A flurry of Christmas knitting

Merry Christmas, everyone.  The past week for me has been a flurry of finishing last minute projects and getting ready for the holidays on top of a busy work week.

I took a brief break from sock yarn to make a hat for my good friend Tilly.  She had seen a picture of a hat in one of my pattern books and fell in love with it, so I had to make one for her for Christmas.  Like me, Tilly loves all things purple.  When I found some sumptuous yarn in a cashmere, merino, and silk blend in the perfect shade of purple, I knew I had to use it for Tilly's hat.

So here it is, the "Laurel" hat from Jared Flood's "Made in Brooklyn" made from Sublime cashmere/merino/silk, completed in just under 3 days.  The top photo is during blocking, and the bottom photo was taken just before wrapping and is more representative of the true yarn color. 

I bought three skeins to reach the yardage the pattern called for, and only used 1.5 skeins.  I am debating whether or not to make another since it turned out so well and was an easy knit.  It was also a nice break to work with needles larger than a 2!

My next Christmas project was a scarf for my dear friend Nate, who also happens to be Tilly's mother-in-law.  I had been looking for some time for a pattern that would do justice to my new skein of Sunna, which I acquired at Rhinebeck this year, in the beautiful Cape Cod colorway.  Since Nate is partial to the Cape, and appreciates good cashmere on the level that I do, it seemed a perfect fit.  I chose a diamond lace pattern from the Spring St. Denis magazine by Kat Coyle.  I love Kat's patterns, and this one was a fun knit--pattern interesting enough to avoid boredom, but easily memorized so I did not have to cart the chart around with me.  I ran out of yarn short of the 32 repeats suggested by the pattern, but it still blocked out to just over 6 feet.

Here is the detail of the diamond pattern during blocking. The colors are pretty true, but the depth of the colors is not coming through well.  Nate wore it all day Christmas day, so I think she liked it.  Good thing, because I really wanted to keep it for myself.

My final last-minute Christmas knit was a pair of socks for Tilly's 3-year-old son.  Started these Christmas eve and finished them Christmas day.  No photo, since I left them there for him, and the yarn was the leftover Lang Jawoll from the boy's socks I made last month.  Nice and simple 2x2 ribbed socks with a short-row heel.

So my December totals so far are: six projects, but only three skeins of sock yarn from the stash consumed.  I will decide whether or not to count the hat against my project total since it was DK and not sock weight, and a new yarn purchase and not from stash. 

In the meantime, I am trying to decide on my next project.  Contenders are: a second diamond lace scarf for me from one of my skeins of Bugga!, a pair of socks from the skein of STR in an orange/purple colorway (trust me, it is prettier than it sounds!) that I wound last month, or a pair of socks for my niece Taylor from my second skein of Fortissima Mexiko.