Octobirthday presents.

Like... presents for birthdays happening in October, not eight birthdays, or a birthday shared by eight people. You know a joke is hilarious when you have to explain it.

K-9! He doesn't quite balance, but he is supported by his associated on the shelf of things I have made for my boyfriend. Remember the time Giles was in Doctor Who? That was a good episode, even if Giles was not employed to best use. I used this pattern and Cygnet Chunky.

A neckwarmer for my friend Steph, who has emigrated to what will soon be the frozen wasteland of upstate New York. I used this pattern, casting on 49 rather than 63 stitches, and with an extra repeat, so it can be snug and long enough to meet the brim of a hat. It's a simple pattern, but I like it a good deal. I'd also been dying for a chance to use the yarn (Debbie Bliss Paloma) and it's so soft and squishy and lovely. I am selfish in what I choose to make and use, but I also hand-make things with love, so I feel I net at "neutral" in my gift-giving consideration.

I know I always say "Maybe I will make one of these for myself!" but the way it sits and the length my hair was when I made it put me in mind of Sheik from Ocarina of Time, who has a place in my heart, and Hallowe'en is coming... so maybe I will make one of these for myself!

My little brother loved the bobble hat I made him last year, so much that it disintegrated. I made him this replacement for his birthday on Thursday. (He also loved the Enterprise.) The pattern is Bobblehead Ray, which is about the nicest simple bobble hat pattern I've found.

More to follow, as October is disproprtionately full of birthdays.

Myself and a friend have started a knitting and crochet group in the asylum seekers' centre where we volunteer, so I am scouring Ravelry for projects interesting enough to stick with, but simple enough for beginners. Exciting times!

Christmas holiday knitting

Not knowing what to do with myself with my Christmas knitting finished, I became briefly fixated on wanting to clear out yarn, or at least turn skeins of yarn into things that weren't skeins, so these came out of it!

A simple ribbed bobble hat. I made two to use up this yarn, and then crocheted a few squares for the Henry Bear Blanketeers with the leftovers. I don't know why I look so sad in the last photo, I think my face just defaults to 'sad' when it's not responding to a particular emotion.

I wanted to use up my decadent graduation yarn, but it was only 110 yards, so that was quite limiting. I didn't manage to take a photo that shows the colour and sheen of the yarn in real life, but you can take my word for it that it's nice yarn. I like this pattern - Swirling Petals Cowl - but I'm not sure that I like the length of it on me, or that the pattern suits the yarn. It also turned my fingers green while I was knitting, so if it does the same to my neck I'll look a bit gangrenous. It may end up frogged and made into something else.

My sister's Christmas gloves, which were blocking last time I posted. I'm really happy with how they turned out - muted colours and cables always strike me as looking very grown-up, and as she's training to be a teacher I thought they might be a bit more fitting than the ones I had planned to make for her, which weren't working out due to yarn weight. Vancouver Fog is a lovely pattern, and I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.

Fourth Doctor gloves! I've wanted to make these for a while - not for myself, just to have made - and I really like how they turned out. I based it roughly off the Doctor Who Scarf Pattern, keeping the proportions of colours similar, and changing it around when a colour was appearing to much within the block I was working from. These are mostly acrylic, and they're lovely and warm. Weaving in all the ends was a pain in the face, though.

Speaking of Doctor Who, my friend Steph gave me this shirt for Christmas

and got my Doctor right despite not watching the show. If that's not true friendship I don't know what is. (Tennant 4 lyf. You never forget you first Doctor and all, but mainly it's the kindness and joy that makes him so endearing. I agree with the point that he's probably too human for the Doctor, but I also don't care. Also, David Tennant is adorable, and that accent, and that bone structure.)

I don't have space at the moment  to work on my 2013 projects, but I've accrued a few commission in the last few days which will keep me busy. I said to myself that I wouldn't buy more yarn until I had used up at least a third of what I already have, but I don't have the appropriate weights and colours. I don't know why I stay with me after all the lies.

FO Friday: Moone Boy hat, owl gloves, and a scarf

My favourite part of working for free is that they don't expect me to come in if there's nothing to do. I had a day off on Tuesday, so I got a commission started and finished while watching David Attenborough documentaries. A girl in the year below me in my department had asked me to make a hat for her boyfriend like the one the kid in Moone Boy wears. I couldn't find a pattern, so I kept this picture open to peer at and worked away. (Image is from this page.)

The bobble may be too big. It was hard to get no glare off it.

I used Katia Big Merino on 6mm needles for this. I could have made a more accurate hat with slightly finer yarn, but that wouldn't have been as warm, and also, ain't no-one got time for that much fair isle.

Sure it's a nice Christmassy hat, if nothing else. I haven't given it to her yet, so hopefully they both like it!

I can also post my last October birthday knit, since it's been unwrapped! I made a pair of Owlings gloves for a friend who's inexplicably enthusiastic about owls. I really like the subtlety of the pattern. (When I made it it was still free - given the reasons listed for it now being charged for, I'm not sure if I should donate. It was beautiful and I got use out of it!)

I knit these with Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton, as their person is vegan. (I need to stop getting close enough to people with wool aversions that they merited knitted gifts.) It took less than one skein to make the pair, and I knit them larger than the pattern recommended to fit man-hands.

A close-up of the owls. Hey, remember when there was sunshine and vegetation could grow?

I made this neckwarmer yesterday during my downtime at work and when I got home, to sell at a craft fair at the end of this month. I made my first trip to The Constant Knitter on Monday - one of them women recognised me by the scarf I was wearing, as we'd had a conversation about the yarn at the Knitting and Stitching Show the day before! - and bough a skein of King Cole Riot because I liked the colours and wanted to see how it knits and I'll hopefully be selling it at the end of the month anyway and it doesn't count as part of a stash and DON'T LOOK AT ME.

I'm getting a bit wary of how much Christmas knitting I have left to do, but it'll be grand so it will.

FO Friday: bobble hats!

I've finished three of my October birthday presents, but the need for another yarn-shopping trip meant I had time to get some other work done. It has been a long time since of my yarn stash could fit into the box under my bed (I almost always buy yarn just for specific projects! I don't know how it happens!), and since my family are getting work done in the house and space is becoming a rare commodity, I've been getting a move on on emptying out my bag-o-yarn.

I bought quite a few balls of Cygnet Seriously Chunky at the start of the Summer in the Woollen Mills closing down sale. (They said they would be open in a smaller premises within a few weeks and I can't find word on any such thing online. Sad times.)  The size of them made them an obvious target for getting out of the bag first.

I made bobble hats with cartoonishly large bobbles! They are different sizes as I was working out the best size as I went along.

They can be worn slouchy or with the brim rolled up for a snugger fit.  (Sorry for the dead-eye stare. I'm sharing my sister's room at the moment, and if she came in while I was taking self-photos she would make fun, and it would be perfectly fair.)

I like how the hats turned out, and while I'm not one for bright colours, they're more autumnal than I realised while shopping on a sunny day. I think Cygnet yarns are a very handy staple. They seem like nothing to write home about - they're nothing special to touch, though they're certainly not uncomfortable or abrasive. That said, they have a pretty good range of weights and colours, and are inexpensive enough that they can be used for toys without it feeling like a waste and clothes without spending a great deal. (Acrylic is also useful if you're knitting for people with wool allergies.) Except Hickeys don't stock them. WOOLLEN MILLS WHERE ARE YOU? :(

Moving down the weight scale (my god, the feeling of using anything lighter than chunky yarn after several nights of knitting with chunky yarn) I made a child-sized version of my cupcake hat to use up the yarn I had left over from it.  It wasn't going to be child-sized until I realised how little pink I had left. At the moment I'm using the Louisa Harding Millais I bought on sale (... okay, this might be why I have so much of all the yarn) before Christmas to knit another owl hat. I have a feeling I wrote down the pattern for that hat, but my pattern notebook is trapped on the wrong side of some boxes, so I'm improvising.

I'm hoping to sell at a few craft fairs over the coming months, and I've booked a place at the New Art Market in two weeks. So moving things from the bag-o-yarn to the 'To Sell' bag mightn't seem constructive yet, but eventually at least one will be empty and then everything will fit under my bed.

Recent FOs: gloves, a bobble hat, and a helmet

I finally used the last of my Willow Tweed. These will be going to a craft fair next month, unless I think of someone who would like a pair as a gift. "I'll make these just in case" isn't really how I operate with hand-made presents, though.

I used two of the same stitch patterns as for the green yarn, but I think the yarn brings them out very well.

I've finished two of my October birthday presents, but one of the recipients-to-be reads this! This hat is for my little brother. It's made from a whole skein of Noro Korogashi - the ends went into making the bobble. Making bobbles is a bit more fiddly than I remember from when I was eight, but them's the breaks. The pattern used is Bobble-Head Ray (Ravelry page only). I don't think it can quite be said to be one-size-fits-all, as it's a bit loose on me - I'm planning on making one for myself, and knocking off at least one 8st repeat. My brother is a sight taller and broader than I am, so the size shouldn't be a problem. I'm happy with how it turned out, and it feels lovely to wear!

This wee centurion hat was a commission, based on this. I'm not enamoured with either crochet or paying for things, so I improvised a knitted version. I intended to write down the pattern, but that didn't pan out.  The hat is knit with Debbie Bliss Rialto Chunky on 6mm DPNs, and the credt was crocheted using fluffy yarn that's been leftover from a scarf for years. I used ~DK yarn held double, and I think it gives it a bit of stiffness that works better than a row of tassels would have.

It's to be a gift for a friend's six-month-old nephew, but I don't know what size babies' heads are, and couldn't find any patterns for six-months-olds so I could extrapolate. Hopefully it's larger than this teddy bear's anyway. On a related note, it seems like people almost always describe babies as being a good size, or big for their age. If all babies of an age are big for that age, it's possible that that's just the size that babies are at that age.

Tow more October birthday presents to go, and then I can move on to Christmas knitting! No staying up until three in the morning every night of the week before Christmas for me this year, no sir.