A Very Kiwi Christmas

I might have missed my Christmas deadline with these socks... luckily Christmas comes around every year. I really enjoyed knitting this pair. The pattern, Geek Socks, by Wei Siew is completely potato chip knitting. I just had to have another round, another stripe, another another another. 

I did make an edit to the pattern: I knit heel flaps rather than an afterthought heel as recommended in the pattern. I have gotten reasonably good at getting my stripes to look nice in heel flaps, so I went for it. I only had to rip once because I decided I didn't want the red stripe surrounding the heel.

This pair is so cozy, too! I bought Stray Cat Sock's Essential Deluxe base, which is a 80/10/10 Merino/Cashmere/Nylon base. And I'm just in love with the Kiwi Christmas color way. It reminds me of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

I'm pleased to report that I was able to enable friends at knit night. When I had ordered all my yarn, I'd offered to tack on anyone else's order to help save on shipping from New Zealand. No one took me up on it. But after I started knitting these socks... well. I'm pretty sure Stray Cat won't be going out of business any time soon.

I'm not the only one to have finished up some knitting. Connor knit me a pair of Lambing Mitts out of Stansborough's Mithril (also a New Zealand yarn) in the Kokako color way. 

When he knit himself a pair, he left out the extra bit that can fold up over the hands. I insisted on having that part added.

Connor even joined me in watching Netflix while knitting. We watched Versailles while he knit the second mitt and it ended up too small! The plot was pretty stressful at times; he must have been knitting much tighter. Connor ripped it out and knit a third one and that one fit just fine.

So now I have warm hands and feet. It's been pretty cold, so I'm sure they are both going to get lots of use.

Mr. Bear Ears Has Warm Hands

I'm so proud of Connor. Just last week he finished his third knitting project: a pair of fingerless mitts.

When he knit his first project, a scarf, he learned all about knit and purl. With his second project, a cowl, he got comfortable knitting in the round. With this project, Connor really stretched himself; he learned how to use the magic loop method of knitting in the round. He had to start over several times, which I didn't even know about because he was able to restart the magic loop all by himself. Connor conquered the m1L and m1R increases. He also wove in all the ends himself this time around. (I helped him out with his first two projects.) Connor used the Lambing Mitts pattern, but ultimately decided not to add the garter stitch band at the top of the hand. He felt that it would be too bulky when typing.

Although we are still experiencing summer, the mornings are cool, so Connor is already using his mitts when he drives to work in the morning. He mentioned that he felt a bit like Link from the Legend of Zelda games while wearing them.

It was a happy accident that he was wearing his Link shirt when we took the pictures of his mitts

There has been some discussion over what might occupy Connor's needles next. He likes a challenge, so it came down between socks or a sweater. Socks have won out... this time.