something for everyone

It's good to be knitting again after that frenzy of hand quilting. My back/shoulder/arm is feeling less crampy because I'm no longer hunched over a quilting hoop.

I've been knitting Christmas presents. I present exhibit A:


I'm using the great yarn that I bought in Whistler. The stuff is smooth and soft and the colours are great. The pattern is written for 2 circs but I'm not fond of that technique. The wandering cables prevent me from using dpns so I've had to magic loop it. I think I've permanently kinked my Addi cable in a coupla places.

Here is exhibit B:


I originally thought that I would get these done in time for hubby's birthday (3 weeks from today). Not a chance so these'll become Christmas socks. My brain got all screwed up on knit nite trying to turn the heel. The heel flap has 40 sts rather than my usual 32 and I just couldn't do the math for some reason. When I woke up the next day, the correct equation hit me. Doh! I blame it on the frenzied yarn buying that was happening around me. Some Blackberry Ridge silk/wool lace made it into the sale bins and there was a mass exodus to the back of the store once that piece of news leaked out. I stayed strong and didn't buy any.

I've knit a few rows on Starsky:


I was hoping to be further along on this project as it's the perfect weather to be wearing something like this. I was knitting this at my parents' house and Mom complained that the yarn was shedding all over her couch.

I finished knitting the roses for Bea. But I forgot to take a picture before I mailed them to her this morning. I managed to get 5 roses from the ball of pink yarn I found in my stash. I hope she likes the colour.

A little yarn arrived on my doorstep this week...


Gladys and I did an order together. She bought yarn to make more Pokeball hats plus a few skeins of the new Imagination sock yarn. I got some Imagination sock yarn, too but I'm disappointed with the colours. In other pics, the blue is more blue and the brown is more brown. My skeins are more muted and there's quite a bit of green that I didn't expect. The 4 skeins of Swish will become a R2D2 hat for a friend. I was going to make hubby one, too but he changed his mind (probably because he laid claim to that skein of Malabrigo sock that I brought home the other week).

Speaking of R2D2, I've noticed a number of new geek-oriented patterns on Ravelry. For example: Captain Capacitor, Resisty the Resistor, and Tux mittens. Hubby is definitely getting a pair of Tux mittens but not until he wears out the current pair. I was an electrical engineering student way back when, so I want to make the capacitor and the resistor for myself. Maybe that's too geeky. Hmmmm...