The pleasures of gift-giving

This holiday season, I knit a hat as a gift for a special person in my life for whom I had never knit a gift before. It was a rather funky hat: two-toned with a royal blue base and a light blue top, with the top sewn into three little points sticking out. I was a little nervous giving it to him, since I wasn't sure whether or not he'd appreciate it. Well, as soon as he took it out of the box he was delighted. He immediately put it on and was grinning like a fool. He hadn't had a hat at all, and said that he'd been getting sick of cold ears. He loved the funky design too. When you get to see a six-foot-three guy in a black trenchcoat and a silly blue hat that you made him, grinning from ear to ear, it make the work more than worthwhile. I feel like I brightened his day a bit with the gift, since his holidays are usually a little blah and he has the added issue of being very broke this year, so making him smile warmed me from the inside out. He will definitely remain on the list of People To Knit For, that list that will only include those who appreciate the knit gifts I give them.

I have already become woefully bad with the updates.

Well. Since our last installment, I ripped Samus down to the band again and started her up again. It pissed me off no end, but I was determined to get it right. She's looking good now: I've done all the waist shaping AND I have the right number of stitches on my needles (can you say HALLELUJAH?) It's a little shorter than I'd expected it to be at this point, which is odd since my row gauge is absolutely perfectly spot-on at 25 rows per 4 inches, and the band width is exactly right as well. Eh. Anyway, no big deal: I think it'll fit me just fine as it is. I hope so!

My work holiday party is tomorrow afternoon. There's going to be someone there collecting donated gifts for local underprivileged kids. I hadn't bought anything, and was going to contribute to the canned food drive instead, but then I had the idea to knit some hats! I've done some hat knitting recently, and decided that with a bulky yarn, kids hats would knit up fast enough for me to have them done in time. I made two cute little beanies: one in a fuzzy pink variegated yarn with mohair in it, for a girl, and one in light blue Lamb's Pride Bulky for a boy. They should fit kids around ages 2-4. I put tags on them to say they're hand-knit and should be hand-washed, and wrapped them up. I'm really glad I did this. It feels good to know that my stash is going to a good cause! And I'm getting addicted to hats. I've knit myself a couple in the past, but they weren't very good. I think it may soon be time to make another.

In two days is the MIT Stitch 'n Bitch Holiday Party. We're doing a stash swap as a gift exchange, which should be fun. I'll have to see what I have that's swappable. I know there are at least a few things in there. I got a friend who works at MIT to agree to come, too. It's always nice to recruit folks, and I already know I like knitting with her.

I think that next up to receive some hand-knits from me as gifts are my boyfriend's parents. A wrap or shawl for his mom, perhaps, or comfy slippers. Maybe a nice thick cabled scarf and hat for his dad. Or something. But I don't have time for that before Christmas, and NO IDEA what to do for them this year. Oy. I'll figure something out. I am a creative little seed after all.

As promised: pictures!

The first two are of my primary WIP, the Samus cardigan from Knitty. The first shot shows off the nifty Saxon Braid band that goes around the bottom. The second illustrates the waist shaping I'm adding. It shows the decreases and the first couple of sets of increases.



Next, some booties I made for my friend's baby. The feet and ankles belong to Llewellyn the Fluffy Bunny.



And lastly, the Kitty Pi bed from Wendyknits. The model is my fabulously cute cat, LucyFur. Below it is an example of how Lucy sleeps when she isn't in the Kitty Pi bed.

Progress!

Last time I wrote I was trying to figure out waist decreases for Samus. That same evening, I recalled having seen something about how to calculate decreases across a number of rows in my roommate's copy of SnB Nation. I went looking for that info, and came across something even better: a guide to adding waist decreases to a sweater pattern!

After some number-wrangling, I figured out what I needed to do. I'm now doing two paired decreases at where each side of the sweater will be. Actually, I've done that bit. I did that every other (RS) row, five times. Now I'm knitting another inch of sweater. Then I will do 2 paired INCREASES at where each side of the sweater will be, every FOUR rows, five times. Then I knit a few more inches, and BOOM! Time for sleeve caps! Rock on!

I'll try to get some pictures of my work up this weekend, including some past FOs.

WIP it real good!

I finished that intro post because I wanted to go back to knitting on my futon, but then I realized that this is a knitting blog, n'est-ce pas? I should tell you all what I'm doing. Right now I'm working on my very first sweater! It's a cardigan--Knitty's Samus. I'm using Lamb's Pride in "Spice", which is a lovely, dark, warm red. I'm doing one alteration to the pattern: I'm shaping the waist with decreases and increases. My problem is that I have an hourglass figure (no, not one of those Barbie doll ones, it's a good deal thicker in the middle), and the pattern has no waist shaping at all as written. I finished the cabled band around the bottom (isn't that gorgeous?) and picked up the stitches along the edge. I did some calculations and started doing the waist shaping, but realized that due to my inability to do math and some sloppy measuring, I was going to be off. Now I'm undoing a few rows and I'm going to start over on that part. It's going to be a bitch figuring this out, and I've been short on sleep lately. I'm starting to catch up, though, so hopefully by the time I sit down with the tape measure and calculator again, I'll get it right. I've never altered a pattern this much before. I know, it shouldn't be a big deal, but...OY. I'm not used to it. But I must have a sweater that shows off my curves. I MUST! Otherwise I won't wear it, and that will make me very sad.

So: back to undoing my lovely work (sigh) and then on to a proper waist (yay)!

Making my entrance

So! Finally, I have created a blog just to talk about knitting. I feel so cool now. Just to warn anyone who stumbles on this blog: it really is ONLY for knitting. And, since I am not an enormously prolific knitter, it will not be updated all that frequently, I'm afraid. I do intend to make a few posts now and again, though, and really promise to try to get FO and WIP pictures up here on a regular basis.

I've never used Blogger before, so if the layout and all is a bit boring, forgive me. Hopefully the knitting will still be interesting.

My name is The Wanton Seed Stitch. Why? Well, "The Wanton Seed" is a cute and naughty little English folk song full of double entendres so thin you could read a newspaper through them. Seed stitch is a knitting stitch. So: cute and naughty knitting. I think it works. :)

I'm a member of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Stitch 'n' Bitch, and also knit with a few other friends. If you're a knitting buddy of mine, hi! Welcome to my new blog. If I don't know you yet, hi! Welcome, and nice to meet you. I hope to provide at least a modicum of entertainment. And perhaps a touch of rather gleeful and unabashed naughtiness here and there. Hope you don't mind!