I am still alive, & knitting too!

What have I been up to some of you may ask. I have received several very sweet emails questioning my existence for the past few weeks. Chris & I have been the laziest bastards! This is the first year in 13 years that I have not sent out holiday cards. I was feeling a bit guilty at first, "gosh I hope that all of my friends know that I am thinking about them!" & "Man, none of my new friends will know how super obsessive I am about sending out cards & baking for them!" That guilt passed around the 40th episode of Law & Order, "There is always next year". We wrapped up school, slept, did the Xmas thing, slept, spent some time catching up with a few pals, slept, did the new years thing, and slept. I LOVE decorating for Xmas !! I love wrapping gifts as much I love opening them. I got a super late start putting up the tree & getting into to whole spirit of things, but once I did it was like a fricking Winter Wonderland in here! Chris' Ma came over on Xmas day & we ate, opened pressies, & sat around & knit all day. Chris even announced that he was finally interested in learning to knit... >angels sing<... it was a Xmas miracle! We co-hosted a small & cozy New Years Eve party with our lovely friends Brian & Heidi. There were 10 or 12 folks, lots of them were new faces for us. We ate & talked. Talked & ate. Then I THINK we ate some more!
This version of the fingerless lace up gauntlet glove/mitten from AlterKnits was the secret shop project that I was working on. We all did mitten/glove/hand-ee things. Mine is made from Malabrigo in Frank Ochre & Rio De La Plata in # T192, the GORGEOUS dupioni silk ribbon is sold at Article Pract . Malabrigo is the perfect yarn for hand warmers! It is the worlds softest, squishiest, dreamiest yarn ever that I just want to heavy pet all the live long day.
Although the colorway of the Ozarks Handspun yarn is a great compliment to the gauntlets, it has nothing whatsoever to do with them. I splurged part of my xmas bonus on this funky yarn that I didn't even like at first. It took me awhile to warm to up to it. It was a little too Berkeley hippie for me at first. But the colorways got to me! This stuff is exotic & gorgeous, & downright fun!!! And since I do have some of the gauntlet yarns left over from the secret project... I can make something to match whatever it is that I eventually make with the Ozarks.
Let's see, what's next... Oh yes, a secret gift project. A pair of felted xmas clogs for Chris. They are pretty much complete. I ran out of yarn halfway through the outer sole of the 2nd slipper, yet another reason to NOT buy yarn online! They are so HUGE pre felt... It's hysterical. Post felting I will share all of the technical details, & complete photos.


Secret gift project #2, or as I now officially refer to it, the "big chomping pain in my ass", was the Steve Zissou hat that Chris wanted more than anything else!!! A 1x1 rib hat. Sounds good right! I was motoring along, I finished the first 8 inches of the flippin hat in a couple of days. THEN it hit me.... Decreasing 1x1 rib! What a flippin idiot!! I figured out the decrease method needed to maintain the rib pattern, but it still looked like crap! With guidance from a couple of knitters way more experienced than I... It is now done! It could be better, but it could have been much much worse. I will allow you to be the judge... Compare it the original in the movie poster. Yarn: Lamb's Pride in Red Barron * Needles: #7 & #8 * Pattern(s): I used this one for the cast on # * Length of time to knit: an eternity!
This little cutie is a shop sample. It is Nashua's wooly Stripes in Spice Market. The colors are gorgeous, & it was nice to work with. I used a stitch pattern (#61 small mock brocade pleats) from my xmas gift, Vogue Knitting's Stitchionary.