End of the year--

It's New Year's Eve, and for the first time since the kids were little, we will be here celebrating alone. A nice dinner of Coq au vin, followed by a Lemon-gingerbread cake will be accompanied by a movie. After dinner I will begin Olivia's hat. I took over the mittens today and she was delighted--as much as a two-year-old can be delighted with mittens. I measure her head and will be making an 18-in hat. It should be a nice evening. We've already tried out the cake--had a slice late this afternoon--and it's a keeper!

Finished mittens!

Ken and I watched Gran Torino this evening and I couldn't knit through most of it. It was too good and too visual to be able to knit. However, that said, my hands were not happy to have nothing to do! I finally gave in to them and picked up Olivia's mittens. I ended up finishing them--including a cord that connects them so that she can thread them through the sleeves of her coat--and not lose them! I'll post a photo tomorrow along with my own mittens, which I used today when I walked the puppies. For some reason I don't think that the yarn that I used is as thick as worsted weight yarn that I used last time that I made mittens. I think that Galway is a fluffier yarn than either Cascade 220 or Northampton. Maybe a little felting will make them feel warmer.

I'm going to take the mittens over to give them to Olivia and to measure her head for the matching hat. She has a big head, but I don't want to make the hat too big!

Evening knitting

Dana and Sue were here with the girls for dinner this evening. I had started mittens for Olivia last night and was able to have her try on the ribbing of the first one. She complied and actually smiled as the pink ribbing slid over her wrist. After they left I worked for the rest of the evening and was actually able to finish the first one and begin the second one. I'm hoping to take the pair over to her on New Year's Day. Then I'll start a hat and finally get to my own hat! It was certainly cold enough today for both--windy and very cold. I've not seen it as windy as it was today for quite a while.

Endings and beginnings

I was able to finish my mittens this evening while watching a movie, and then immediately began a pair of mittens for Olivia. They are to be pink and blue to go with her two winter coats. I've almost got the cuff finished and hope to have one completely done by tomorrow night when she is here for dinner with her family.

Christmas knitting

Well, Christmas is officially over, but the vacation lingers on. I finished the Christmas knitting very late this year--as in Dec. 23. That was caused by other knitting that kept getting in the way! There were two babies to knit gifts for this fall, so that took up some time.

Ken's vest took much more time than anticipated. I keep wanting the read a pattern and then assume that that's the way that I'm going to knit it, when I should remember that I am a Masterknitter and should act like one! I need to think more before I begin the knitting. Anyway, I ended up tearing out his vest several times, before I remembered to cast on many fewer stitches for the ribbing and then increase when I began the cables--increasing only in the cable area to avoid "cable flare". It worked, but I sure wish that I could remember to do this on a regular basis. The pattern as an all-over cable pattern and that meant quite a bit of time--to say nothing of the times that I mis-crossed the cables and had to ladder down to redo the cable. That said, it was a very well written pattern, down to having extra stitches for sewing up, and patterns that matched at the seams to create the illusion of no interruption in the pattern. Here's the final product--which fits him beautifully.

And, then there was Olivia's sweater. I used a new yarn which I am not impressed with--Valley Yarns Valley Superwash DK. I am not impressed with this yarn at all. Yes, it's soft, but it was pilling and looking old before I had even finished the sweater. I also did not really like the cables that went up the center and sides of the sweater. That said, it was fun to knit with the pictures. And, here it is:

And I forgot Kylie's Christmas stocking. Sue picked the pattern. She wanted something a little untraditional! There are now four stockings in their family.

And, now it's on to some knitting of my own. I'm working on mittens for me--Vader had chewed the end of one mitten when he was a puppy and the moths had gotten to the other one. I've worn them for two years in that condition and finally decided that I needed some new ones. I finished the first one the other night and worked on the second one last night as I was watching "The Bucket List". What a good film. The first good film out of the last four that I chose for myself!