Holiday Gifts 2016

I can't make all the holiday gifts that I want to give this season. Well, maybe I could if I didn't wait until the last minute... and I can't talk about or share pictures of gifts I'm working on during this time either, so what to do? Well, at the bottom of the post I'll add some links to sites with great sales going on this week since I love to shop online. Of course I solicit local businesses, craft fairs and etsy.com - but traveling to the mall this time of year is out of the question for me.

In the meantime, I can still share my "other" projects here since I usually have a knit or crochet project that I carry around in my purse. These are always quick, repetitive patterns to keep me busy during long waits/car rides since the gift knitting that I'm working on is too complicated to carry around.
Here's my latest on-the-go project:

I'm so pleased with the way this came out. I bought this "Crazy Yarn" while I was on a short trip to Cape Cod recently and fell in love with the color changes. Details can also be found on my Ravelry project page, but here's how I made this:

Patterns used from “The Knitting All Around Stitch Dictionary” by Wendy Bernard*- Farrow Rib, page 66 & Double Eyelet Rib, page 77.

Cast on 102, join and work in the round in Farrow Rib stitch about 1.5”. In last row of rib, add 3 stitches evenly spaced around to have 105 stitches. Work Double Eyelet Rib pattern, bottom-up in the round for about 6.5”.

How I worked decreases, keeping in rib pattern as best as possible - I decreased every other row & worked 1 regular row in between decrease rows:
Beginning 1st decrease row with a “Round 1" of rib pattern -
decrease 1 - *P2, K1, K2tog, YO, SSK*
decrease 2 - *P2tog, K4*
decrease 3 - *P2tog, K2tog, YO, K1*
decrease 4 - *P2tog, K2*
when there was supposed to be decrease 5, I didn’t, did this instead - *P2tog, YO, K1* & decreased in next row -
decrease 5 - *P1, K2tog*
decrease 6, 7, ..... K2tog around until only a few stitches left,
draw thread through remaining stitches & that’s it.

I really like this book because for every stitch pattern given, there are 4 variations - how to knit it flat, top down or bottom up, and in the round, top down or bottom up. This makes it pretty versatile and I can't wait to use more of the designs. I actually won a copy of this book and am so fortunate; it would make a great gift for a knitter. Here's a picture of the book and yarn I won during a Twitter giveaway from Blue Sky Fibers.

I can't wait to work up the Woven Taffy Toque from the book along with the Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes, it is a luxuriously soft blend of royal alpaca and merino wool.

Because I can't make everything for everyone - here are some of the websites where I've been shopping online: