The Sweatshop of Love Blog

I host a Secret Knitting Santa gift exchange for students and knitting friends every year. The idea is to make something hand knit, or put together a gift for a knitter, like a kit or yarn or knitting gadgets we all want but won’t buy ourselves. Our exchange was at our holiday party on Friday! There is nothing like a bunch of hot women sitting around a table drinking beer, knitting, and exclaiming over their amazing Secret Santa gifts!

Me in Lily's Hat

I drew my friend Lily of The Owl and The Bee and knew right away what I was going to get for her. She knit my McCarren Park Cap up for herself a few months ago and before she could take pictures of it, on her VERY FIRST WEARING, she left the hat on the bus and it was gone forever. So I ordered the same yarn she used for hers, Knit Picks City Tweed DK in Lemon Curd, and knit her the hat.

McCarren Park Cap and Matching Beatnik!

She really needed the replacement so she could wear it with her matching Beatnik sweater! Amazing? You know it!

And what did Secret Knitting Santa get me?

MR DARCY CROSS STITCH PATTERN!

My Secret Knitting Santa turned out to be my good friend Tara who knows me so well she went off theme and put together a MR DARCY CROSS STITCH PATTERN KIT for me! I swear I was speechless for minutes! Isn’t it fantastic?! I can’t wait to get started!

Pattern: McCarren Park Cap by ME!

Yarn: Knit Picks City Tweed DK in Lemon Curd

Needles: Size 5 15″ circs, DPNs

Ravelry Project Page

(Hey! It’s a thing! I never publish my work in progress posts on Wednesdays. It’s a Thanksgiving miracle!)

I know you are probably having a slow day in the office, just ticking down the minutes until you get to leave work and enjoy your long weekend of giving thanks. I’m in Michigan right now snuggling puppies and babies, but I couldn’t leave you hanging. My needles are going to look pretty bare, compared to what they have been looking like lately, but here’s what I’ve got cooking.

Glittery Short Row Sweater

And I might as well start with my most guiltiest knit. If you follow me on twitter you probably saw me start freakishly obsessing over Purl Bee‘s new sweater pattern, the Short Row Sweater. I got in my head that I needed it in Knit Picks new yarn Stroll Glitter, and before I knew it the yarn was on it’s way. I cast the sweater on (all, like, 380 stitches!) a couple weeks ago and haven’t been working on it too much because I feel guilty every time! I’m saving it for when I’m home for Thanksgiving and can’t work on anyone’s Christmas presents.

Vauge Striped Stockinette Stitch? YES!

I’m making progress with my unnamed stockinette stitch something or other.

MORE SHEEP!

And does this look familiar? I knit two of these Baby Sheep Hats already, and they turned out so cute that since I’ve got three pregnant ladies in my life right now I might as well knit three more. I’m knitting all the hat parts first, then knitting all the faces and tails and ears. Baby Sheep Hat assembly line might be the cutest assembly line in the history of assembly lines. And being from Michigan I KNOW my assembly lines!

Ruffle Rose Pillow #2!

I might as well sneak an FO in here at the end! I finally finished my second Ruffle Rose Pillow! It’s a mirror image of the first one I crocheted – one pound of Caron Pound of Love, one 16″ circular pillow form. And it turned out just as amazing as the first one.

See? Despite these selfish projects I keep managing to pick up, I’m getting my holiday knitting done! And I didn’t even tell you about my new obsession! … shit.

Have a great Thanksgiving, Americans! Don’t eat so much that you can’t knit!

Things are still pretty out of hand around here. I had six work in progress projects last week, and I’ve still got SEVEN this week. And most of them are new!

From Norway With Love

First up is a project you don’t see very often around here – COLOR-WORK! I’m knitting up the Pickles From Norway With Love hat for my sister in law Emily for Christmas. It’s a stranded heart stocking cap and I’m in love with it. I’m using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in three different blue-ish heathers and as much as I hate stranded color-work, this hat is flying off my needles. It must be the hearts!

Mary Jane Slippers

I taught my Mary Jane Slippers class last week, so I got started on another pair of these adorable slippers. I made a pair for myself this summer and knew they would make an amazing Christmas present for a friend. I’m using the left over yarn from my #25 Rib Yolk Topper, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Tweed, so they look crazy-similar to my pair! They crochet up super fast so I’ll be done with these in no time.

Striped Something Something

Super abstract shot of something else I started this week! More on this later.

Entrelac Beret

And another amazing hat project! Remember my Entrelac Beret pattern I wrote for Lion Brand? I’m teaching a class on this hat this week so I’ve got one on the needles. Oh entrelac! I love you! Knit Picks Merino Style and Lion Brand Amazing are two peas in the pod of this hat.

Granny Squares!

Another mystery project: I’ve been granny squaring my little heart out all weekend and it’s going to be awesome! More later.

With all these projects working overtime, I haven’t touched my Ruffle Rose Pillow in a week, but it’s on the mind grapes. And, naturally, Aidez is happening, too.

Is it knitting intervention time?

It makes me happy to know that in a few short months Baby Nolan will be wearing this sweater to watch the Tigers spring training games. By then I’ll be over all this World Series shenanigans going on right now. As it is, I tune in, you know, for the SAKE OF BASEBALL and just end up throwing things at the TV.

Candlestick!

It’s hard to be upset about anything when you are looking at this adorable sweater though, right? The little thing knit up really quick and couldn’t be cuter.

I talked about the hems in last weeks WIP post, and I love them. It makes the sweater really tshirt-y, which is the goal. I turned them as I was knitting, and it makes finishing really easy.

I knit both sleeves flat at the same time. The pattern calls for them to be knit in the round, but that would have killed me. As tiny as they are, stockinette stitch sleeves are rough any way you shake it.

Stripes! Messed Up

I screwed up the sleeve striping. If you take a look at the other FOs, there are only two stripes of main color. I think I was distracted by The Wonder Years on netflix instant watch and mixed up my contrasting color and main colors in my head. Luckily, this is a pretty easy to ignore mess up! Looks kinda cool with three stripes, right?

Neckline Problem?

As much as I like the knitted hem, if I knit this again I’d totally put a rib in for the neckline. It looks a little big to me, and I think the rib at the neckline would tighten that up a bit. I have no way of knowing what this will actually look like on since this is Baby Nolan’s Christmas present, so I won’t see him in it for a couple months, but it looks kinda big. Maybe he’ll put it on and it will be perfect. I hope so! We’ll see in December.

And how much do I love the Knit Picks Comfy Worsted I used for this project? Let me count the ways. It’s the perfect yarn for this little sweater. It only two 5 skeins, it knit up beautifully, and I know it will hold up in the many washes it will need!

Pattern: Candlestick by Hilary Smith Callis

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Worsted in Sweet Potato and Planitarium

Needles: Size 7 circulars

Ravelry Project Page

How much is too much? Six is probably too much. Let’s have it:

1. Baby Nolan’s Christmas Present – A Tiger’s Candlestick

Candlestick

This adorable baseball sweater, Candlestick, designed by The Yarniad, has been on my must knit for Nolan list since he was born. It’s a bottom up raglan sleeved cotton sweater that I’m working up in Knit Picks Comfy Worsted in Detroit Tigers colors, this great orange, and the sleeves will be blue when I get to them.

I was working on it at a pretty good clip right up until the Tigers lost to the Rangers in the ALCS on Saturday. I need to take a little break from those Tigers colors until my heart heals. I miss baseball, and if I didn’t care about the sweater I would be washing my toilet with it to get back at it for dumping me.

Perfect Knit Hem

There isn’t a rib in this entire sweater. It’s all perfect folded hems that complete the t-shirt look of this sweater. I can’t wait to see Baby Nolan‘s adorable little face in this sweater!

2. Ruffle Rose Pillow #2

Another Pillow

I’m chipping away at another Ruffle Rose Pillow – the first one had taken me so long to complete that I figured I should work a few rounds when I can so I’m not stuck crocheting around and around and around and around these pillows in the days before Christmas.

3 – 5. Kinda Secret Knitting Projects!

Seed Stitch and Cables

Seed Stitch and Diagonal St st

Seed Stitch and Stockinette Stitch

More about these projects soon!

And last but not least, the first six inches of my Aidez cardigan for the knit along, which is falling behind the pack right now. I’ll make time to catch up later and share pictures tomorrow.

So with six WIPs, I’m a little in over my head! What is the most projects you’ve had on the needles at one time?