Finished Object Dance

This is not a sad post, but there's an example at the end of why gauge matters.

So, first the gift that was thought of last year and took the better part of this year to execute. Last December, I started thinking I'd like to make a sweater for Himself, this time with his input. He finally decided on the Wonderous Woven Cables out of a Knitter's magazine that's not too far back, I think, and it looked like Green Mountain Spinnery's Mountain Mohair would work. Sometime that month we went up to my friend Deb Degan's Woolery in Wilton, NH where after much looking, he decided on the dark navy blue and we took a guess that 13 skeins would be needed. Famous last words, "I don't need it soon," meaning, if it came shortly after the New Year I'd be ready to get started. I think it showed up in April. Other projects pushed it out of the way at various points, but the knitting was finished a few weeks ago, Lucy at Mind's Eye did her usual excellent sewing bits together job, and yesterday afternoon I sat myself down for 50 concentrated minutes of taking care of ends. Himself is happy with it, and, after all that, it fits!

Christmas present knitting was also finished yesterday afternoon. Mom's shapely shawlette in the custom dyed green from Lucy got picked up off the towels it had been blocking on, the ends sewn in and we'll see how well she likes it this afternoon. Mom has this funny habit that she won't open presents. We were brought up to take turns opening things so everyone gets a chance and you can all see what each other got. Mom keeps holding up the line by being handed presents and just refusing to do anything with them. It may be a bid for attention thing. Eh, we love her anyway. Given the way my father was trying to buy the store sample when he saw how much she liked it, I hope she has the same reaction to this.

My brother's socks are also finished. They're from one of the Trekkings out of the stash, can't say which one, other than it's a very nice dark with some subtle bits of color. If I find another I might make some for me..... Not much else to say, other than they got finished yesterday afternoon after realizing when I took this picture yesterday morning that I was less along on the foot than I had thought.

And then we come to the surprise. Last Monday or thereabouts I realized, gee, I was so far along on the Christmas knitting that I could think about making something else as a present and still have time (Lucy, you're not alone in this). So, one call to Handpaint Heaven to discover that what I hoped to buy had been discontinued later (watch out Cherry Tree Hill is discontinuing a number of yarns!), Potluck Worsted in Earthtones was available for immediate shipment, arrived Tuesday lunch, was wound into a ball and 5 rows of ribbing were accomplished at lunchtime. It took just into the 2nd skein to finish the foot, but we have an exact (mostly) replica of Himself's standard sock, done in worsted weight gauge. It holds presents, such as hot chocolate, DVDs, a small book, a chocolate bar and a bag of dark chocolate covered ginger puffs (Nelsons, also in Wilton). On the left, shown in actual wear. I may have persuaded Himself that it was a loan from Boulevus (pronouned bull-uh-vus with emphasis on the first syllable), the invisible giant who has lived in my family's attic for as long as I can remember. Why would Boulevus need holes in the back of the ribbing about an inch down that look like they're meant to have a hook go through them? Well, to hang them up to dry, of course.

Merry Christmas!