Happy New Year

This is our present for the year! Our Great Grand Daughter, Rylea, with her mother, Kristin. I hope everyone had a happy holiday and is looking forward to a new year. Did the Christmas knitting get finished? My knitting did-but not the finishing.

This is my grandson, Blake in his Wonderful Wallaby. He had asked for a rainbow sweater some time ago, so finally received it. (Wonder if he even remembered asking?)
Pattern: Wonderful Wallaby by Cottage Creations
Yarn: Mochi Plus by Crystal Palace
Needles: Sizes 6 and 8
And the book-appropriate???


This is my daughter, Gloria, in her Babies and Bears for Adults. Several years ago, she bought the yarn in a kit at Arnhild's Knitting Camp, but never got to making it. (She is a new knitter and underestimates her knitting skills.) The kit was for a pattern similar to the one I used, but was made in pieces, so I substituted, of course.
Pattern: Babies and Bears for Adults by Cottage Creations. I used different yarn and gauge so used a formula given to me by Carol Anderson who had heard it from the late Sidna Farley.

Divide your gauge by the pattern gauge (my gauge was 5 sts/in, pattern gauge was 4 st/in. 5 divided by 4 = 1.25) Multiply the numbers in the pattern (Cast on, increases, rows, etc) by that number to give the number to use. (For example: Pattern said to cast on 42 sts. 42 X 1.25 = 52.5, so I cast on 52 sts.) This formula seemed to work.

Yarn: Rauma Strikkegarn
Needles: Size 5 and 3

This is my son, Tim, in his knit, but not finished, sweater. Yes, it really is a sweater, but he had some fun with it! I used the Estonian Cast On which I have really liked lately. I will not be doing all the duplicate stitching on the center designs!

Pattern: Winter Play by Rauma

Yarn: Rauma Strikkegarn

Needles: size 2 and 3

Will I make it?

This is the last of the Christmas knitting, except to sew in some ends in the sweater for my daughter. I still have a whole sleeve to make for this sweater, plus lots of duplicate stitching and finishing (sewing, cutting, stitching) so I have my doubts it will be complete on Christmas Eve. My hands are aching-in more ways than one to do some other knitting. Plus, they are sore. Each stitch on this sweater has been a struggle, so I have aching hands. I just heard Kelly Petkin from Knitpicks talk about different knitting needles to work with different yarns. I am a die hard wooden needle (Knitpicks harmony or rosewood) user, but she said if the stitches don't glide on the needle it is the wrong needle, so I should reconsider my bias and sometimes use an Addi or similar needle. Probably should have for this project, but I can't change now as I'm sure my gauge will change. Lesson learned and maybe old habits can die.

Woolgirl Gingerbread Man Sock Kit

A friend introduced me to Woolgirl Sock Club. It is too late to get into the club for this year, but I'm going to try hard to get into next year's club, or maybe her lace club. I was lucky enough to get the gingerbread man sock kit and it was like Christmas when it arrived. I saw that the kit was expensive when I ordered it, but it didn't register-I just wanted one of her kits. Now I know why the price is what it was and it's worth every penny. I hesitate to show this, because I don't want more competition to order her kits! This is the contents, but the picture doesn't show how attractively it was wrapped.

The hand dyed sock yarn is luscious and has a pattern for a fun sock with the pattern extending down through the heel.
A Gingerbread Man sock knitting accessory bag.
2 stitch markers
A Gingerbread spiral notepad
A set of holiday note cards
A pen
A pencil
A Gingerbread eraser
A Gingerbread soap
A Gingerbread lip balm
A set of Gingerbread Man gift tags
A Gingerbread Man cookie cutter plus a Gingerbread Man recipe
A Gingerbread Man ornament
And, a real Gingerbread cookie!