Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all you Americans enjoyed the 4-day weekend. I loved it so much, I knit my niece this:


She came here all the way from Colorado, played wonderfully with my son, and loves wristbands. She'll be getting a few more of them for Christmas.

We had a wonderful holiday here with family. Not much knitting was accomplished, but it was still a great time.

Assisted Knitting

My good friend and neighbor, Janine (mom to Leo and Mary), recently learned to knit. She chose a somewhat ambitious project for a shower gift, with which I was happy to help her. Saturday night, with a few logs on the fire, children tucked in their beds, and a deadline looming, we finished this:



Admittedly, it was difficult to take the hat off the model to give it to the parents-to-be, but Janine says she did so graciously. All the moms wanted to know where they could buy such a thing. Janine proudly told the shocked audience that she had made it, and then was hounded by requests to sell her work. Not bad for a second finished object! It was fun to help with the seams, as they were so critical for this hat and I have become rather adept at mattress stitch. Great job Janine!

Should I be concerned?

Hmm, not much being cast off lately, but more and more yarn is entering the house. I am running out of places to stash it. When Purple Heart came last week, I contemplated giving away all our beach towels so that I could use the space they were taking up for my yarn stash.

Have you ever seen the cover of "Knitter's Stash"? I love that look of piles of yarn, just waiting for you to be inspired. I have plenty of inspiration, just so little time lately. The few things that I am working on are gifts for my main blog readers, so how do you blog about that? I guess those FO's will have to wait to be shared. In the meantime, I do have some exciting yarn to share:


Blue-face leicester yarn (Poor Man's Cashmere), hand-dyed by Cass at Holy Sheep! Yarns. There are 2 very large skeins. The solid was supposed to be one of the colors from the 'earthy' colorway, but I think it's a bit darker. I still love it, though, and I have another skein that I could send her to be dyed in the lighter, more caramel-y tones of the earthy.

I also ordered 2 kits from Peace Fleece:


The 'Everyday Cardigan' for me (someday) and,

The infant cardigan for some future lucky child. I love the yarns from Peace Fleece and their philosophy as well.

You're welcome!

Just a short blog today as the native is restless. I am reminded once again of why I knit for Janine:



Not only has she thanked my profusely and repeatedly for these pants, she has actually taken pictures of her child wearing them and e-mailed them to me.

Don't get me wrong: I love to knit and to knit for others, and I am not in it for the praise. Marty hasn't said a word to me about the several items I have knit for him (in fact, he sometimes cries about wearing them), yet I keep casting on projects for him; I don't knit for the gratitude of others. Yet to be thanked, to have someone really appreciate the knit item... well it's like reliving the joy of that project all over again. And it makes me start looking for more things to knit for that person/family!

So a word to the wise: If you really want to make a knitter's day, go on and on about how much you love what they knit. There's no going over board here. No amount of praise is too much. Seriously.