OUR Christmas Tree 2022

Finished!

---

Doing the head!
Cute little stormtrooper head
Starting skeleton

Decided to go with evergreen PWN snow capped pine tree look

---

Always the ugliest part. Early assembly.

---

Leaves way too concentrated but I just need to see square inches that I'd done so far. Going to probably tear apart and resew with plain panels later.

---

You may or may not notice, but I have left the top of the top piece with a hole so that over the holidays we can choose to either change toppers or what not. I will have to make a super long panel (like over a foot and a half long) and make a base spine winding-y and then graft in the little branches I made. This is just going to be too packed/crowded. 

---

I guess I forgot to take pictures but the spine/wrap panel did end up bein almost 2 ft long. You can sort of see it now, how much it extended the height of the tree and made it less SQUASHED because I didn't have to sew the panels to each other. A main tree that I sewed panels onto instead. 

---

 Apparently I also didn't take pictures of the stuffing. After stuffing, I had to "plug" the bottom. Stuffed it, then sewed the bottom flat avoiding the tree feet.

---

After the tree itself was packed and good to go, I cut and sewed a circular panel (poked holes through and sewed ring/spacers around the feet holes) and then tuck the edges in.
Setting up the tree skirt
Tree skirt bottom edge sewn in!
Experimenting with sizes and placement of balls
Do bauble knots, sew in with main color.
Baubles sewn!
Star! (Hubby's Job)
We went with a taeguk design!
Little presents! Adding bows!

Sofi Nordic sweater for me

---

New yarn bowl delivered!


Observe my failure to k1 round in between pattern rounds.....%&!@

---

Dec 17 at the same time I realized I had to convert the argyle sweater into a vest, I decided the pink work had sat for too long and the line probably settled/stretched out so it was the wrong gauge anyway and decided to do it over.

---

Most of the way through 50g ball # 2 out of 16

Impromptu row marker

Remember to edit your charts with good ol microsoft paint kids

---

Picked sofi nordic sweater and sirdar yarn for this year's sweater for me. 

Argyle Sweater (Now Vest)

It shrank in the wash :(((((
But then it stretched out with proper treatment
But the arms are too skinny :(((((

I guess I have enough to try again.
I have 9 balls left and about a third of a hat completed and the first attempt completed.




---


---


Great new set up by hubby! Little multicolor canoe. The finger ladders seem a little too intense for this kind of slim intarsia.

---

Feed with spools! More long term wooden canoe in progress

---

It was all for nothing. Realized my original CO was for a swester, not a vest. Had to start from ground up with separate front and back ugh. Using the gable vest stch measurements.

Cannibalized much of the old one but since it had full stockinette sides until armholes ran out of main color slack faster and had to stop canibalizing that one for now.

---


Trial: decided to print an argyle template. Was tired of scribbles in my knitting notebook.
Especially with this kind of thing I like to fill out boxes rather than read a written pattern. 

---

Grey tails fed through to the bottom. It's kind of what I was thinking anyway but the work wasn't tall enough to really work.
Mis-decided on the gauge. I just went by number of stitches and that was not the right thing to do. 121 sts front and back, three large diamonds of 41 (19 per side). Probably should have narrowed the argyle panel but didn't want it to get weirdly skinny.

I am on maybe fourth juniper moon DK ball, maybe 2/3 of tan, and 1/3 of contrast sage green.

---



Almost done with first row of diamonds
Hubby helped me cut a cardboard feeding panel/ladder. It was really hard to figure out a set up. 

---


I really had to think about shoulder construction. A set in sleeve would required decreasing over the pattern. A raglan would disrupt where the front and back meet. So then I realized I could do a pattern within the margins of the shoulder construction. It would make the argyle skinnier but solve the problem. Also depending on how you do it it looks MUCH less like a power ranger LOL

So I decided to go with a narrower than full body argyle with classic set in sleeve construction or whatever the hell 

---

 I actually know how many balls I bought this time.

I bought 16 DK Juniper Moon Findley.

The first 50g ball was just exactly enough for the three inches of bottom rib. 

---

I measured and calculated for generic vest and then compared to Peter Easy and copied the google image as best as I cared to.

Hulk Trash

 Update Dec 17 in the midst of christmas knitting/crochet, this is the best little bucket I have ever made. Do it. You won't regret it.

To collect the scraps that pile up like rats on my side table as I work

---

"That's my secret....."

---

"I'M ALWAYS ANGRY"