocheters, I always imagined that they would be extremely difficult and/or time consuming to learn.  With regards to this pattern, I never could've been more mistaken!  The pattern was very simple and straight forward; the vast majority of the work is quite thoughtless and repetitive and a delightful addition to bing watching TV.

In the spirit of X-Mas, I couldn't resist doing red and green socks.  

 They are so warm and cozy and they fit me perfectly!

Here's a rolly-brimmed hat I just finished knitting in the stockinette stitch with some fun color pooling yarn for my penpal in Italy.

I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Coney Island.

I love the spiral star finishing at the top of the hat!

This yarn is super bulky. I used 10.5 circulars and double pointed needles.

Even the interior looks beautiful!

 These ribbed hats are the first hats I learned to knit in the round.  I used 10.5 circular and double pointed needles with bulky Knitpicks acrylic I had leftover from making Xena's Halloween costume.

Below are my dear friends in Connecticut, Milly and Ian, modelling their hats.  There is nothing more satisfying than learning a new skill to make useful gifts for friends!

The creamy colored hat on the bottom right is the very first hat I made.  I used Baby Alpaca Grand and even though it's luxuriously soft and ridiculously expensive, it's a total pain in the ass to knit with and I doubt I'll ever use it again.

 Finally, here's Eelco's little baby modelling his hat on the means streets of Amsterdam, Holland. I crocheted it back in March and he finally just grew into it. Last but not least is one of my current crochet WIPs that I am hoping to finish by the end of the week and then I'll post some photos.

 In addition to any number of WIPs and random holiday projects, I just picked up the yarn for my seamless sweater knitting class starting in January.  My homework between now and then is knitting and blocking a swatch to test my gauge.  I'm quite curious to find out if can make the gauge.  Stay tuned!