Dec 30, 2015

Christmas Presents And The New Year

Hej everyone! I hope you're all still full from all the food from the Christmas holidays! I know I am! :) Today I want to show you some knitted Christmas presents I made and also what a really cool gift I gave myself this year!

First I want to show you what I knitted for Christmas this year.


You know, I made an Antares shawl in XL for my mom’s birthday.
She really enjoys it and tells me all the time how she loves the softness.
Even some of her friends and co-workers liked it so much (and how soft the Cotton Merino yarn is) that they wanted one for Christmas :)
So, I ended up making three more.

One using super delicate Drops Baby Merino (top right picture) in pale yellow and two using Drops Cotton Merino in beige (bottom right) and undyed/natural (left picture).



All of the shawls have wooden beads (size 10mm) around the outer edge. But for the one made with Baby Merino I used smaller ones (6mm size).


They turned out so pretty and delicate with all the lace. 
Since I have some of the Malabrigo yarn from my sample knit for Antares left, I already thought about frogging my sample and make it in XL again because I really, really liked the giant ones!
But I will have to think about that some more.

If you're interested, you can find the pattern for the Antares shawl here.






 The other big Christmas project was a sweater for my old college friend Lisa.



After not seeing her for a long time, we met up again last july. And it felt like it was only yesterday the last time we were together!

Anyway, that day in july I was wearing my Aidez cardigan and she kind of fell in love.
So, she asked me if I could knit her a big, really warm and cuddly sweater with a cable pattern for winter.

Yes, of course I can! :) And that’s how this project started.






She started to research some sweaters she liked and I guided her through what is possible and what goes well together with her choice of yarn and shape of the sweater. And so we assembled a sweater for her that I knitted until Christmas. She is a little bit taller than I am, so the sweater looks a bit big on me I think… the sleeves are too long for me at least ;) But it still is so comfy and soft ♡

And just before Christmas we met up again and I could give her the finished sweater. She was so happy and excited! :)
Now she has something to keep her warm on her Silvester vacation in Denmark and long after that.



I had really fun knitting this sweater. I so love the Andes yarn with its blend of alpaca and wool which makes it very soft and extra warm. I also enjoyed knitting with some bulky yarn once again.
The only downside are the seams that came out very bulky as well. Next time I will try a top-down version even though I like the shape of seamed sweaters better.
But I am still very happy with the result!
The cables on the lower sleeves were her special wish, and I have to say, I really like them. They add a little more eye-catching effect :)




Of course you can also find this project on Ravelry.


Now let's get to the most exciting part!!

Look what a really cool gift I gave myself this year!

A Passap/Pfaff Duomatic 80 vintage knitting machine! :) :) :)

This was definately something I had my eyes on for a while. How cool is that?!
I know the machine knitting community is not that big, but now it got a new member! ;)

Of course, I already tried some things and made the suggested "learning samples" from the manual.
So, Berta and I are getting to know each other. (I named her Berta for now :) )



So, I got myself a new toy and a big challenge for next year - mastering machine knitting!
Haha, I know there is A LOT to learn for me now :)
But it's so great and I am so happy! I feel like a sponge these days, absorbing all the infos I can find on machine knitting!







Like probably all of you, I am now making plans and setting goals for 2016.
Of course I am super excited about my knitting machine Berta, so I'm eager to learn as much as I can and want to try a lot of things on it.
But I also have other plans. For example, I want to crack the "100-Likes" on my facebook page. (Although I came quite close this year ;) )

And I am always up for inspiration and input, so tell me what goals do you have for the new year? Or don't you have any, and just let the wind take you with him? :)



I hope you've all been having a lovely Christmas and I wish you a fabulous start into 2016!!!

Hope to see you here on the blog next year, too! :)

Love,
Stefanie

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