The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Every single gift I’m giving this season is handmade. 100%. If I didn’t make it with my own two hands, I bought it from someone who did.

My Knit Gifts

I knit 15 gifts this year. I started in July! I worked in other knitting along the way and I’m taking a break from putting the finishing touches on a few things to write this post, 3 days before Christmas. There is stuff in that pic I haven’t written here about yet because I want them to be a surprise! So yeah. I’ve been a really busy knitter.

I’m lucky to have a lot of people in my life who appreciate handmade gifts. And I’m pretty good at finding patterns for ridiculous things that are joke gifts, which helps!

Soldier Field L Sign by CitizenShay

I’ve also got people on my list that don’t appreciate hand knits as much as others, so in those cases I’ve found other people to fill in the gap. I got this print of a Chicago L sign for Soldier Field for my dad, because while he is a Lions fan, he comes to Soldier Field every year for a Lions Bears game, and Chicago is awesome, so this printed canvas is a fun reminder of that. CitizenShay has lots of fun Chicago L signs and are worth checking out!

Octophant Print

I thought my brother Matthew would like this print from Octophant, who does a lot of crazy interesting prints and illustrations. My brother is really into history and music, and the medieval feel of this gig poster I thought fit the bill.

So there you have it! I’m 100% handmade for the holidays. There is always room for improvement, of course. I bought my holiday cards and never got to the mitten gift tags I wanted to make. Next year I’ll be even MORE hand made. Because that is just how we roll.

I headed up from Chicago to Michigan last Monday with nothing on my to do list but knitting, snuggling babies, watching football, and eating for a week, and that is exactly what I did.

Baby Ryenn

My new niece Baby Ryenn is getting cuter by the second. She was pretty damn cute when she was born in July, but LOOK AT THAT FACE!

Baby Nolan!

And speaking of faces you just want to kiss off, Baby Nolan is too cute for words, too. And he is all running around and feeding himself! And he finally has hair! It’s a Thanksgiving miracle!

TINY SWEATERS!

Since those babies were born, knitting time in Michigan has severely diminished, but I did get a head start on my Snow Day projects! I saw this pattern in the Knit Picks catalog and just had to have it, so I ordered the entire kit. All NINE skeins of  Palette and the pattern. The Snow Day pattern is full of adorable tiny projects that need to be on my Christmas tree, and they could not be more fun to make. Six sweaters, a penguin, a sled, a felted gingerbread man, tree lights, and a string of popcorn. Three down, eight to go!

Short Row Sweater Progress... ?

And it’s hard to tell what the hell is going on with my Short Row Sweater, but progress is being made! I ran into problems with the stitch counts after separating for my sleeves, so if you are working this pattern just ignore them. The instructions for what you are doing is right despite the stitch counts being wrong. I wrote more specifically about what is wrong on my ravelry project page.

Oh! I almost forgot!

Winner!

A huge thank you to everyone that entered my Wool and the Gang Snood Dogg knit kit giveaway last week! The lucky winner is Lily of The Owl and The Bee! This makes me even more jealous because now I’ll have to see it all the time! You lucky bitch!

I’m in and out of Chicago this week. I got back into town yesterday and I’m Megabus-ing to Minneapolis Thursday for No Coast Craft-o-Rama this weekend. It’s going to be a crazy couple of weeks over here!

It sure seems like I’m punching out these FOs! It’s easy when they are hats for babies. And when they are really fun to knit!

YODA!

My Yoda hat (that I started just last week!) is kind of a pre-FO, since I haven’t felted it. But I don’t have a washing machine, or my nephew Baby Nolan’s head to fit it to, so I’m sending it off to my mom to felt and get the sizing right. This is a really fun, easy hat to throw together and while I’m not a big felter, I’m sure this hat is going to turn out awesome!

Princess Leia!

I also finished up my niece Ryenn’s Princess Leia hat. This pattern is fantastic! It’s so detailed. From the front hair shaping to the part down the center of the hat, I was really impressed while I was knitting it! And the icord buns really make it perfect.

BIG BUNS

Putting this hat on a boot just doesn’t do it justice. I’ll be sending both of these hats to my mom, so I’ll have hats on babies pictures to share soon. But in the mean time, get excited! There are going to be some super cute baby pictures coming your way.

Pattern: Felted Baby Yoda Hat by Sunshyne Leland

Yarn: JoAnn Sensations Kashmira in Green

Needles: Size 9 16″ circular and size 9 DPNs

Ravelry Project Page

Pattern: Princess Leia Hat by Amanda Kaffka

Yarn: Caron One Pound in Brown

Needles: Size 7 16″ circular and size 7 DPNs

Ravelry Project Page

And then, magically, my summer in Minneapolis was over. It hardly feels like three months ago that I got here, and here I’m already packing up to leave. But before I head back to Chicago Friday, we knew we had to have the weekend to end all weekends. And we surely did, starting Friday with a trip to Target Field.

WAAAAAAAAY Up THERE!

See those people WAY up at the top there? That is where we usually sit. But Friday? Ohh no! Friday PT got CHAMPIONS CLUB tickets for the game, which meant that we got all you can eat and drink free food, and our view for the game was this:

WHOA!

I was so happy during this game tears were shed. The food was amazing, getting to drink all I wanted to was amazing, not waiting in line to pee was amazing! But the baseball. It was RIGHT THERE! It was almost scary how close we were.

Ohh HOLLA!

And then there was the fair. This is me, trying to eat a deep fried Reeses Peanut Butter Cup covered in powdered sugar. Because there isn’t enough sugar on the inside of that thing that it needed more. And yeah. It was good. Because EVERYTHING IS AMAZING AT THE FAIR!

Beer on a Stick!

This is my third Minnesota State Fair, and I think ever time gets better. It’s Tuesday and I’m still recovering from this trip. It’s just that glorious.

Bunny!

I love that I take the same pictures every year. In 2009 it was food, bunnies, crop art, and baby sheep. In 2010 it was food, baby sheep, and crop art.

Baby Sheep!

This year is shaping up to be food, bunnies, baby sheep, and crop art again!

Crop Art!

And, of course, the underwhelming shots of knitting.

Knitting, Just Hanging Around

We were at the fair for 11 hours, so it’s really no wonder that I’m still recovering. I could barely walk yesterday! I’m already excited for next year.

And I’m already excited to come back to Minneapolis! I kinda love this place. I’m Chicago bound Friday, which means I’m frantically packing up my life and finishing all my unfinished projects before I’ll be away from them. Why does leaving always sneak up on me?!

But we went out with a bang, Minnesota. And those 5 deep fried pounds around my middle will be with me for a long time.

I’ve been hanging out in Michigan for more than two weeks, helping out with the babies and hanging out with my family. This time has flown by!

Baby Ryenn

Remember that outfit I made for yet-to-be-named baby niece back in March? Ryenn’s mom decided it should be her outfit for her announcements! It doesn’t get much cuter than that, right? For project details check out my rav page.

Cherry Pie!

We’ve also done a huge amount of eating. We picked cherries and made pies and cherry butter! We’ve been feasting on my mom’s garden. I’ve barely left the house. It’s been glorious.

But I’m headed back to Minneapolis tomorrow. You know what is hard to get to from West Michigan? Minneapolis. It’s either a $300 plane ticket with a layover in Milwaukee or a 13 hour Amtrak to MegaBus shitshow that will save me about $250. You know what this Dutch girl picked.

I’ve had a couple 13 hour travel days. From Michigan to New York City last summer. From Minneapolis to Michigan for Christmas last year. I’ve got projects lined up, snacks packed, and a visit with my best girl Rachel in Chicago during my transfer. I’m as prepared as I can be!

I’ll be sharing KAL FOs when I get myself organized! I can’t wait to share how they turned out!