The Return of Yarn

Christmas has come and gone, and so have all my Christmas gifts to others. Which means I can now share them with you. Feel the excitement, people!

First is a little guy I made for a friend with an office, which was barren except for stress.

This is Fuzzball the Destroyer, of planet Zweeflebox. He fits in the palm of one's hand, squishes rather nicely, and has opposable eyeballs. This might be the best destructive fuzzy thing I've ever created. (Yes, there have been others, but no relation.) I created him with size 6 needles, Lion Brand fuzzy pompom yarn, and a strand of brown Caron. The eyeballs are Patons Grace mercerized cotton.

On a slightly more practical note, I crafted a selbu (Norwegian-style) hat.

You remember Kaelin, right? She's the one with her foot all over the top of this page. I made this hat months and months ago, and I was so thrilled with it that I almost gave it to her back in September. But I resisted, and now she has a Christmas hat.

This is possibly my favorite hat pattern ever, from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. It's a very versatile pattern, which I meshed with my favorite Norse flower design. (Yes, I said flower, not snowflake. They're meant to help remember flowers in the cold months. I can't show my work right now, but I think I learned that from the book Norwegian Handknits. Correct me if I'm totally wrong about this.) I made this hat with Caron yarn, also.

The crazy love handwarmers I made for my sister were another really exciting project.

They're the first ones I've ever made that have a proper thumb. All the other thumbs I've made just kinda stick straight out from the side, at an angle no one ever casually dangles their thumbs. These have a gradual angle following a normal human thumb, instead of those alien ones.

And that's not all! Look at the fun color changes! I'd been wanting to do a project like this for a while, with the dark background and apparent magic of color changes inside. It was as much fun as I thought it would be. The black is, again, Caron (how could you tell I have a lot of it?), and the variegated yarn is Universal Yarn Inc's Cotton Supreme Batik, in watermelon patch.

Another sister got a colorful set of mug cozies, which (her fiance pointed out) double as funky-chunky bracelets.

One is slightly larger, for those extra-large mugs. They allow you to hold your hot mug of awesomeness without burning yourself, an especially handy thing for when you're passing the mug to someone else. These are made with Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn, in Portland Wine and Oklahoma City Green. I love, love, love how chunky and quick and colorful this yarn is.

I have lots of other projects to share with you, but there's a slight problem. I try really hard, every time I make someone a gift, to take a picture of it before giving it away. But sometimes I'm terrible at remembering the camera, that tiny little box which, with a single button, replicates the image before it. (I get amazed sometimes at the stuff the human race has invented.)

So: hear ye, hear ye. If I gave you a yarned gift, send me a picture of yourself with it. That includes four scarves, a blanket, and an earring holder. Many thanks.