As you may recall, I started out only knitting two things for Christmas. What I’ve titled the Anansi Scarf for my sister, and Starsky Jr for my niece.
I finished the scarf and sent it off to Darwin a couple of weeks ago, along with a copy of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman and the Spider fragrance from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.
On the other hand, I didn’t finish Starsky Jr. It still looks like this, although there are two sleeves now. I’ve started on a front, but accidentally left my knitting bag at my parents house in the country a couple of days ago.
And why is it that I didn’t get Starsky Jr finished? Well, I admit to adding a couple of other things to my Christmas knitting schedule.
My mum happened to be staying at our house when my package from the Ravely Aussie Knitters Tea Cosy Swap arrived. She fell in love with my tea cosy and started looking through all my knitting books for cosy patterns. When I asked if she still had the same teapot from my childhood, she told me that it was broken and they didn’t have a teapot at all anymore. So I picked up the same teapot that I own from work, and used the Noro yarn I received in my swap package to make this for her. I went with steeks for the spout and handle openings this time around in order to keep the colour rings consistent around the whole teapot. She loves it.
The extra knitting doesn’t end there, though. We received an invitation in the post to attend my nephew’s baptism, and I remembered that I hadn’t actually made a gift for him when he was born… three months ago. So, after finding out that he is a genuine ZeFrank Giant Baby, I set about altering Pebble (Henry’s Manly Cobblestone-Inspired Baby Vest) to fit an 18-month old, except this Henry will be wearing it when he’s hit six months.
This was made from two balls of ancient stash that my mum handed over a while ago. I only had those two balls, but I wish I had more, because I love it. It’s old Cleckheaton Country 8-ply Naturals in a blue-grey colour with tweedy flecks. So pretty. And I had just enough to finish this.
So Starsky Jr has become Birthday Knitting instead of Christmas Knitting, and that’s perfectly fine by me. 