Olympic Hat

I finally finished the Olympic Hat that I knit my aunt for Christmas. I actually finished duplicate stitching the moose two weeks ago, but I was avoiding weaving in all the ends and making the tassels. I'm pretty pleased with the end result:


It is a little bigger than I would have liked, but it fits my husband nicely. If I were to make it again, I would omit some of the white rows before and after the moose. The good news is, if it's really cold, my aunt could fold the brim under and have an extra warm, still pretty hat.

I started a 5-hour baby sweater the other week at church. I'm pretty sure it's taken me 10 hours to finish. I still have to weave in the ends (do you notice a theme to my procrastination), but hopefully I'll get to post pictures later this week. I hope to start the first sleeve for Lia tonight. We'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow we're back to the grindstone - drop-off, drop-off, errands, pick-up, clean up stuff, pick-up, make dinner, cycle everyone to bed......I'm hoping to actually make it the knitting group I was attending before the holidays. Again, we'll see how it goes.

Happy knitting!

Eyelet Scarf

For my birthday, my SIL gave me the book 60 Quick Knits and a skein of Cascade 220. My first project from the book is the Eyelet Scarf. it's a one skein scarf, so it's not as long as I would like. If I ever make this again, I will simply buy another skein to make it longer.

The pattern is REALLY pretty, and easy to memorize. I love the bubblegum pink color, and am thinking about making a matching hat (someday).

(That's Buster posing with the scarf)

I really like this book, and hope to make the monkey hat and a pair of mittens from it this year.

I've also finished the front of Lia, and hope to finish the back neck shaping tonight.

In other news, we still have snow here in New England, and there's talk of school being closed tomorrow. The little kids and I have been ice skating a couple of times a week (our city has AWESOME free skating hours! 9-11 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays). Baby girl has double-bladed skates that fit over her boots (please don't comment telling me how double-bladed skates aren't good for kids. She's not even two yet. Just be impressed she's on the ice). She tends to wear them for about 20 minutes, and then kicks off her boots. However, since there's usually only about 5 people on the ice (including us), I just take the skates off and let her walk around on the ice. Little Boy's skating skills are improving dramatically, and he spends his time playing imaginary games as he skates around. Usually, the games are between the Bruins and Sabres, but sometimes the Rangers show up to play too.

I hope you're enjoying whatever winter weather has come your way!

Happy knitting!

Snow Sky

This is the view I saw today after sledding down a decently steep hill, hitting a bump, losing the sled, and rolling down the rest of the hill.

We've had two great snow days!

I have been regularly composing blog posts in my head, but actually sitting down and typing them has felt like a lot of work, so it hasn't been happening. I've decided I'm okay with that.

I've been knitting - finished a scarf, am halfway through a 5-hour baby sweater, and just finished the chart of the body of Lia. Maybe you'll see pictures soon.

Happy knitting!

2011 - FO #1

Last night, I had my first finished object of 2011 - a Drawstring Hat. I've wanted to knit this hat since I bought the Knitsimple Holiday Issue of 2008, but kept putting it off to knit more urgently needed or "important" things. In this year of knitting what I feel like knitting, and the fact that Little Girl was complaining about last year's hat falling in her eyes, and the fact that last year's hat is hot pink and this year's coat is purple, I decided that I wanted to knit this hat now.

Actually, I started the hat last year. December 26th to be exact. But, I had already decided upon this knitting resolution, and I need something that I could knit in the dark in the car on the way to my parents' house. I used Encore worsted, and adjusted the number of cast-on stitches for the heavier yarn and larger needles (I believe I cast on 88 stitches). I worked the 2X2 rib in the car once it got too dark to work on my aunt's Olympic Hat. I worked the 2x2 rib in the evenings at my parents' when I sat in the dark trying to keep Baby Girl from climbing out of her pack 'n play and go to sleep. I also got some significant length by knitting my way through "Yogi Bear" at the movie theater (thanks to my other aunt, who sent us a check and note telling us to "take the kids to the movies." I got enough time to finish the ribbing yesterday when I took Big Boy to his hockey game.

I started to crochet the edging at the game as well (I used some Marble Chunky left over from my cabled sweater). I didn't get very far - crocheting edging takes me a while. In fact, I only edged the top of the hat, because I was afraid my bad crochet skills would stop the hat from being stretchy enough to fit to Little Girl's head. I crocheted a chain to cinch the top and spent most of last night trying to make pompoms. I settled for the ones you see in the picture, but they're not as nice as the ones my mom would have made. I'll have to add pompom making to my list of skills on which to improve.

Have you finished anything yet?

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Although I didn't get to do all of the family things I like to do at Christmas (family craft night? Nope. Family sleep out in front of the tree? Nope. Baking cookies with the kids? Not so much), I did have all the gifts wrapped and bought early enough in the month that there wasn't a lot of stress the days before Christmas.

I love going to church on Christmas Eve - I love the lights, and the music, and the focus on the true meaning of Christmas. After church we go to my brother-in-law's house for a wonderful seafood feast. This year's menu included octopus. It was tasty, but I had a rough time eating the pieces with the little suction cup things.

Both my husband and my mom took care of my yarn needs this Christmas - I have enough yarn to knit two sweaters for myself. The kids seem pretty happy with their gifts, and my brother and SIL seem to like the socks I made them. However, the highlight of my knitting Christmas came yesterday. On the way home from my parents', we had dinner with my aunt and her husband. I made them both hats. I made my aunt the Olympic Hat (although, it's not done. I still have some duplicate stitching to do. But, I let her unwrap it anyway), and I made her husband two plain guy hats. He LOVED them! He told me the last time he had received a handmade hat he was 12. When I talked to my mom later that night, she told me he was wearing one of the hats around the house. Obviously, I'll knit for him anytime!

As always, I have some knitting resolutions for the New Year. This year, I resolve the following:

1. To finish the Celtic Knot Stole (because really, it's getting ridiculous).

2. To knit for myself. I don't mean I'm only knitting items for me to keep (although, there will be a lot of that), but I'm going to knit what I want to knit, and not get bogged down by knitting deadlines or knitting things I'm not super excited about because I think I need to. I'm going to focus on the projects I already have yarn for and keep meaning to get to, and on the things in my queue.

3. To get serious on my secret knitting project.

What are your 2011 Knitting Resolutions?

Just Not Feelin' It

You may have noticed, I haven't been blogging lately. No particular reason, except I just haven't felt like it. I was feeling a little bit guilty about it, but I've let that feeling go.

I've been knitting a little. I finished my SIL's socks:
And, I finished socks for my brother (although, I still have to weave in the ends and block them). I've finished knitting slippers for our babysitter, but they still have to be seamed and felted. I've started a super-quick cowl for a last minute gift (literally, this thing is going to take less than 5 hours to finish).

I'm still tracking down yarn to finish Little Boy's stocking, and have to wind the yarn for the Olympic hat my aunt wants. I've given up on the idea of finishing the Celtic Knot Stole, but am putting it on high priority for 2011. I've also given up any thought of korknisse, or any other ornament. I've found a Batman hat I much rather knit for Little Boy.

Thankfully, all my Christmas shopping is done. I'm hoping to get to addressing my cards early this week, and will do a little baking each day. With a bit of extra effort this week, I'll finish up almost everything this week and spend next week semi-relaxing.

We'll see how it goes.

The Holiday Season Begins!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! My family had a blast! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the kids to show you - Superheros have to protect their true identity you know. Big boy went as "An Army Guy", but the little kids all went with a bat theme. We had Bat Girl, Sidekick Robin, and Bat Baby. I made their costumes out of t-shirts, cotton fabric, and heat 'n bond. Couldn't have been easier, more affordable, or I think, more cute!
Today marks the beginning of serious holiday preparations. I've already bought some gifts for Christmas, but I'm starting to form definite ideas and will be looking for sales and specials between now and the week before Christmas. If all goes well, everything will be bought, if not wrapped, by then.

Christmas knitting seems to be going well. I've been working on my sister's-in-law socks. Last night I turned the heel of the first sock, and hoping to kitchner the toe by the end of the week.
Little boy's stocking is on hiatus until I get some more green yarn.

In case you're interested, Cat Borhdi has come up with a cool way to spin and exercise at the same time. Check it out!