Xmas Knitting - FINISHED!!!

Ta-da! I can't believe it... I feel like - hmmm, no more pressure, what am I going to do now? But hey, I already have a ton of projects in reserve. And people will have birthdays next year, too. ;-)

I finally finished the Menorah pillow for my in-laws. I have to say, I am pretty pleased with this project. It turned out very nice and I hope they will enjoy it. Hubby is taking it to the post office so they will get it in time. Hanukkah starts Friday evening.




I altered the pattern sightly. Instead of knitting 4 I-cords that have to be tied into knots for buttons, hubby went shopping and found those gorgeous buttons.

I also whipped up some ornaments for the hostess of the block party using a really neat idea I picked up at the SNB-NEGA Holiday Party. What better to do with left-over Fun Fur than to shove it into glass balls?


I finished a pair of Fetching as well - I LOVE THIS PATTERN! It's very quick to knit, takes not much yarn and is a great gift:


Yarn: Andean Treasure (100% Baby Alpaca)
Amount: 110 yards/50 gram ball (makes one pair)
Color: Embers
Needles: US #2

I also altered this pattern a little bit, adding another cable repeat at the top of the fingerless mittens. It just blows my mind that you can make this pair with 100% Baby Alpaca for $3.79.

Knitty.com came out with a new issue last Friday and guess what? At the SNB-NEGA meeting on Saturday, three knitters had the same idea. We all wanted to knit a pair of Corazon. Jen was brave and knitted at the meeting. I didn't dare. Reading charts and chatting doesn't work for me, so I just showed my progress. And Melissa - she spun some incredibly thin yarn at the meeting - plans to knit them but has to look for yarn first. So, this was my progress Saturday night:


I finished the first mitten and knitted the cuff of the second one. But then I got tired, and knitting fair isle when tired is not very productive either...

Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of The Andes (100% Peruvian Wool)
Amount: 110 yards/50 gram ball
Color: 2x Cranberry, 1x Hyacinth
Needles: US #5

Since I used thicker yarn and bigger needles than the pattern calls for, I knitted the smallest size.


So, I finished no. 2 Sunday afternoon at the block party, and I used a professional steamer on them (and the Menorah pillow). OH MY GOSH - that steamer is a wonder machine. Very, very cool! Not that I want one - but at least I now know where to go to block.

Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention - the purpose of the block party was to bring knitting projects for professional blocking. Just fabulous!

Have you seen the Fiber Dogs lately? Here they are - Sunday morning, keeping mommy company while she knits - and Mommy is sooooooooooooo boring...


Don't look at the mess in my crafts room. Geez - I really need to clean it up. I am to the point where I have only a vague idea of where some paperwork is that I need pretty urgently... Yikes!

Last, but not least, here's a funny story. Hubby's mind works in mysterious, and often demented, ways. There seems to always be something odd rattling around in his head, and sometimes, especially when we're lying in bed on a lazy weekend morning, he lets me in on some of it. So yesterday, out of the blue, he started laughing, so I asked him why. He said he just had a thought that he's surprised he never had before. He observed that the class of animals that are fur-bearing and give birth to live young is named Mammals, because they have mammary glands. The class of animals is named after their boobs! Which, he said, is proof that historically scientists have been men.

Have a GREAT week!