OK Christmas can come

OK so Christmas can come. The reason? I'm done with my all my Christmas knitting. With five days to spear. The last two projects where for daughters number two and three. Daughter number two is in love with the color blue so I made her the top down bolero. I'm not totally sure she will like it as its a bit more girly then she is but her sisters picked the pattern so there is hope. I used some yarn that I had in my stash so I'm not sure what it is.
The sweater for daughter number three is also a top down one. She asked me a couple of months ago for a sweater like mine so that is just what I did. Of course its done in the colors of pinks and purples. She pick the yarn her self. It I think ended up being bigger then she needs, so she will be able to wear it for a couple of years.

Now that I have all my Christmas knitting done, I also have two weeks off from teaching classes, you would think I would take a brake. Of course not. I'm on to projects that are planned classes in 08. First up is the Oregon Vest from Oat Couture. I will be making my model in bright Red, so be on the look out for the coming vest.

My Daughter's Grinchy socks

When you are a knitter you are also a collector, so if you are new or have yet to become a knitter be pre-warned. You will collect yarn, tools and patterns. Also if you have family members that live with you they will begin to expect knitting done for them. Which is part of the fun of knitting. So because I am a collector I have lots of magazines and I add to that collection often. This holiday season I picked up a couple magazines that are just full of holiday projects. Well one afternoon my youngest daughter (also a knitter)was looking one and found the add from socks that rock for the grinchy socks. She is a huge fan of the Grinch who stole Christmas. As a matter of fact she watches it all year long. So of course she just had to have them. Well I have to confess I really didn't want to fork over the money for the sock kit for a 9 year old. So what I did instead was look through my stash of yarn and found funky reds and greens. Then I went to my favorite sock book. Sensational socks and found a pattern that I liked and went from there. I'm not sure what the red is I think its wool. The green at the toe and the stripe is silk left over from some project and the glittery stuff is left over too. The green from the heel I have no idea what it is.
The big test however is does she like them? The answer Yes as matter of fact she plan to wear them today, tomorrow and Friday to school. Of course when you are 9 clean socks isn't as important then looking cool. So I guess I will wash them each night.

Number one daughter's sweater and a trip

Well I was able to finish my number one daughter' s sweater that I was making for Christmas. Unfortunately I had lots of knitting time this last week. We had to make a road trip to the Tri Cities in Washington state. My father in law was very ill. As a matter of fact we just about lost him. He flat lined 4 times on Monday night and was not expected to make it. So we left Boise after the kids got out of school and drove up. I am happy to say that when we left on Friday he was sitting up and eating. We just found out that he is going to be leaving the hospital for basically what amounts to a half way house to continue his recovery. He isn't quite ready to be home yet but he also doesn't need total monitoring care either.
So while I was in the waiting room all last week I worked on my daughters sweater. I have to say I think I like this yarn better then Noro. Even though it has the same type of color ways as Noro I think its a bit softer. Of course my daughter knows I was working on it as I couldn't really hide it from her while we were all in the same room. But I think she will like it. So now I'm on to the Number 2 daughters sweater. Hers will be a bit smaller so I think I can get hers finished this week.
While I was in Richland WA. My husband and I stopped at a shopping center and looked around an antique store. They had two spinning wheels that they were really proud of. They were old but not that old and they both were in terrible shape. One was $485 and the other was $185. The one that was $185 was workable, but the other wasn't it didn't even have a bobbin and the flyer wasn't workable. But on a good note my husband did find a blacksmithing hammer for $6 so he picked that up. On the way to the car we found a yarn store called Knitty Gritty. It was a very nice shop. The owners have a great variety of yarns and prices. I picked up only tow skeins of yarns. Both are ones that I have never see before. So I just had to have them The pick one is 100 % alpaca, I plan to make a pair of fingerless mitts for myself with them. The other is called Aslan and it 50% angora 25% merino and 25% polyamide. Each skein has 295 yards and is about a sport weight. So I think I can get a pair of socks out of it.