I just got my invitation to join Ravelry. I added my name to the waiting list on December 18, so the wait wasn't too bad. I haven't had much time to look around yet, but I put in a search for Tilted Duster, and 383 versions come up - very cool! I'm going to go look around some more before quiet time is over.

Here is my FIL wearing his new vest.












And this was his beautiful gift to us.












And here is my MIL in her Tailored Scallops.












And my GIL in her Flower Basket Shawl.












I started Bristow for my mother in royal blue Cascade 220 superwash. I thought about adding cables to the back, but decided that simple stockinette would be better for travel.

Here is the Classic Camel Vest for my FIL, all blocked and ready to be wrapped. I'm still not 100% satisfied with how the buttons look, but after 4 tries, enough is enough. I plan to bring along my blocking pins and iron when we visit in case it is a little small for him. He gave me measurements, but they were based on a suede vest, not a knitted piece, so we'll see. The trusty Cascade worked beautifully for the project, and although I would look like walking vomit in this color, I think it will look good on my FIL. The pattern only took about 4 and a half skeins of yarn, so I have one and a half left to use for another project. The gold would make a nice accent color.

Also newly finished is this Flower Basket Shawl for my Grandmother-in-law.
I used 4 and a half skeins of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK and long size 8 Addis. The superwash was sometimes a little slippery on the needles at the beginning of a row, but otherwise the combo worked well. I did 11 repeats of the lower basket chart. I probably could have done at least 13 considering the amount of yarn I have left, but I have limited time, and was anxious to finish everything for the Christmas deadline. Unblocked, the shawl measured 50" x 24", and after a Eucalan bath and blocking, it measures 66" x 36", which will hopefully be a good size for my GIL. If not, I'd be more than happy to keep it for myself!

This is a great pattern, one that would be good for a first lace project. I didn't feel the need to use any lifelines and could even pay attention to a movie (not subtitled) while working on it. I had started this just after getting into lace knitting, but then put it aside for over a year. It was nice to pick this project up again and discover that it felt much quicker and easier than it did when I started it.

Blocking this was much simpler than the Swallowtail Shawl I did a while back because I used the Yarn Harlot method instead of trying to keep the top edge straight with a million pins.

Here is a close-up of the yarn threaded through the top.
It also helped to have a new blocking board, a.k.a. our old bed that we recently replaced and put in the guest room. I had been blocking everything on a towel on my bedroom carpet, and this always prompted my DH to complain that he might get up in the night and impale his foot. I always said I thought it would be unlikely since the T part of the t-pin is the part he would step on, not the point, but he never believed me.

I hope to get pics of all gifts, including the Tailored Scallops, being modeled by their recipients.

Instead of having our typical Tuesday knitting night last night, my group had a holiday hors d'oeuvres party/ornament exchange. Lucky me also received my birthday gifts from Kim. She gave me

this sassy little bag













with this gorgeous knitted bracelet inside.













It even has a Clever Clasp which makes it a cinch to put on and take off. Kim said she wanted to make me something that I had never made before, and since I have never knitted with wire or beads, it was a perfect choice. I am definitely interested in having her show me how it is done.

This was the final gift from the 2007 secret birthday gift exchange. It was a lot of fun to see what everyone decided to make, and it is always fun to knit for people you know will appreciate the work. We chose names for next year's secret holiday gift exchange last night, and I look forward to seeing how it all turns out next year.

Here is the fifth gift from our secret birthday gift swap, and it was made by Sheila and given to Maureen. It is cool that it worked out so that Maureen and Sheila were each other's secret gifters.

This was Sheila's first felting project, and it turned out to be really cute. The pattern is from Felted Knits. She had a bit of an adventure though. Here is her story:

"The pocket saga . . . I thought that the yarn I used for the pocket was the same as the yarn for the rest of the purse. I had used it for a teddy bear sweater and it was fine. However, when I went to felt the bag, the main part of it felted great, but the pocket didn't seem to felt at all. I gave it more time (hence the smaller size of the bag) but nothing. When I took it out of the machine, my cute bag had this big wet mess of yarn hanging off it. I had to cut the pocket off and make a new one. I felted it by hand in my sink and it looked okay. Problem two . . . it was really hard to sew it all the way around after it was felted. I went out and bought a metal thimble, but there was no way. The woman in JoAnn's suggested that I try liquid stitches so I did. As far as I know the pocket is still on the bag!"

The group decided that for 2008 we would do a secret holiday gift swap instead of birthday. That will give all of us an equal amount of time, and almost an entire year to create something special.

Scarf show. Here are pics of the finished gift scarves for 2007. There is another Misty Garden which I posted about a few weeks ago that is also part of the group. Surprisingly, I have not sworn off scarf knitting after completing this run of gift scarves. I do look forward to getting started on something different though, once the remaining gift knits are done. Maybe some socks...

Bad blogger, good knitter. The blog has taken a back seat for a few weeks while I have been getting all of my gift knitting done for the holidays, plus dealing with everyday life and all that jazz. At least I have a bevy of FO's to show now that the hiatus is over. I don't have photos just yet, and the vest and shawl still need to be finished, but here is the list of gifts for Holiday 2007:

Tailored Scallops for MIL
Classic Camel Vest for FIL (still needs to finish blocking and get buttons)
Ruffles scarf
Skinny Here and There Cables
Midwest Moonlight in red
Midwest Moonlight in magenta
2 Cable scarf (my own simple design)
Misty Garden purple/pink/brown variegated
Misty Garden pink/red/orange/brown
Flower Basket Shawl (still needs 1-3 repeats of lower baskets, plus edging and blocking)

I wasn't sure how much I would use Scarf Style when I got it. It has now proven its value in my knitting library. Many of the projects are the type that look difficult to the recipient, but can be easily executed by the average knitter - a great thing when you need an impressive gift fast.

I also continue to be amazed by the power of wet blocking a lacy wool scarf from 40" to 69", (even longer if using superwash) a practice which enabled me to make some of the scarves with only one skein of Patons Classic Merino, which I bought on sale at Michaels for $3.50!

I am hoping to sit down tomorrow and crank out at least one repeat of the FBS. There are already 235 sts (9 repeats) on the needle, and I just know that it is going to be tempting to end it at 10 repeats unless I want to be knitting during every free moment I get this week. And those moments are not coming as often, especially now that my 4-year-old is no longer napping.

Here is the finished Tailored Scallops. The color in the picture looks like hot pink, but the true color is more purplish-pink, like magenta. I'll need to block the seams again before I gift it to my MIL for Christmas, but since my trusty iron just died, I figured I would go ahead and post a photo. The knitting part of this probably took a week and half or so, but I left it for a while before blocking and sewing it, so all together it was 2 months from starting time to finishing time. The pattern was enjoyable and easy to memorize, and went very quickly on size 9 and 10 needles. I still have about 2 and a half skeins of Cascade 220 leftover from the 8 I had purchased to make this sweater. It is great to be done with a big Christmas gift so early, but I am anxious to see how it fits her.
Next on the list to be worked is my FIL's Classic Camel Vest. I finished the back a while ago, but when I started a front the other day, I realized that I must have decided to use a bigger needle for the ribbing than the pattern calls for, because the ribbing on the front looked much smaller than what I had done on the back. So I need to figure out what I did. It is amazing how much more crucial it is than ever before that I keep notes for myself. Is it having children or just getting older?

Here is Tiana wearing the Midwest Moonlight I made her for the secret birthday gift exchange. It is fun to knit things for people, particularly when (a) they appreciate the work, and (b) the work actually looks good on them. I wondered if the 7 foot length might be a little long, even for someone tall like Tiana, but seeing it on her, I am happy with the way it turned out.

And here is another beautiful secret birthday gift, knitted by Tiana and given to Erica, who is happily modeling it. I need to find out where she got the pattern. There are still two more gifts to be given before the end of the year. I am excited to see what they are, especially because I am one of the recipients!

After weeks of ignoring them, I finally took out the finished pieces of Tailored Scallops today with the intent of pinning them out and steam blocking them. To my horror, I discovered 2 mysterious unattached loops in the middle of the left front. I have no idea how this happened.

I wove the loops in as well as possible, and then took a strand of the yarn and tacked them down so they won't pop out again. The two fronts, the back and the sleeves are now drying on my bedroom rug. I can still see where the loop fixes were made on the left front, but hopefully the holes that are supposed to be there will disguise them to the unknowing eye.

In more relaxed news, I had some leftover yarn from the first Midwest Moonlight, so I decided to make a skinnier version, casting on only 17 sts instead of 33. It looks more like an accessory now, as opposed to a useable warm scarf like the wider version. The super-stretch of the Cascade superwash when wet made it easy to create an 80" scarf with 52" of knitting on the needles. I haven't tried this yarn for a sweater yet, and will definitely swatch and block before I make anything that needs to stay a certain size. I still have about 2 skeins left in this color, which may become a February Baby Sweater for my son's teacher, who is expecting a baby girl in January.

The holiday gift knitting/destashing is in full swing. Here is the first of the smaller projects. It is Misty Garden from Scarf Style. Made with one skein of variegated Patons Merino, it is not much like the fuzzy version in the book. But the pattern is a snap, especially since I just finished working on the feather and fan sea of Tailored Scallops. I'm not sure who the recipient will be yet, but I have learned that during this time of year it is not a bad thing to have random FO's on hand and ready to be gifted at any moment.

Here is my finished Midwest Moonlight, the third item created for the secret birthday gift exchange that my knitting group started back in January. I hope to get a photo of the recipient wearing it. The gifts should be coming more frequently now since the last 3 recipients have birthdays in October, November and December.

I used about a skein and a half of Cascade 220 superwash, and cast on 33 stitches instead of 49, since the Cascade is thicker than the Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort called for in the pattern, and I didn't want the scarf to be too wide. The scarf was about 59" before blocking, and after a nice Eucalan bath and a stretch to open up the lace, it measured around 84". I really enjoyed knitting this pattern and am happy with the way it turned out. I'll definitely be making more of these!

Thomas the Tank Engine is visiting Strasburg PA this week, and since our 4-year-old is train obsessed, we decided to make the trek up there to check it out. My DH and I wanted to make the trip fun for the boys, but also as relaxing as possible for us. That means a peaceful atmosphere (i.e. not loads of other families with children, and a separate place for us to hang out after the boys go to sleep so we don't have to go to bed at 8 pm or sit in the dark and whisper to each other). After looking online and rejecting many outrageously priced suites, we ended up staying in the guest house at Penn's Valley Farm, which was reasonably priced, and suited our needs quite well.

The B&B is surrounded by farmland, and has a lovely porch with rocking chairs that looks out over cornfields. There is also a playset, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. The guest house also had some toys and books to entertain the boys, which was great for us, since we had neglected to bring these very important items. The guest house has two floors, one with a sleeper sofa, a kitchen and eating area, and a television with a vhs/dvd player, and some videos and movies, mostly suited to children. There were homemade blueberry and chocolate chip muffins waiting in the kitchen when we arrived, and an array of cereals in the cupboard.

A winding staircase takes you up to the sleeping area which has farm animals stenciled on the walls. There is a twin bed, 2 double beds and a small crib, and a bathroom with a shower. There is a gate at the top of the stairs - a very good thing for small children, since the stairs are quite steep. Gladys, the baker of the muffins, also offers an optional full breakfast for an addition $4 per person. We decided to partake on our last morning, and are glad we did. She made sticky buns, scrambled eggs and bacon, and some other delicious looking baked goods that we were too stuffed to sample. She and her husband Melvin, the owners of the farm, joined us for the breakfast, and they were good company. The cottage cost us $80 per night ($70 base + $5 each for the boys), plus $16 for the full breakfast. We though it was a great deal.

And I got some knitting time in on the porch.

Nice view to knit by!

Tailored Scallops' sleeves are finished. Now all I have to do is knit the back, block it all and sew it together. If I were making this for someone who didn't have difficulty with her hands, I would probably gift a brooch of some sort to go with the sweater. I have thought about buying a Clever Clasp and seeing if I could somehow attach some beads and make a nifty, easy to close fastener for the sweater. Maybe I'll be compelled if the finished product is crying out for closure. Otherwise, it would probably be best to make the sweater as easy as possible for my MIL to put on herself.

Along the same lines, there seem to be so few products on the market that cater to elderly and handicapped people. iPods are a great size for those who are able to press the tiny buttons and see the small screen, but it would be great if there were some sort of a larger version so that those with failing eyesight and clumsy fingers could also carry some entertainment along for the ride.

I finished the left front of Tailored Scallops last night, and wound two hanks of Cascade into balls in preparation for the next part. I originally wanted to make this sweater as a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law, but if all keeps chugging along as quickly as it has been, I may give it to her as a birthday gift at the end of the month. My father-in-law is in the hospital with Guillain-Barré syndrome, and therefore my mother-in-law needs to live in an assisted living facility for a few weeks. She had a rough time last time she needed to stay in a respite care facility, so she may have even more appreciation now for a colorful, hand knit, lacy cardigan made just for her.

Here is the right front of Tailored Scallops. It has been very enjoyable knitting so far, and miraculously, the Cascade seems to be working to gauge. To try and keep it interesting, I am planning to do the left front next, then the sleeves, and finish with the back. The one front did not even take an entire skein of Cascade, so I'll be interested to see how much of the 8 skeins I have left over at the end of the project.

Magical closet makeover. After sifting through disorganized clumps of sheets and towels one too many times, I finally asked my DH to help me put a shelving system into our linen closet. Here is the before picture.

I am not sure what the builder thought this tiny shelf would hold - certainly not much that is useful for humans. The gaping lack of shelving in the bottom section is also inexplicable, but since most of these vinyl smackeroo houses seem to be built in 24 hours, there probably isn't time to pense on such tiny details.

So DH ripped out little shelf and then much spackle was needed to help repair the wall. The pink stuff that turns white when it is dry is definitely helpful for those with children or other time-consuming life elements that don't allow time for you to sit and watch it dry.


I wanted the closet to match the hallway, and fortunately we had leftover paint, so I gave it a beautious new coat.


Then DH came in with the Closet Maid Shelf Track. We couldn't use one of the prepackaged kits like we had used in the boys rooms since this closet is a unique size and shape. Shelf Track is a flexible system though, and our Lowe's has a free shelf cutting service that we used to make the shelves accomodate our closet. So he found the studs, with some false positives, but ended up hanging the hang tracks with a mix of screws and toggle bolts and not too much trouble. Once the tracks were up, everything else went in easily, and the finished product makes the closet so much more useful!

We went raspberry picking today at Westmoreland Berry Farm. There is something so delectable about picking ripe fruit that practically jumps into your hand when you go to pluck it from the vine. You just know it is going to be delicious. The boys had fun too. Bran was trying to learn how to spot the ripe berries. Abe also did some picking, and enjoyed tasting the berries in all stages of development, even the white ones. I got some knitting done during the car ride. The right front of Tailored Scallops, which I began a few nights ago, but ended up ripping because the needles were too big, has been started again on smaller needles, and here it is. The pattern is fun so far, and I think I have it memorized now, so it should go even faster.

Here are the finished serf booties, laced up and ready to go. I like the way they turned out. Hopefully they will fit the recipient at some point. I am getting close to finishing the back of the Classic Camel Vest. It is a sea of stockinette stitch which was perfect work for tonight's Knitting Night.

Here is my sister in her new Arwen. She said she loves it, and I am happy with the way it looks on her. She surprised me and gave me these Noro lovelies. I am thinking of using them to make a Midwest Moonlight for myself if the variegation in the Kureyon doesn't hide the pattern too much. I'll definitely need to take off a pattern repeat or 2 in order to give the scarf some length, since I only have the two skeins. I finished the other Midwest Moonlight, but am waiting to put up pics since I don't want the recipient to see it before she receives it. I also felted the serf booties, but still need to add holes and laces. The back of the vest for my father-in-law is about half way done. The gold Cascade 220 Heather I am using for it is knitting up beautifully.

Projects are in the works. The serf booties are all knit up, ready to be seamed and felted. I got sidetracked and started a Midwest Moonlight scarf which has been very enjoyable and quick to knit. I have only 6 pattern repeats to go unless I decide to make it longer than 60". I am using Cascade 220 Superwash #847, aka Caribbean, and it is a soothing color to work with. We'll see how much the superwash grows when it is blocked. I have had Scarf Style for over a year, but for some reason this is the first pattern that I have started from the book.

I also have some magenta non-superwash Cascade waiting to be turned into a Tailored Scallops Jacket for my mother-in-law if the gauge works out. She has Lewy Body Disease, so it is impossible to know how many more Christmases she will be able to appreciate, so I would like to make her something special for this year.

A friend of my neighbor's is going to Bulgaria in September to work with women and children who live in horrible conditions. She would like to bring 150 scarves and pairs of socks to give to the people there. These two scarves are my contribution so far. The beige one is made with Goddess yarns Frederique, a lovely blend of superfine alpaca, baby alpaca and silk that I used to make a hat for my mother a few years ago. It is only 38" long, but hopefully it will make a cozy neck wrap for a woman, or a scarf for a child. The other one is made from Encore Worsted Colorspun, and it knit up so quickly and turned out so cute and that I just may need to make another one for the cause. I have been so caught up with following patterns that I had forgotten how satisfying it can be to make something with simple garter stitch or ribbing. Maybe it is all the yoga I have been doing lately, but I would like to start keeping at least one "zen" project in my diet along with the face glued to pattern more complex ones.

My DH thought that I needed to put up a photo of Arwen. I am hoping to get a pic of my sister wearing it when I give it to her in a few weeks. If it doesn't fit her, or if she decides she doesn't like it for some reason, I'm next in line.

After two months of doing very little knitting, I have made a comeback. The Cardigan for Arwen, which had been waiting to be seamed since March, is now seamed, washed and ready to be given to my sister as a much belated birthday gift. I have to say, I am a bit disappointed with the way the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran fuzzed after machine washing it. It also stretched immensely, and after reading the experiences of other knitters, I decided to put it in the dryer. My sister is teeny tiny, so I could not risk the sweater turning into a Cardigan for Bigfoot. The yarn still feels very soft, but is surprisingly worn looking considering it has never been worn, only washed once. Hopefully a little sweater stoning will make it better, but I am not sure I would use this yarn for anything large again, even if it is on sale.

Two of my friends recently had baby boys, so I also started the serf booties from Knitting Daily. If you plan to make them, be sure to check out the errata here to avoid potential annoyance. I also finally broke out the monster stash of Cascade 220 from WEBS Anniversary sale, and started the Classic Camel Vest from Men in Knits, which I purchased from Interweave's hurt book sale a few weeks ago.

This lovely bag is the second item created for the secret birthday gift exchange that my knitting group started back in January. Maureen used 2 strands of Lambs Pride Worsted held together and a pattern from Felted Knits. She presented the bag to Sheila at Knitting Night at Starbucks last week. When Sheila arrived, Maureen was still attaching the button to the bag, but Sheila didn't suspect anything because Maureen had been pretending that the bag was going to be for her sister. When she finished sewing, she passed the bag around for all of us to see, making sure that Sheila would get it last, and then she said "It's yours!" The next birthday is in September, and I look forward to seeing what the gifter comes up with.

Bran's last day of preschool is this week, so I decided to make felted purses for his teachers. They are both made out of variegated Patons Classic Merino. The pattern is based on the Booga Bag with some minor additions/changes. You can't tell in these photos, but both of the bags have a magnetic snap inside. I hope they like the bags!

My son's school held an arts and crafts auction, so I donated these.

The pet bed started out as a giant tote, but I didn't have enough of the Nature Wool to make it as big as I intended. I bound off and felted it anyway, and it came out of the washer a wide and short rectangle-like thing. Inspiration struck, I stretched the heck out of it, and voila.

The bag is based on Sophie from Magknits. I used leftover Lamb's Pride which came from various projects, so I wasn't sure about the colors at first. I do like the way it turned out though. The bottom of the bag is also hot pink, but it is hard to tell in the picture.

Happy Valentine's Day!! Bran helped me to make these cards for his preschool class. I got the idea from here. Baking the first batch was a little exciting because it dripped more than I expected, and the tray I had placed underneath was not sufficient to catch all the drippings. Long story short, I needed to clean the oven that night.

Bran gave them to his class yesterday, and it turned out that they were the only handmade cards of the group. I don't regret making them, since he enjoyed it, and it gave us a fun activity to do together.

In knitting news, I managed to finish the left front of Arwen. I left the shoulder sts on a holder instead of binding off so that I could use 3-needle bind off when the back is done. I also cast the stitches for the sleeve and the hood directly onto the front using knitted cast-on, instead of doing backward loop cast-on on the empty needle. Hopefully it will all work out in the end.

My knitting must be getting looser as I get older. After trying a gauge with 8's and getting 16 sts/26 rows, I tried it with 7's and was able to get close enough for jazz - 18 sts/23 rows. The pattern calls for 18/26, but I figured that width is more important since I can easily adjust length by doing fewer or more rows.

I decided to save the stockinette back for easy Knitting Night knitting, and went ahead with the left front. Stockinette isn't my favorite, but having the 24 stitch reversible cable pattern at the beginning or end of each row has kept it interesting so far.

Six of the women in my knitting group agreed to take part in a secret birthday gift swap. At the first meeting of the year we put our names in a basket and secretly chose our recipients. Today is the first birthday, and this beautiful Booga Bag is the gift. Two more photos can be seen here. The next recipient's b-day isn't until June, so it will be a while before we see the next creation.

And here is the front cable cardigan. The ends are not sewn in, and the side seams need to be steamed, and maybe even resewn, but it is basically finished. I actually was able to use the same yarn for the seaming, but all I have left are scraps now, so I'll try not to get it stuck on a grocery cart so I have a gaping hole to mend and no matching yarn to use. All in all, a simple, satisfactory project, finished in less than 2 weeks, and a very wearable product. I took 2 1/2 inches off the length in the pattern and used 3 needle bind off on the shoulder seams. I would like to try this pattern again, but make it more seamless.