Christmas score: 2 of 7. Pthhhbbbt.

So with all the scarf knitting... I was able to distract myself from the dismal progress on my actual Xmas knitting. In the end, I finished and delivered only two of 7 items - Shelf Snowman and Toddler Cardi. I finished Fuzzy Stripey #2, but never washed & delivered it. I've still got 2 items in progress - Meadow Flowers is almost done and the Alpaca Tie looks exactly the same as the last time you saw it. The theoritical scarf and Narcisse made zero progress.

Tomorrow I am planning to wash up Fuzzy Stripey and block Meadow Flowers, better late than never. I desparately want to get these done so I can move on to finish the Fog Chaser and Bill's OXO sweater in January. I'll just have to re-assign the remaining items as, um, birthday or Valentines presents. Yeah, that's the ticket!

Left turn into scarves

December knitting took a left turn when I decided to knit a drop-stitch scarf for a white elephant gift exchange at work. Photo: I wish I knew what yarn this was, because it was just fabulous. The pattern was 10 rows of garter, 2 rows of drop stitch, on size 13 needles. The gift exchange was on December 15th and the scarf was ready just in time.

   

Two colleagues asked if I could knit them scarves and I said "Of course!". I don't think I quite realized that they both wanted their scarves by Christmas! Still, I had already sort of given up on finishing my grand Xmas knitting plans, so I dropped all my WIP and went shopping for scarf yarn.

Two more Xmas scarves

Following up on commissions received at my company Christmas party, I knit up these two scarves. For Paul's friend Nikki, I ended up with this Lion brand "Incredible" yarn in a color called "Copper Penny". The scarf is 15 sts wide in garter stitch for nearly 72 inches on size 11 needles.

The second commissioned scarf came out of my stash. For Jaime's sister, who lives in Mexico City, I used Great Adirondack Sequin in a bias pattern. 20 sts wide. Odd rows: inc 1 on the right edge, K across dec 1 on the left edge. Even rows, K.

   

Next on the Xmas lineup: Alpaca Tie

Ok, with 18 days left til Xmas, what's the score? 2 items completed and delivered, including the Toddler Cardi, delivered on Sunday. Here's one last shot of that project, this time with the lovely dark red buttons on (click for larger image):

4 items in progress - Meadow Flowers, Fuzzy Stripey #2, Narcisse and the latest addition: Alpaca Tie. I spent over an hour choosing a color combination from the many many colors of alpaca in my stash. My chosen colors should look familiar to anyone who reads Knitty or KnitFlix - it's the same colors as the Cross Country Chullo! Have a look:

The Traditional Ties pattern by Shirley Paden comes from Interweave Knits Winter 2004 issue. I adjusted the width a bit by comparing the tie in progress to ties in my spouse-o's collection. He says this is the widest a tie can possibly be in the year 2004. This may mean a bit of adjustment in the decrease rate to make sure I can get to 53 inches of tie.

Zero progress on the other Xmas items and no plans yet for the Xmas item #7 - the plaid scarf - but with my 4 WIP's trundling ahead, I'm feeling a bit stretched but positive!

Grace S. and the big clean-out

On Sunday after a brief stop at the SnB SJSU, I went to meet Grace S. who is trying to get rid of her knitting supplies after a lifetime of knitting. She contact the SnB group on November 28th through Jeff and I contacted her later in the week to arrange a visit.

Grace has Parkinson's disease and can no longer knit. She donated her 4-ply/worsted weight to the Willow Glen Senior Center, but still had a large needle collection, some unfinished projects and baby yarn. On Sunday I helped go through the unfinished projects and needle collection. We decided to sort through the baby yarn after the holidays.

I brought home 5 bags of yarn/projects and 1 bag of needles and notions. I hope some of the SnB knitters will find useful items in the collection. I will get some photos together & post them later this week. Mostly Grace's knitting supplies were vintage 60's yarn & needles. She said she liked to get new projects every summer, so there are several unfinished projects from which yarn could be recovered, if desired. My favorites are a knitted dress in linen/orlon novelty yarn, a collection of acetate ribbon yarn in individual boxes per ball of yarn, and a knitted necktie kit. In needles, there is a wide variety of sizes in long and short straight needles, a few double points in plastic and some crochet hooks. Stay tuned for a full inventory and photos.

Meeting Grace and talking to her about her knitting supplies was sweet and also emotional for me. The idea of having someone have to sort thorugh my half-finished projects later affected me a little, but I was really grateful to Grace for contacting our group and I'm sure her needles will go to good use!

Xmas knitting and knitting in public

Despite more chatting and teaching at Knitting Meetup on Wednesday night, I have finished finished finished 3 of my Xmas projects and made good progress on a fourth. Of course, the Snowman was finished & shipped last week. This week's progress is:

• Fuzzy Stripey #2 (this photo doesn't show cute square buttons, but they are on!)

  

• Toddler Cardi - suddenly and unexpectedly, this project is fully done! I found a half-finished girl-colored cardi in my UFO pile and figured out how to adjust the sleeves to be wearable and, hey, presto, finished prezzy!

  

• Meadow Flowers - finished 1 length of edging, 2 more to go. This will probably be the next Xmas item finished.

  

After a pretty dry spell in November, I was able to knit-in-public twice this week, hurray! Sunday at SnB SJSU, where I rudely threatened violence towards Lisa, a new member who had actually finished all her Christmas knitting on November 28th. Janice talked me down and honestly, I have to admire someone who can plan ahead that well. I'm just mad 'cause I'm not that cool. I worked on Meadow Flowers edging and the Step Above socks.



At Santa Clara County Knitting Meetup on Wednesday, I worked on the Step Above socks - I've now got the entire leg portion finished except the waste yarn section. Woo! Knitting Meetup had 17 peeople at our special extra session, including 6 new gals. So I guess that didn't suck. I set up a poll today to ask the group what their ideal meeting frequency would be. Also, I gotta remember the name tags next time!