First I hope that everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas. I was a busy little knitter whilst trying to avoid the last minute crush at the mall and finding something to do while the whole area shut down 
Thursday night was the Knit n Nog at Modern Yarn. What a serious blast that was! The place was packed with all the regulars PLUS I finally got to meet Deborah in person! I did the finish work on Ariann but left the buttons for Friday night and moved onto STS edging for the remainder of the evening. Wasn’t much that got done thanks to the NOG and shopping as I finally made use of my 25% discount and picked up enough Cascade 220 to knit two sweaters, including a second Ariann.
After getting home, I had to quickly wrap up the teacher gifts as they needed to go to school the next day. Ain’t nothing like leaving it to the last minute, huh? Here they are all lined up with the supervisor looking on.
Friday night was devoted to finishing off Ariann, which got blocked on Saturday. I need to do a little touchup work on the buttonholes. Either the buttons are too small, or the holes are too big, whatever it is, the darn things don’t stay closed. As I love the buttons with the yarn, I’m going to sew the hole a tad smaller. Right now though, I’ve taken to wearing it open!
Sorry. None of the head shots are even remotely presentable so you’ll have to live with the Ichibod Crane versions.
After blocking out Ariann, I went back to work on the Shetland Tea Shawl. I finally finished the bugger around lunch time on Sunday. Dad had taken the shorties out for hotdogs and a trip to the park. That allowed me to finish it off and get it blocked out. Whew. Glad this anniversary shawl didn’t hit the anniversary mark! I fell about a month short of that date. Lovely shawl and I’m so glad it is finally done.
Here she is hanging on the door to my desk armoire.
As an aside, the color in the second picture is true (at least on my monitor). That picture is also courtesy of the Rebel. Man that camera takes some lovely pictures.
Now that I’ve finished off a couple of projects, that meant I could start something new! As STS was drying, I had pulled out the yarn for the next one. This time it is the Forest Canopy Shawl in Claudia’s Handpaint, Plumicious colorway. What a great project this one is. I think it would be fabulous for a newbie lace knitter. It isn’t terribly difficult and very easy to memorize. Par for the course though, it is terrible to photograph under way!
I found a sunny spot in the house this afternoon! My new bedroom to be has a west facing window and this sun patch was on the folks’ bed. I quickly took advantage of it as my current room only has north facing windows. The Rebel ate this one up!
Having spent a day playing with the new shawl, I started a new sweater yesterday. I joined Julia in an informal KAL of Celtic Dreams. I’ve been intrigued by this sweater forever. So when she mentioned it as a possibility, I joined up, ordering Blackwater Abbey Yarn in Bracken, as well as, the pattern. I’m pretty sure I mentioned this before. Well before the others go too terribly ahead of me, and since I had promised to join as soon as Ariann was done, there was no time like the present. I cast on yesterday!
It took me a little longer than I expected to get really underway. Deb, you’ll be amused to know that I had gauge issues with the shoulder saddles too. The suggested needles are a US7/4.5mm. Using that needle, my saddle was a 3" wide rather than the 2.5" the pattern indicated. Ugh. I dropped down in size and finally wound up with a 3mm Addi Natura. Aran weight yarn on essentially a US2? Oy. I’m surprisingly far into it now. Even further than this picture indicates. I’m two rows from putting the back on hold and starting the front and have finished the second of the 24 row pattern repeats.
I’m off this week entertaining the monkeys during their school holiday so I’m hoping to get some bonus knitting time. Tomorrow we’re heading down to visit my sister and her boys. Thursday we’re hoping to get together with Lisa and her daughter for some ceramic painting and lunch.
Today Mom and I keep them busy with a trip to Montclair looking for 32" wood circs in a 3mm. Modern Yarn was closed, but I did get Naturas at Stix-n-Stitches. I’m also incapable of leaving a yarn store with just needles. I had to get the methadone of knitters: sock yarn. This time a skein of Austermann Step in Color 8. I’m intrigued by that whole Aloe Vera/Jojoba Oil in the yarn. It was one of those great mail days as well! My Frangipani arrived today, as well as the next in the Sundara Petals collection (which puts me 3 behind now 
Also sitting in the mailbox was the skein of SeaSilk in Pumpkin that I bought from Knit-Purl last week earmarked to be Eunny’s Print of the Wave scarf.
I’m pretty well set for stash knitting
Craft on!
