...More Christmas

I missed all my knitting buds so much while I was up in Connecticut, slaving away for my mom! I have been dancing in the streets of Philadelphia, celebrating being home.

While in Simsbury I did get a small chance to interact with knitters. I went to the Simsbury Stitch'n Bitch at the Starbucks and spent some time with Rachel (rav link) who was knitting a snazzy fair isle beret. I also had what Jeannie called a "play date" with Bev. I had such a great time with her, hopefully if the girls do a road trip to Stitches in Hartford in the fall, you'll all get to meet her. And Julie (rav link) from Creative Fibers stopped in to Say Cheese for some fromage...I immediately recognized a fellow knitter from her sweet fuzzy armwarmers. She told me about Creative Fibers after-Christmas sale. Jeannie and I dutifully went shopping and did our best to relieve their inventory!

Part of my Christmas present to Muffy this year were some ornaments for her tree. I knitted up a bunch of covered glass balls with leftover sock yarn and gave her a few.

I also made her some adorable garland from recycled Christmas cards and clear nylon thread. The garland is super easy...I used a huge circle punch that I bought at Michael's. You punch out the circles, use glue stick on both back-sides and sandwich the nylon thread between.

I spaced the circles out about 3 inches. Its green and every other color under the sun. Some of the circles were fussy cut, so there are cute little faces, etc. on them. They give a great splash of color to a tree short on ornaments! Start saving up your Christmas cards...

While at the parents, Muffy and I rummaged through drawers in the guest room closet and found bits and pieces of our childhoods...an AEPhi sweatshirt from college, my graduation dress from high school, Paddington Bear, Raggedy Ann, and my much loved, lumpy baby doll Drowsely. Drowsely once had beautiful silky yellow blond hair. Much love and over attention had turned the 'do into a Don King look. Mom tried to salvage the hair years later...now she looks like a deranged monk. I think she should have stuck with the Don King 'do!

"Did you run out of yarn?"

...my boss asked. Duh...men can be such idiots. I just whipped up this adorable shrug and may have to make yet another.

The pattern is Teva Durham's Turtleneck Shrug from Scarf Style. I knit it in the Rowan Kid Classic specified in the pattern. The fuzziness is lovely and really not terribly itchy for mohair. The shrug is very warm considering its total lack of a front or back. I would definitely use this yarn again, but am a little afraid about roasting in a whole sweater.

This pattern was fast, easy and pretty darn close to instant gratification. And you get a lot of bang for your buck. Even non-knitters were complimenting me on it...too bad I could not take credit for the clever design. I have read that some knitters have found that theirs shift around a lot on the shoulders. This one is staying perfectly in place. I did knit it on graduating needles to accommodate my chunky upper arms...started with 5s on the wrist and worked up to 7s on the upper arms. The changes are not at all noticeable when worn.

And I love, love, love this color! Does anyone else hear the heavenly choir singing in the background? Why am I so obsessed with wearing black when I look so adorable in grape? I have my mind set on some of this in aqua for a ballet wrap sweater from Rowan's fall mag.