BSG Socks of Cracktastic Doom

Much like the Battlestar Galactica finale, these socks hovered between disaster and triumph the entire time I was knitting them. Unlike the BSG finale (in my ever so humble opinion, anyway), they most absolutely ended in triumph.

Viper Pilots
BSG Socks of Cracktastic Doom
Pattern: Viper Pilots by Glenna C, available on Ravelry here.
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in the Chinatown Apple Colorway
Needles: US 2/2.75mm
Notes: Oh. Goodness. It took me almost a whole week to get around to writing these up. I didn’t want to think or write or even have to worry about spelling; I just wanted to stare at these socks, knit by my very own hands, being worn by my very own feet, and be rather pompous about my abilities. To loosely quote the designer, you feel like a pretty badass knitter when these babies are on your feet.

Some thoughts, in no particular order:

-I wish it hadn’t taken me a sock and a half to finally figure out how the ribbed cable twists worked and stop needing to check the key every two seconds. Despite checking said key every two and a half seconds, there is one egregiously un-crossed cable (thanks to a missing row) and a couple of minor wobbles scattered throughout the socks. In keeping with the theme, I am declaring that to be part of the danger of space travel: even the maelstroms have maelstroms.

-Every error that happened in these socks happened when I was in a social situation (meaning, knit nites). If you enjoy tinking, take them along. Otherwise, leave them at home and work on them in the peace and quiet. Distraction leads to aforementioned dangers of space travel.

-Color. Glenna recommended blue colors, keeping with the space theme. That’s all well and fitting, but I put myself on a yarn diet for Lent and the only stash of DiC Smooshy in my stash was Chinatown Apple. (It hadn’t even been stashed that long; it was a Christmas present from my sister. Timing for the win.) So I stared at it for a bit and decided it evoked the colors of flightsuits and the racing stripes on the Vipers and the colors you get after a Cylon has blasted your poor little spaceship and scratched the paint job. And when I look at them, that’s what I see: old, battle-scared fighters. I love the color, and the twist it puts on the theme. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I would encourage people to consider expanding beyond blue. Especially if they decide to knit more than one pair. (What? Don’t look at me that way, you’d be tempted too.)

-These were my first ever test-knit, and what a way to begin. Despite the way they made my eyes ache and the annoyance of constantly jumping between sock and chart and key, I couldn’t put them down. Watching the cables grow and the little vipers narrow as I went was positively addicting. Then I got to the end and realized I (and my eyes) needed a break, and so promptly cast on a stockinette sock and knit on it until I got bored. That was my cue to cast on the second sock, which then took twice as long now that there was no deadline. Go figure.

-Cabling without a needle. This is not the pattern to learn on. However, this is definitely the pattern to exercise those skills on. I didn’t pick up a cable needle once in the knitting of these, and while it led to some hairy moments (and a lot of cursing, Starbuck-style) on the whole it worked out very well. I can’t imagine how much longer it would have taken had I been stopping and adding another needle into the mix four times in a single round. That being said, I’m still pretty astounded at myself for getting through the C7s without a needle. I am apparently better at cabling without a needle than I realized!

BSG Socks of Cracktastic Doom
Check out that awesome heel!

I didn’t get much else done in March — these took up a lot of time. But I really did enjoy the challenge so much. These are without a doubt the most complicated project I’ve tackled, and I’m awfully tickled at how well they came out, and the part I got to play in getting the pattern up to its release stage. Thanks, Glenna, for letting me play in your sandbox a little, and you know where to find me when your brain comes up with another fantastic thing.

BSG Socks of Cracktastic Doom

Of course, now that BSG and these socks are both done I have to find something new to amuse myself. Lee Adama’s off to a new show, but I think I’m more interested in Leoben. Anybody runs into him, send him my way. Tell him I can knit him an awesome pair of socks.

Sports Night

sock sees a hockey game

So I did a little more traveling with a sock (different sock…the BSG socks are a little complex for a game) and joined Melissa and her knit night at a Philadelphia Phantoms game. (Stick and puck, apparently? Who knew?)

Melissa’s knitting group (the Philly Burbs Stitch’n’Bitch) is awesome. They had gift bags for everyone:

Grab bag!

Isn’t that awesome? Two skeins of Berocco (Jewel FX and Plume FX), a skein of Valley Yarns Southwick Southwick, a kiddie hat kit with three colors of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, courtesy of Supercrafty.com, and a delightful little keychain skein, from (as you can see) Kitty Grrlz.

But wait! It doesn’t stop there!

Prizewinner!

In addition to the grab bags, there was a raffle! And I won! Behold my new Namaste Oh Snap! bags, and! and! a subscription to Louet! A year of Louet patterns! Not bad for one raffle ticket, especially when you consider the proceeds were going to Heifer International. How much better can it get?

Clearly, spending the weekend with Melissa is good for my swag count and my posting count. I think I should be visiting her more often, don’t you? (Considering I am currently watching Slings & Arrows, eating whisky cheese, and drinking homebrewed Raspberry Chocolate Port… yes. She is lucky I haven’t moved in, to be honest.)

Traveling Sock

I’m visiting my old college floormate Melissa for the weekend, so last night she took me to her knit night. While that merry band was discussing the virtues of knitting looms and willy warmers, the Yarn Harlot blogged about Glenna’s BSG Socks, and linked to this humble blog in the process. (Probably because I’m blabbing about these awesome socks to everyone and anyone. I even handed my finished first one around the knit night, because how can you not?)

Anyway, once I got over the palpitations from seeing my name on the Harlot’s blog, I decided maybe I’d take a page out of her book and show my second BSG sock a good time. So today Melissa and I took it out to Longwood Gardens, which is the former estate of Pierre Du Pont, and we had a good look at the orchid show:

Traveling Sock - Longwood Gardens
Here the sock is enjoying the East Conservatory.

Longwood Gardens
Here is one of the amazing fountains in the Children’s Garden, which was one of the most delightful things I’ve ever seen.

Longwood Gardens
And some beautiful miniature orchids and a waterfall, which the sock liked a lot.

Longwood Gardens
On our way out we stopped in the Du Pont House, which is a museum, and checked out some of Mr. DuPont’s stuff.

The sock had a great time, and really wants to go back once it’s a little warmer and the outdoor gardens are all opened, which I think won’t be a problem at all.

Owl Treats

I will confess, to you few dear readers, of a shameful period in my past. A dark time, when I… was a devoted fan …of Harry Potter.

Yeah, I know, old news, me and six billion other people, except the ones who think it’s a work of Satan, and Harold Bloom, but he only likes litra-chur, we hear. Anyway, I was all into it for a while and I pretty much overdid it, and by the time the last book came out all I could think was Thank god, I can find out how it ends and move on. (For the record, I quite enjoyed the last book, but the epilogue I shall pretend I didn’t see.)

As a consequence to that overdoing, I generally avoid all the Potter-branded media that has been flooding the market for years now. I kept the few interesting things, and my books, and that was that. So I wasn’t terribly excited when Opal came out with Harry Potter themed sock yarn. Especially not when the colors were released. (Attn Opal designers: In what universe does Remus Lupin wear pink? Seriously.) I looked them all over, shrugged, moved on.

And then I got a second look at the Hedwig colorway.

HEDWIG SOCKS

Hedwig Socks

Pattern: Basic Stockinette Sock with heel flap
Yarn: Opal Harry Potter sock yarn in Hedwig
Needles: US1/2.25mm bamboos
Notes: Teehee. These turned out lovely, didn’t they? So well, that I am actually considering getting more of this yarn (the Ron colorway, perhaps?) because having a good mindless stockinette project is one of the best stress relievers I can think of.
I simply cast on 62 stitches, did some ribbing, and then just went to town. I know everybody goes on about short-row heels to “maintain the integrity of the stripe pattern” or some such, but honestly? I wasn’t that invested in the stripe pattern, and I much prefer how a flap heel fits. So I did one of those, and I’m quite happy with the results.

Hedwig Socks

I really love the colors in this: varying shades of grey, nothing flashy, nothing complicated. Unlike some of the colorways in this line, which left me wondering what they were thinking, these socks absolutely evoke a sense of Hedwig the Snowy Owl.

As you might have guessed, I’m generally in the fraternal school of sock striping — you can see where the colorways meet up, and on one sock it’s the toe and on one it’s the center of the foot, and that’s…just fine with me.

Having a nice easy project was magnificent, since in the little bit I’ve also been test knitting these:

Viper Pilots Sock Viper Pilots Sock

This would be Glenna C’s marvelous Viper Pilots pattern. Continuing that fine melding of genre fiction and yarn, Glenna designed a pattern inspired by the viper pilots from Battlestar Galactica, which airs its final episode, uh, Friday. It’s all twisted stitches and cables and insanity, and all of those things are entirely appropriate for the theme. I’m into my second sock now and loving every second of it. Go buy it, knit it, tell your friends, tell the whole Colonial Fleet!

February Wrapup

Oh, February. For such a short month, you certainly kept me busy — busy enough that I didn’t even blog about some of the things I knit. Let’s go through the list of Finished Objects, shall we?

MOM’S LOCH NESS GLOVES
Gloves

Pattern: Basic Glove Pattern from Ann Budd’s excellent Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock Lightweight in Loch Ness
Needles: US1/2.25mm bamboos
Notes: I wrote all about these beauties here, although the picture here is a new one, demonstrating the gloves’ snowball-making capabilities.

MOM’S HOODIE SCARF
Mom's Hoodie Scarf

Pattern: Mimi Hooded Scarf from verypink.com (pattern found thru Ravelry)
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Amber Heather, with edging in Lion Brand Polarspun, understandably discontinued
Needles: US7/4.5 mm circular (used my KP Harmony interchangables) and an H (5.0) crochet hook for the edging
Notes: Again, this was discussed previously.

LAWYER BABIES III
Baby Surprise Jacket

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket; Christine’s Stay-On Baby Booties by Christine Bourquin
Yarn: Koigu PPPM, colorway P511L, picked up from a Rav destash
Needles: US 4 (3.5mm) and US 1 (2.25mm)
Notes: Seems like I was actually pretty good about keeping track of things this month! The Lawer Babies are exactly what they sound like — the newly arrived babies of lawyers I worked with at my last job. I have a personal philosophy that every baby should start life with at least one hand-knit thing to their name, so I do my best to make sure that happens. This layette was written up here. Due date is any day now and I am eagerly awaiting word.

LILAC HAT
Lilac Hat

Pattern: Basic Hat Pattern from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Louet Gems Sportweight in Lilac and Charcoal leftover from my Endpaper Mitts. Picked up from a sale basket at Loop in Philly.
Needles: US 3/3.25 KP Harmony DPNs.
Notes: This was a quick throwaway project, both to use up my leftover Louet, and to have a hat that would match my Endpapers. Feeling a little contrary, I decided that I would knit it in regular stockinette and then turn it inside out and wear it with the purl side showing. So I did. I threw a single row of purl stitches after the ribbing, so that the switch from the charcoal to the lilac would be clean — it’s not a trick I’ve used before but it turned out very well, and I’ll be keeping it in mind for the future.
I am not sure that I’ll use the hat pattern as much as the others in Budd book. The decreases are stacked pretty close together and make a folded effect that worked in this instance — but sometimes you want your decreases to lay flat, and this pattern doesn’t work as well for that. For this project, though, it worked out well and was very handy to have during that lion-like snowstorm that blew in with March.

I am in the middle of test-knitting some impressively complex cabled socks by Glenna C at the moment, as well as some Selbu gloves for my dad, some socks, and restarting my February Lady Sweater. It was ripped out on account of my gauge being a lying liar who lied, and the yarn has been Thinking About What It Did. I think we’re about ready to start working together again.

Ties that bind…

Seems like lately all my knitting time has been taken up by my family — or more specifically, my parents.

It started simply enough. At Rhinebeck this past fall I picked up a magnificent skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock lightweight, in Loch Ness. My mom is of Scottish descent, so as soon as I saw the colorway name I figured that one Christmas present was done.

Yes, I cheated. I didn’t even bother wrapping it. I just threw it in her stocking, which actually turned out to be hilarious, because when she picked up her stocking on Christmas morning, she turned and held it out to me. “I think this one is yours.” Everyone else already had their stockings, myself included, and I pointed that out to her. She sat down with it, looking confused. “But there’s yarn in it.”

After I stopped laughing, I made her read the label, and she somehow managed to see everything else on the label before she finally came to the color — and then it all came together. I told her it was her choice what she wanted me to make her, and that just opened the floodgates. (In hindsight, perhaps this was a mistake…) A scarf? Or a small shawl? Or a hat, or gloves or mittens or socks or a scarf or… It took the better part of a month before she settled on gloves.


Mom's Loch Ness Mittens
Pattern: Basic Glove Pattern, from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock Lightweight in Loch Ness
Needles: my trusty US1/2.25mm bamboos
Notes: These turned out adorable, if I may say so myself. Mom’s hands are pretty much exactly the size of mine (that is to say, very tiny) so these were a nice fast easy knit, and I could use myself to judge for size, which helps tremendously in speeding things along. As always, Ann Budd has made my life a million times easier by having numbers right there for me so I didn’t have to stop and constantly check to make sure I hadn’t suddenly started knitting something elephantine. Her pattern book is probably the most-consulted book in my knitting library.
I’m also very happy with the way the colors worked up; the little bits of pooling (literally, in watery blues) have a nice shape and seem to float along the fabric. I have quite a bit of leftover yarn so we’ll see what else we can eke out with what’s left.

Mom's Loch Ness Gloves

It doesn’t end there, though, since then Mom decided she wanted a hooded scarf, because her hair doesn’t tolerate hats well, but her ears still get cold, etc. etc. Since she asked so nicely, how could I say no?


Mom's Hoodie Scarf
Pattern: Mimi Hooded Scarf from verypink.com (pattern found thru Ravelry)
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Amber Heather, with edging in Lion Brand Polarspun, understandably discontinued
Needles: US7/4.5 mm circular (used my KP Harmony interchangables) and an H (5.0) crochet hook for the edging
Notes: Fun pattern that wasn’t as tedious as I’d feared to knit. The scarf did stretch on for just about forever but the basketweave pattern kept things interesting (although it took me a few repeats before my clever self figured out which side was actually the RS). If I made this again, I would pick up stitches for the hood and knit it directly up from the scarf rather than doing it as a separate piece and seaming it. Worked out fine, looks great — I just abhor seaming.
I used Polarspun to single-crochet the fluffy edging around the entire thing. The original calls for some Italian yarn I’ve never heard of, and the Polarspun’s been living in my stash ever since I picked it up at a Smiley’s hotel sale a couple of years ago, and there was no sense in buying something new when I had a perfectly good yarn in the stash. Well. Let me tell you how amazed I am that anybody would ever use this yarn for a full garmet. It catches on itself and sticks and pulls and is generally just a pain in the ass. That’s not to say it doesn’t look and feel amazing, because it does. But I wouldn’t want to have to use this for anything other than an accent. It’s just too frustrating to work with.
I’m happy with the overall effect, and it looks great on Mom — so warm and cozy, in fact, that I’m contemplating making one for myself. I’ll probably even use the Polarspun — after all, I still have two and a half skeins of the stuff in my stash!

I figured that would be that and I could get around to ripping out my February Lady sweater, which I have finally admitted, after a month of knitting, is just…too…big. (Don’t ask. I am currently conducting a cold war with my gauge.) But no! Dad decided he was being left out, and insisted on some Fair Isle mittens for himself. I handed over my Selbuvotter book and he found a pattern he liked, informed me precisely which shades of grey and red he wanted, and sent me on my way.

Well, I’ve shown him. I cast on for a hat for myself first! So there, family.

Road tripping

I went up to Vermont this past weekend to visit my baby sister, who is finishing up school at UVM. (I might be having some issues with the fact that my baby sister is about to finish school. Just a few.) Since it’s a bit of a ride (seven hours, give or take traffic…) I had plenty of time to knit. So I did.


Baby Surprise Jacket

Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket; Christine’s Stay-On Baby Booties by Christine Bourquin
Yarn: Koigu PPPM, colorway P511L, picked up from a Rav destash
Needles: US 4 (3.5mm) and US 1 (2.25mm)
Notes: I love this pattern like crazy, and it’s always fun to knit up. It also makes great traveling knitting, since it’s all one piece of fabric: nothing to drop or lose or have get stuck underneath the seat for two hundred miles. A million people have waxed rhapsodic about this pattern so I will just say that it’s my stand-by for a good reason.
Christine's Stay-On Booties
I love these booties possibly even more than I love the BSJ. I refer to them as moon booties, and I think they look adorable on and off baby. They are also easy to memorize (I haven’t looked at the pattern in, oh, five pair or so) and and I have yet to hear of them not living up to their name. The blockiness matches the square lines of the BSJ well, and together they make a nice little layette.
This particular pair is heading off to an old coworker expecting next month, and I hope her baby wears them in good health and happiness.


While up in Vermont, I prevailed upon my traveling companions to stop at one of my favorite yarn shops anywhere, Kaleidoscope Yarns. The shop is in a lovely little house in the middle of Essex Junction, notable for a large intersection (the Five Corners) and swift responses by AAA. (The car battery died. It was totally not my fault.) Retail therapy is a beautiful thing:
Loot
I was going to stop at the Piece of Vermont bamboo sock, but then I spotted the Starmore book, and by then I’d walked past the wall of Koigu three or four times, and then it occurred to me that buying Euculan in person means that I’m not shelling out for shipping, so there you have it.
If Kaleidoscope were any closer I’d be in real trouble. I am pretending they don’t have a very efficient and wonderful website, but if you go look I won’t tell.


While putting my new yarn away I decided it might be a good time to skein up my first attempts at a drop spindle, which have been sitting on said spindle, for, um. Months. It’s hideously over/underspun (depending on where you look) and broke several times, and is generally pretty wretched and unknittable. I really don’t care. It is my first yarn, and I’m calling it artistic and letting it live in its skein.
Handspun
It’s not exactly fine fiber (actually, it’s scraps that I picked up cheap at Rhinebeck) but for a first attempt it’s really not half bad. The real question is, how will my second skein look?

January Wrap-up

Melissa posted an end-of-the-month update, and I thought that was an excellent idea. So I stole it. Shamelessly. Thanks, M.

I didn’t really many any knitting resolutions this year, except informally to try to knitdown some of the stash. But I did finish three things this month:
HULA MONKEYS
Monkey Socks
Pattern: Monkey Socks by Cookie A
Yarn: Some of my carefully hoarded, sadly discontinued Knitpicks Dancing, in the Hula colorway
Needles: US 1 (2.25mm)
Notes: These were actually started in October, left in Melissa’s car on the way home from Rhinebeck, retrieved from her house in November, abandoned in favor of Christmas knitting (and thesis) in December, and finally finished in January. Monkey is becoming one of my go-to sock patterns (easily memorized, doesn’t require my full attention) and Dancing is my favorite sock yarn. It’s not super-soft, but it’s like iron once it’s knit up, and bright happy colors like this one are good to have around you when you hit the post-holiday blahs. Very happy with these. Wore them today, in fact. =)

MAGENTA GEMS SOCKS
Magenta Gems Socks
Pattern: Thuja, from Knitty Winter 05, by Bobby Ziegler
Yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock in a Rare Gems, bought at the Fold booth at Rhinebeck ’08
Needles: US 1 (2.25mm)
Notes: Love everything about these socks except for how much they bled when I washed them the other day. A nice bath with some vinegar seems to have taken care of that but scrubbing the pink off my tub wasn’t so much fun.
Thuja is my other go-to sock pattern, although I usually cast on 64 to compensate for using fingering (the pattern was written for aran weight). These were my traveling socks in Disney, and they were the perfect airplane knitting.

NORTHERN LIGHTS TAM
Northern Lights Tam
I discussed this happy little FO in the last post. Still in love, still plotting mittens.

In addition to all this I have another pair of socks on the needles, Kelly Porpiglia’s Oak Leaf Socks from last fall’s Knotions. I am telling you this because they are a bit more complex than my usual socks and so I am dragging my feet, and now I cannot ignore them since you will all be expecting a progress report. See what I did there, turning you into an surprise Jiminy Cricket?

There’s also a pair of gloves for my mom, a late Christmas present — I gave her the yarn and told her she could decide what became of it, so she picked gloves. Since Mom’s hands are as small as mine they’re going nice and fast. I’m also halfway through the infamous February Lady Sweater, a year behind everyone else, but that’s fine with me. I’m heading up to Vermont this weekend to visit my sister (and perhaps get in a quick visit to Kaleidoscope Yarns…) and I forsee lots of knitting time in the car.

So that was January. Let’s see what the shortest month results in…

Disney’d out.

I returned home from a trip to Disney World last week, which was a wonderful opportunity for regaining my sanity, post-thesis-meltdown. I love Disney, and there’s really very little I’d change, outside the ridiculous amount of walking in Animal Kingdom. Really, the only thing Disney doesn’t already have is yarn! Perhaps in the UK pavilion in Epcot, I mused. Or maybe yarn in every pavilion, for a little international flavor. Canada could stock Koigu and Paton’s, the UK could stock shetland wool and Rowan, France could stock…well, whatever the French are knitting these days. I honestly can’t name a single French yarn off the top of my head — Italy and Germany are easy though, with all those Filaturas and Sockengarn…

And Norway? Well, that’s easy, right? Dale of Norway. So imagine my amusement when my friend grabs my arm as I’m admiring one of the (very expensive) Dale sweaters in the Norway gift shops, and hauls me over to see THIS:

Epcot

Yes, Disney now sells Dalegarn Learn to Knit kits. In the event of a fiber emergency, Disney is now equipped. Truly, the perfect vacation.

I found some other adorable and vaguely fiber-related amusements, such as this little yarn Mickey keychain:
Yarn Mickey!
He’s all wrapped string, right down to the tail. They also had Minnie, Donald, and Jack Sparrow, all from wrapped yarn. I wavered and almost got Donald, but in the end I’m a Mickey sort of girl.

I also found, in the China pavilion, this marvelous recycled cotton tote bag:
Sheep bag.
I saw it, walked on, and went back five minutes later. The idea of carrying this around fiber festivals was just too good to resist. (I am not actually born in the Year of the Sheep, but that can be our little secret…)

And after I came home from Disney? I finished up a hat that I’ve had on my to-knit list for a year now, and I’m super happy with the results.
Northern Lights Tam


Pattern: Northern Lights Tam by Mary Jane Mucklestone, Interweave Knits Holiday ’07
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette
Needles: 3.0mm for the ribbing and 3.25mm for the colorwork
Notes: I loved this pattern from the moment I picked up the first IK holiday issue a year and a half ago, but not the colors — they were too bright for me. I went with the following: Nutmeg, Apricot, Tan, Sunlight and Peach for the greens; and Blue Note Heather, Iris Heather and Clematis Heather for the Reds. I’m very happy with how they all came together. I also went up from the recommended needles sizes, as the pattern says it’s for a 18″ head size, and…well, my head’s bigger than that! I was guessing and was too lazy to swatch, so I’m very relieved that the sizing worked out.
Northern Lights Tam
I have a ton of yarn left over and there are visions of matching mittens dancing in my head, which I think I should start working on post-haste, because it’s awfully cold out there!

(PS…If anyone’s interested, I have a ridiculous amount of pictures from Disney posted here.)

Auld Lang Syne

So. Christmas is over. My thesis has been handed in, my presents were (in the nick of time) completed and wrapped (rather at the last minute) and everyone seems pleased with everything! In addition to some hats and scarves, I had some fun with Christmas this year, making everyone in my immediate family some stockings:

Victorian Christmas Stocking Village of Kirbla Christmas Stocking Tallinn stocking. Gansey Stocking Fireside Christmas Stocking

In order, we have:
– Donna Kay’s Victorian Christmas Stocking, from IK 2002 (and Interweave’s handy online pattern shop), knit in Knitpicks Palatte Garnet Heather and Sunlight, given to my Mom
-Nancy Bush’s Village of Kirbla Estonian Stocking, from IK’s Christmas Stockings book, knit in Knitpicks Telemark in Bayberry, Cream, Rosemary, and Northern Green, and given to my Dad
-Nancy Bush’s Village of Tallinn Stocking, from her Knitting on the Road book, again in Telemark in Garnet Heather and Cream, with the leftover Rosemary for the cuff; presented to my sister R
-Lisa Carnahan’s Snowy Night Gansey Stocking, again from IK’s Christmas Stocking book, done in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Iron Ore, given to my brother
-Kate Gilbert’s Fireside Stocking, from IK’s Holiday ’07 issue, knit in Telemark Cream, Brass Heather, Persimmion Heather, Flame Heather, and Garnet Heather, and given to my sister E.

I tried to match patterns and colors to personalities, and I think it all worked out rather well. Every one of these stockings, to me at least, very clearly announces who it belongs to. I’m really happy with the finished objects, and very gratified that my father immediately announced we’d be using them next year. (Which means I should get cracking on my own!)

I also knit a quick Clementine Shawlette for my great-Aunt, and previously-discussed bed socks for my grandfather, and a hat for my young cousin, who was happy with it for a moment, concluded it was too big, and put on the engineer’s hat I had also gotten him instead. Then he gave me a huge hug. Twice. I am not complaining.

But now…now I can knit for myself again! I have an almost completed shawl that’s made very beautiful use of my Koigu mill ends, and yarn all picked out for a hat, and so many socks to do — my new skein of Silk Garden Sock, which was waiting for me under the tree, wants to be turned into something pretty…