I hope your holidays are going great. Sorry for the pics, but it is very overcast here. These are my Christmas presents, in addition to my big present that I received 2 months early(my car).The skeins are Opal on the left, Schaefer Anne on the right, Colinette Jitterbug in Blue Parrot on top, and another Schaefer Anne on the bottom.
With all the Christmas stuff going on, there has not been much knitting. But now that we are in college bowl week, I predict things will be changing. :) I just love knitting while I am watching football.

My final package for the 2006 Rockin' Sock Club arrived on Saturday, and I was one of 5 winners for the 20 questions contest! It's embarrassing how much time I spent filling out the sheet, but it was worth every minute. My prize is the skein on the right - it's Seduction (their 50%merino/50% tencel blend) in the Puck's Mischief color. I love the sheen and color on this yarn. And the feel... oh my, it's soft.
The middle skein, a Rare Gem, was the bonus for signing up for the entire year. I don't know how they did it, but I absolutely adore the one I got. I know I say it every time, but this is definitely my favorite. ;) I love looking at it so much in the skein, I don't know if I will be able to knit it up. Especially since I can't get another one! I loved being a part of this club and I think they did a fantastic job.

Alright, I am obviously out of my mind. I went to Lawrence and KC this weekend on the pretext of getting my friend to try on her socks. You know, so I could officially get them off the needles. Well, apparently a few yarn stores got in the way and I came home with these new sock yarns. Like I don't have enough for the next few YEARS. The top one is the new Colinette Jitterbug. I had heard about it on the Knittyboard, but wow! It is so vibrant and squishy, a lot like STR on first glance. I'll have to knit this up SOON. The bottom ones are more Koigu I picked up at The Studio. I also had another friend with me who insisted on buying for me a sock yarn I was eyeing, but had put back:
This is J-Knits (Superwash Me-Light Sock in the Amesbury color), which I had not heard of before. The Studio had several different colors of it and they all looked pretty interesting. Oh, and I got the Colinette at Knit-Wit in Olathe. So now I'm really in the mood to knit some socks.
And the socks I knit for my friend...they fit! Woo-Hoo! So I kitchenered (is that a word?) the seams and they are ready to go.

Okay, I admit I was a little hasty in casting on for H's argyle vest. When I first cast on for this vest I hadn't even done a gauge swatch. A friend of mine mentioned that wasn't like me, but I just wanted to get going with this project.

Well, when I discovered that the designer (my daughter, H) did not want ribbing in the bottom band and had to rip back anyway, I went ahead and did a gauge swatch. So now I have the correct gauge, everything is going great right? It would have gone great if I hadn't made a stupid math error in how many stitches to cast on!
So, after a few false starts, I finally have the bottom band to this vest started and I meet with a knitting buddy of mine. She kindly points out that I can't do intarsia if I'm knitting in the round (which I am). I take the Scarlett O'Hara approach and decide I'll think about that tomorrow. Or whenever I get to the point of having to knit the diamonds.

Well, my first attempt was NOT pretty. I was winging it and doing some kind of weird stranding. I realize there has to be something on the internet and I come upon this site which is perfect! Using the last method she describes, I finally have something close to the desired result:

I actually finished the felting on this bag on Tuesday last week, but it took me awhile to do the sewing. I needed to sew the backpack strap to the bag, a couple of D rings the tie the strap to, and the front pocket. The pocket on the front had to be sew on twice because the first time I had sewn it on crooked. I thought I could eyeball it but I was wrong. I know it still looks a little crooked in the picture, but that's just the way the bag is sitting (or so I hope!).


My daughter loves it so that's all that matters. Now she wants me to work on her argyle vest so I have cast on for that in some Tahki Cotton Classic in a grass green.With all the snow recently I am really feeling the need for more socks. I think I need to go check the stash...