FO's, WIP's and Other Excitement

Well, with a title like that, you might be expecting more than you'll find in this little post. However, if I keep up this "posting once a week whether I need to or not" schedule, the posts are bound to continue to be a bit on the lengthy side.

Thanksgiving at Chez Counting was fab. Hubby says he think the food was the "best ever". Since he does not say that every year, I think he means it. Funny holiday though, isn't it? I cooked for 2 days straight and the meal was over in about 20 minutes. Good thing it's about more than just the food!

We had a great 4 day weekend. In addition to the holiday cooking and eating, we did a little holiday shopping, got some lights up on the house and surrounding shrubbery and took the annual Christmas card picture. All in all, a productive, yet restful weekend.

I also finished up two knitting projects this weekend. Project number one is a super simple little hat.

Pattern: My own basic hat recipe
Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold's Angora, colorways Oats and Driftwood

This one is another holiday gift for one of my husband's friends. Yes, I do knit a lot for his friends, but they are all such nice, appreciative bachelors who would do anything for us. I love being able to give them a little something that will keep them warm and remind them that we care about them.

This one particularly important to me personally this year. The intended recipient, we'll call him Dr. X (which is the actual nickname we use for him) lost a knitter this year who was very close to him. He loves to come over and hang out with me while I knit and tell me stories about this knitter, her projects and talents, etc. Recently he told me that she had knit him an Angora hat a couple of years ago that he ended up ruining in the dryer. He is now sick about it because she will never be able to knit him another. While I know this will never replace that lost hat, it will at least keep him warm and, hopefully, be a nice reminder.

Moving on, I finished another object that has been in the WIP pile for a couple of months now. It is another Snowdrop Scarf using my own pattern. Here I mentioned writing it for a Lace Class I taught back in October. This one is a shop sample for All About Yarn, which is selling the pattern. I love the colorway!

Pattern: Snow Drop Scarf by me
Yarn: JoJo Land Melody, Colorway 02

Finally, I realized recently that I seem to always post finished objects, but rarely "in-process" shots. It's like the completed items just pop out of thin air. So, since the weather was nice and I had the camera out, I decided to take a WIP shot too.

These are the Fiber Trends Felted Clogs in purple Cascade 220 I am knitting for my mother for Christmas. Note the pencil thrown in for size comparison. My mom does have pretty large feet, but these things are just enormous. I just have the outer sole and seaming left on this one, then the other clog to knit. I have found this to be a Super fun and interesting pattern. Nothing like working with double-stranded yarn and size 13 needles to make things move along.

Hopefully some time before Christmas I will have these finished, although I'm still not sure about the actual felting. Do you think it's rude to give an unfelted pair of clogs for Christmas? The issue is that I have a front loading washer, which is very difficult to felt with. My mom, on the other hand, has a top loader. Hmmm, I have a couple of other ideas for how to get them felted. We'll see what I come up with...