Stash Queen

Now It Can Be Shown

Hope Santa was good to you and that you all had a wonderful day with loved ones.  We are fortunate to be able to enjoy good food made by loving hands.  The gifts we receive are also an expression of love, especially if they are handmade.

Now I can reveal my projects which did make it under the tree on time - the last end was darned in at 10:38 Christmas Eve.

I'm sure you'll recognize this one now that some stitches have been dropped:

My daughter's Silk Garden Clapotis.

 

She picked out the colorway a long time ago but had no idea that I was knitting it now.  She loves it and the green and black shell shawl pin that I gave her to wear with it.

The sweater that I was madly knitting down to the wire was this one:

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It`s Baird, a KnitPicks pattern by Elizabeth Green Musselman.  I knit it in Comfy Cotton instead of the wool the pattern called for.  I love its retro look; it's kind of a grandpa sweater for a little boy.  I got a little bored knitting it only because it was actually the second one:

I knit stranded patterns with one yarn in each hand.  In this photo you can see the difference it makes whether the darker or lighter yarn is held in the right hand.  I did deliberately choose to change the emphasis in the second sweater by switching yarn positions.  But I was very careful never to switch while knitting each sweater.  For the larger sweater I had the dark brown in my right hand, and for the smaller one, the lighter brown. 

Truthfully the boys think clothes are mostly boring at Christmas time.  They preferred the bright red Marvel hoodies with Spiderman and other superheroes on the front, which I purchased on sale at Sears.  But I knew they would, so I wasn't disappointed.  My daughter loves to dress the boys the same in classic little man styles when they go out, and she was surprised and loved these sweaters enough to make it all worthwhile. 

Now the rush is over, I am looking forward to rechecking the UFO's and the stash and planning the new year's knitting.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year to all!

That Time of Year

Cold enough for snowmen.  It was -23 C when I woke up this morning.  Definitely cold enough to wear my new Mulberry Hat.  The cute little Brattleboro beanie tends to ride up and not cover my ears.  The Mulberry does the opposite, tending to slide down, but at least covering the ears and forehead well.  The pattern calls for an elasticized velvet ribbon that I can't find anywhere.  I sewed regular ribbon as trim on the outside, but I may have to sew on or weave in some kind of elastic on the inside to keep this in place a bit better.

This is the only thing I've completed for myself lately.  Please excuse the arms length, self-taken photos.  DH has been far too busy making pasta for the annual fundraiser at the Italian club.  It's that time of year for him too.

I went out this morning to the Little Dude's Christmas concert at the Y.  Seeing the little ones onstage is one of the best parts of the season.  Some were born performers, others cried or stared at the audience like reindeer in the headlights.  Then there was the little girl who kept lifting up her dress to play with the hem and the little boy who picked his nose.  And they were all so cute.

Our guy managed quite well in his two numbers.  He's grown up so much since he just sat down on the stage in an act of non-participation last year.

On the home front, my Christmas knitting is coming along.  What makes it less stressful is the fact that four people in our family have birthdays in January.  There's a reprieve for anything that doesn't make the Christmas deadline, although I'd prefer to start the new year with a clean slate.  I'll show you a few sneak peeks without revealing what or for whom:

Now you'll have to wait for Christmas for more.