On the Way

The projects for Chris' family are all done! I mailed them on Tuesday. I sent washcloths to his parents and this cabled scarf to his grandmom.


I think the blue will compliment her eyes beautifully! Ravelry Link.

In other knitting news, we've started a prayer shawl ministry at the church. My dear friend Deb is even getting into knitting! I'm so excited to be sharing my love of yarn with her.

Life in general has been incredibly busy. Advent will do that to you, I suppose. I'm looking forward to this time next week when I will have a couple of actual days off!

Meme from Spinnerknitter (a Ravelry friend)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I love getting creative with wrapping paper, but sometimes bags are better for strangely shaped gifts
2. Real tree or Artificial? I'd much prefer a real tree, but since I live in an apartment with my cat we've got a little artificial one that a friend is loaning us.
3. When do you put up the tree? Normally, Christmas Eve. But I needed some cheering up since I've been sick this week so I put it up a couple days ago.
4. When do you take the tree down? Jan 6 - Epiphany!
5. Do you like eggnog? I don't think I've ever had it
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Tough call! Either the dollhouse my grandpa and I put together or my big stuffed dog, Spot!
7. Hardest person to buy for? Dad. Hands down.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Mom or my fiance
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes! Olive wood from Bethlehem.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, if I do them.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't know.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Carol (don't make me pick a version!)
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I make most of my gifts, but I keep my eyes open for things all year round.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Grandma's Pumpkin pie!
16. Lights on the tree? Yep!
17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh man oh man... don't make me choose! Infant Holy, Infant Lowly; O Holy Night; Silent Night; Angels We Have Heard on High; There's a Star in the East...
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Usually I travel to see family, but this year family is coming to me!
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donder and Blitzen and (of course) Rudolph!
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The fact that it starts after Halloween and ends on the 25 of December. The world forgets Advent and the actual season of Christmas (Dec. 25-Jan. 5)
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? My Aunt Dee who is also my godmother has given me an ornament every year for Christmas and those are my favorites.
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? I've got a long list of books (many of which are about yarn...)
24. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel, one I made as a kid
25. Favorite Christmas dinner? We usually have ham and turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans, pumpkin pie... yum!

Adventure Knitting!

I've finally taken the plunge into colorwork! I found a cute mitten pattern on Ravelry called Herringbone Mittens with Poms and decided it was time to try. Other than misreading the chart and forgetting to increase for the thumb in the appropriate places, its going well so far. I'm using some grey and red alpaca from my stash so they'll be nice and warm when winter hits. The photo is w/o needles because I'm in the process of ripping back to fix my lack of increases.

Plymouth Yarn Indiecita Alpaca in Grey and Burgandy

Yes, some digital photography has been restored to me. Ignore the date on the photo. I haven't bothered with changing it on the camera yet.

And, yes, that is a very shiny ring on my left hand - my beloved Chris proposed last month and we're now engaged! In fact, the other project on my needles is a gift for him so I can't tell you about it because he sometimes stumbles onto this blog. Once he's got the gift, I'll make sure to take pictures! I'm hoping to catch up on some of my Ravelry project pictures... at least the projects I haven't given away already.

I've got an itch to start a sweater, but my sock yarn is also calling my name. I just placed an order with Knit Picks and should be recieving needles to start a shawl as well as more sock yarn. I also need to find yarn for a Christmas scarf for my future Grandmother-in-law. I just met her this weekend and she's a lovely woman. I can't wait to knit for her!

Christmas Yarn

Ironstone English Mohair
Mohair, Wool, Nylon
89 yds/ 40g ball
Some shade of purple
(pardon the mess, the cat got to this one before I could take pictures)

Berroco Danie

Rayon, Cotton, Nylon
Some shade of Purple

This isn't all of the Christmas yarn, but now that classes have started up again I might not have a lot of interesting knitting about which to blog. I'll space out the boring stuff with pictures of the Christmas yarn!

Right now the big project on needles is a wedding gift for my cousin who is getting married in April. I'm excited for him, but I've got a lot of work to do between now and then.

Coming Soon!

Clementine Shawlette in some purple stuff I got for Christmas (label-less)

I had some surprise travel plans added to my January and haven't been able to take pictures of the Christmas travel knitting until today. My apologies. I'm not quite up to plowing through all of the yarn details to post all of those pictures for you yet, but I promise they will come soon! For now, please know that I'm thinking yarny thoughts in your direction and happily working on my many UFOs.

Home again!

Completed over Christmas:
One knitted amoeba:Which when folded correctly and sewn becomes:
My very first BSJ! Its so cute! I do need to find buttons for it, but the knitting and seaming are done. Its mostly Paton's Classic Merino, but I ran out and used some leftover sock yarn (double stranded) for the last few inches and the button band.

While I did not complete as much knitting as I wanted, I did turn out this lovely quilt top with the help of my aunt and uncle. Hooray for craftiness!
I'll post pictures of the newest bits of stash as soon as I can unpack enough to take pictures.

Christmas Knitting is (mostly) Done!

Its true! I've just got one bit of a sweater to finish and I'm not seeing that person until New Year's so it will be okay if I finish that on my travels. I'll have lots of knitting time between now and then. Everything else is done and wrapped and ready to go into the car later tonight.

Pattern: Mug Coozies, Interweave Knits Holiday '07
Yarn: Peaches 'n' Cream cotton
This green one is for my dad. I also made a red one for my grandpa.

Munkus was very helpful when I was trying to work on my BSJ last night. He's rather opinionated about my traveling.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I'll be MIA for a few weeks as I travel around to my friends and family. See you in 2008!

Yarn Shenanagins

This is what happens when craft stores have sales:

Yarnbee Mosaic Twist
Colorway: Fruity

Bernat Haven
Colourways: Cream and Peach

And this is what happens when a bunch of seminarians swap yarn:

Bernat Baby yarn in a couple of colors and some Yarnbee Highland Thistle in Shetland (not pictured).





Good thing I also acquired a new bin for the stash!


I'd say the yarn swap was quite a success! Good times, fun yarn, and pumpkin pie was had by all! We're all gearing up for Christmas break (aka: uninterrupted knitting time). I've been making plans with Rosemary for our after Christmas crafting plans. We both have plans to work on large square shawls in January and we both have some sewing and scrapbooking projects to finish. I think we'll be able to keep each other motivated!