Christmas Knitting

I can't believe it is almost November! I have hardly begun my Christmas knitting. Fortunately, there are a few things on my UFOs that are presents, so I am already halfway there for some gifts. I live in Florida and it is hard to think about Christmas when it is still near 90 degrees. There isn't that sense of urgency you get when you feel the frost in the morning and see the leaves turn beautiful colors. My poor air conditioner ran all week.

I tallied up my Christmas knitting and I have a lot to go. I'm making Aran and Fair Isle hats this year with scarves or mittens to go with them for my extended family. I have a number of Arans I want to do next year and I thought I would just make swatch hats using the various patterns. It's a lot of work for a hat, so this makes it do double duty.

I also got another "ticker" and updated my UFO ticker for the holidays. They seem to help motivate me. I found 2 more UFOs that are perfect for Christmas presents, so I changed my UFO ticker to 22.

I'd like to make some of those beautiful Scandinavian mittens this Christmas, but I should have started them this summer. Who could think of mittens when was almost 100 degrees and we hadn't rain in over a month? As usual, I will be still knitting Christmas Eve.

My additional UFOs are:

9. - Lovely red Aran size 4 - sew together
10 - White novelty yarn vest -finish fronts

More Organizing and Charity projects

I am making some inroads into my stash. Here are some more charity projects that I finished this month. The burgundy and green chemo hats are so easy to make so I always have a hat on the needles. The green hat and scarf set was made from some yarn I never thought I would be able to use here in Florida, but I think some homeless person will like it. I made two of those hats in one evening.




Some things take on a life of their own. Now that I have started to organize my stash and projects, I find now that I need to set up a place to take photos AND I see that my camera is old and leaves a lot to be desired. I never realized how yellow the light is in my apartment until I started taking these photographs. I got out my Ott light, but then I didn't have a good place to lay out my stash and projects. Nothing is ever simple. I never thought about all that goes into getting organized.

One More Finished

My nephew's caveing socks are finished. I think I have perfected this pattern. This hunting season will be the final test. When I went to do the kitchener stitch, I cut the yarn to short and had to go back 2 rows and add a new piece(: I added the piece in on the top of the foot and I hope he can't feel it. I could have kicked myself. I just wasn't paying attention.

Charity Knitting

This is a little blanket I made for "From the Heart," a charity shop in Richmond, VA while I was up there for the summer. It's a wonderful place where you can go to get donated yarn, needles and patterns for your charity projects. They also have comfey chairs and sofas so you can sit and knit. The first time I was there, there were about 15 second grade students there, boys and girls, all knitting. They had already contributed squares for an afghan for the homeless and someone had put the squares together for them and brought the finished afghan for them to see. They were working on another one while we were there. The school bus picked them up after about an hour to take them back to school. What an inspiration!

They had a need for preemie blankets and I found the mock cable in and was trying to make a blanket 24" x 24," but the pattern is actually a ribbing and the cable draws the fabric in. I can't remember what I cast on, but I calculated it from the gauge.


I learned a few things from this project; cast on about 10% less stitches than you want so it won't ripple at the ends and use some short rows in the side borders about every 3 inches to keep it from drawing in. The cable is really easy to do and you don't need a cabling needle for it.

Pictures from Summer Knitting

I taught Eli, age 8, to knit this summer and she finished a scarf for her mother, some coasters for her daddy and the red yarn is for a trivet. When we watched some movies, she went and got her knitting just like her grandmother, great grandmother and aunt:)













I've had these socks in my UFO box for a long time. The first one worked up quickly, but I made a mistake on the second one and couldn't remember where I put the pattern.






I finished the Crayon sweater for Charles and had enough yarn to make one for Addie also. They're bright and colorful and made a big hit, even though you couldn't tell it from Charles expression. I have two more of these sweaters left to make.



Here are some chemo caps I made. I have made about 12 of the ribbed ones, but only one of the 2 color which is what I really wanted to practice this summer(two-handed stranded knitting). Right now I am looking for a truly jogless seam. I do intend to keep working on the stranded hats this year until I am proficient.
Crayon Sweater