LOTS OF WINTER KNITTING GOING ON!

I am so glad to finally be done with all of the Christmas knitting -- I can finally get back to knitting for the grandbaby trousseau and pick projects out of the blue to keep my lap warm on a cold winters night! We have had so much snow this last month, I think that we won't see the gardens until July!
In my typical yarn-aholic fashion, I have amassed great quantities of Encore Worsted yarn. I don't know how it happened but it did. So I have set out to find patterns for kids and babies using my stash. I found this great pattern called "Grandma's Raglan" at The Elegant Ewe in Concord, NH. It has sizes children's 1 thru adult size XXL. So I dug into my stash of Encore and pulled out some plum and white to knit up this adorable size 2 kids sweater with stars. Cute sweater, easy to follow directions, and a way to use up some of my Encore stash - What more could a gal want?
I visited a specialty yarn store last summer and found this gorgeous hand spun silk. I bought the last 2 skeins with no idea what would become of it but just had to have it!
Lucky for me, as I was going through my Christmas knit list (those people that I love very much and appreciate the fact that these items took me days to make) I thought that this would be perfect for a scarf for my good friend, Gloria. She loved it! It is just her style and she wears scarves every day.
I used a pattern from the Yarn Harlots blog from October of 2006. I had used this pattern once before and had fallen in love with it!

IT WAS A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!

It was a wonderful Christmas after all. December was an awful month with the death of my father and our son being hospitalized. It turned out that by Christmas our son was home and we were all ready to have a very merry day. All of the turmoil and grief was placed aside and we followed through on all of our usual family traditions with much joy.
Hubby fell in love with a sweater that I had knit for myself a year ago and just had to have one for himself. He even wanted the same exact yarn!- only he chose a different color. (This was the hardest knit I have ever done because I hated the colors and the whole thing was just knitting with size 6 needles!) He loved it and has been wearing it nonstop since he opened it on Christmas day.
A Kangaroo pouch sweater from The Purl Stitch book. A simple in the round knit with this great pocket for keeping hands warm. Made from a cotton blend yarn - Sirdar Aran. Too much straight knitting for me - I am back to cables and fair isle for a while to hold my interest!
This is the Kangaroo pocket sweater that I made for myself a year ago. I love it and wear it all the time!

Thuja socks from Knitty.com. My favorite pattern for men's socks! A simple knit with just a little design to them. These are for my Therapeutic Touch Therapist. Yes, the vertigonous migraines go on and on and on but I am willing to try anything to get rid of them or make them a little less troublesome. So far the Therapeutic Touch sessions have helped a lot. I don't know exactly how but the vertigo is much less for a week or so after the treatments. Michael, my Therapeutic Touch Therapist, deserves a pair of beautiful hand knit socks. He is trying to teach me about "grounding" in which you imagine that you are like a tree, with roots growing into the ground - therfor the beautiful tones of brown for these socks! I have a session this morning - here's hoping he likes them!

I knit 14 pair of socks last year! Everyone loved their handmade socks this year that were lovingly wrapped and placed under the tree. My mother was a little miffed that I had made her a hat instead of socks. She said that next year she wants socks too!