A Month of Gift-Knitting

Now that my last knitted gift of the summer has been delivered, I can share with you my projects from July (aka my month of gift-knitting).

I chose to take a break from sweater knitting in July to focus on (or in some cases, catch up on) some gift-knitting. The events: 2 birthdays, 1 baby shower, 1 new baby, 1 due-any-day-now baby.

So here are the finished projects:

The Cambrian Cowl, designed by Alana Dakos, was made for my sweet friend's birthday. It was knit with a few yards shy of one skein of Plymouth Yarn's Baby Alpaca Grande, a simply heavenly yarn to knit with.  One skein has 110 yards of sumptuous bulky yarn that is 100% alpaca. This the first time I had knit with this yarn, but I can assure you it won't be my last. The project knits up quite quickly and comes from a beautiful book chalk full of lovely patterns, Coastal Knits.

 I made 2 Malibu Beanies, designed by Amy Miller, using some left ofter Quince & Co. Chickadee yarn in shades of blue (Frost, Peacoat, Glacier, Birds Egg) for two different expecting friends (can you tell that this is the year of baby boys?) This project is great because the 6 months size cap takes less than 60 yards of sport weight yarn. Great little stash buster.

The Solitaire Beret, designed by Natalie Larson from Weekend Hats, was a birthday gift for my cousin (a fellow knitter) out of Malabrigo Worsted in the Pagoda colorway. This yarn is very popular for small projects and it is easy to see why. The soft, single ply yarn feels wonderful on your hands while knitting. Unfortunately, this project was a little disappointing. The cable does not pop as much as I expected, like it does in the pictures in the book. Also, and this may seem silly, but I'm not sure which is the best way to wear it?

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The last knitted gift has been resting on my needles for months. I started it in April and quickly became disinterested because I knit the same Cable Blanket, by Debbie Bliss, for my son this past January.

That one was knit with Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. And here is the recently gifted version knit with Knit Picks' Swish DK (in the Sugar Plum colorway) for my friend's baby girl.

Now back to sweater knitting...