Holiday Knitting Ideas- Week 6

The holiday parties have begun and many of us need a little something to take to the hostess of the party.  Or perhaps you want something cute to add to that gift you are giving!  Check out these bottle toppers!  They are very quick to knit and make that bottle of wine, Irish cream, etc look festive.

You can knit plain hats and scarves from a few yards of worsted weight yarn...we used Twizzle and Monarch.  Or you can use a textured yarn like Moguls.  And of course adding a beard in Moguls to make a Santa topper is a fun touch too.  Here is the free pattern for these Wine Bottle Toppers and Santa Wine Bottle Toppers.

I recently made several of these Korknisse for gifts too.  The red one uses our Twizzle and the green one uses our 4/8's Wool. They take just a few minutes of time and are SO cute.

Enjoy the holiday celebrations and share a touch of knitted fun with your friends!

    

Holiday Knitting Ideas-Week 5

This week our Holiday knitting inspiration is all about cowls and loops.  Most folks have made MANY scarves and cowls but I thought I would share a few of my favorites.  These make perfect gifts and there is still plenty of time to make a few.

Mountain Colors has several free patterns in this category.  Our Missoula Mobius is knit with 1 skein of Monarch, a soft-spun, slightly thick and thin, SUPER soft wool yarn.  This project is knit flat then joined with a twist when sewn together.  If you prefer a straight loop then just don't put in the twist!!

Missoula Mobius

Our Easy Moguls Scarf has a similar construction but it is designed for 2 skeins of Moguls.  Knit with 2 skeins of the same colorway or alternate two complimentary colors in an easy stripe sequence.  Then wear flat or make into a loop that you let hang straight or twist around your neck for a snuggly warm accent.  These make fast-to-knit gifts!!!  I have 2 skeins on my table waiting for me to knit one of these scarves.

Easy Moguls Scarf

Easy Moguls Scarf....twisted around neck

If you search on Ravelry you will find MANY free cowl patterns.  I made the Super Easy Cowl for a gift this year. I used our 4/8's Wool.  I have also made the Crofter's Cowl in Mountain Colors River Twist yarn. It is really soft and nice.

On my knit-for-me-soon list there is the Metamorph cowl and the City Creek Cowl .  I think I will use Crazyfoot for the Metamorph and 4/8's Wool for the City Creek Cowl.  I also have the Spiral Cowl in my queue. It calls for a Dk weight yarn so I will use our Weavers Wool Quarters.  This 100% Wool yarn is perfect for many projects.  One of our dyers is making a pair of Selbuvotter mittens with this yarn.

So grab your needles and a skein or two of yarn and cast on!

Holiday Knitting Ideas-Week 4

One of my favorite gift ideas for this time of year is fingerless mittens.  I am knitting a pair of Fetching fingerless mitts in our Mountain Colors 4/8's Wool for a holiday exchange with my Fiber (knit, spin, weave, etc) Guild.  In past years I have knit at least 15 pairs of these for friends, family, gift exchanges, etc.  They are always well received and don't take very long to make!  I've used 4/8's, Twizzle and Mountain Goat...they all work great.

Another easy pattern is the Lacey Jeannette Wristers.  

Lacey Jeannette Wristers

They are knit with our Jeannette yarn (65% Cashmere/35% Silk).  Talk about a super soft pair of mitts....YUM.

Another fun possibility is the Sailor's Rib Fingerless Mitts.

Sailor's Rib Fingerless Mitts

I knit these in Mountain Colors Twizzle.  Note how the strand of silk in this yarn creates a wonderfully tweedy effect!!

It is not to late to knit several pairs of fingerless mitts for your holiday gift list!!  I'm off to work on mine.

Holiday Knitting Ideas-Week 3

This week we are looking at scarves.  Here in Western Montana scarves get a lot of use during the cold winter months.  I personally LOVE to knit scarves and I have a very large bag of them.  I am still looking for the perfect way to organize them and I would welcome suggestions!!  But I still want to knit more.  They make great gifts and are such portable projects for folks on the go.  And they are a really fun way to try out a new-to-you yarn!

At String Theory Yarn Company in Illinois they designed Life is Good, a super-easy scarf that knits up with one skein of our Mountain Colors Jeannette yarn (65% Cashmere, 35% Silk). Yum. That would be so, so soft. And the clever little place to tuck the tail is perfect!

Life is Good

Early in the Fall Diana and I took a workshop from Sally Melville.  It was amazing.  One of the many designs she shared with all of us was her new Lace-Meets-Leaf scarf.

Lace-Meets-Leaf

This scarf uses a single skein of fingering weight yarn.  We knit one up in our Crazyfoot yarn (colorway Harmony Mallard) and everyone who sees it thinks it is great. The tails wrap around and hold the scarf in place. I plan to knit this scarf for sure!!

Scarves are in fashion...everywhere I go someone is wearing a beautiful scarf...so knit one for yourself or a friend ....there is still time to finish one for the holidays!!

And the winner is....

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:53Powered by RANDOM.ORG
 So I have counted the posts (didn't count the duplicates) and the winner of our contest is.....
Francie.   Congratulations and I will send you a pm on Ravelry too.  You can select your favorite Colorway, Solitary color or Harmony color and we will dye your 6 skeins of Mountain Goat!
Thanks to everyone who entered!!
======Update=====  I entered the correct number into the random number generator but it doesn't show up in the part I pasted above...and I can't make it paste in correctly.  But I really did pick the correct number range!!

Last call for contest entries!!

You only have until the end of today...Weds, November 14th to enter our drawing for 6 skeins of Mountain Goat (see previous post about November Knits)!!

I will draw a winner first thing in the morning (I am NOT staying up until midnight..but I will be up by 530am Mountain Time).

Good luck!!

Holiday Knitting Ideas- Week 2

The knitting needles are clicking and the holiday knitting is going strong at Mountain Colors.  I have several projects under way and several more I need to start.  Diana and her daughter-in-law are planning to make yoga socks for a few friends!

Mindful Yoga Socks

Diana designed these lovely Mindful Yoga Socks and she is sharing the free pattern with you here. It isn't yet up on Ravelry.  Meanwhile we found these Yoga Socks that can be knit with our Crazyfoot yarn. The Crazyfoot can be thrown in the washer and dyer so that would be very practical!! 

The Simple Yoga Socks pattern is really nice and it calls for our Bearfoot yarn.  They would be really nice on your feet during a cold spell and certainly a GREAT gift for a special friend!

Simple Yoga Socks

Here is a picture of the Rough Sea Shawl that we mentioned last week.  Have you started yours yet? 

I am off to cast on my project this evening!!

Rough Sea Shawl