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.