…it’s like I’m nesting…

After knitting a TON of Christmas gifts for people (and looking at 2 other gifts I need to work on), I didn’t really want to do anything except knit stuff for myself. And since I have an apartment and all, I was feeling all domestic. See for your self. (By the way, these were all finished yesterday.)

First up, was a swiffer cozy – a la Green Mountain Mama.

I asked for a swiffer for Christmas specifically so that I could make this cozy. It has buttons! It’s environmentally friendly! It’s a twist on the Mason Dixon Ballband Dishcloth! It’s a recipe for success! I raveled it here….

The best part is that it works! Want proof?

The next thing I made was to solve a problem… when I wash dishes, I tend to get water everywhere. And by everywhere I mean… everywhere. The problem is that when my counter gets all full of water, it pools and then drains right at my feet. Obviously, this sucks. So, I had to make a rug!

Isn’t it great? Want to know how to make one of your very own?

1. Get a pair of US 19 circular needles in long (mine were 35 inches).
2. Collect a bunch of crap yarn that you don’t know what to do with (all feltable, no superwash for you) in colors that seem to go together.
3. Cast on 65 ish stitches.
4. Knit until you almost run out of yarn, then cast off.
5. Throw in the washing machine until desired size is reached.

Easy huh? I know! And look how great it turned out:

I’m really serious about the crap yarn part. Want to know what went in mine? (I had 6 strings going.)

• 3 balls of what remained of a sweater’s worth of brown Paton’s Merino Classic. (I broke it up to knit my dad some brown slippers for Christmas). This was the base – I had two strings of this in the blanket – but since I didn’t have 4 balls, which would have been ideal, that third ball was spun into 2 smaller balls with some random bits of other browns mixed in.
• A big skein of random bits of matching-ish crap tied together to stripe: 3 different partial balls of knitpicks browns, about 6 yards total of yellow (split into 3 different pieces), about 6 yards of orange, and 110 yards of black.
• a skein of knitpicks dye your own merino sock yarn – that I’d dyed into a variegated skein of blues.
• A skein of knitpicks shadow laceweight in a maroon color balled together with a skein of alpaca laceweight (also knitpicks) in an oatmeal color.
• A skein of Blackberry Ridge Woollen Mill lace weight (75% wool, 25% silk) in a green almost tweedy color. This was gifted to me by a secret pal…

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Next up, some curtain tiebacks. I was inspired by a pattern in Suss Cousin’s Home knits. As you can see, the ones in her book are super cute, and have a button!

So I was inspired to make my own… I used some Berrocco Suede and look what I came up with:

I’m thrilled with the results. I got exactly two out of one ball. I LOVE how they look. They’re all elegant and functional and …. perfect. I’m sure that I’ll be able to use them for a long time. And I think the button choice is perfect.

So look at that! Three items, for me, well, my apartment anyway. It’s almost like I’m nesting or something. Next up… a baby sweater!  NO… I’m not pregnant.  The baby sweater is for my boss. And the nesting thing is just cause they were things I needed.