I’m so glad so many of you are still reading this blog!  It was so great to hear from you.  I’m really excited to get back on the blogging train.

Let’s start with one of my holiday gift projects!

All my dad requested for Hannukkah this year was wool socks.  I think he meant store bought wool socks like Smart Wool (he loves those) but I thought if he wanted wool socks for Hannukkah he would probably really like some handknit ones.

I originally planned on making Nancy Bush’s Easti Trail Socks from Favorite Socks but I fell in love with a thicker yarn so I substituted the chart from these legwarmers by DROPS but tried to keep the spirit of the Easti Trail Socks.

The yarn I used was Cascade Greenland and it is a very smooth, soft dense superwash yarn.  I wouldn’t neccessarily recommend it for socks since it is a pretty heavy worsted but my dad’s feet get cold easily so it worked for these socks.  It seems to be a very sturdy and soft yarn so I could see plenty of other great uses for it.

I had a lot of fun making these socks and my dad totally loved them!

The Dad-Socks on Ravelry here

…

I’m back!

For anyone who is still reading THANK YOU for being so patient while I took my outrageously long, unannounced blog break.

I still knit.  I have tons of knitting that just needs to be photographed, photo-edited and shared.  I am going to try to share some of the projects you’ve missed as Time Machine Tuesday projects and just jump right in now with current knitting.

Right this second it is all Winter Holiday knitting all the time.  My Hannukkah presents are late and my X-Mas presents are down to the wire.  So… I actually can’t share any knitting today for fear of ruining the surprise.

Instead here is my favorite picture from this summer!

7/4/09 Maggie Takes in the View

Yesterday I finally got out and took some pictures of my sweater vest before it got too dark!

Despite my blase expression I am actually quite pleased

Pattern:  Leftovers by Alison Hansel from Knitty

Yarn:  Cascade 220 about 2.5 skeins

Modifications:  Lots!  First of all I didn’t do any stripes.  Also I changed the ribbing, in the pattern you hold two strands of yarn together and do 3×3 ribbing but I just used one strand of yarn and did 2×2 ribbing.  I guess I am contrary like that.  I also did my own waist shaping although there is some in the pattern.

I am yelling at my dogs in this picture

It turns out I really did need a sweater vest.  I have worn this tons since I finished it!  I love how warm it is without being constricting.

I might even make another one if I could decide on a color and if I find a couple more collared shirts to wear them with.  I am definitely on the lookout.

Thank you all for your suggestions and support for my Snow White sweater!

My comments are not working as usual so I haven’t been able to write you back but I have been thinking about what you’ve said and how I want to proceed with Snow White.
I put a life-line in and I think I am going to go with my first instinct (half as many increase rows) and see what happens. I can always rip back if I need to.

In the meantime I have been giving a lot of attention to my Thermal Sweater. I figure that I had better knit as much as I can on it while I am feeling motivated to do so (hence the title of this post). This plan has been working very well! In fact I wrote most of this post and I kept having to re-write this section as I knit more and more of Thermal but took no pictures. I finally took pictures so here ya go!

Thermal lacking only the right front and collar

I have also started some knitting for Winter Holiday. Unfortunately I think most of the people I plan to knit for read this blog so at the risk of ruining their Winter Holiday surprises suffice to say that I have been knitting. There will be pictures on Ravelry (my name is alligator) so you can follow my progress over there if you’re not a member of my immediate friends or family.

However, I have been working on one present the recipient of which I am fairly certain does not read this blog.

Orange mohair + beads = pretty

This is an Odessa hat in some sort of laceweight orange mohair held double. This was a really fun project, what with the mohair and the beads. I don’t think I would ever wear something like this but it was so much fun to do! I was absolutely certain I would run out of yarn (but kept knitting just in case as this yarn would be impossible to rip out anyways) up until about 10 minutes ago when I got to the last row and still had a few inches of yarn left. Hooray!

I have quite a bit of Winter Holiday knitting planned and I’m taking it as an opportunity to knit exciting things that I wouldn’t bother with for myself.

I wonder if anyone else I know likes beads..

I guess I am not cut out for this posting every day stuff. The hard part is remembering to take pictures while it is light out!  I always forget!

I usually blog in the evenings and by 4:30 it is already too dark for pictures. sigh.

This weekend I went to Seattle on a whirlwind car-buying (not for me), REI visiting, ferry-going trip.  We flew down Thursday night, bought a car Friday morning, drove to Bellingham, hopped on the ferry and cruised back to Juneau by Sunday night.  Whew!

The ferry was lovely, I’d never taken it for such a long ride before:

Sorry about the crappy picture.  It was really nice and we had mostly good weather.  Unfortunately for me the view I saw was mostly this:

The Malaspina (the ferry we rode) has wifi(!!!) so it was pretty much a homework cruise for me and my bff (it was her car).  I think we did a solid 14 hours of homework on Sunday.  Crazy.  I’m pretty sure we had fun though.  There is cocktail lounge in the ferry.

I don’t think I am going to finish my NaKniSweMo sweater this month. I got to knit on it a bit on the ferry while I wasn’t doing homework but I’ve hit a bit of a snag.  If you remember I am working on Snow White.  Well, I was very worried that it was going to be too small so I cast-on for the size M.  I got up through the waist decreases and tried it on, now I think it is too big!

Actually in the hips and waist it is a pretty good fit but if I knit the chest according to the pattern I think that it will be too big.  I’m thinking that it might be a good idea to knit the top section as per the S size of the pattern.

Basically between the waist for the M and the chest for the S there are half as many increases.  I was thinking that I could just treat every other decrease row as a “work-even” row and end up with the same length and the right number of stitches but I’m afraid it will muck up the lovely shaping which is pretty much what attracted me to the pattern in the first place.

The other option would be to rip back to the waist decreases and work a few extra rows of those so that I still have the hip measurement from the M size but the waist for the S.

Any advice for me?  Will my original plan work?

In the meantime I have put the sweater completely on hold and have been working on an older WIP:

Long lost Thermal

Last night I finished this sleeve and today I cast on for the 2nd.  Is the end in sight?!

The days are getting short and dreary around here.  People are gearing up for ski season (yay!) but it’s still raining.  It’s really pretty as long as you get out while it’s light!

It’s pretty in the dark too but it’s hard to take pictures.