Handmade Christmas

Now that Christmas is over I can share a few of the gifts I made.

I made an Orenburg lace shawl for my mom. The yarn is Fino by Alpaca with a Twist, and I knit it on size 3 needles. The pattern is by Galina  Khmeleva from the Interweave Knits Summer 2000 issue.

This was a challenging project that kept my fingers occupied on many long airline flights and in hotel rooms. I started (and restarted and restarted) the border during a trip to Annapolis, Maryland. In April it flew with me to Buenos Aires and the Iguazu Falls in Argentina. I worked on it during the long flight to Berlin, while visiting friends in Le Mans, France (and while Aaron was at the track for the 24 Hours of Le Mans - I didn't go to the track but maybe next year we'll have grandstand seats and then I'll go and knit and watch the race). The shawl then traveled to Paris, then Dunkirk and finally London before coming home with me. Since I can't sleep on airplanes, a lot of knitting was accomplished on those long flights!

Here are some more photos:

I knit this black, white and gray scarf for my sister.

 I used three different yarns: Boing and Arabesque, both by Trendsetter Yarns, and Paton's Silk Bamboo. I used size 11 needles and simply knit each row using a different yarn, leaving enough for a fringe. I alternated the bamboo with the Trendsetter Yarns to give the scarf some drape because the Trendsetter Yarns had a lot of texture.

I made a similar scarf for me using Arabesque (in pink) and another Trendsetter Yarn called "Skye" combined with the Paton's Silk Bamboo.

My brother-in-law received these handmade luggage handle wraps and tags from me. I patterned the handle wraps after some I have from my work (which are adorned with my company's logo). They're handy for spotting your luggage in baggage claim. I used nylon so that they would be more resistant to weather and dirt. Maybe I'll write up a tutorial on how to make these.


I made my husband some felted clogs, except they're not felted yet and I don't have a picture. I also knit him some socks, which I just finished and haven't photographed yet.
 
I'm looking forward to 2012 and more projects. I just photographed the rest of my yarn stash and loaded the photos on Ravelry.com. So much yarn...so many projects! It's exciting and a bit overwhelming to decide what to do first. Not to mention that I have a few projects that are not quite finished.