WIP Wednesday: Let the IOU Knitting Begin

I didn't do as much gift knitting as I have in years past, but I did try something new: giving a skein of yarn as a gift and letting the recipient decide what it becomes. My parents are huge Royals fans, so when I found some colorways celebrating the Royals' World Series title, I knew I had to get it for them. Since it was from a small hand-dyer who dyes everything to order, the yarn wouldn't arrive until the middle of December - too late for me to knit anything as a gift. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it inspired me to try a different approach, instead of engaging in some stressful deadline knitting. Plus, they got to pick the exact pattern they wanted!

Royals-inspired colorways from Nerd Girl Yarns.

My Dad chose a ribbed hat pattern, which I have already started in the Blue OKCtober colorway:

My mom chose a pretty cowl design which I will get on the needles soon, but for now I need to focus on this stranded colorwork cowl - this is about a week's worth of work! I didn't realize how long it's been since I did a colorwork project, and turns out I am quite slow at it. This is destined to be a booth sample for Bijou Basin Ranch, so I will need to be pretty diligent with my progress.

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that I spent the holidays in Kansas City and had plenty of crafting time thanks to a 15-hour Amtrak ride round-trip. I couldn't resist starting some fingerless mitts with the newest yarn from Ancient Arts, Reinvent - but when I went to pull out my pattern, I discovered that I had only printed part of it, and the pattern chart was totally missing. Oops! Luckily, I don't mind winging it, and I ended up creating some simple garter-and-stockinette mitts which fit me perfectly (or they will, once they're done):

I received a lot of awesome gifts this holiday season, among them two new books which will certainly inspire new projects in 2016:

Hope you had a great holiday, too!

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