Still here, really!

I know, I haven't been posting. For a long time that was because I wasn't knitting. But I'm knitting now!

We've had house guests non-stop (with lots of overlaps) since Thanksgiving, but they have all gone home now, and I feel I can breathe a little and blog a little :-) Don't get me wrong — it was great fun — but it's also nice to have a little time for my own hobbies again.

I've been knitting on two lovely hooded cardigans for a pair of twin five-year-old boys.  One said his favorite colors were purple and red; the other, purple and orange. So that's what they will get. This is the Bar Harbor Hoodie from Creative Knitting.

I am using Cascade 220 Superwash, by the way — one of my go-to yarns for knitting for kids. Not so much babies, because it's not crazy-crazy soft; but it is a nice cross between soft and hard-wearing, perfect for kids.

This one is done except for the arms and weaving in the ends. Oh, and buttons. Purple heather and red heather — love it.

 This one's obviously the orange ones. I tried three different "orange" colors from Cascade and ended up with this tangerine one. It needed to go well with the purple, be different enough from the red, and look more orange than yellow. I think this is good. As usual, the photo isn't perfect, but you can catch the luminous quality of this tangerine.

I'm doing a trick with the sleeves. Instead of just knitting 1.5" of the 3x1 rib, I knit 1.5", then a row of purls, then another 1.5" of rib. The bottom 1.5" will be turned in and sewn like a hem. This makes it reversible, and this means that the ribbing can be turned back and still look good. I think this will help the 5-year-olds wear this size-6 cardi right away, and it'll fold down when they're ready for it. Finally, if they can wear it long enough, I can take the hem out and let them wear the ribbing as 3" long (the purls won't detract too much, I don't think — they'll look like a design element).

What have you all been up to? I'm hoping to get bloggin' a bit more in 2012.