Whew! I went to my eighth gathering in seven days today. Now I have only three holiday events left: my beloved Godchildren, and two gatherings for Brian’s family (these two are over an hour away, but I get to knit in the car so I don’t mind). I don’t know why, but I feel a huge weight lifted from my shoulders, even though I still have work deadlines and knitting deadlines.

One friend has asked me to knit sox for another friend as a Christmas gift. I am delighted to do this, the recipient really loves my work and I’ve never knit for her before. That deadline is Christmas. (The picture shown here is of her yet-unblocked sock cuff. The pattern is one I’ve submitted hopefully to be published. It’s called Turkish Zig Sox.)

I also am proofknitting a tea cosy (cozy? I’ve seen it spelled both ways) for a member of the Knitlist, and I’m behind on that obligation. I’m also putting together a design for publication, which needs to be received by the publisher by December 31. That pattern will be in two weights of yarn, and I have written both patterns and proofknit the worsted weight version. I’m past the middle of proofknitting the fingering weight version now.

When all this is over, I’m going to get out my purple and pink Koigu and make a pair of gloves, probably with cropped fingers, plus a matching beret and sox. I have four skeins! I feel rich! My brother and his wife bought me two skeins for my Birthday/Christmas gift and I got myself two more because I loved it so much. There is no yarn I adore as much as Koigu, so knitting it will be a delight.

I went to the holiday party of my dance troupe tonight (I’m in Habibi Dancers, a middle-eastern nonprofit dance organization). We all pick one name and are to buy one gift that is not particularly pricey. Dancers love glitz, though, so there were many gifts of earrings and other baubles. I made a hand-dyed silk scarf for my friend Anne, whose name I had picked.

Well, I was getting ready for this party yesterday, not particularly happy that I’d had so many parties in so many days, and not particularly excited about dressing up. I was wondering if Anne would like my gift (of course she will). Then it crossed my mind that the person whose name Kay picked would luck out as usual.

Kay is a fabulous seamstress who loves costuming, and who is retired now so has lots of time to do it. She’s a very generous person who gave me three gifts last year even though she did not pick my name. Anyone she gifts, is lucky indeed.

So I got to the party a half an hour late and feeling stressed about it. And we had a zillion little gifts and some pretty great food. And then the major gifts were opened. Anne was not there because she was ill. Then came Kay’s time to present her gift, and I was the lucky one.

I got three gifts, not one! She knows I love bright colors. She made me a stole with two layers of silk crepe in hot pink, trimmed with hot pink ostrich feathers! Very fun.

On top of that, she made me a beledi dress, an a-line dress which is worn with a hip wrap, plus a two-piece ensemble with a cutout vest and panel skirt, a type of costume I did not own yet. Both costumes are of a sheer purple fabric with silver glitter in dotted patterns.

On top of that, Kay did hand-beading of silvery glass beads at the top of the vest’s armhole like an epaulet, and more beads around the neckline and the bottom of the vest. You should SEE the sleeves on the dress, sort of a tight fit to the elbow and then a long pointed trailing fairy tale sleeve with beaded trim. An incredible extravagance. Any one of these items would have been a welcome and delightful gift, but the package was just overwhelming! Kay knows I appreciate her work, and she really understands my style. I’m thrilled.
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There is just too much to post today!

I took four of my knitters from the community center where I work, to the local chapter of TKGA (The Knitting Guild of America) holiday party today. They were so good, and I was so proud of them. We were given a bag of yarn for their program, and they already had projects in mind for about 3/4 of it before we were through the night. Even my 11-year olds learn to stash early!

We have a hat contest each year. The guild issues grab bags of unknown combinations of yarns, and you are to take a bag and knit a hat from it. I took two bags. One was dreadful, a baby pink with white, all acrylic, one textured, none the same weight. I made a teddy hat with tassels from that, it was pretty bad but I didn’t have good supplies.

However, my other bag was a treasure trove of goodies. It had mostly wool yarns, and a few acrylics or blends. There were seven or eight colors, including one handspun which changed from greens to pinks. Gorgeous.

I made a hat from the Anna Zilboorg hat book (well, it called for three fairly subtle colors and I spiced up the palette considerably but I followed the pattern pretty much exactly). It turned out just fabulously. I won the hat contest, and the prize was a $25 gift certificate to Yarn for Ewe which pleases me. OK, so the girl knitters all voted for me, but I did get 7 votes, and I noticed one person voting for me whose knitting I deeply admire. I am delighted to have attracted her approval.

Well, I survived four holiday parties in two days. No wonder we all stress out at this time of year!

Even though I’d sworn I wouldn’t knit for Christmas this year, I’m doing bits and pieces as time passes. I did one mini sock for Barbara yesterday. Then, when we got home from the last party, I picked up stitches around some of those stretch gloves that fit mostly anybody, and knit a second “cuff” in two strands of eyelash. The pink is Peacock by Skacel and purple is Plume FX by Berrocco. The Peacock has many more eyelashes so you may not be able to see the subtle purple bits in the picture.

I got this great idea from the Knitlist. Bobbie Reich from EweKnitKits had a few pictures of them on her picturetrail site and I had to give it a try. (By the way, I got my incredible purple sportweight alpaca yarn from Bobbie not too long ago, and they are the softest sox I own.)

The pair took nearly no time, and they look so fun! (I just love the Peacock yarn.) Next time, I may pick up the stitches further down where the cuff joins the bottom of the hand, and then reattach perhaps at the top of the ribbed cuff. The ones I made seem slightly too long in the cuff to me.

Tonight I went to my holiday party for Working Women Artists (WWA). There were seven of us, a cozy group.

We first spent a good long time decorating sugar cookies in all shapes. I hadn’t decorated Christmas cookies since I’d been a child. We had so many cookies! I didn’t contribute any to start with, but I went home with a large platter and a small plate, full of cookies. I’ll take them to the community center tomorrow, probably. Those kids seem to always have room for more food!

My gift for the WWA gift exchange was the gloves I’d made last night. My friend Marian got my gift, and pronounced them just right. She has a black coat and needed new gloves, or so she says. Whew. I always worry, because my style is so unique and colorful that it isn’t for everyone.
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Today my friend Tony and I went to our spinning guild meeting. I talked him into driving so I could knit (to be fair, I did drive the last two times we’d gone on knitting/spinning excursions). It takes a bit more than an hour each way, so I really enjoyed the luxury of knitting time.

This meant I was able to finish a mini sock as a Christmas gift (yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to do this) for my friend Barbara. Barbara, Brian and I and three others are in a band, Abbott Brothers, and our holiday get-together is tonight. It came very quickly, I must say!

Fortunately, I had three mini socks already knit, so I only needed one more. It was pretty fun to knit this one for her. I really like knitting with color, especially when I don’t have to fit anyone. I can just make things up as I go along, no worries about gauge. In this case, it was even better because I needed to make only one, so it doesn’t even have to match anything! Oh, as a point of information, the sock is about 3-1/2 inches tall.

By the way, you may want to check out Jenny Bowker’s quilt site. These are just amazing on both a visual and spiritual level. Some have incredible depth, as if she had painted rather than pieced fabrics. Breathtaking!

I did it! I finished Altu’s sox today. These are the pair I ribbed after the fact (see earlier December 4 entry). She was so surprised, and couldn’t believe I knew her foot size. She had forgotten that she had loaned me her “flip flops” one day when I was helping her paint her restaurant.

For the other yarn fans out there, I used Cleckheaton Tapestry 8 ply for the accent color (toes, rib and heels), and Encore for the main color. I had never used Encore before because I’m such a wool fanatic, but even though these are only 25% wool and 75% acrylic, I thought it felt pretty nice. It just happened to be the right color and weight when I was making my choices at Yarn for Ewe, my Local Yarn Shop. Altu loves purple, and I wanted to use worsted weight yarn since it is winter.

These turned out quite nicely after all. I had completed a different pair for Altu, before I realized I had made them my size instead of her size! Well, I got a new pair of sox, but then I started over and made hers.

I started these on November 30. It’s so funny, I had them done except for the toes in about five days, and then it took what seemed like forever to get those toes done! I kept counting wrong and missing decreases. Some projects just seem to go that way, don’t they?

Funny, I finally sat down and realized that I have too much knitting for the holidays. This is surprising, because I told myself I would not do knitting this year.

I bought clothing for hubby at a couple of stores. I got books for my godchildren (my Hershberger Art Kazoos tm and a sculpture were included in the book Polymer Clay by Jacqueline Gikow, and they had loaned me the kazoos I’d made for them to be photographed for the book). I got a calendar I’m in for their mom (the one for whom I am playing with cotton yarns).

I bought gifts for my family except for my mom. Mom’s sox I have up as a free pattern, “Mom’s Fast Florida Footies” (made in Cascade Fixation again).

We have Christmas with Mom in early November because she goes to Florida for the winter, so her gift, the one I thought I’d be knitting, was done long ago. Yet then I found this Mississippi 3 yarn and got excited. Then I decided the person I drew a name for at my dance troupe, would love sox. Then my friends Marian and Eva (a mom/daughter duo) asked me if I’d knit a pair for their SIL/aunt. Well, all three of them are good friends (the aunt is the one from whom I got my spinning wheel). And she will REALLY appreciate them, both as an artist and because she has a hard time finding sox to fit properly.

So here I am with three pair to knit? What am I doing?

I sat and chatted with Brian about this last night. I decided to put the cotton sox on hold because I have the calendar for Jo. And I surely can find something that will make my dance friend happy that won’t take so long (the gifts are supposed to be something like $10 anyway). I do have to do the pair for the friend/aunt, and those are due the 26th.

I’m designing a pattern for Dawn Brocco’s Heels and Toes Gazette, have done one version in worsted and now need one in fingering. So I figure I will work up the fingering wt. pair for the auntie in the pattern I’m doing for Dawn, and cover two bases at once.

Whew! Close call!

I have a friend who is truly allergic to wool. Last year for Christmas, I gave her sox made of Cascade Fixation yarn, a cotton and lycra blend. They look good, but the Fixation is sport weight and I think it might be lumpy underfoot, as she has very sensitive skin.

I did buy her a gift this year, so I don’t have to knit for her. Nevertheless, I heard of a yarn that might work and ordered some.

The yarn is Katia Mississippi 3, it’s cotton and acrylic. Now, I’m a wool fanatic, but this yarn is pretty soft and since it’s also fingering weight, I think it might actually work for sox for my friend. (It would also make nice baby clothes.)

I set out to doodle with yarn. I figured that I could make a wrist warmer for myself without having a perfect gauge, and that would give me some stockinette I could use as a gauge swatch. OK, so I cast on in the round and ribbed for a while, then I switched to stockinette.

Now, I’ve only made one pair of mittens in my life but I thought maybe I’d make a little thumb gusset and make the wristwarmer into a short handwarmer. However, I forgot that cotton doesn’t stretch like wool does. So I had a couple of problems right away. The cast on edge is very inflexible and even though the ribbed area is probably the proper width for a cuff, I don’t think it will pull on over a heel. Ugh. In addition, I started my thumb gusset far too soon, so that the rib pulls up and doesn’t rest on the wrist at all.

Because I’m using tiny size 0 needles and non-stretchy yarn, I needed to use more stitches for the thumb anyway. I have to frog the stockinette part (I’ve knit maybe two inches). That is OK, because I did enough to get my stockinette stitch gauge figured out for my friend’s sox.

I even cast on for my friend’s sock and did a few inches of ribbing. The cast-on edge won’t stretch enough to fit, again. That one I have to rip out entirely. I think cotton knows that I really don’t like it.

Maybe these sox will be for her June birthday, instead?

I drove today to Ann Arbor, to meet another knitter from the Knitlist. We had a great time. First we met for a cup of tea, then we went to the Knit A Round yarn shop when they opened. I found some beautiful Koigu (I’m such a sucker for their colors) and a skein of Lorna’s Laces almost-solid worsted weight. The Koigu is turquoises and purples, and the Lorna’s Laces is a wonderful intense pink. Of course, they are destined to become socks, every one!

I also stopped in Howell on the way home, at the Stitch in Time shop. Charlene had sent me a $5 discount card for my birthday, so that gave me all the excuse I needed to stop by. I found two skeins of a very hot purple alpaca sportweight. More sox. I just don’t get tired of knitting sox!!!

When I got home I got to teach my CityKidz Knit! class. Those kids are the best thing that happens to me each week. I’ll surely wax poetic about them in a later post!

I’m usually a socknitter. I can’t feel grounded without at least one sock project in my knitting bag, which goes with me everywhere. However, lately I’ve been trying different projects in addition to the socks.

I’ve got a rug in process, made of Peace Fleece (I’ll full/felt it when it’s completed). I’m currently working on a tea cosy, an eternal sweater for myself, a stole for the kids I teach to knit, a scarf for charity and several hats. I also completed my first mittens and some wonderful cabled legwarmers in the last month.

The most recent non-sock project I did was a tiny sweater made of some of my very early handspun. It was what they call “energized singles” yarn which means it knit in a spiral, but in this tiny garment it looks like a design element. I’m very pleased with this project!

Today a group of artist friends, most of whom are in Working Women Artists with me, held an “Art for the Soul” sale at one member’s house. We always have a good time getting to know each other between sales.

It was a delight to get to know our visitors, especially some women who are interested in joining us. One woman, Martha, used to live in Detroit. She told about a man who is a curator at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, and who has an art space deep in a neighborhood in Detroit. He is apparently quite involved with installation art and experiential art. She said once he walked from Detroit to Boston wearing a cardboard box with a message, to raise funds for an art program. She had met this ArtMan and apparently he is both inspiring and approachable.

Right now she said he is spinning a thread from his art space in the inner city, to 8 Mile Road which is where the suburbs symbolically start. The thread is a metaphor, and as a spinner I find the whole concept wonderful on both the physical (spinning) and metaphorical (connection thread) levels.

I must meet this man! I’ve done some surfing and haven’t found him yet, but I will. The Working Women Artists may take a day trip to visit this gallery when we find it.

By the way, Tyree Guyton is another amazing Detroit Artist. He was the man who dreamed of the Heidelberg Project. It’s pretty hard to describe the Heidelberg project, forgive me if I fall short.

Tyree and his neighbors (especially children) in an inner-city Detroit neighborhood transformed several blocks of ignored homes, by collecting found objects and arranging them in logically-organized (though unkempt) vignettes of sorts.
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I got time to actually dye some yarn, preparing for an art sale. It’s so fun once I get started, but it is enough of a mess that it requires changing clothing just in case I spill. That means I can’t do it in an hour here or there. It is amazing how hard it is to get several hours all at once, especially not late at night when I’m starting to tire physically.

I tried some new sportweight yarn this time. It started out as a base color of a very light mint green. I think it worked out well. The turquoise reminds me of sea spray, mostly blues with bits of white fizz. I made two versions of the springtime meadow color, one sunny and light and the other more grassy.
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I’ve been knitting sox for a friend as a surprise, and they have been a challenge. I made her one pair and found out (fortunately soon enough to not disappoint her) that they were too small. I started again and this time they were just slightly too baggy. After knitting both cuffs, I didn’t want to tear them out and reknit, so I played with a crochet hook. I dropped a stitch on purpose, let it “run” down to the top ribbing, turned the cuff inside out and used a crochet hook to re-chain the dropped stitches together.

I kept working my way around the tube, dropping every third stitch and working the stitches, until those repaired stitches were all purls and it made a ribbed sock. They fit much better now. I’m eager to have a pair I can actually give to her soon!

Here is a picture of the transformation: