Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you and yours. I would like to tell all my friends how much I appricate them. I am so glad I found SnB! And who would have thought that at one of my worst jobs I have ever had, I would find two really great friends! May the New Year fins you happy and healthy.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Smitten Style

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all though the house,
The sound of my needles clicking was noticed only by a mouse.

The hand knit stocking were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that no one would see the grafting mistakes there.
The nephews where all snuggled in bed,
While thoughts of snowman sweaters danced in their heads.
While mom in her cable cardigan, and I in my fingerless mittens,
Had just settled in for a long for a long nights knittin’
When out on the lawn there arouse such a clatter,
I sprang from the purl row to see what was the matter.

Away the window I flew like a flash?
(Just one more row perhaps?)
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash,
After a few dropped stitches and decreases that match.
The moon, on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Was like lace out of mohair on my lap below.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear?
But a set of Denise needles and another knitter so near.
I knew in a moment that it must be the knitting fairy
To help with the holiday stitching, so I could be merry.

“Now purl one row, then knit two more!
Don’t forget to YO at the end of each row!”
To the top of the hat and matching mittens, does that look too small?
Too late now; knit away, knit away all!”

She spoke not a word, but when straight to her work,
And knit all the yarn that lurked.
Weaving in the ends as she goes,
She knit in a flash, taking with her all of my woes.
Her well-worked fingers gave a signal of approval
As she took her leave with her needles
I heard her exclaim:
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all good knittin’”

Christmas Knitting is Finished!

I meet the deadline with a few days to spare! Here is a top view of the hat finished:

Last year when I was home I was making a pair of socks for myself; my sister-in-law commented that she really like the idea of having bright, funky socks. You may want to put some sunglasses on before you take a look at the socks I made for her. I got the yarn from the last yarn swap. Here is a in-progress shot:

And I know you won’t feel this post is complete until you see the sweatshirts. I took a picture of just one as they look the same:

That’s right I finished my Christmas sewing as well. All the adults are also going to get their gifts in fabric bags. I have been talking about doing this for years. It’s amazing how much wrapping paper one family can go though. This way they get an extra gift and it’s better for Mother Earth. I would have done the same for the boys, but all I had in my fabric stash was silk or pink flowery cotton. I think it's ok that I wrap a few presents in paper.

To prove that I have been a very busy girl lately I also finished knitting and sewing together secret project 1. I am currently swatching for secret project 2. It won’t be long now until I can knit for myself again, I can’t wait!

Progress

So I have been making some good headway (no pun intended) on my brother’s hat. See for yourself:

The cables are a little hard to see in this picture, but trust me, they are there. I just started the decreases. I made a mistake in the previous round so I think I am going to tink it back.

In other knitting news I am finish with the bulk of the endless stockinette stitch for the secret project. Want to see:

I am such a tease, I know. Soon it will be taking a very hot bath in the washing machine. I made a felted swatch using the machine I will be using to felt the bag, but I a still a little nervous about how it will look once it is out of the washer. It just occurred to me tonight that I don’t even know the name of the book I am making these projects for. Perhaps I should find out.

In non-knitting news I finally cut out the sweatshirts for my two adorable nephews. Who wouldn't want a sweatshirt in this print? Now I just need to get motivated to pull out the sewing machine and get going!

Today is an important day...

Happy Birthday to our English Bird!

My Friends R-O-C-K!

Wow, I am so touched by the fact that my SnB friends left me so many comments on my first post. You Guys totally R-O-C-K! I am so thankful for our SnB group. Tuesdays haven’t been the same since I meet you!

So I cast on for my brother’s hat a few times. The black is just too dark to do cables on in my apartment, so I headed out today to Yarn Connection and picked up some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in a denim blue. Very nice. I think my brother will look good in the blue and it should keep his head warm. I tried it on and it’s a little lose on me, but he is 6’6”, so his head is probably a little bigger than mine.

There has been no progress on the secret project. It’s still pink…

In the beginning…

I would like to start this post by saying to all those bloggers who I have pestered in the past about not blogging enough…I am sorry. I promise to try and post on a regular basis. Please forgive me if I don’t.

So where to start. My current project is a secret project (and I need to borrow the camera from work, even though they don’t know it yet). It’s a felted project for an upcoming book published by Wiley, who also published my friends Heather’s book Not Your Mama’s Knitting, which means lots and lots of stockinette! The really upside…it’s pink. More to come on that later.

All that stockinette is making me bored. I am normally a monogamous knitter, but lately I have been dreaming of casting on something with cables. So I think I am going to start this from Knitty for my brother for Christmas:

Here it is from brooklyntweed in a more manly color:

I hope he will like it. I have some black yarn that is a little bulkier than the calmer that is suggested for it, so I think I am going to take out a couple of repeats. Fingers crossed he'll like it!