So Much Knitting....So Little Time for Anything Else....

Over the last month or so, the needles have been very busy.   Why?   In the second half of November and the first half of December, I am really busy with other things....besides knitting.   One of the gifts I give myself is not being stressed over finishing projects for the holiday season.

One of my favorite tricks is to knit socks up to the toe and have the socks rest until I can get the accurate measurement of the recipients feet.   Once sock recipients are "grown enough" the width of their feet seems to be relatively stable.....the length, the length is the measurement in question.  At Thanksgiving, I will measure the lucky feet and finish the socks.

Seven Chayle Cloche hats are done.  Three Dinosaur hats are done.  One Primero hat is done.  Eight dishcloths are done.  A couple dog sweaters have been done.  I am now working on another hat and a scarf.   When all this knitting is done, there is some baby knitting to be done before I try to do some knitting for me.

The Chayle Cloche hats are really, really cute and fun to do.   I still like the pattern after having knit

eight of them. The flowers don't take much yarn and are a great way to use up small amounts of leftovers that are too much too throw away and too little to plan a project with.

This is the only hat with dark red flowers.  The other hats have pink flowers or purple flowers....as the recipients are in the "the only colors that matter are pink and purple" stage of life.

I had thought it might be fun to experiment with other types of flowers, and may yet, but decided that I needed to push through the projects for this round.

The Dinosaur hats were a lot of fun to make.  There were only three to do.  Two have been mailed

away to their lucky recipients.  Owen loves his....and uses it
as a toy.  He pulls the hat down over his face and giggles. 

In the mix there were also a couple of Unicorn hats.   This was a neat project as it was good for skill building.   I had to relearn the loop stitch for the mane...and figure out what colors I liked together.   The horn was easy to knit.   The challenging part was putting the main and the horn on the hat so that it would look right when it is worn.   The two little girls who got the hats seemed to be pleased.  That is all that matters.

The Primero hat is also great for using up odds and ends of colored yarn.  I do like colorwork a lot and decided to do this to give myself a mind break.  This is not a difficult project, but still a very satisfying one.   As it is a quick project, it is also great for gift giving!

I used Willow Burrow as the colors are wonderful and I have a lot of it.   The Vamp Red color is one of my favorites.  The grey is really nice also...heathery rather than slate.   First, I tried a white yarn

with these two colors.   There was something not quite pleasing about the colorway.  I used the off-white and liked the results much better.

What I like about this pattern, and patterns like this one, is that the hats made can look very different with different color combinations......and that this is another project that can help use up partial balls of yarn.

A couple years ago, I made my great-nephew, Jace, a hat.  It was simple...mostly grey with a couple of red stripes.   He loves that hat.  It is his favorite...even more than his custom John Deere hat.   This year, the hat will not fit him anymore.

A request came from his mother, via my sister-in-law, for one in a larger size.   I found the yarn right away but could not remember the name of the pattern.  After looking through my files, I got the bright idea of checking my Ravelry projects.  Voila!  The name of the pattern, Simply Spring Beanie, was revealed.  Simply Spring is a top down beanie.  While it is a bit putzy to start, it is great if you need to make adjustments as you go for a better fit.   Not only is this pattern written for a wide variety of sizes, but it has the bonus of being free!

My brother, Ed, and his wife, Sharon, adopted a wonderful little rescue dog.  Shaggy came up from the south and has not yet experienced a northern winter.  The first sweater was a bit tight.  The second

sweater, done in tasteful Packer colors, was a good fit.   I am hoping to knit a Halloween and a Christmas sweater for Shaggy so that he has a nice wardrobe!

As Shaggy is a small dog, the yarn for his sweaters is coming out of my stash....for which I am very grateful.   Clara Parkes has a new book out, "A Stash of One's Own,"  which is a great read.   The book is a collection of essays written about why we build yarn stashes, what we do with our yarn collections, and how different knitters approach stash use and maintenance.  I am enjoying this very much and recommend this book...and all of Clara Parkes' books....as a good read.