what's on your needles?

christmas jumper

On mine is a Christmas jumper for Best Boy. It's a bit of a trial run really as I couldn't find a design I liked so cobbled together my own take on the Christmas Nordic jumper. It is knitted in DK Acrylic on 4mm needles so is a quick easy knit. I half made a different design before I frogged it. I was planning to make a fairisle jumper with snowmen, snowflake, Christmas tree and holly motifs and it just didn't work. On paper it looked good but once I started knitting it looked clunky and ill thought out. I think smaller needles and 4 ply rather than DK yarn. Maybe I'll try it again for next year. I'm quite pleased with this little one though - and it only cost a little over £10 to make.

red metallic

And...look what I found in my local Hobbycraft , red metallic thread...how pretty...I just had to buy it! They also had green and silver but I couldn't justify buying it, especially as I don't really have any plans for the red - apart from using it for Rudolph's red nose on Best Boy's Christmas jumper.

red background

I'm also in the process of swatching motifs for a Christmas stocking for Best Boy. He's going to be 19 months this Christmas, just old enough to start getting excited about it all.  I can't wait to see his little face when we've decorated the tree and on Christmas day when Santa's been. Like most kids I expect he'll prefer the boxes and wrapping paper to the stuff inside! Anyway, this is my first go at knitting a sock/stocking, I have knitted in the round before a long time ago but I used a circular needle rather than double pointed needles.

blue background

little hearts or big hearts?

What do you think of the colours? I prefer the little hearts to the big hearts and may fill in the white gaps with some upside down hearts as don't really like the way the red shows through the white.

In the meantime, the grannies sit forgotten in their basket and the scary sewing machine still lurks in its corner - well, it is Christmas (nearly) so Christmas knitting  takes priority. The grannies can wait.