Catching up on the Christmas gift knitting…

My youngest brother, in August, sent me this text:  Want you to knit me a Christmas present. Ask next time you see me.

I, thinking it was from someone else (a knitting friend named Erika, my brother’s name being Eric and I being too lazy to read the “sent from” properly), thought it was a funny text and ignored it.  Then I came across it while looking for a different text and realized who it was actually from. I got really excited and texted Eric that very minute about it.  He…neglected to respond.  I finally managed to get an answer from him by calling my parents while he had stopped in to visit (Finnegan, of course, not my parents).  He wanted….

A Hat.

I tried to get some more specifics out of him, which was harder than trying to spit-splice bamboo, and at last got three essential pieces of information: Grey, beanie-esque, no brim.  And so with that I had to roll. This is about mid-October.  Plenty of time until Christmas, right?  Yep.

Since he asked for a hat, I, naturally, started looking at sweater patterns. I had 10 skeins of Berocco Vintage in Cracked Pepper in my stash – plenty for a sweater and a hat.   In early November, I settled on Brownstone by Jared Flood. Mostly stockinette stitch, with a nice shawl collar. I got through the body, up to the sleeve join, in 3 days, using the Cubix needles (they are square).   Then I realized that I did not have matching DPNs to knit the sleeves, so I put the project on hold while I waited for the needles to arrive.  Fast forward to early December.  I drove up to Indiana for my great-grandmother’s funeral, planning to stay through Christmas, so I had to pack ALL the knitting I needed for the next three weeks. I put off working on the sweater, decided on a hat pattern the day before I left and then didn’t feel like knitting for a week.

Once I got started on the sleeves, they went pretty quickly (and, yeah, I ended up working on them in front of Eric, but I told everyone I was knitting a sweater for myself) then the yoke and finally the collar…which I finished up mid-morning on Christmas Eve.  Then I remembered I still needed to knit the stinking hat.

I steam-blocked that while the rest of the family was at Mass Christmas morning. But all ends were woven in and everything was wrapped up in time for gift-giving.

He reluctantly let me take a picture later that afternoon.

Both fit perfectly…which I was very pleased about.  Knitting for a brother who has not requested one of the knit items is pretty risky.

Patterns: Brownstone by Jared Flood  and Bend Hat by Irina Dmitrieva

Yarn: Berocco Vintage Worsted in Cracked Pepper

Mods: I moved the neck opening of the sweater to be higher (level with the bottom of the armscye) and left off the toggles.  My gauge was also just a tiny bit tighter, which was okay, because Eric is pretty thin and the smallest size still had a TON of ease built into it.

I haven’t heard if he’s actually worn either item when I’ve not been around to witness it, so… I’m hoping that he wears them when I’m not there to placate.