Haven’t done one of these bad boys in a while but it’s Friday so let’s do it! It’s probably to late to make any of these for this year, but maybe I’ll remember next year to start early, or better yet make a bunch of holiday stuff in the summer slump and have them ready to go.
I’m a big fan of kitschy holiday decor. Not really sure why but there’s something nostalgic about it all that it just makes me smile. So here’s some of the kitschiest holiday knitting patterns I could find this morning. (I’m not intending to hurt feelings here, just celebrating the kitsch!).
Christmas Lights by Amelia Samios
Actually, I don’t know how kitschy these are but I really like them. A small string would look cute or make enough to decorate you’re whole tree! This is also the kind of pattern that would work in any size yarn really, so you could make tiny little ones. Reminds me of Charlie Brown.
Christmas Holly Wreath by Hayfield
This one is so extra. It might actually be pretty hanging on a door, but can you even imagine how many fucking ends you would need to weave in. Plus all the sewing and arranging to get it into a wreath. It would really bother me to make a bunch of holly leaves over and over again, casting on and off and on and off forever… so much garter stitch… but ’tis the season to be extra.
Christmas Baskets by Jean Woods
I’m just going to leave this one here.
O Hanukkah! by My Savannah Cottage
No Holiday is safe. This dog sweater made me laugh so hard! While there doesn’t seem to be a lot to choose from on Ravelry as far as Hanukkah patterns go, this one is a winner. That dog knows sure well that he looks ridiculous, those baubles though… I do think with some finagling and careful editing this would make a really cute Hanukkah sweater for a kid. Ugly sweaters are still a thing right?
Yuletide Gnomes by Alan Dart
I can’t decide if these are super creepy or cute. This is the kind of thing my family would hide around the house to try and scare each other. Having lots of little ones sitting around in the corners and peering down from shelves might be fun if you’re hosting this year.
Not sure if I’ll find time to post over the weekend (we have FIVE Christmas gatherings to go to in the next three days…), but I hope everyone has a lovely holiday.
I also managed to finish another pair of socks for the holidays. Halfway through knitting I ran out of yarn which is more annoying when you’re using variegated yarn. Out of three skeins, I now have about 40 grams broken up into 6 stupid little bundles of yarn trying to get both socks to match. They look pretty close now that they’re off the needles – enough that no one would really notice, but the pattern repeat was about two and a half rows off when I was knitting (which drove me up the wall). I spent a good amount of time matching up the yarn and starting the cast on from exactly the same point on each sock. I don’t know why it shifted. They’re identical mathematically, I would assume they have the same gauge – I’m not sure how they wouldn’t because I knit them both at the same time. Besides the shifted colors, these knit up pretty quickly because I was excited to see what the next color section was, which is I guess why people like self striping yarns.
I also started working on an infinity scarf for my sister. I asked her if she had any requests for a gift this year because I’ve knit her quite a few things over the years and she’s pretty particular (read: picky). She told me a “basic-ass infinity scarf” that she could wear to work – something that would go with most of her outfits – so gray. I found a lightly spun, lustrous gray yarn that’s once again variegated. I’m using needles that are two sizes larger than recommended so the texture stitch is coming out a bit lacy and has a nice drape. This one is very mindless knit so it’s going pretty quickly.
My mom tells this story of me around age 4 that I vaguely remember; she walked into the kitchen to find me sitting at the table where I had traced, cut and was now sewing an entire outfit for my doll by hand without help. I remember not being able to get the shirt over her giant doll head so I cut up the back of the shirt and used yarn to lace it back up for an edgy and decorative and reusable closure. Textile things have always come easy to me, and I’ve always enjoyed them. Lanyard keychains and friendship bracelets were basically my shit in the late 90’s.
I majored in art in high school, mainly paintings and print making but I did crochet myself a full human spine out of plastic bags which was pretty cool. From there I went to art school and fully developed my love (obsession) with all things fibers and textiles. The main philosophy of the school was to teach you from the ground up. So for textiles we learned to dye our own yarn and fabric, we learned to make our own yarn and fabric and from there we basically could do anything we wanted. I really really liked weaving. The meticulous threading process, spending hours hunched over the back of the loom threading hundreds of threads through the reed and heddles. During my weaving course I taught myself how to knit (we didn’t really have a knitting course at that time, and by the time they added one I far surpassed the knowledge range of the teacher on that particular subject). I also learned to quilt at the end of my senior year. This class was only offered once a year and each year I never seemed to have time for it in my schedule. I’m so grateful I was able to fit it in, but I wish I could have learned sooner, if I had my trajectory might have been very different. These are some of my favorite pieces from the end of art school. The top two are from my senior show in which my partner and I studied the duality and dichotomy of silk moths and wool eating moths. One moth is lauded for created fiber and one moth is loathed for consuming it. (Top Image is a silk grid on a silk screen with a projection of silk moths spinning cocoons, middle image is a woven wool screen with handspun wool grid covered in different food stuffs used to encourage different larva to eat the screen – we were NOT ALLOWED to bring wool moths into a fiber department for obvious and disappointing reasons).
I’ve made some smaller wall quilts and other little things, but mostly focused on knitting. My new house has a tiny extra bedroom that I’m using as a sewing/craft room but my loom is definitely not going to get in there. We have a mud room with great light that I might end up using once we get the giant couch out of there. I would love to be able to weave again. I do have some quilting and sewing projects lined up in the mean-time.
I spent a solid twenty minutes digging up this photo. This is my weaving stash in the summer of 2014.. I started collecting yarn out of the yarn closet at school. There was a lot of junky yarn in that closet, most of it was donated by old ladies or mill companies sending us mill ends or discontinued items. I spent quite a bit of time in that closet going through all the yarn and picking out the good stuff. I sort of had a knack for it.
Sticks & String 