Good grief!

Good grief.  It's been how long?  You'd think I've fallen off the face of the earth.  Except I haven't.  Not really. 

You see, life has been pretty crazy and hectic.  I'm working with various doctors right now, trying to get all my medical things sorted.  I'm scheduled for thyroid surgery on March 26th.  After that?  Well, we're just going to go one day at a time.  Not to worry about the surgery, though.  You see, I have a cunning plan.  I have a great group of folks who are praying on my behalf; another great group of folks who are doing all the worrying; my wonderful hubby does the driving.  All I have to do is show up, smile and knit. Knit the good stuff.   Oh, yes.  And make corny jokes about the lump in my throat.  I believe many folks will be thrilled when THAT aspect is over!

Speaking of knitting the good stuff ... there was a day back in January when I found THE perfect pattern for my skein of Handmaiden Cashmere/Silk.  (This skein was a gift of my lovely step-daughter, so the pattern had to be absolutely perfect.)  Of course, I was at the store and the yarn was at home.  And it was my Saturday to work.  Undeterred, I called Barb's house, except she wasn't there.  So HER lovely hubby took the message about the "knitting emergency."  She was out for her daily walk, and when she returned her hubby met her at the door with her purse and knitting bag and mumbled something about me having an emergency.

Barb raced into the store, anticipating the worst.  What met her was the sight of me, bouncing up and down, and giggling.  And trying to explain about the knitting emergency and how it was imperative that I race home and fetch the wool.  Barb was a good sport about the whole thing ... something about needing to escape the abundant testosterone at her house, or something like that. 

The project was the Rustling Leaves Beret from Coastal Knits by Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig.  I had been eyeing the pattern for a while, but hadn't realized it was made with a sock-weight yarn.  Once I discovered THAT ... well, you can see what happened:

I still have about one/third of the skein left, and am pondering picking up stitches and making a casing for elastic.  In these windy days, I find the beret to be just a little bit loose.  Other than that ... I absolutely love it.  It's light, it's warm, and it's beautiful.  (I used a 3.25mm needle for the entire beret; a smaller needle for the ribbing would have helped immensely.  Silly me, eh?)

The beret is so lovely that Barb fell off the same cliff.  She used Cascade Heritage sock yarn in her favourite colour -- green.  She used almost exactly half the skein, and is now trying to decide whether she should make a second beret or a pair of fingerless gloves.

The other knitting that I'm going to show off today is the socks that have fallen off my needles in the last little bit. These socks are all destined to be gifted at Christmas -- there are so many pairs of socks needed that I have to start early.
 

The top socks are made from Trekking, I forget the colourway.  This poor sock yarn has been languishing in my stash for so long.  I just knit a plain sock, nothing fancy.  The second pair of socks are Shibui sock yarn, and the ball band is at home so I can't tell you which colourway.  The pattern is one I found on Ravelry, and I will link to it when I get home.  (I like the ability to edit!)  The third pair of socks was knit up for our beading class here at the store last fall.  I used Regia Silk, in a dark blue, and little gold beads.  Again, I found the pattern on Ravelry.  It's called Winter Frost.  I quite liked the design, and several of the ladies here did as well.

There are more knitting stories to tell, including the completed Yggdrasil afghan and its recipients.  I'll save that for a later post ... and I promise not to make you wait three months for it.

Happy knitting 'til then!