Low key Christmas Knitting

Soundtrack: the voices in my head telling me to do work for uni instead of knitting. Oh well!

Sorry for my long absence, it's been quite hectic around here lately. Being a fourth-year student is not a joke, apparently. I must admit I've been dealing with it a lot more sanely than I thought I would, and that is a plus. In addition to that, essay work always means a lot of knitting (at least for me, anyone familiar with the logic?). I've decided to keep my ambitions low for this year, and I'm only knitting for pleasure, basically. But I have ended up with some gifts for a lucky few.

First out is this cute hat:



I knit this using three different strands of yarn to get a chunky/aran-ish sort of weight that the pattern called for. I think it turned out pretty well, although I ended up with a tiny size, so this one goes to my boyfriend's little nephew, who'll be around 6 months come Christmas time. The yarns I used were a DK weight merino, some Sandnes Garn Alpakka and Jamieson's Spindrift. This picture shows the hat unblocked, and hopefully after a good soak and stretch it'll be a bit bigger. Why do I knit so tightly?

Second in line is this little jumper:



This is strictly speaking not a Christmas present, but a 'welcome-to-the-world'-gift to a friend who's having a baby any time now. It has been wrapped and sent home with a friend who came to visit a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully it'll be able to warm a tiny body soon. It was very fun knitting this jumper, and it must be the smalles 'proper' garment I've ever made! The yarn was the left over yarn from these mittens - Scappa Aran, which I absolutely love to work with. The buttons I found in an Etsy-shop and couldn't resist using them for this jumper.

And the last item for this post, these mittens:



I've been trying to use my left-over yarns for a while now, and I think I've been very successful so far. In fact all of these items were knit using yarn that was already in my basket! I knit these out of my left over Christmas Red Cascade 220, which I made this hat from earlier this year. They were lots of fun knitting, and I avoided the Second Mitten Syndrome, if there is indeed such a thing. I have washed and blocked these very lightly, and the yarn is just scrumptious, and has a lovely glow to it. I might upload another picture of them all finished - it is just so tricky to photograph anything now that it gets dark so early. These are a going to be a present for a dear friend of mine.

What have you been knitting lately? Are you having high ambitions for Christmas-knitting this year, or are you - like me - only knitting for pleasure?

Thanks for visiting!