Gifts Received and Revealed

Slightly Interesting School Color Socks from the side
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Yay, I can finally show you the socks I made for my fiance for Christmas (though I am sure he saw them in my knitting bag). I call them the Slightly Interesting School Color Socks on Ravelry, because they are the colors of St. Edward's University, and I just couldn't knit them plain, so I made them slant in the center. What looks like a seam down the side is where I increased every other row.

On the second picture you can see that I did a centered double decrease (my new fave stitch) in the middle, which makes a sort of strange, yet pleasing effect. The socks have a solid blue cuff because I was worried that I would not be able to get full socks out of the skein. I probably could have, but I like the cuff.

There's a string showing, because I didn't weave in the top end--I wanted to be sure Lee was OK with the length, so I thought I might be needing to take off the cuff and add some of the remaining body yarn to lengthen them. HE liked them as is. The yarn is Hill Country Yarns Instant Gratification Sock Yarn, which is sport or DK weight. I knit the socks at 55 stitches around, which yes, is a weird number. Lee liked the fit (a little tight). I was happy that I figured out how to make my favorite toe-up flapped heel with 25 stitches. Go me. And the short rows look marvy.

My other gifts were all received with great gusto. My older son wants the Half Pipe hat blocked a bit, because the top seems a little pointy. Lucha Libre went over extremely well, as one can see. And all the relatives I sent gifts to in North Carolina raved about them as well. All in all, my holiday knitting was a success. Maybe I will do more next year!

I am into the third ball of blue Ultra Alpaca on Lee's cardigan, and I held it up to him--what a relief that the width seems good and he liked how long it was from armhole down. I hope to finish the back today. It is a LOT of knitting, but I only have a couple more inches of back, which goes faster after the armhole decreases. Every so often I knit another unit onto the Shag Scarf. It's a reward!

Happy knitting to all!

Lucha Liberated!

EEK! Do not be afraid! It's jut me, modeling the completed Lucha Libre ski mask/balaclava/Mexican wrestling mask. I hope Beccano likes it! I think I look pretty funny in it. I guess it would make an easy Halloween costume, plus, if I am ever in a frigid climate, I could borrow it.

I kept switching back and forth with how I did the green parts. Some stranding, some little bits of yarn for more classic intarsia. In any case, here it is. Yvonne, don't do this as your first intarsia project--it might drive you crazy!

But, I know my boy will love it and that's what counts. One more holiday gift to finish (today) and I will be done. I can't post a picture of that one, since the recipient reads the blog.

Hi to everyone doing fun things (Katie!) and to those of you frantically dealing with holidays and relatives. I am frantically interviewing, but that is mostly fun. I truly appreciate everyone's support and vibes!

Off to another fun day at the yarn shop, where I am going to start a new project, a cardigan for Lee. In Ultra Alpaca. HA! That one won't be torture, will it??? Yum!

Lucha Libre-ing along

I've been out of town all weekend, but thought I would share my progress on Lucha Libre as of Friday. Scary looking, isn't it? And in the close-up you can see decorative pug hairs on it, too.

Because of all the little balls of yarn, I did not take this project with me over the weekend. But, I am thinking I'll have it done in the next day or two. There are just a few more green rows, and after that, it's smooth sailing.

I still wonder why this could not have been done in the round. People do intarsia in the round! Or so I am told. Beccano is quite pleased with the progress, of course. I am feeling a bit under the weather (after a lovely trip to Fredericksburg, Texas and the amazing Enchanted Rock) so I'm not really up to thinking much about knitting right now...but, I did want to share with my knitting blog readers that on Friday, 5 different job possibilities emerged out of nowhere! I have interviews on Monday and Tuesday, and think I will have at least two, perhaps three more. From famine to feast!

Tomorrow I'll show you what I made over the weekend. It's what I hope is the last Christmas knitting I will have to do!