Friday, January 2, 2009

The Holidays are FINALLY Over!

I hope that everyone out there had a wonderful holiday. I was a little crazed before the holidays and I'm just getting back to normal so I thought I'd post some goodies...


These are just some of the cookies that I baked for my son's Scout Troop Holiday Party. The party ended up being postponed due to weather so I actually ended up baking 2 batches, a total of around 200 cookies PLUS 200 cupcakes, all decorated as well. I'm planning to take a rest before I do any more baking!

While I was working away on presents, I was suddenly struck with the desire to knit a Sock Monkey for my cousin's baby daughter. I though that this would be an easy project, I'd Google knitted sock monkey and come up with a bunch of patterns, select one and knit away. What I found was that there aren't alot of patterns for handknit Sock Monkeys, not on Google or on Ravelry so since I had already committed in my mind to make the present, I chose to design my own.

Sock Monkies in Love

My Ultimate Handknit Sock Monkey pattern will be available in my Etsy shop and on Ravelry shortly. Once I started, I just couldn't stop! My goal was to design a monkey that was the same size as ones sewn from socks. The finished monkeys measure approximately 21" tall and closely resemble the classic monkeys of old. After I had knit the first one in traditional sock monkey colors, I decided that a little girl needed a pastel girl monkey and so I knit the second in my handpainted Bitsy's Sock yarn accented with kettle dyed solids to match. I'm so pleased with the way they turned out, I especially love the handpaint monkey. Kits will also be available with Bitsy's Sock yarn and special limited edition kettle dyed coordinates.

Along with many other handmade gifts, I also knit a pair of ruffled, fingerless gloves for my dear friend Wanda. She had seen a glove that I was playing with and simply had to have a pair. After several attempts, I am pleased with the final effort and will also be offering this pattern in the near future.

Wanda's Ruffled Fingerless Gloves

Wanda's gloves were knit in a handspun 3 ply sport weight yarn, a handdyed blend of wool, mohair and angora. The pattern is suitable for any sport to light worsted yarn.

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to work on my current spinning project, a lace weight Blue Faced Leicester yarn from handpainted fiber that I purchased at MDS&W last year. I'll post some pictures next time.

Thanks for reading, Bitsy