I did it!

I set a goal of knitting 23 hats and finishing 23 UFOs for Christmas and I made it! I'll be grinning for a week over this! Of course, I have added more hats now. I had my granddaughter try on a hat for my grandniece and it looked so cute on her and she loved it, so she now has that one and I am making another for my other granddaughter and I still have the one for my grandniece to do. I should get them done by Tuesday. I am going to post a photo on Ravelry on as soon as I can download them. The hat looks like a Russian hat with some Plymouth Jelli Beenz yarn at the top and Flutter Fiber eyelash yarn for the main part of the hat. I did these in purple, but I am going to try some other colors. They are so cute!

I also knit another earflap hat and have a request for another. I might have to be a lot more careful in choosing the people I get to try on these hats...so many of them end up with my sample! Not really:) It's nice to know that they love the hats and want them for themselves. That's music to a knitter's ear. This Christmas I ended up making 3 more earflap hats and 3 more Russian hats along with another scarf as requests.

Now I am going to have to make up some more goals, but I think I am going to just let these counters stay for a while to remind me of how good it feels to achieve my goal:)

Knitting hats and UFOs

I have been knitting up a storm and really cranking out the hats. I've found an earflap hat that I love. I've made 7 of them from Wool-ease with several variations. I'll try to get some photos up soon. It seems like I can't get either of my counters to the end. I keep adding hats to my hat counter and finding new UFOs to add to that counter also. I found a ripple afghan in the attic that I am turning into a Christmas present. I always liked it, but I made it for a friend and before I could get it finished, they moved and had a completely different color scheme. The new recipient has just bought a new house with lots of space to fill up, so this is perfect...a gift I love for people I love.

The earflap hats are going well and they have a lot of space to do colorwork on them, so I just keep adding recipiants that I think will like them. I figure I have about 4 more of the earflap kind and a couple of Aran type that I have been wanting to make for ages. I'm making a hat and boa out of some eyelash yarn for my 4 year old grandneice, and I am hoping I get used to using that yarn. So far, it hasn't been all that great, but my sister assures me that it gets easier. For the little grandnephews, I want to make these balaclavas. Then I have a vest to make (It's half done), 3 crochet bags (1 finished today), some ipod carriers...one looks like a hoodie and is so cute! There's a Star Wars hat and sweater that isn't even started and 2 children's Arans and 1 Gansey half done. I think I am going to have to learn to knit while I sleep! Thank goodness some of these are UFOs and are already well on their way. Pictures will be posted and a new list made.

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