Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. I hope you have a great one. We have lots of snow and the kids are home and there is only one more sleep. Tonight we have our big dinner so I have to get going on my turnip casserole. Everyone else in my immediate family hates turnips but my parents and I love it so the tradition stands, yum.

Have a happy, merry day,
Deb

I finished up the shrug with the sparkle. It's easy big needle knitting (6.5mm/US10 1/2 needle). The sparkle is great and unfortunately doesn't photograph so you'll have to imagine it. I held one strand of black and one strand of hand-dyed blue together throughout. I like the tweedy affect it makes. It can easily be worn without closing the front or a stick can be put through the front to close it up. I am going to see if I can get someone to model it soon.

I've also, in lieu of Christmas knitting (and my sympathies go out to those of you who are under pressure to get it all done), been finishing up a couple of projects that have been languishing in my knitting basket.

This was a gift which Lynda gave me about 18 months ago and because it's knitting for me it usually gets put to the back of the knitting queue. I love the shape of it and the colour shading is amazing. It's by Candice Eisner Strick.

And because I'm like the cobbler's children who have no shoes except I guess I'm really the cobbler who is shoeless, I made myself a new pair of mittens in Northern Lights wool.

In this climate it is quite often necessary to wear two pairs of mittens and the inside pair were knit so long ago I can't remember when and every year I say I'm going to make an outer pair and now there they are. My hands are going to be toasty this winter. And a good thing too because I think it's going to be a doozy.

Hope you're not lost in a snowdrift or stalled in your car or stuck in an airport somewhere but snug at home knitting over the holidays. Have a very merry,

Deb

Comments:
Thanks MommaBear, I'm liking the collar too.
Liz, I too am drinking lots of tea as I enjoy some non-work knitting.
Brenda I see you got some of your Christmas knitting in the mail already. Good going, I'm cheering for you.

I'm making progress but not too quickly. I have now turned the corner on getting my shoulder back in shape. But having to cut down on my knitting time is a bit frustrating. AARRGH.
Good new, I can try on the shrug now that I have passed the great divide. (Boy, this is a tricky business taking pictures of oneself!) And unfortunately you can't see the sparkle the silver makes but it's there.

I'm almost done the body, just a couple more rows to go and then I think it's going to get short sleeves.

So how is the Christmas knitting going for everyone? I'm not doing anything specifically for Christmas this year, or at least so far I haven't. There might be a short spell of panic knitting before the day though.
-Deb

I've got a couple of things cooking at the moment, maybe too many. Besides the blue/black sparkly Top Down I have the baby project going too. I started on it again after I consulted with 2 Friends of Cabin Fever, Dana Gibbons who wrote the Buttons Cardigan and Bernice Vollick who wrote the Baby J, who are obviously wonderful baby garment knitters and convinced me to make the neck cast on a little bigger for my smallest sizes. So I cast on again and changed the ribbing to my favourite K2, P2.

I'll finish knitting this sweater in sock wool (somehow it looks much bigger here than it actually is - sock wool on 3.0mm needle) and then I'll try it again in a bigger size in a heavier weight of yarn.

I also have a sock going which is following the Fancy Sock set-up in the Need A Sock booklet . It's a step away from the sock patterns in the book although I'm still using the Sock Percentage System to work out the numbers.

I'm finding that this 6-stitch slip stitch pattern works really well with the very stripey hand-dyed wool. If you're interested in socks then take a look at the other socks being knit from the book on the sock KAL blog. If you are a sock knitter you may want to join us. Send me your email  at deb.cabinfever@gmail.com for an invite to blog along with us as we knit socks over the winter.

And now we have winter. It's odd isn't it that for lots of us it takes snow to make it winter. I think as long as I can wear my running shoes, even in below freezing weather, it's still fall. Some years it's fall until Christmas. But as soon as the snow covers the ground then it's winter. It happened over night this week, donning the winter boots makes it official, it's winter. The sock needles are now clicking merrily.
-Deb

I've added in some more stitches on the collar. In fact I added quite a few more as you can see.

And now it's moving along quite well.

I'm loving the colour that the combination of wools is making - one strand of black and one strand of hand-dyed blue. Now it just needs some more knitting time.
-Deb

Comments: Hi Brenda, this would be wonderful for the upcoming season, maybe New Year's?
Hi Deirdre, the EZ pattern I would like to do is her Top Down Epaulet Jacket. I see you are a Zimmermania member, have you by any chance done this one? And next in line would be the Long-Collared Jacket-Sweater in garter stitch. Both are Spun Out patterns.

I still have a couple of Elizabeth Zimmermann patterns I want to knit and learn from. There is so much in every pattern.
Now back to my new pattern. I'm working on a shrug. Although it's become more about the frogging than the knitting lately.

I thought I had this pretty much worked out but wanted to add some more stitches onto the Fronts so that a stick could be used as the front closure for this sweater. But now I don't think the collar is wide enough. So rip, rip and start again with more stitches. Otherwise this is going just fine.

I do like the sparkle. -Deb

I've recently been digging down to the bottom of my stash boxes and have found several UFO's which if I just took an hours or two could be finished. Here's one that I found which was finished except for the neckband. Not having any idea what lace pattern I used for the borders (I would have needed to write down what I did, not likely, ha, ha) I worked a picot cast off to match the bobbles on the bottom border. It's a UFO no longer.

This is my own adaptation of an early Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern which is now available from schoolhousepress as one of the Spun Out patterns. This one is the New Zealand Sweater, Spun Out #2.

I really liked the garter stitch yoke. This sweater starts at the bottom and you can see that the garter stitch yoke begins even with the underarm for the men. I started the short rows much lower so that the garter stitch yoke section covers my bust. It's a lovely sweater.

And best of all it's finished!

-Deb

I worked up a swatch for the sparkly. This is one strand of black Silk and Silver and one strand of blue hand-dyed sock wool held together throughout.

I tried 4 different needles sizes from 4.5mm to 6.0mm. All would be great in a sweater. I just have to pick the gauge I like the best. But I like them all !!

I also finished my hat.

So I have something to put in the charity basket at the next Aurora Guild meeting.

I started another one just to be a keener.

-Deb

Comments: Brenda, good luck with your mailing for Christmas deadline.