Holiday Knitting round 2

The Uncles are visting for a couple of days, and I finally got them to sit still long enough to take pictures of the hats I made them for Christmas!

The Alexander Hat, whose pattern I designed and wrote down and just sent off to a friend to see if she'll test knit it. If anyone else is interested in test knitting, let me know!





Dale's hat's pattern I found on Ravelry here And it turned out quite nicely!





Then there's Toki's new house!



Toki is my sister's new pet rat, who is really adorable, but rather difficult to photograph.



Our house is kind of cold, so I figured I'd make her a little basket to hang in her cage in case she got too cold. I made it using Vanna's Choice, which is 100% acrylic and machine washable (a must), and it's cute and she likes it, but she doesn't quiiiiite fit. So I figure I'll make her another one that's a bit bigger. I improvised the pattern the first time around, too, so it'll be nice to fix the kinks on round 2 and maybe even write down the pattern to put on Ravelry. Can you believe there are very few rat house patterns on ravelry? ^^

More crafting news: I said in my last post that I went to the yarn store. Here's a pic of my spoils:



That's a bunch of worsted weight yarn (lion cotton, vanna's choice, red heart soft, and I think a bernat brand cotton), some felt in assorted colors, a bunch of embroidery floss, the book, and "Poly Pellets." Those are little plastic pellets that look kind of like lentils that you put in the bottom of your amigurumi creations (then fill the rest with regular polyester stuffing) to make them more bottom-heavy and stable.

Here's my progress so far on the Ninja pattern:



That's the body and part of the head.

I've started on my Guido scarf, which is a plain gray-and-red argyle scarf I'm making as a favor for my friends Laurie and Sherlynn. They're the costumers for the show I've been working on all semester, called Nine. They apparently looked high and low for a proper scarf for the lead, Guido, and couldn't find exactly what they wanted. So they came to me! Here's what I've got so far:



It's a pretty simple argyle, but I designed it myself! It's worked in the round, so it looks the same on both sides, and it's gonna be really cute. I'm excited! :D

And now that the crafting news is over with, I'd like to post some pics of my cooler christmas gifts!

These are awesome teapot earrings my sister made for me in her glassblowing class:



Then here is an adorable keychain my brother found at an artisan fair in Portland, OR. Pretty cute, huh?



And, last but not least, some gorgeous roving from Santa. It's a cool gray-and-purple blend of "Locker Hook" Alpaca roving. SO LOVELY! I can't wait to get back to school and my drop spindle so I can start on this beautiful stuff.



Now after this abnormally long and picture-heavy post, I shall wish you all adieu and enjoy the rest of 2010, as I get started on Holiday Knitting Round 3. :-)
Happy Knitting,
~YoungKnitter