Everyone loves a handmade gift, right?

There is nothing better than a handmade gift. And I'm not talking hokey stuff. My sister has been talking about a Snuggie for months. I couldn't bring myself to buy one of those awful, smelly Snuggies from the store; they're just so tacky. So I set out to make a not-so-tacky Snuggie myself, totally custom for Kimberly. I picked out a pretty fleece fabric in blue with brown frilly print, and found a very generic "Snuglet" pattern online. Well, this thing turned out huge. I made adjustments to the length of the sleeves and the overall length of the garment (if it can be called a garment). I added some snaps to the back, so it would stay on if the wearer desired to walk around without the thing falling off. My masterpiece was complete after adding some brown satin ribbon trim to the hems of the sleeves. And voila! A homemade Snuggie! The best part was that my sister just loved it.

My mom had been talking about knitting herself some fingerless gloves, however, it's been years since she's picked up the needles and I didn't think that this idea of hers would come to fruition (no offense, Mom). Besides, she's busy making beautiful beaded jewelry. I had come across a pattern for cabled fingerless gloves - actually, more like wrist warmers - that I thought I could pull off. The author of the pattern used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, and I was fortunate to find a color that I knew my mom would love (we are a bit obsessed with purpleright now). I say fortunate because I hate substituting yarn for patterns like this one - I don't like having to ad

just for gauge and all that stuff. Anyway, this was my first attempt at knitting cables, and I am proud to say that it was successful. Cables are actually pretty fun and easy. The humdinger of this pattern was the thumb. Oh, that thumb. How I swore over that thumb. Luckily, some kind soul published online a guide to knitting the thumb in a manner that will not make you want to pull out your hair. It still came out a bit goofy, but I was able to fudge it so no one could tell. Other than the dastardly thumb, the gloves knit up quickly. The pattern said to knit tightly so as to create a tight fabric, but I think I knit tighter than the average bear, because these came out a little small. Luckily, my mom has tiny little hands, and they fit her quite nicely.

Here's the link to the pattern on knitty.com
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTfetching.html