Good Bye and Good Riddance!

Thank goodness last year is over.  I'm so happy to move on.  With my husband's illness, my sister-in-law's unexpected death, Thanksgiving, Christmas and all it's stress, it's no wonder I ended up with bronchitis and pneumonia!  Happily, I'm back, but way behind both in blogging and projects.

I managed to finish knitting the new blanket for our soon-to-be granddaughter, but I haven't had a chance yet to block it or to run in all those ends, so you'll have to wait for that.  I'd like to share with you how I put it all together, but that's material for a later date.  Instead, I thought I would just share my three quick Christmas projects.  As a general rule, I don't knit for my family, but this year, I made an exception. 

First I made a pair of fingerless gloves for my daughter-in-law.  She has a new winter coat, and I thought she might like a new pair of mitts to go with it.  The pattern is Mitt Envy.  This is my go-to pattern when I want a quick pair that also looks really nice!  Unfortunately, they don't look quite as nice on my wide hands as they do on Emily's slender ones, but remember it was a gift so I had to be the model!

The yarn is by the former company, Sereknity, which is now called Mad Color Fiber Arts.  It's their Good Harbor yarn made up of wool and seacell.  I'm not sure exactly what seacell is, but I do know that the yarn was wonderful to work with and it has a very pretty sheen.  This color was "Dragonfly".  I made the cuff longer and I lengthened the start of the thumb gusset to accommodate her long fingers.  I also reversed the direction of the cable.  For some reason, the cables in the original pattern bother me!

I also knit a hat for my son out of Malabrigo worsted.  The pattern is a freebie on Ravelry called "One Row Hat".  The color is Cypress which is a beautiful dark green.  In this picture, which I took outside so I could get an accurate color, the hat looks like an old gray. Grrrr! 

Anyway, trust me that it was much nicer in person!  Wasn't it nice of husband to model it?  He didn't mind because he knew he wouldn't have to wear it!  He's strictly a baseball cap kind of guy!

Finally, I saved the best for last.  We took my two older grandsons to a Christmas tree shop before the holiday and they each picked out new ornaments for their tree.  Because my youngest couldn't come, his older brothers also picked out an ornament for him.  He loves pandas (as you long time readers know), however, all the ornaments were of blown glass.  Before Marty could even see what his brothers had bought, it slipped and broke into a million pieces!  I decided to replace it with something that wouldn't break.

This was a cute pattern that I found on Ravelry and it's also available here.  It was a very quick knit, however, I thought it really needed some arms, so I just did a couple of small I-cords and sewed them to the shoulders.  I also crocheted a little scarf.  

It's just some dk weight yarn scraps left over from the Nemo mittens I made him last January.

I'm now in a desperate knitting frenzy.  We had a major disaster in the family a couple of days ago.  I received a tearful call from my second grandson, Mickey.  Remember this past summer when I showed you a picture of this:

It's his security blanket that he's had since he was born.  Old, ratty, and full of holes.  I had offered to replace it as I still had tons of the yarn left, but he was content with it just as it was.  Well, his older brother and a friend were playing around and it ended up ripped in two.  Mickey was devastated and so, knowing that Grandma made the first one, would she now make a second one? 

Actually, the conversation was kind of funny.  It went "grandma, how long will it take?"  Me:  "I'm not sure, blankets take a long time to knit."  Mickey:  "Yeah, but how long?"  Me:  "Maybe seven days".  Mickey:  "Oh, so a week (he's smart)"  Me:  "Maybe, but it might take longer."  Mickey:  "So you'll bring it with you when I see you next week, okay?"  Even with big needles, this yarn is a pain to knit with.  It's Sirdar's Chunky Snowflake and it sticks to itself and it's tough to work with.  You can't really get a rhythm going.  Still, I keep hearing that teary little voice, so that will spur me on.  Sigh. (Don't expect to hear from me for at least "a week"!)