Twisted Stitches

Holiday Knitting and Armwarmers

So this year I swore off the gift knitting for Xmas. (Are you all laughing yet?). And yet somehow I have taken on 4 scarves, 3 pairs of socks and 2 kids sweaters (at least). So far I have finished up 2 scarves, 1 1/2 socks and most of a 3rd scarf. So far, not too bad. I would show you pictures of the finished scarves, but I seem to have lost my camera. My camera was on the fritz anyway, but it still took a few pictures before going dead, but now all I have is my daughter's kidizoom camera which while lots of fun for her, does not take the best pictures. I am crossing my fingers that my mom picked up on my hint when I told her I lost my camera and really wanted a new one for Christmas (ok so that was a blatant request, not really a hint!). I am also nearly finished with all my gift shopping for the year and if Borders would stop sending me 40% off coupons, I would stop spending all my money there. I bought 2 of the new Spider Man the Icon books- one for my hubby and the other for his brother as well as getting myself the Interweave Favorite socks book and a collection of Audrey Hepburn movies. (I'll just wrap those up from Santa and pretend like I don't know where they came from. It might work....). Since I don't have pictures for you, and I find pictures vital in blogland, I am giving you my armwarmers pattern transfrered over from my old blog. It is the first pattern I ever wrote up, so excuse any errors!

Some notes on the pattern: These were of course made for my measurements and are quite snug, so if you like them to be a little looser or need to make them wider around, I would suggest just going up a needle size.

Gauge: 8 sts and 13 rows to the inch on size 0 needles

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Watercolor- 2 skeins

Measurements: Just below elbow-10 inches; wrist-61/2 inches (these are my measurements used, not the actual finished measurements of the armwarmers as I made them with about an inch of negative ease). Length from elbow to beginning of thumb gusset: 9 inches

Pattern:

CO 70 stitches, divide evenly over 3 needles and join

K1, P1, to end of round

Continue in K1, P1 rib for 12 more rows (about 1 inch)

switch to St st and work 22 rounds even (2 inches)

Begin decreases:

k1, k2tog, knit to last 3 stitches, SSK, K1

Knit 5 rounds even

Work the previous 6 rounds until 48 stitches remain.

Knit 22 rounds even (2 inches)

Begin Thumb Gusset:

k1, pm, m1, k1, m1, pm, k to end of round

k one round even

Repeat last 2 rounds, increasing after 1st marker and before last marker, until you have 19 stitches between the markers

knit 4 rounds even

next round: k1, remove marker, place 19 stitches from gusset on scrap yarn , remove marker, CO1 stitch and continue working in the round (48 stitches remain).

K 16 rounds (about 1 1/2 inches)

Switch to K1 P1 rib for 6 rounds and BO in rib.

Thumb:

place 19 stitches back on the needles, dividing over 3 needles. PU and Knit 3 stitches in the gap.

K 1 round even

next round: K18, k2tog, k1 SSk (1 stitch will be from the beginning of the next round) 20 stitches remain

K 2 rounds, work k1, P1 rib for 6 more rounds

BO in rib.

Weave in ends.

Make the 2nd warmer the same as the first, no need to reverse shapings.

Abbreviations in case you need em:

K- knit

P- purl

CO- cast on

k2tog- Knit 2 stitches together

SSK- Slip slip knit

PM- place marker

St St- stockinette stitch

BO- Bind off

I think that's it! if you have any questions or notice any errors in my pattern, please leave me a comment. Also, if anyone does end up making them, I would love to see em!

That's it till after the holidays for me! Hopefully I'll be back with some pictures of all the knitted gifts from this year!
ETS

Halloween

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. Dressing up and Trick-or-Treating and seeing all the houses decorated is just too fun. So even though my kids both have colds (as do I now. Jeez school is great isn't it?!), I still could not deprive them of trick-or-treating (as my husband said, it would cause some sort of developmental issues and their synapses would not fire properly if we didn't...I decided to go with it. )
So we made their costumes, OK so hubby did most of the actual sewing, but I helped in other ways. One day I will conquer the sewing machine. Just not yet.
The kids were both Japanese children as per my daughter's request.



I could not get my son to stand still for a picture, so these are the best I have. He was so excited and just loved it all. He kept going up to houses and saying "oooooo spooky" it was adorable.
After the trick or treating we went to my mom's for the annual Halloween pizza and to help out with the insane amount of kids they get over there trick or treating. They decorate the house like a pirate ship every year and it is sooo cool. Their block used to get blocked off every year from cars because all the houses used to decorate insanely and they would get literally over a thousand trick or treaters every year. As the years have gone by, less and less houses participate, but they still get tons of people.
With all the costume making going on, knitting has gone on the back burner. About all I have to show you are my silly opposite socks that I am still working on.
These are done in Blue Sky Alpaca sportweight. I only had 1 skein of each, so I had to make do. They are a simple stitch which makes for great mindless knitting when I have a chance. Although now that costumes are over with, I'll be able to do some more knitting.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, my husband and I were going to be samurai, but didn't get our costumes made in time for the grown up party, so instead he was the insane clown Inbred and I was Mitrix his keeper. We escaped from the circus with our friend Ralph (a bag of bones we carried around with us) and told everyone we got hungry along the way had had to eat him, but still couldn't bear to leave him behind. We had the party cracking up though because we stayed in character for most of the party. It was a lot of fun, but I have no pictures of our costumes unfortunately (Do you younger sis?). Yes we can be disgusting and twisted at times. I am not afraid to admit it. It was Halloween. Disgusting and gross is my forte on Halloween!
ETS