Burgundy Merino Wool Lacy Scarf

Now that Christmas is over, I can post on the gifts that I knitted for a few people.

For Aunt Cathy, I knitted a beautiful lacy scarf. It was in a lovely burgundy and was very soft merino wool. I used a stitch pattern from “Lace & Eyelets” edited by Erika Knight, called Ostrich Plume. It turned out wonderfully, even if I did knit most of it in the car on the way out to Iowa!

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A White Afternoon With a View

This afternoon, I was going to go to a coffee shop to work on some writing, but it is not going to happen.

Instead, I am going to cuddle up with my cat on the couch and work some more on my sister’s hat and listen to a good audio book. If you take one look at the picture of my view from the couch, you will understand why. It is beautiful. We are supposed to get about an inch or two of snow, although it has been at it for hours now, and all we have is a dusting. But oh, what a beautiful dusting it is.

There is something magical about knitting Christmas presents while watching the first snowfall of the season. I am fully intending on sitting back and enjoying the afternoon as it comes. How often do we get treats like this?

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Homemade Christmas Present # 3

I’ve finished the second present and now I am on to the third.  This one is for my sister, who knows what she is getting.  She’s in the fashion industry and had very specific instructions on how to make her present.  She wants a floppy beret in royal purple.

I finally understand why purple was traditionally the color of royalty.  It took me forever to find a nice soft yarn in a rich purple.  I showed my sister the color I found, and she was thrilled.  According to her, purple is still hard to find dyed well.  This I suppose is why I could find it in all sorts of synthetics, but not in natural fibers.  I ended up with a gorgeous yarn from Inca Alpaca that is amazingly soft as well.

I’m afraid that I will end up wanting this hat, like most of the other presents that I have made this year.  Fortunately for me, my sister is already expecting it; so if I want one, I will just have to make another.

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Christmas Season Has Officially Started

Today, I finished putting up the remaining touches on our Christmas tree, and put away the stacks of Christmas decoration boxes. My hubby was generous enough to go Christmas tree shopping with me on Sunday, even though it was barely cold enough to need a jacket.

Christmas just isn’t Christmas until you have a nice fragrant tree up in your living room, and I am so glad that I have mine, now all that’s left is to start putting presents under it.  Pulling out the ornaments year after year is like opening up boxes with old friends in them. This year is especially happy, because during the move, I found many that I thought that I had lost in a previous move.  Most of them were pretty enamel onces that I had picked up during my travels in China, and they had a large amount of sentimental value to them (even if I only paid about 50 cents for each one).

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A Perfect Morning for Knitting

It is my perfect fall morning.  The leaves have finally started to change here, and I am sitting on my couch watching the drizzle come down.  I love the way the the brilliant yellows look against the gray sky.  It really makes the colors pop out at you.

I am finally starting to feel the Christmas rush.  I know that many of you probably haven’t given Christmas gifts a second thought yet, but if one is determined to make as many handmade gifts as possible, then one really has to get cracking in November.  So today, I am working on a scarf for one of my favorite people in the world.

She is wonderful and brilliant, and I hope that this scarf suits her personality well.  I know that she will read this blog and wonder if I am speaking of her, but she will probably dismiss it and think that it is for someone else.

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Pretty New Scarf

I’ve finished two knitting projects in the past week!  Both were supposed to be Christmas presents, but one of them is going to happily stay in my possession this winter.  I completely fell in love with the yarn and the lace pattern that I used for one of the scarves, plus it will go perfectly with a jacket that I picked up on sale at the end of the season last year.  It also took forever to finish.  I have been working on it for the last two months, and it feels good to know that I will get to wear it just as it starts to get colder.

I love wearing things that I have made.  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when I wrap a scarf around my neck or put on a shirt that I poured my love and creativity into.  Some people say that fibers become infused with the energies around them, and I sincerely hope that this is true, because if it is, then my crafts should radiate all the joy that goes into my work.  I know that I can feel it, and I hope that at least some others will feel it too when they get their lovingly made presents.

Here is my lace scarf that I am so proud of!  You can’t really tell in the photo, but the sparkles in the yarn are really strands of gold thread, which adds a nice touch of girly fun to the scarf.

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Perfect Knitting Weather

It is stunning here in DC.  Outside it is nice and sunny, which a few puffy clouds ambling their way across the sky.  It is a crisp fall day, and the breeze is quite invigorating.  It truly is the perfect knitting weather, a harbinger that the time to pull out the cozy sweaters and mittens is near.

Today,  I am working on my first Christmas project.  Knitting takes a while, so those on my list that are lucky enough to get handmade scarves, hats, or slippers are quite lucky, because it means that I have been pouring over their project for months, agonizing over who would like what.

This present that I am working on is a lovely black and gold scarf.  I have fallen in love with this yarn, and as always, it is going to be desperately hard to give it up come December.  In fact, this actually should be my second Christmas project of the year, but the first one I loved so much that I decided to keep it.  I will be taking pictures and writing many posts in January dedicated to this year’s handmade presents, but since most of the recipients look at this blog from time to time, I need to maintain the presents’ anonymity for the sake of Christmas surprise.

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