Happy Christmas and New Year!

Too long since my last post, so this one's going to be long. Let's start with Kisa, this time, exploring the Christmas tree:




Kisa found Christmas to be lots of fun, and just a little stressful (sounds familiar). Ribbons, tissue paper, bows and boxes were great. Visitors, trees being dragged inside, and long absences were not so good. But she survived.

As usual, my family bought me everything I asked for (I tried to keep the list under control). I just emailed Tom my Knit Picks shopping cart and they went to town!:




Panopticon's It Itches, a magnetic chart keeper, some Chibi yarn needles and these really cool DPN WIP holders, so you can safely carry unfinished socks around without fear of breakage, purse holes, or impalement.

Tom order this swift from a guy on eBay. It's much more durable than the umbrella-style, and lots cheaper. I love it, wind away!





Of course then came the Boxing Day yarn sales. From Romni I bought Lana Grossa sock yarn, Cascade 220 Heather, and Lavold silky wool. From Lettuce Knit I picked up some Misti Alpaca hand painted lace, and some Socks that Rock. I was very disappointed they had no Dream in Color Smooshy for sale; that was the main reason I went there. Unfortunately, I didn't take a group photo before putting the yarn away, so I think I'll just link to my Ravelry stash page.

Finally, for my birthday, Tom got me one of the Knit Picks lace samplers:



I have so much lace-weight! And lace takes so long! And I want to knit sweaters! Oh well, it is beautiful.

Speaking of knitting sweaters, after completing about 8 inches on my EZ percentage sweater, I had to frog it and start over. It was huge! I cast on 32 less stitches this time. Didn't you knit a gauge swatch? you say. Yes, I did. I knit it in the round. I washed, dried and measured carefully. Gauge swatches lie.

Before that I finished a hat to match my mittens:



a Noro One Skein One Stole scarf:



a Baby Surprise Jacket for a pregnant co-worker:



and one Monkey Sock:



I also cast on the Icarus shawl in lovely Malabrigo lace weight:



But because of the the rippage, I feel so behind on my knitting. I have one more week off from work and I need to get lots done.

Happy New Year!

On holiday!

Because of an error in calculating my vacation days, I got sent home today, three days early to start my Christmas holiday. No more work until January 5! What am I going to do with myself? Knit, of course!

Secret Santa mitts are here:





9 teachers have been laid off from my work, so the Christmas party won't be so joyful. It's seems like most people are still planning to show up. My gift recipient is not one of the lay-offs.

I'm really proud of my first fair isle project: Ice Wine Mitts.




Checking out the blog of the designer, I suddenly realized I knew her! She goes to the Purl's knit night. So I was able to show the mitts and thank her for the pattern (and coo over her new baby). Yeah!

All my Christmas knitting is now done, so I've moved on to my first Baby Surprise Jacket, for Andrea and her soon to be born baby. It's lots of fun to knit, although it lands in that annoying place between mindless and requiring attention, so I tend to forget where I am in the pattern and have done a lot of annoying tinking. The yarn is Joy by Needful yarns, and it's really cushy. I like it a lot.



Eventually I'll get back to my Noro scarf, though I've made some progress: