It's that time Of The Year again.....

...when we check our calendar and see that Christmas is just around the corner!
Less than a month left to knit up all the presents we want to gift to our nearest and dearest (that is, the select few that deserve a hand-knitted item).
But what to do: How can we cramp all those gift-projects into one single month???
The ultimate answer is, as always: Accessories!

Hats, socks, shawls (of the easy and quick variety only) are the best bet to be able to work up nice little Christmas presents, that will be cherished and that still provide lots of fun to the knitters themselves, without too much added stress...

I wanted this fun and low stress factor for myself, so I did what every self respected designer has to do in these cases: I solely worked from patterns that I didn't write up myself!!!
It's the perfect time of the year where I can kick back and become a knitter again - and to browse patterns for hours, knit them by following instructions and not caring about taking detailed notes or calculating anything!
What a bliss it was..... I can't tell you!

I decided to work Heidi's lovely shawl Deep End, that I had noticed since this summer, when it came out. This pattern is definite fun and incredibly easy because of the garter and stockinette combination. Perfect for relaxing and unwinding after a long day.

The choice of colours and yarn make this project unique, so I searched my stash for a combination of different textures to enhance the asymmetrical shape and to just play around with them: I grabbed some rest of a variegated sock yarn, a gorgeous light blue colour in a cashmere-blend, a dense and springy grey merino, a yellow heathered wool and the rest of the slightly transparent lace mohair/silk blend that I used for my upcoming pattern (which by the way is in testing phase here, for the curious to see). 
...And it came out really lovely!
(My project page of the project with more pictures is here on ravelry).

Next up a hat of course! Probably the number one knitted Christmas gift... and for a reason!
It's quick, it's fun and usually appreciated by the lucky recipient, since it's also practical.

I wanted something slightly lacy but still rustic (which is better for a warm hat anyway) and not too complicated in execution. I choose Joji's Lantern Lights, which is part of an e-book with 5 lovely hat patterns that just came out last month!

I incorporated the short-row brim of my own Quadrifurcus, which I wanted to revisit since I last made it. 
I just adapted it slightly and worked one set of short rows less for each section and then aligned it with Joji's beautiful stitch pattern to make it sit right over my brim (this was very easy: I only had to slip the first stitch to the end of the round and voilà: the patterns were aligned)!
I finally was able to use another lingering stash-rest: The hand dyed Polo&CO Rustique Fine that I had left from the Quadrifurcus in question... 
With it's subtle colour variations it worked perfectly for the lace pattern of the hat and gave it a nice structure.
(I still need to make a project page for this one on ravelry... hang on).

The last one of the gifts (for now) is Deneise's School Girl sock pattern. 
I am a toe-up sock girl as you probably know and wanted to try my hand again at a cuff-down sock for a long time now. This one was the best contender because it is worked in a heavier yarn (sport weight) and is mostly worked in stockinette. A super quick and cute project to knit up a gift and to check if this cuff-down method is worth leaving my old time toe-up favourite.

It's all about the details here: twisted cuff stitches with their tiny repeat just before the toes are our heroes.
I wanted to work a contrast heel and cuff, as I usually do in all of my socks... and to add some tiny stripes too, of course!
(I need to upload a ravelry project page for this baby, too).

Albeit the pattern itself is straightforward and beautiful, I am still not convinced about the cuff-down construction in general... yet! But there is still one more sock to go and I will decide when I will try them both on. The fit seems perfectly fine and another big plus is that you can quickly work a tubular cast on for the cuff instead of the longer sewed tubular bind off.

I have not finished this one yet as you can clearly see in the pictures... but it needs to be done soon, because as we said: there is less than a month left and soooooooo much to do still!!!!

So, these are the first of my presents... with lots of others to come the next weeks (hopefully)!
I really enjoyed being "the knitter" again and am very happy with all of these - so much so that I am a little bit reluctant to let them go come the 24th...
I am anxious to see if the recipients are going to love them as much as I do!

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