Finished Knits

I am working on my dress are you? You have until this Saturday Jan 8th, 2011 to finish and post your link!

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Solstice, Brae's birthday, Christmas, and New Years slid by so quickly I hardly had a chance to enjoy them. Instead of visiting family we were visited by many friends who we haven't seen since winter quarter started at their colleges. Some stayed for a couple days, others for a week, and one more is staying for a couple months while his son is in the hospital nearby.

Tom and I had a blast watching Brae open all her presents and have spent many frigid afternoons watching her ride her new bike in the driveway. We have had a hard time finding a well fitting helmet. Anyone know of a good kids bike helmet?

I did my best to separate the holidays from her birthday, which falls on Dec 24th. Its tough, but we just try to make Christmas Eve all about her and not about the holiday.

There was no way I was going to knit all my gifts this year. I didn't want that added stress so I kept it simple. My sister wanted a pair of fingerless mitts so I made her a pair of Thanksgiving Day Mitts. The pattern can be found here at TwinKnits. Or on Ravelry.

I finished these in just a couple days of knitting. The pattern is simple, but not so simple that it becomes tedious. The cable pattern is very similar to the Star Crossed Beret & Cowl patterns. I might make myself a set one day using all three patterns. I knit with the super soft and squishy Spud & Chloe Sweater yarn which I will definitely use again.

Brae was the only other person who received something knitted this year. She was in desperate need of some warmies. I used the Legwarmies pattern by Alana from Never Not Knitting. The yarn is Debbie Stoller's Alpaca Love. A nice inexpensive yarn I found at Michaels.

I also made matching fingerless mitts. I winged it with a generic mitten pattern modifying the tops to make the mittens fingerless. It worked out perfectly.

I had planned on a matching hat but didn't get to that. Its on the list for this month. Ice has moved in and is chilling us to the core on the way to school every morning. My new cowl has been great at keeping away the chill. So great that I have plans for a hat with the same yarn.