Even in these troubled times, we have much to be thankful for. Please enjoy this day with family and friends. And, please, even if you HATE IT, please oh please, go shopping tomorrow! Neither of us enjoys shopping on Black Friday, but by venturing out tomorrow, you will help turn the tide of the economic slump by showing confidence in the future.
PS to Deepa: You struck a chord with “craptastic!” We love the whole “-tastic” thing and crack ourselves up with new words. 
I guess you could say I like things that create waves! Bad pun. Here is my latest (and very small calibre) FO. It is the “Ripple Me This” felted bag from Knitters Fall 2008. There has not been much in Knitters lately (like the last 10 years 🙁 ) that has inspired me to pick up the needles, but I thought this bag was kind of cute. I made this one for a class sample and used stash (aka leftover) yarn:
Nature Spun Worsted in Hurricane Seas and Limestone (2 skeins each)
The bag switches colors:
In the above picture, the two sides are shown sewn together before felting. It is amazing how much knitting it takes to make even a small bag. I’ve been working on it for the past week.
And during blocking:
It is a fun little project and it is a nice shape for a tote, so I would give it a thumbs up for stash busting and gifting. I still need to actually sew the handles on so technically it isn’t quite done, but I will call it a [nearly] FO and close enough.
Are all of you ready for Thanksgiving? I love Thanksgiving because all I do is drive one hour and fifteen minutes each way and then eat, eat, eat. My beloved FIL still does the cooking even though he is 86 years old. I love him dearly. Wishing the best of holidays to you and yours!!
PS to Ellen, and others: The cleaning is the worst! However, it’s better than when my husband and I were “newly weds” (1st 5-6 years) when we would be running around so much at the last minute that 9 times out of ten he opened the door with a towel wrapped around his waist — I am not kidding! And, we were often so late for weddings that half the time we walked in with the bride and her father, with people muttering, who the hell are those two?
Ironically, I just received an issue of Knitters yesterday — I thought my subscription had lapsed, so when it arrived I was surprised, but I also felt a small pang of guilt since I have every single issue. Maybe this was a sign. So, I thought, I’ll give it one more chance. If this issue has anything good, I’ll renew. Sorry — no go 🙁 .
Shawls must reproduce like bunnies out there in knitting land because I was deluged by shawls at last night’s Minnesota Knitters Guild meeting! “Deluged” implies an overwhelming flood — maybe it would be more accurate to say I was accosted by several shawl-bearing knitters armed with finished shawls for the Wrapped in Care Project. AND I received four more free kits from Patsy that her knitting peeps put together. The kits were quickly dispersed and so the circle continues.
I feel so proud to be a knitter!
More snow, but just a flake at a time! I’ve been knitting on my snowflakes a bit here and there, with a somewhat stealth project in between.
This flake was a little more fun to do because there was a lot going on. My hexies are smaller than they are supposed to be, so this may end up a scarf!
I am finding quite a few errors in the pattern, and no errata published. I contacted them and asked about a particularly problematic omission and received information — with another error. Okay, it is a tricky pattern and not a lot of people have made it. However, there are lot of mistakes, so be forewarned. Many of the errors will become fixable once you are familiar with the pattern. But if you like your numbers “clean,” this may not be the pattern for you! If you decide to forge ahead, make a copy of the pattern and take notes as you go. Most of the snowflakes are made twice, so the second one should be easier.
Wrapped in Care
I’d like to put in another plug for the Wrapped in Care Project. We are still receiving shawls from around the country and closer to home, as well. My Thursday knitting peeps continue to dazzle me with their generosity! Here is a recent donation from Cathy, an Alix’s Prayer Shawl:
I took the liberty of sending a shawl directly to someone who shared her story in our company newsletter. She knew from tests during her pregnancy that her baby would not survive. In cases like that, the baby still must be carried to full term. She knew her growing pregnancy would prompt questions and caring comments, and she did not want to have to explain her story to everyone who said, “When are you due?” So, she enlisted the help of her co-workers to get the word out. Her co-workers also hosted a baby shower and gave her keepstakes of the baby and items to help preserve memories (like a kit to make a plaster handprint of the baby). Her baby died in utero one week before the due date.
Most women don’t have that kind of preparation time and go into their childbirth with hope and joy. The shawls cannot lessen the pain but at least can show support and caring from an anonymous friend. We have had close to 50 shawls donated so far. Thank you for all of your efforts!!
I’ve got a small case of the knitting doldrums. I don’t know what I want to work on. It’s not that I don’t have projects to work on because I do. I could finish Butterfly. I could work on one of a number of unfinished fair isles (looks askance at Marina’s enviable stack of finished ones). I could start my new Bohus. I could finish my Damask Kauni. My Niebling. My Eris. Or my own Snowflake shawl.
I am just not sure what I want to work on, although I do have some Christmas knitting to start. While I wait for inspiration or interest to hit, I’ve finished two small projects. The first is the cabled fingerless mitts that I posted about a little while ago. Here they are being modeled by my husband, who now expects royalties — or perhaps a pair of gloves with actual fingers.
Next I decided to tackle one of my long lost sock orphans. I’m notorious for knitting one sock or one glove and then moving on. Indeed, here is a photo from one of our earliest blogs showing some of my abandoned socks and gloves.
The light blue sock is the one who now has a mate. They are the Embossed Leaves socks from Interweave, designed by Mona Schmidt. I knit them out of light blue Koigu. Here’s a photo of both of them, modeled by “Anonymous.” They haven’t even been blocked or dressed. They went immediately from the needles to my Anonymous’s feet.
So, now what? I think I’ll go sit in a corner and wait for inspiration to hit.
Seems too early for Christmas trees in the stores and for snowmen in the news, but both are events witnessed by me recently — it snowed here yesterday! What happened to fall? I guess it is November and blah-blah-blah, but it seems like time is passing at a staggering clip.
I had a knitting goal in mind for this fall, but I think it has already passed me by! I started the Winter Wonderland Shawl a few years back and always meant to complete it before the “first snowfall” of the “next” year (whenever the bee-boop THAT means!). So, after finishing the Aran Wrap — and the temps still being very mild — I pulled out the Winter Wonderland (aka Snowflake) Shawl to give it a go.
I am using the exact yarn called for in the pattern: Suri Alpaca Elegance (1 skein) and Glimmer (3 skeins). US size 6 dpns are used.
It is a much more time consuming piece of knitting than it might appear. The snowflakes can be knit fairly quickly, but the snowy backgrounds are slow going for me. They are awkward and take much more time than their simplicity would indicate.
Here is a graphic that shows the layout of the shawl — the dotted line on the bottom indicates where I may add one more snowflake:
The shawl is made by knitting 13 individual snowflakes, knitting a background around each, and then grafting them together. A border is added around the perimeter at the very end.
Here are some of the 13 snowflakes being blocked:
And a snowflake with the background:
All 13 snowflakes are finished, and I think I have 4 snowflakes completely done. It is a fun project, but again I must ask myself: does everything you make have to be weird? Can’t you knit a plain old something for a change? This could be another of those projects from hell that never reaches its full potential!
Because the holidays are looming, I thought I would revisit a super fun project that I made last year to get you into the holiday knitting mood:
This is Rudy the Reindeer and he is really fun to make! The pattern can be purchased from Amazing Threads and takes worsted weight yarn.
PS — I’m sorry I got on my political soapbox this week on the blog. We have always tried to steer clear of controversial topics — we won’t even go near the “pickers vs throwers” debate 😉 !! I do believe this, however: whatever your political leanings and no matter who you voted for, it serves no one for the new president to fail. The price is too high for all of us, so I hope people are supportive and rally for the success of our country. I am now stepping off my soapbox to go knit on some more of those $##$%& snowflakes! Or do laundry!
It has been a long two years of campaigning and everyone is sick to death of it, but now that it’s over, it seems all worthwhile.
At 10 pm, when they announced Barack Obama’s victory, I cried with joy and relief. Then I ran outside, lit some fireworks and screamed like a banshee! A little ‘oops’ moment for moi when I realized I was way too close to my hubby’s car, the house and the lawn. 
After all that suspense and agony and the dirty politics, it felt like a cleansing moment.
I am hopeful for the future once again. He is brilliant and has a vision — and obviously can make things happen. But let’s give the man some time. He has so far to go to repair what has been done.
GO-BAMA!!
In this time of campaign promises, here is one promise I promised myself I would keep. I promised to post some pictures of me actually wearing my completed Aran Wrap. I rarely pose for the blog in my FOs, but I made an exception in this case. The Aran Wrap, with its unique construction, is one of those projects that could go either way: funky or weird, edgy or ridiculous, fashion forward or fashion faux pas. I will let you be the judge, but I did feel that simply tossing the wrap onto Lettie would not tell the true story.
Here goes:
So don’t say I didn’t keep my campaign promises 🙂 — and we will soon be able to see who else keeps theirs.
P.S. from Sally:
My daughter and her boyfriend were into the Halloween spirit this year and carved these nice pumpkins.
And they put my poor little assistant into a costume.
So wrong, but so cute.
Sometimes knitting can feel like a chore, especially if you’re no longer enthused about a project, it’s not turning out the way you’d like, or it’s simply boring to knit. So imagine being forced to knit sweaters for strangers.
Criminal gran gets knitting punishment
An 89-year-old grandmother who went on a tyre-wrecking spree in her street has been ordered to knit jumpers for her victims.
Heidi Kohl, from western Germany, was arrested after one neighbour spotted her slashing the tyres on a car. She later confessed that she had resorted to drastic measures after becoming “fed up” with so many drivers parking in her neighbourhood.
Kohl was initially told that she would be fined for her behaviour, but authorities came up with the more unusual punishment after the woman claimed she would be unable to pay.
A spokeswoman confirmed: “When she’s knitted the sweaters, then the matter will be over for us.”
Kohl is believed to have wrecked 50 tyres in total. Prosecutors have said that she will not offend again as she has since been moved to a retirement home.
At her age, that could be a life sentence!
My own knitting isn’t going along quite that poorly. I’m almost finished with the first sleeve of Butterfly. No photos because it just wasn’t photographing well today for whatever reason. I must confess, though, that I’m a little bit bored with it. (Warden! Let me outta here!) So, I’m also working on some small projects — the fall just seems like a good time to knit socks and gloves.
My hand model husband is out of town on business, so my sleeve board is filling in. (I have a secret passion. I love to iron. I love all of the accoutrements of ironing.)
But I digress.
Here is the first of a pair of fingerless gloves for men I’m working on. I’ve knit it out of Jaeger’s Extra Fine Merino in charcoal grey. That yarn usually knits to 5.5 stitches to the inch on a 3.75 or 4.0 millimeter (U.S. 5 or 6). I knit it down to 7 stitches to the inch on a 2.5 millimeter. That’s one of my favorite yarns; I have lots of it in my stash. Sadly, Jaeger decided to get out of the hand knitting yarn business, so I won’t be able to continue to buy it.
Just a simple little project so I have something portable to work on.
My Aran Wrap is finally done! Woo Hoo! It needs to finish drying, which will take several days: heavy yarn, very damp, multiple layers due to sleeves. I promise that I will have someone take actual photos of me wearing the behemoth — without a bubble butt picture if I can help it 😉 . When I have tried it on it fits like the pictures on Angela’s blog, though I am not 5′ tall and tres petite!
Here she is being blocked:
Yes, the Aran Wrap is a great big rectangle with sleeves, so why doesn’t it look like a great big rectangle with sleeves? I’m not sure if my theory will work, but I was thinking that if I brought in the bottom edge, it might flair less over the derriere. I wove a piece of waste yarn through the bottom edge to draw it in.
This was very difficult to block because it is such a strange garment and therefore does not follow standard sizing conventions. I know how big I want normal sweaters to be, but this is different. When wet, it was quite malleable — I could have made it much longer, much wider, whatever — but I really didn’t know what I wanted it to do! I will have to wait and try it on and then decide if it needs adjustments.
Now, I have to check my queue for the next fun project. I have an idea, but only time will tell!
PS in response to Alison’s question, “Now that you are finished, is there any other yarn you would have selected, I guess what I’m asking is the weight of the yarn. Do you feel like the heaviness of the sweater is needed to support the cables or would you have used a much lighter yarn.”
The sweater is heavy, but not too heavy when it is on. Like many coats/jackets, they do have some weight to them. If you were to knit this in lighter yarn at the same gauge, it would be too loosely knit to hold the shape and provide ample stucture. The yarn Sally and I chose actually had much more yardage per gm than the yarn used in Vogue, so we already substituted a lighter yarn — heaven knows how heavy the prototype is!
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