More projects finished up and another one well in hand

I had the good fortune this week of being able to give away two gifts. The first was to my grandma which I blogged below. The second was a gift to Alicia, a work colleague. She has been so helpful to me during a difficult year in a new job and I wanted to do something to thank her, so I made a scarf. I hadn’t made a scarf since probably two years because they’d become a little boring. I decided to try my hand at an easy lace pattern. The yarn was very nice and soft – I generally work with Cascade 220 and Nature Spun and this was a pleasant change of pace. The blocking did wonders for the lace pattern too.

Lace Leaf Scarf


Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk
Needles: size 9 Clover bamboos
Pattern: A winter edition of Family Circle Easy knitting – probably Fall/Winter 2006

Alicia seemed to really love the scarf and she told me the next day that the scarf was the first thing her husband noticed when he was her at the end of the day.

I finally got around to finishing the Moccasin Socks from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Alamanac. The yarn would have been prettier had I worked this with a traditional sock pattern. Because the sock is worked back and forth in rib rather than in the round, the pattern ended up looking more like urban camo than some nice. I love grafting/kitchener stitch, but there aren’t often opportunities to do this for more than 10 or so stitches. The bottom of the sock is grafted together along the entire length of the sock and you can see in the picture that I grafted too tightly. These turned out a little large too, so they are good bed socks or warm socks for walking in the winter. The yarn is nice though – I usually use Trekking XXL for my socks and this too was a nice change.

Moccasin Socks



Yarn: Lang Jawoll Sport
Needles: size 4 Addi Turbo circulars
Pattern: Moccasin Socks

The Gaffer’s Gansey has been coming along really well. I love the pattern on the chest. I have completed seven repeats of the ‘v’s’ and my best guestimate is that I will complete 10 of them. I completed what you see in the pictures in about 10 days and I have slowed down for two reasons. First, I am kinda nervous that I am developing tendonitis in my right wrist. I blame my laptop keyboard and not knitting (because, come on, seriously, knitting wouldn’t hurt me, right?), but still….And my second reason is that I am also a little nervous about steeking sleeves. I have successfully completed crocheted steeks before in an EZ fair isle cardigan that worked well, but I did have a sleeve disaster two years ago. I am still emotional about it! But I feel pretty confident about the pattern. I also wish I had started this with a metal circular rather than bamboo– I’d be able to knit a little more easily with that given the yarn. I wanted to get started and this was all I had in the house. I hope to show some picked up stitches on a successfully steeked armhole on one of my next posts.

Gaffer’s Gansey:





Gaffer’s gussets:



Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Sapphire Heather
Needles: size 7 Clover bamboo circulars
Pattern: Gaffer’s Gansey from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Workshop

None of the pictures reflect the color very well. I am not the best photographer, but that's my best for now. I took a pic of a good yoga book that I just picked up from the library. I have never really done yoga before and it seems like a good starter book. I have made a resolution to get up earlier so I can do a few more things in the morning, like a little yoga.

I finally posted on Zimmermania and the result has been many hits from around the world – so cool. Now my mom isn’t the only one reading my blog and having so many more visitors makes me feel like I need to spruce up my blog, hence a few more photos of FO’s and a WIP. Thanks too for the comments.

Winter sets in

I am still in the midst of two full weeks off of work and it is everything I knew it would be! I had a great time with family and friends and am now planning on enjoying the next four days at home.

I will have a few more photos of finished projects in the next post. I managed to finish one project, start and finish another, and start a third. I started the Gaffer's Gansey for my dad-in-law. Everyone approved of the color and I've made great progress in the past 7 days.



Sue, my MIL, gave me a great Lang engagement calendar of American folk cats. You can see that in the photo above. We trekked out on Saturday to Delafield, WI to the Knitsch - a very cute knitting store with friendly staff where I bought some Cascade 220 in fuschia for a yet to be determined project. Our shopping was delayed by a day because of 8 inches of snow that fell on Friday. It was so beautiful - here's the aftermath:



There was amazing bird watching over the weekend - we saw 17 cardinals at one time!






Ok....the big event of this year's holiday season was my husband's 40th birthday. He got wonderful gifts to commemorate the big day. His folks gave him a telescope - something he's wanted for as long as he can remember. Can you believe the size of this thing:



And my folks gave him enormous binoculars. Do you think the neighbors will be nervous?



Sue and I got in hours and hours of productive knitting while being kept company by the kitties, Tobey and Wiley. And isnt' Tobey the cutest? He's doing a little birdwatching.





Since the photo of the Gaffer's Gansey was taken, I have finished a few more inches of the body and I will be making my second attempt at doing steeks sleeves. My first attempt was unsuccessful - the arm holes were too deep, the sleeves were too long and I tried several attempts to salvage this to at least be able to wear the thing aroung the house, but to no avail. Let's hope this is more successful. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve since I tried this last. More project updates next time.