Knits With Friends

I have been knitting!

Jon's cutoff gloves. I have been knitting these since around October, and Jon's birthday, which happens to be the same as mine, was back in September. May I admit that I was occasionally a little peeved at finishing these? It wasn't just that the main time I had to knit was waiting for the train, and because I often found gloves hard to wear why knitting, I let my fingers freeze while I knit something for someone else to stay warm. I got a stranger's approval of the gloves, which was warming.
In order to keep my sanity and my time, I gave Jon a choice of certain things I knew wouldn't be too hard to finish: non-fingered wrist warmers, mittens, socks, a hat, a variety of scarves. And what does he do? Ask for fingerless gloves. *sigh* But I couldn't be mad, because he is my friend and I adore him, and I'd rather him -like- what I made. Fingerless gloves it is. No resentment. And he loves them! That paid off. I have yet to see him wear them, though, so if I don't, Jon may find himself off of my "knit for" list.
People-who-know-knitters: You should listen to your knitters. Indulge them.

Matthew's Tychus Hat, for his birthday. This I deliberated on. I hardly ever see Matt wear knitted hats, which for most people is an indication that they DO NOT LIKE knitted hats. Matt has nice, wavy hair, but perhaps he doesn't like to cram it under close-fitting caps that squash out the nice waviness.

But Matt is good to make things for, because he will really appreciate them as he doesn't knit (or crochet) himself; or he will act like he really appreciates them and makes you feel better. :)  He's also pretty open to creative ideas. He does not, however, shop for clothing much himself, which means 1. He does not already own a knit hat, and 2. He is not actively looking for the perfect knit hat.
This is why he also received, for his birthday, a crocheted scarf in similar colors from another friend, Jackie (in close to our alma mater colors) and from his sister, an amigurimi Rainbow Dash (My biggest current claim to fame is I'm friends IRL with the Brony Prime: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/12/nightly-roundup-201.html#more He's the "Presumably Psychic Person" and you can click to see his vlog).

I made sure to choose a soft yarn with alpaca in it, because we both just really dig alpacas.

I wanted to believe that the reason he does not have a knit hat is because he hasn't been given the perfect, soft, lovingly-hand-knit hat yet; and he assured me this is true!

While I haven't seen him wear it either, I also have seen him all of once since his birthday, which is more my fault than his.

Two more news octopi for Jenn. You can see their predecessors here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/onemoreday/news-octopi
The left one has a bit of a squid feel to it; the right one I made a little more lifelike and flat, but it also has seven legs. Hey, octopuses lose legs in real life! I left her a note with them.


All this knitting for friends means that you may get gifts like this for Christmas:

Isn't that great? "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" has been a really popular book but I haven't seen it in person much. I like a lot of the things in here. I jokingly asked if this was a "nudge nudge wink wink" book so that I would make more things for my friends! I also got that great mug from when Jenn was in Disneyland. It's crazy perfect because I've been thinking of buying a fourth mug. I'm only one person, but one of the mugs is delicate enough to hardly count, one holds a lot less liquid, and this one is dark on the inside so it won't get as tea-stained as my other three. And it has DORY from Finding Nemo on it! She's a blue Tang. It has "Find a happy place" repeated on it; my goal in life is to make my surroundings my happy place. A home, friends, family.

More knitting awaits! Still working on my First Sweater.

Claudia