Sunday Snapshot: Presents

By now hopefully everyone has had a chance to celebrate their respective holidays, spend time with their loved ones and open their presents. Most people I have talked to mentioned that they tried to keep their holidays simple or scaled down this year. Whether from saving money, avoiding consumerism or focusing on minimizing the stuff in our lives, simplicity seems to be an abundant theme. I tried to focus this year on making most of the gifts I gave and now that they have been opened I will be able to share them in the coming weeks!

My favorite gift I received this year was handmade as well, and comes with quite a back story. I knit the McCarren Park Cap for myself out of leftover yarn from my Beatnik Sweater. A slouchy hat with a double layer moss stitch brim and two adorable fabric buttons. I even had some extra yarn left over that I planned on making some cute ruffle socks with. I love the idea of having a matched set!

On the first day that I wore this hat I left it on the bus accidentally. Many calls later to the lost and found number of the CTA I finally admitted it to myself that it was gone forever. To add insult to injury I hadn't even taken pictures of it before it was lost to the world.  I had never lost a handmade item before and didn't realize just how devastating it could be to lose something you've made. It was a sad sad few weeks for my head. I even drew a picture of myself wearing it for my empty raverly project page. I just couldn't take the sadness of a blank photo spot.

Fortunately, my sadness was short lived. When Allyson drew my name for The Sweatshop of Love Secret Santa she knew exactly what she was going to make me. The best part of all of this was I had NO IDEA she was making it for me. I was truly surprised and delighted by my secret santa gift. She even managed to put flower buttons I would have picked out for myself.

It's been keeping my head warm since I got it although I haven't needed it much with this lovely warm weather we've been having here in Chicago! I hope that you recived at least one gift that brought you joy and surprise. I'm very excited to start a new year and all of the new and exciting projects it will bring.

Knit Along!

While my lovely friend Allyson over at The Sweatshop of Love has been staycation-ing in Minneapolis for three months my Chicago knitting sceen has been a little lonely. That's why I was super pshcyed to get on board with a knit along. I've never done one before but I am drooling over The Beatnik sweater in the deep fall issue Knitty that I just couldn't help myself.

The Knit Picks gift card my lovely mother in law gave me for Christmas was a nice little bonus as well. Unfortunatly I waited so long in my deicion and ordered my yarn late so I'm THREE whole weeks behind schedule.

The idea is to turn this:

into this: 

I'm working with the Knit Picks DK City Tweed. It's a slightly thiner yarn than what the pattern calls for but I think that I'm going to be ok as far as size goes. I half heartedly knit up a gauge swatch, eyeballed it once or twice with a ruller and just dug in. It kind of just feels like I need a little blind faith in my life right now. So here's jumping in head first. I ordered a few extra skeins so I should be alright in the end. 

I'm really loving how soft and buttery it is. The yellow is a little more mustardy in real life than it appears on the web site which I love. We've got a crazy snow storm forecasted in the next two days here in Chicago so I plan on enjoying my days off and getting some serious knitting in!