December 2009

I hope everyone had a very happy holiday and will have a Happy and Healthy New Year!!  I did and am looking forward to 2010 and lots of new knitting projects.  I even made a list.  I know I am getting ahead of myself knittingwise when I need a list to remember everything I want to do.  We won't even talk about the things that "butt" in line, I am sure they will pop up.

So, December.  I am not sure I was too productive.  It is always a busy month, Christmas cookies, shopping, cards, cooking, all getting in the way of my knitting.

I did make and finish a couple of Mobius (s?, plural).  They were Christmas gifts and one and a half were done before December and the other 2 and a half were knit in December.  Of course I meant to get to them sooner.  Most of them were knit with Plymouth's Buckingham, a beautidul Alpaca Silk blend and one was made with Berroco's Seduce.

My son requested another earflap hat as a gift for someone.  I thought after 15 of them last year I was done, but no, another one.  This one is done with Plymouth's Encore.  I thought the colors turned out pretty. (I would)

I also snuck in a small felted purse as a Christmas gift for my Mom.  It is knit with Araucaria's Nature Wool Chunky.  She needed a little purse to carry her keys  to dinner.  She liked it and the colors.

And my big project, Tyler's sweater, which for some reason kept getting bumped from the line up. Ok, I'll fess up, it was wrapped on the needles and finished 2 days after Christmas.  This is from the Noro Men's Book (a really good book of men's patterns) and it is knit with Araucaria's Toconao and Noro's Silk Garden.  Men's sweaters take forever.  17" to the armhole, monkey arms and a hood!  Then a 28" zipper, arghhhh.  Putting zippers in is not my favorite thing to do, but I will say I tried something new this time and was very pleased with the results.  Instead of pinning the zipper in, I basted it in first and then sewed it in (by hand, they only way to put a zipper in knitting).  The basting took some extra time, but really was the key to getting the zipper in place properly before sewing.   So, that is my tale of woe, the sweater is done and he really likes it!!

And on my needles, the lace stole from last month, still going, but not much progress.  The Mini Mochi sock, same...  I also started a sweater from Araucania' s Panguipulli.  The company sent me a sample sweater, but I didn't think it did justice to the beautiful yarn, so I ripped it out and am knitting a different sweater from it.  I think it will be very cute.

I also organized my knitting bag, for now anyway.  Each project or project-to-be in a large zip lock bag with the needles and pattern.  We'll see how long this lasts.....   And the rest is still in list form.  I am looking forward to more knitting time in January, I hope you are too!

Happy Knitting and New Year, Nancy