The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Lifestyle Toe Up Socks
Rowan Felted Tweed in Brown and Light Blue
Size 1.5 Needle
Magic Loop 2@a Time
Knit 3 Purl 1 Ribbing
Knit 1 TBL Purl 1 Cuff

Holiday Knitting!

Holiday knitting is going well, chugging right along, knit 3 purl 1, repeat until a project is done.  Fill up the sink, throw in some bubbles, soak, soak, soak, pull, stretch, form, ADMIRE.  I love seeing a project done!  I love putting away the scraps of yarn, placing the needles back in my organizer, buttoning up all the loose ends and saying once again, I have completed a project.  

Since most of the knitting I have been doing is for "under the tree", I cannot post detail about recipients and really I need to keep photo's to snippets.  Here are some to keep you coming back for the details...

What are you working on for the holidays?  Besides all of this knitting I have been doing, I am working on re-decorating our youngest boys bedroom.  That is what they asked "Santa" for.  Santa had to hire Mom and Dad.  Paint went up last weekend.  The bunk bed gets picked up tomorrow and they will have to wait for the rest under the tree!  My MIL will be spending the holiday with us.  I am one of the lucky wives who's husband does the cooking in the house!  YEAH me.  So I am not thinking much about that.  I think my focus will be on keeping the house picked up and making sure everyone's goodies are wrapped and in their socks before Christmas morning.  We will go go my Sister's house on Christmas Eve for our annual party and Boxing Day will be spent attending church and having a yummy breakfast out (my housekeeping fairies are coming to clean that day).


What are you doing for the holidays?

and the WINNER is...

One More Row!

One More Row and I are blogging and Ravelry buddies.  We live 10 miles apart and have never met in person!  REALLY!  Well, I do think we may remedy this situation because she is the winner of my 1500 visitors blog give away!  

So you tell me One More Row, wanna get together?  I love Jitters!

Landmarks!

I got an email this weekend. I though it was a pretty cool email. My blog has had over 1500 visitors from over 600 cities! Pretty cool that my ramblings would generate traffic. I am so happy you all follow me and are interested in what I am knitting and spinning and the happenings in my life. As the new hear approaches I will be reaching my one year anniversary of my blog and I would love to know what keeps you coming back! I want to make my posts relevant to you and try to write something useful. Please comment on this post and you will be entered into a grab bag drawing.






This bag is full of yarn and goodies. Some are left overs and some are brand new. There is a hefty amount of lace weight and enough for a pair of socks and that is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a book or two and some other surprises. No peeking though. It is a Christmas give away. I will draw from the list of names from people who leave a comment on Monday, December 13, so don't miss out!
Whats on my needles you ask? Well for one there are two many projects on the needles but I am enjoying working on ALL of them.
First let me show off this beautiful cowl I am making from some of my Italian Cashmere. It is SO soft and special.




The pattern is Pretty Thing from Stephanie Pearl McPhee. This picture is lousy but I will post a photo shoot when I am all done with it. This pattern is easy. I was a little confused at first as she states to repeat row 1, 7 times around your needles. I took that for doing 7 rounds of row 1. Wrong. All she is saying is to do the chart round seven times as that is how many repeats are in the pattern. I added 17 stitches to my pattern so I have 8 repeats.




End of May mittens. These started as a Christmas gift but have quickly become new mittens for me! I love this pattern. I have made it once before and decided to do it again. I am in a de-stashing mode and happened to have enough Alpaca Wool blend in my stash to make the pair. these are going slowly only because I am making them two at a time...
The holidays are coming quickly. Personally I have been very overwhelmed by the volume of STUFF that we have accumulated in our home over the last 10 years. It may be my fault. I have been watching a lot of episodes of Hoarders. It makes me want to de-clutter. So Clint and I have been doing just that. We have cleaned out the office, gone through our DVD collection, pitched our cassette tapes and I even organized the bathroom after having my wonderful husband install some shelves. The counter is FREE of my clutter and it feels so good. What are you doing this season? For yourself, for others?

Pictures talk. At least I hope they do!

A little something for Rudder. Now I need to meet him!


Hand Spun Goodness...


Mittens ala Elizabeth Zimmerman. Hat from Spin Off magazine.


Just cuz!








A work trip to Kwethluk. Now this is Alaska.



Lola looks a little peeved but aren't they so cute.



More holiday knitting. Hand Spun featured again.

Sisters...Socks & Snippets

A few weeks ago my sister came to work wearing some socks that I had knitted for her several years ago. I asked her if I could look at them and admire them again. You see, those socks were a labor of love. Still a fairly new knitter I has worked on them for hours on a drive from Homer when just pulling into the driveway I crammed them into my bag. I am not sure what happened next but in the end I had stitches off a needle which was broken in half. These were my lovely rosewood double points. Perfect length. Perfect size. Perfect loss! I recovered and finished these wonderful socks.



Pattern: Harebell Lace Socks by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Austermann Step
Needles: 2.75mm
Anywho... After analyzing these socks she said quite frankly. I want some normal socks. You know. Just plain. Not lacy. I am a pleaser so I came home. Analyzed the stash. Sent off some text photos. Looked over patterns and we collectively agreed on these.











Pattern: Retro Rib Socks from Favorite Socks designed by Evelyn A. Clark
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock
Needles: 2.75 mm and 2.5 mm for heel
I modified the pattern to be toe up and used a short row heel. I love doing toe up two at a time. She loves her socks. Notes about this ribbing. It is very stretchy. Maybe go down a needle size. They are a little big but socks always shrink just a tiny bit.

Snippets! I love Rowan Felted Tweed! I want to marry it.



Toe up 3x1 rib socks. Using Wooly Nylon thread as toe, foot, heel re-enforcement!

Winter is here!

If you live in Alaska you know winter has arrived.  It has been weird though, snow, rain, snow rain.  This craziness makes for ugly driving out there!  It does lend to good knitting time though and lately I have been thinking about all of the wonderful gifts I want to make for Christmas.  Ooops, what month is it?  Yeah, so knitted gifts for ALL are out but the good news is that I have time for a few.  I have my list started but I cannot divulge all of that in blog posts so I will have to just post snippets of things and you will have to leave the rest up to your imagination...

I will leave you with a picture that explains what I would love to be doing right now!