Christmas Projects – Totoro Mittens and Moogle Doll

Christmas is fast approaching and I still have a lot of presents to make.  Nevertheless, I’ve completed a couple projects/presents over the last week and a half.  The first is a moogle doll which I gave to Sam and will give to a few others once I make the rest.  (No, I’m not going to spoil whom they are.)  The moogle was surprisingly difficult yet easy to make as odd as that sounds.  The pattern itself was simple, yet my lack of crocheting over the past couple years caught up to me as I had a difficult time readjusting again to crocheting.  Other than that, it was a very fun pattern to make.  (You can find more info on this pattern at Ravelry.com, search “moogle doll”.)

(Thank you Sam for the photo!)

The other project was a set of Totoro mittens for Katy.  The colors were her design as she knew about the gift ahead of time.  Overall, the mittens were very easy to knit even with the color changes.  I really love the pattern and want to make myself a pair soon since they are so cute!  (You can find more about this pattern on Ravelry.com, search “Totoro Mittens”.) 

(I only have pictures of the single glove, but will post more pictures as soon as I get more.)

Favored Knitting Techniques

As I’ve been knitting so much recently, I’ve discovered a few knitting techniques that I prefer above my previous knitting methods.  Each help make knitting more enjoyable, smoother, and go much faster.  Even though they are common techniques, I hope they will be helpful to you as well.

The first is circular knitting.  Circular knitting is helpful because it eliminates back and/or side seams and generally makes the knitting go faster as well as have a smoother appearance.   I’ve been using this technique for as many projects as I can depending on the type of needles I have handy. 

Circular knitting is a technique commonly used to make socks, legging, sweaters, purses, and hats as well as any other item that needs to have a 3-dimensional, often, circular shape.  It is accomplished by joining stitches in a round on either circular or double pointed knitting needles.  If you don’t know how to use this technique, I highly suggest you learn it.  Here is a really good tutorial on basic circular knitting.  Circular Knitting Tutorial

The second technique is what I call two-at-a-time knitting.  It’s somewhat hard to explain without pictures, but the basic premise is knitting two items of similar nature (like socks, leggings, sweater sleeves, cuffs, …) at the same time.  It’s commonly used for socks though I’ve been using it for just about anything I can since I can’t stand unsymmetricalness in my knitting.  Since there are many different methods to this technique, I won’t be going into detail about mechanics.  There are quite a few helpful tutorials online.  If you search “two at a time socks”, you’ll get the most and best results.  From there it’s just implementing the technique into other projects.  Here are a couple tutorials I’ve found helpful. 

That’s all folks.  I hope the techniques are able to help you in your knitting endeavors.  Have a blessed day and happy knitting!