Saturday 31 December 2011

Rudolph's roundup

Well, I think my big list of potential makes was a tad optimistic! An awful lot of my time (far more than I had originally anticipated) was spent knitting the rudolph jumper.

I'm not going to lie. It was a hard make. Perhaps not the best pattern to knit my first jumper from. That may be a little harsh though - the plain red bits were fairly straightforward, it was just knitting the reindeer that slowed me down. It wasn't until half way through I finally figured out how to strand properly, so inside the top half looks all neat and tidy, like this....

Whilst the bottom half looks a fine mess...

I had a few heart stopping moments though. When I reached the top of the antlers, I realised I'd forgotten to shape the armholes. The thought of having to frog 20 rows made me feel more than a little sick, and I didn't touch it for a week - I didn't want to make yet more mistakes by rushing into correcting it. And then when I knitted the neckband to join the front and back together the night before I was due to go back to my mum's, I realised that I couldn't fit it over my head, so there was no way it would fit over my brother in law's head. Rather than have to frog and reknit the neckband, mum had the genius idea of using buttons on the shoulder. This led to a last minute dash to a local knitting store with my mum (about 30 mins before it was due to close on Chistmas eve) to find some suitable buttons...


Still, it was suitably appreciated by the new owner, who modelled it with great aplomb. He even wore it down the pub on Christmas day (although, sadly no photos of that!).


OK, so there's no sleeves, but I think he carries it off! Plus, what else could his present be next year? I still seem to have quite a lot of red yarn left, so I put some of it to good use when wrapping.

I'm still loving the Christmas bunting though, and I might make some more bunting next year in the smaller size for the other shelves. Sadly the ribbon wreath didn't work out. I'm not sure if it was the type of ribbon I bought, or using a wire form rather than foam, but after adding about 20 bows, I realised it looked more like something to be used when dancing round the maypole, rather than a classy Christmas wreath. Next year, I'll attempt the felt flower wreath now that Adele has pointed me in the right direction of foam wreaths!

And while I keep thinking that's all I've made this Christmas, I also made a fair few make up bags and tote bags.


So, that's it for 2011.  See you all next year!

9 comments:

  1. love, love, LOVE the sweater!!! Oh how I wish I owned such a sweater.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I absolutely ADORE the sweater/vest.. I like it with out sleeves, and unless you tell them no one would EVER know it wasnt supposed to look like that..
    I want to make one myself now.. and I know THE perfect friend to wear it <3 LOVE it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow that looks fab - I wish I had a Christmas jumper!

    ReplyDelete
  4. this jumper is amazing <3 I love a good Christmas jumper :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. this post is adorably cute :)
    I love it!!

    http://bubblemylicorice.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. How happy you are receiving that. You've been wanting that.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome, nice sharing. It's great collection of adorable xmas gifts which will be helpful to me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Star at The Star is back - DrMCD
    The Star 이천 출장샵 is back. The Star at The Star is back. 계룡 출장안마 The 시흥 출장마사지 Star is back. The 경기도 출장안마 Star is back. The Star is 익산 출장샵 back.

    ReplyDelete