Tuesday, December 26, 2006

'Tis Better to Give than to Recieve

I had some great fun with giving away my knitting yesterday. Luke enjoyed his scarf and wore it wrapped around his neck for part of the morning. It's a little warm for around the house though.


Then, before all the guests arrived, I finished up Jim's socks so the Yule Cat wouldn't get him.

The only tricky bit in this pair was the bind off. I like to use a sewn tubular bind off for toe up socks which works great for K1P1 or K2P2 edges, but I wanted to continue the chevron all the way to the top. The answer was to use Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off for that stretch. It curls a bit, but since this is a one off, I consider them a success.


Doesn't Jim have weird feet? High arches and skinny shanks as Beadlizard would say. I won't be knitting too many short row heels for this guy, let me tell you!

Then my parents came over and I gave my Dad his vest.


I never expected the reaction I got. He actually shed a tear or two. He said, "I never expected it to be so nice." I'm very happy he liked it so much and it seems like all my hard work is very much appreciated. He liked the colors, he was impressed with the fine detail of the work, and his fancy was tickled by the moose buttons. The fit is pretty good too.

Oh yes! I had a lot of fun gift giving yesterday.

6 comments:

  1. That is a very nice VEST. What a wonderful present!

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  2. The vest is exquisite!

    Have you tried a top-down sock with a flap heel for those arching arches? It often works well to start the flap at the point where the front of the foot begins its angle, which makes it a really long flap, then decrease in the gusset as needed, sometimes a spurt of every round for a bit, sometimes every third round...

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  3. That vest is beautiful!! It sure looks like you had a great time this holiday season with gift knitting.

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  4. That is a beautiful vest. Amazing. And I love the scarf and socks. Your family is really lucky to have you. You should feel proud of giving such awesome handmade presents! As usual, I continue to be impressed...

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  5. Anonymous9:54 am

    I'm so glad that your vest was well received! It does look like it fits him well. (That's always the hard part - guessing the right size to make).
    I'm going to have to check your links for the bind offs. I've yet to find one I like for toe-up socks.

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  6. you did not make that vest!! (totally disregards the previous posts with pictures) You bought that gorgeous piece of knitting and took credit for it!! It really is nice and the colors look so good on him. How did he know to wear a blue top that day? All I can say is HOLY WOW! NICE!

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