Holiday Knits Re-cap

Happy New Year, dear friends!  I hope you all are enjoying the first few days of this bright new year.  I do love how fresh and full of possibility everything seems at this time of year, don't you?

Before we get too far into this new year, though, I want to show you some of the gifts that I made over the holidays.  Over the summer I decided that I was going to knit a sweater for each of our three little nephews.  I didn't want them to be too matchy-matchy, so I decided to use three different patterns in different, but coordinating colors.  I hemmed and hawed over which patterns to use, but eventually decided on three different ones for three unique little boys.  I'm pretty proud to say that I finished these well before Christmas and the boys love them. 

The first is the Fisherman's Pullover by Veera Valimaki. After completing the 2010 cardigan (and seeing this sweater on Amanda's blog) I knew this would the be the first of the three Christmas sweaters for the year.  The pattern was written wonderfully, and it all came together in about two weeks (that's not accounting for the fact that I actually had to make this sweater twice since I finished it and then realized that I had knit this bulky yarn on #8 needles and it was way too stiff).  I made the 6T size for a skinny, but tall almost-six year old and it seems to fit just perfectly, with a bit of room for a little growth spurt.  And not that I don't want this eldest brother to fit into his auntie-made goodies for years, but at least I know that everything he receives will be loved times three!  {details on ravelry here}.

The second sweater is the Runaround Raglan pullover by Sarah Fama.  Another well-written and easy to follow pattern.  In fact, I'd definitely recommend this for a semi-beginner knitter as the pattern really explains everything in great detail.  For this sweater I used Plymouth Worsted Merino Superwash, which was a really nice yarn to work with.  I made the 23" chest size, which seems big on this just-turned four-year old.  In fact, it's exactly the same size as the 6T Fisherman's Pullover, except that the sleeves are a bit shorter.  I'm not worried though, I'm sure this little man is about to grow a few inches, so the length shouldn't be a problem. {details on ravelry here}.

Finally, the baby of the family got the Simple Hooded Cardigan from Lion Brand Yarns.  A third extremely easy and quick knit.  I was so happy to find these toggle buttons in my stash, since I think they work perfectly here.  I made the 18 month size for this 8 month old guy and I'm hoping he'll still be wearing it at this time next year!  {details on ravelry here}.

I'm so happy I decided to do this for my favorite little boys, and I can totally see making this a tradition each year.  Well, at least for as long as they're entertained by handmade sweaters for Christmas (after all, I do want to maintain my status as the cool aunt, don't I?)...