Christmas knitting - better late than never (part 2)

I've recently learned a very valuable lesson about giving hand-knitted gifts, which is this: if you are giving hand-knitted gifts to anyone under, say, the age of 10, let them know upfront that the gift that they are about to open is hand-knitted.  Warn them that it is not the Lego Millenium Falcon...just as a very-random example.  I know this from experience, sadly, because when you sit your recipient(s) down, have your camera in hand & tell them that you have an extra-special gift for them, their imaginations might work a little differently than their hard-knitting mama's.  Just saying.

Anyway, all this is to say that I finally gave the Bachsters their hand-knitted Christmas gifts.  On Valentine's Day.  But gifted all the same!  I have been working on our oldest DD's gift, and it is still not finished (can you tell that my ability for approximating project timelines is sorely lacking).  But I decided that I wanted to give the knitted gifts, even if one of them is still in the works.  At least that way, they can start getting some use out of their cold-weather goodies, before Spring gets here.

Little Dude opened his gift first, and hated it.  (Please see earlier note about prepping the recipient.)  However, after he saw his older sister's (the 6-year-old) response to her gift, he decided that his knitted vest is pretty cool after all and has been wearing it since that time yesterday (to bed, even).

I'm so pleased with how the vest fits him.  This is only my second garment that I've knit (the other was also a vest for Little Dude, interestingly), first time doing one on circular needles - and I used a different weight yarn than the pattern called for.  I was a little worried about the fit.

I'm also pleased that I had enough yarn to finish the project - I only had inches left of the navy blue!  If you're a Ravelry member, here are my project notes.

When our 6-year old opened her gift, she had the reaction that I had been imagining and hoping for:  I love it, she kept saying, and immediately put on her hat & scarf.  She wore her scarf all day at school today.  Here are a few pics from our little photoshoot yesterday:

She kept telling me how warm her new scarf & hat were keeping her noggin' and neck.  I'm pretty thrilled that she loves her knitted goodies so much!

In hindsight, I might have made the scarf a little shorter - the weight of the silk has made it stretch out a bit.  But, at least she will never outgrow it!  Here are the Ravelry notes on the hat, and here are the notes on the scarf.

As for our oldest DD's knitted gift, since it is still in progress I will just have to keep that under wraps for now.  But I can tell you this: it is not the Lego Millenium Falcon (see.....I'm learning).

-Cheryl