Second pop sleeve done.

First pop sleeve out.

Reattaching front panels.

Time to buckle down and finish this sweater! So what are you seaming?

Getting down to a little seaming with weasley two in blue. I was going to sew up number one first, but then I remembered.... after knitting the first one, I got worried that the sleeves wouldn't be sufficiently long for the boys to get a good year's worth of wearing out of the sweaters (their shirts always get too short in the arms first), so I lengthened the sleeves on weasley two. Before going back to lengthen weasley one, I wanted to seam up this one to see how long these sleeves really are.

One sleeve in, call in a boy and give it a try on.

Half seamed, only one sleeve, and no collar, but it's already too cute for words. Oh, I don't know if I can wait until Christmas!

Here they are, the winners of the blue blog holiday stash raffle!

The winner of the Rowan Yorkshire Tweed is.... Kristen (email addy at pacbell.net). Yay Kristen!

The winner of the much desired Cascade 220 is.... Natalie from keeping me in stitches. Hey, you've already got 233 skeins of yarn, so what's one more, right?

The winner of the Berroco Suede is.... Diane (email addy at msn.com). Hooray for Diane!

The winner of the Cascade Fixation is.... Maryse from bag 'n' trash, who I hope now has a good reason to come to our local knitting group. I'll teach you to knit socks.

And finally, the winner of the German pattern mags is.... Dawnya (email addy at comcast.net). Glückwunsch!

happy box is awaiting further instructions

Winners, don't leave your information in the comments here. Please send your mailing address to my email address (listed in the left sidebar) and I'll send things off next week. So start planning how you're going to use your yarn!

I had such a great time reading all of your comments. I really appreciate that a lot of you shared what you would use the yarn for. What could be better than yarn browsing and project dreaming with over 100 online pals? Thanks for making this raffle so much fun everyone!

In all my seaming excitement, I almost forgot the socks!

Koigu pair number one is done. I'm still not a fan of the swirly pooling, but I think the recipient will find them fun. The next pair are in a solid color (looooove the solid Koigu), so I should be happier making them.

In the meantime, mini weasley fever has broken out! Here are four more sweaters waiting for (you guessed it) seaming and duplicate stitching.

check it out!

Yes, I finally finished my leftovers vest. I even made a second one (during my vacation this fall) with some awesome pastel yarn oddballs that I first saw for sale at a local yarn mecca back in January 2003. I had originally talked myself out of buying them and Kerstin ended up picking them up. She hadn't started blogging back then and we'd never met, but she left a comment to my post, because she recognized that the yarn I passed up was the yarn she'd bought. A year later and she was a knitblogging star, was coming to our weekly knitting group, the Knitsmiths, and despite a few well-intentioned attempts, still hadn't gotten that yarn to work for her. So she gave it to me. Yes, Kerstin is that nice. But what am I to do with single skeins in different colors, I asked myself. Hey, I answered myself, don't I have a vest lying around nearly finished with the same m.o.? Well, let's just have another one of those.

While I'm waiting for the next batch of leftovers to fall into my lap, I'm eyeing the lovely colors of elann.com's Peruvian Highland Wool and thinking, it doesn't technically have to be leftovers, right? It is Christmas, after all!

Christmas is coming and the finishing basket is getting fat. The elves are busy finishing holiday presents (note to self: look into getting actual elves for next year's holiday knitting!). Today we peek into Santa's knitting factory to see what's in store for mom. So mom, that means stop reading now please.

if you're not mom, click on the present to peek

It's mom's jess sweater! I haven't worked on this one in months. Here's where I left it: both sleeves done, front panels done and half of the back done. There's still a good bit of knitting to do, including a giant collar, and then some seaming and blocking. Will nineteen days be enough?

Melissa has finished her weasley sweater! She did hers in a jiffy in Rowan Cork. Yum! Eklectika has the front and back done and is starting on a sleeve. Leigh has just joined the knitalong and has two sleeves finished already. She admits to not really knowing the books, so go visit her site and tell her who Ron is and what the weasley sweaters are about, 'kay? Peggy has just finished the "E" on the front of her weasley. MA finished her "R" and a mini-weasley. And Stacey has just picked out her yarn. She's going to warm up with a few mini-weasleys herself.

I haven't done any more seaming on my big weasleys, but I'm cranking out the minis! (Clouds=bad lighting today. Here's a close-up so you can really see what they look like.)

all the boys done, now on to the girls

Speaking of boys, yesterday was Nikolaus, when German kids put out their boots before they go to bed and Nikolaus leaves small presents and candy in them for the kids to find the next morning. The boys were ecstatic! After eating their Nikolaus candy, we went to the "crack store". That was their best attempt at saying craft store. After I tried saying "craaaafffft" very slowly for them, they ended up with "crap store". Craft, crack, crap, same difference right? We got wire to make mini-weasley hangers. And some other crap.

Finally sewn together so it looks right. Sleeves coming! Then the neck edging, an edging for the center of the front panel, and, and.... these Phildar patterns call for a lot of finishing.

Another peek into Santa's knitting factory. Mom, you'll have to sit this one out again!

again, if you're NOT mom, click on the present for a peek

The elves here are dying to tell you about the fabulous cashmere they've been using to make a scarf for mom. Mom picked out the yarn at Habu a while back, but the yarn gave no gauge suggestions, and the pattern was left open. The elves started out with moss stitch on US7's, but that proved to be too textural and prevented the softness of the cashmere from coming out. Stockinette on US8's was much yummier to the touch, but curled way too much for a scarf. At knitting group, the elves spotted the awesome scarf that Colleen was wearing. It was simple garter stitch, but it had flattened out so nicely that it looked more like the extended garter stitch at the top of the Klaralund sleeves. Very pretty. So, the elves decided to go up one more needle size and use the extended garter stitch for the scarf. And now it's perfect. The single garter stitch row repeated every four rows provides just enough of a horizontal line to keep the scarf from completely curling up, and it also leaves just enough stockinette that the feel of the cashmere isn't lost. If only you could touch it.

And that's not the only cashmere the elves are working on in the present factory.

more cashmere socks!

The elves will definitely be asking Santa for more cashmere this Christmas.

It's time for my hat class again, so I gotta make myself a hat. I wanted to make one to go with my new orange bliss scarf, but I can't afford any more of that Cashmerino Superbulky. And I'm all about using up leftovers now, you know? So I pulled out all the orange leftovers in my stash.

The top right one matches my scarf the best, but that's all I've got of it, so I grabbed some Cascade 220 in a neutral gray to use for lower part of the hat. The boys helped me wind the Cascade into a ball. They love the swift and ball winder!

I cast on with my students and knit a bit. Then I realized, I've got holiday knitting to do. I can't be spending time knitting a hat for myself!

Sock knitting crunch time! The elves managed to finish another pair of socks.

click to peek, unless you're expecting socks from a secret pal ;0)

Yes, the cashmere socks are done. They are so soft and featherlight. And this pair fits! But there's no time for celebration and no rest for the weary elves. On the needles now is the last pair of Koigu socks.

This is the solid pair, for the more reserved sister of my Crazy Great Aunt Mary, who's getting the crazy swirly Koigu socks that I finished last week. I've got to send these off next week so they'll be sure to get there in time. The elves have a December 15th deadline. Faster, elves, knit, knit!

The boys don't yet understand that you're supposed to read from left to right. And they're still a little vague on "smile for mommy."

they're smiling at each other

You may be shocked to hear that we here in Boston have no IKEA. Until this year we had to either rent a van and drive to New Jersey to get our hip, affordable home goods or - gasp - go without. But now there's an IKEA less than three hours away! And what could be more fun than a family day trip to IKEA?

Our trip was inspired primarily by my sudden and acute need for yarn storage. All I want for Christmas is a yarn cabinet! My most generous and patient husband chaperoned the kiddos around the store while I searched for the perfect storage system. (Unfortunately, the kiddos aren't "completely" potty trained so no IKEA Smaland for them. Boo hoo. But there were several fun little playspaces hidden in the main showroom as well as plenty of cool sofas to climb on and neat tables crawl under. And they had a blast taking turns playing with this chair in the Children's Furniture area.)

A few hours, one cabinet, a couple of cinnamon buns and loads of other goodies later, we packed ourselves back in the car and drove home. I knitted. Santa hubby says he'll try to put the cabinet together next week. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Elf injury! Don't worry, it's nothing like this. No pointy sticks involved, just the staircase.

Fell down the stairs actually, heh, heh. Wouldn't have been too bad, except this elf tried to stop herself by trying to grab hold of the exposed brick in our staircase. Trust me, it's not a pretty site under that bandage!

The elves would like to tell you though that these fabric bandages (yes, I say "bandages") are awesome! They're soft as can be, stay put even in difficult areas (like the palm) and don't get caught on the knitting needles at all (you don't think this elf stopped knitting, did you?). So be sure keep some in stock for your knitting elves this holiday season.

All my sock knitting has really left me behind on my mini weasleys! I've got four girl ones to make and am only this far along.

But there are other mini-weasleys to show: Stacey is working on one, Lisa from Knitsmiths made a "J" one, and MA's made several.

In big weasley news, Eklectika has finished her first weasley! Like me, she's got two to make though. There's not much progress elsewhere this week. My two weasleys are on hold until I get the socks and the minis done (they've got to be sent out to relatives this week!). But Katie, who finished her weasley a while ago, has shared another pic with us: in this one, weasley meets Santa. Priceless.

And in other knitalong news, Anita's going to be hosting a Leftovers-along. How exciting!

There's still sewing to be done on these mini-weasleys and one more left to make.

And the last pair of socks only has one heel so far.

Two days until they've all got to go in the mail. Let's go people!

This week the boys helped daddy put the new yarn cabinet together.

what does this do?

daddy, you ready for the door?

Yup, I got me the super-fantabulous, mega-popular Kämpe storage system. We've got slanted ceilings in this room, so I couldn't get anything tall, and what I really wanted was cubbyholes like in a real yarn store. So I got the Kämpe boxes. Love them!

The boys were eager to help me put all my yarn in the cabinet, but after I watched them toss an entire storage box of yarn in random cubbyholes, I decided to wait until they were otherwise occupied to finish the job. And as I stood back admiring my half empty cabinet, I didn't even feel bad about the new yarn that the postman had just brought.

for a future Magknits pattern

Color me happy.

click for the weasley family parade

Late last night I finished up the last mini-weasley (mine!) and made about a dozen of these little hangers, thus finishing the great weasley mini-sweater project. There's one for every member of the family, so now we can all be together on the family Christmas tree back in Germany even if we can't all be together around it.

Shhh... the second pair of Koigu socks are done. Please don't wake the elves on your way to the post office.

Hubby, no reading this post! Hee, hee.

everyone except hubby, click to peek

Socks for my man. He's in for a treat this time with super-soft Morehouse Merino yarn for these socks. I picked out this yarn during my approximately 4 hour visit to their store while in Rhinebeck. Unfortunately, I just can't possibly knit these in time for Christmas. So there will be balls of yarn under the tree for hubby this year. That's not all though.

hubby, still no clicking!

Picked these up at Rhinebeck too. Alpaca socks. Ooooh boy are these soft. And the little alpaca on them is sooooo cute. There was no way I could resist these and there was no way I was going to knit up fine gauged alpaca into socks (sorry dear!). So he gets happy feet and I keep my happy hands - it's all good.

And the elves get the day off!

Look, new socks! And I didn't even have to make them. The very talented Sandi knitted these for me and they're perfect!

While I like bright colors and fun stripes on my sweaters, when it comes to my socks, I'm rather a plain Jane. So I'm so proud of Sandi for restraining herself from making anything too fun. I know it must have been hard. But they're exactly what I would have wished for: they're blue - 'natch; and they have this lovely cabled detail on the sides which is both beautiful and understated. And they fit perfectly, of course. Thanks Sandi! What a good gift giver.

"I love my socks, my socks and me. I'm so happy when they're on my feet. I love my socks, yeah, my socks and me. I love my socks, yeah, my socks and me...." (channelling Boots the Monkey in one of the boys' favorite Dora episodes)

Last weasley update before Christmas!

Peggy finished her weasley for her little "E"! Go congratulate her. Stella is practically finished. She's doing hers as a raglan in the round. Eklectika has finished the intarsia for her second weasley. It's a "Z" - you've got to check it out!

I know my co-hostess Nipper is shooting for Christmas with her weasley. She's almost there too, with at least one sleeve done. Go Jenn! MA is also getting close, with only one sleeve to go. Tania reports that she is also working on sleeves. And Orli is working her way up the back and planning to start a sleeve next.

Speaking of sleeves, I went back and lengthened the sleeves for weasley one and second weasley is just a seam away from being finished.

Who else is trying to get these done by Christmas morning??

Thanks to Santa hubby, who took the boys to a giant indoor playspace this weekend (here they are running past the "do not run" sign!), the elves got lots more holiday knitting done.

First another pair of Morehouse Merino bear paws mitts, these for a little friend of the boys.

And then a finished pressie for mom. Mom, STOP reading now please.

everyone but mom, click to peek!

What I hope will finally be the perfect hat for my mom. I've made mom a couple of hats before. She liked the first, but it was too small for her hair. The second was bigger but I made it on the fly with some leftover yarns when I heard that she wasn't wearing a hat at all! But see, she's got this purple coat (another even longer story) that she seems destined never to get rid of and the green hat didn't really go with it. So while at the craft store picking up the wire to make the weasley hangers I saw a poor "orphan" skein of purple Homespun sitting by the cash register. I took it as a sign that I should simply give in and make mom a giant purple hat. I think I've succeeded there. To be sure it was big enough, I knitted it on 24" circulars in the round! That should be enough ease for almost any perm, yes?

And progress was also made on mom's jess.

no peeking, mom!

Back's all done and I'm working on the huge, drapey collar. This sweater is so cool. Now I remember why mom and I decided that we HAD to have one!

3 days to finish this and the weasleys. The elves are making coffee.

Weasley two is in the bag and the elves can hardly believe it themselves, but something for mom is blocking right now. (Mom, no reading the comments, if you know what's good for you!)

And they even finished that orange hat for me.

Get out!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

The boys' interpretation of green Christmas tree, with yellow star on top and red, blue, and purple presents underneath.

Speaking of presents, the elves finished all the gift knitting! Weasley one is the last present to be wrapped.

And the boots were hung from the cabinets with care. . . .

Click for a very weasley Christmas.

A few of my favorite things that Santa brought this Christmas.

A beautiful bag to hold my knitting, the Knitter's Pattern-a-Day calendar from olympic knitting champ Leslie (okay, who didn't get this one this year?!), Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, two beautiful balls of Plassard Louinie (thanks Becky!), and the Clay Aiken Christmas CD. (Did I just admit that I liked Clay Aiken? This is why you won't be seeing a "100 things about me" list here!). And I almost forgot this little guy from Shannon.

And the knit-gifts given were received well. The aunties reportedly liked their socks very much. The hat and scarf for my mom were a big hit. Mom loved jess too, but since she's not completely sure about the fit, you get me modelling her.

Hooray for Christmas!

Jess is a beautiful design. It's stylish and still classic (I can see myself wearing a sweater like this long after I've had to retire all my cropped and bell-sleeved sweaters from the last few seasons!). And the cotton angora yarn was wonderful to work with (although the fluff up my nose was a little annoying). But I'm a little worried about how it will wear. I've heard tales of pilling and shedding and when I wetted it for blocking, I ended up with little green fuzz bunnies on my hands. Hmmmm....

Wear may not end up being a serious issue though since mom's not sure how much she'll actually put in on. You see, she's a little concerned that it isn't very flattering on her. I think it's a great shape for us gals with a little more downstairs than up (if you know what I mean): the curved edges of the front panels break up the horizontal line of wider hips and the oversized, open collar and deep raglan sleeves help broaden the torso so it balances out the bottom. Still mom's not convinced. She's keeping the sweater however. She has a few things that I've knit for her that she won't wear (like this hat and mitten set), but she won't give them up either. I have conflicting feelings about this. You kinda knit things so they can be worn and it's a shame that no one is wearing them. But then again, I know that she loves keeping them because they are beautiful and I made them for her. Oh well, I still enjoy knitting for her (there have been some big successes like the nyc shrug that I made this summer) and will keep searching for that perfect pattern.

Anyway, mom agrees that jess is the coziest thing ever. I liked trying hers on so much that I'm planning to start a jess for me with some DB Cashmerino Aran that I received as a Christmas gift last year as my first project in the new year.

Time to close down a couple of old knitalongs. The first is hard to say good-bye to. My beloved Banff-along.

banff-along
Knitty pattern

started january 2004

(Just yesterday I spotted another beautiful Banff getting started: Risa's!)

And next, the silliest knitalong yet. A big Wayne Newton Danke Schoen to everyone who was game enough to try making this crazy project with me!

sweat pants
Interweave Knits Spring 04

started february 2004

As always, let me know about any updates I missed.

Gee, what a great Christmas!

Let me start this week by first saying how much I have enjoyed all the pictures I've seen of little mini-weasley Christmas ornaments. Thanks to everyone who wrote to me and sent me pics and links (thanks to Lindsay for the picture above!). I loved seeing all your creations and congratulate you for spreading the joy of weasley knits this Christmas. In case you missed it, here are pictures of our weasley Christmas. So, who else had a weasley Christmas? Jenn, my weasley co-conspirator, did Ron make it to your Christmas fest?

Tania sent an email letting me know that she finished her weasley early last week. Congrats Tania! MA reports that she has all but one sleeve done. Eklectika has finished front, back and collar of weasley number two, leaving just the sleeves to go. And Orli's getting started.

For all of us knitting weasleys for kids, Mason Dixon Ann wrote to say that she made a weasley for her son a year ago and he actually wore it! Isn't it good to know that we're all following in such admirable footsteps and to hear that at least one kid out there was willing to wear a weasley sweater? Fingers crossed that all our little ones feel the same!

Now that my weasley knitting is done, I'll have to settle for evenings of weasley watching. And start up a new knitalong, I guess. Tune in tomorrow for details!

A new knitalong!

I so loved receiving my Christmas socks from Sandi and knitting socks for my aunties, that I'm looking for a reason to knit more socks. Um, and have someone else knit more socks for me (hee hee). So who's up for a sock exchange? A secret sock pal, a socka-pal-ooza, if you will.

Here's how it'll go: You get a name, address, shoe size and some color/fiber preferences and knit a pair of socks for your secret sock pal. Someone else gets your name and info and does the same for you. We all send our socks off around the appointed date (maybe the first of March?) and then enjoy our fabulous new socks! Couldn't be funner, right?

Leave a comment if you're interested and I'll start collecting names and email addresses. Once we've got a good number of participants for our sockapalooza, I'll close the sign up and start collecting all the pertinent info. So sock it to me!

Update: Wow, what a response! Some clarifications: 1) Sorry, I was lazy about the "shoe size" thing. Of course we'll get real measurements from everyone. 2) I like the Ides of March as an end date. If we can get organized by mid-January, then that'll give us two months. 3) Non-bloggers are always welcome! 4) Folks outside of the US are welcome too. Maybe when everyone sends in their info, they can also indicate if they're willing to ship to other countries. It shouldn't be too expensive for a pair of socks. 5) Why not have beginners too?! Maybe we could have beginners swap with beginners though? 6) How 'bout I cap this at 100 people. More than that and I'd be worried that my organizational skills wouldn't be up to the task. That's 100 pairs of socks being knitted and sent around the world - incredible! 7) If you sign up, you gotta promise to really knit these socks. No leaving your sockapalooza pal in the lurch. Got it?

Update: Sign up for the sockapalooza is officially closed. But stay tuned, if the winter tour goes well, there might be a summer tour!

Can you tell that I haven't done any knitting in days? The last few days I've been very busy during the day and paying for it at night with a worsening head cold. I spent all day yesterday lying on the sofa and couldn't knit a stitch.

Luckily I had just the right thing to read, Your Disgusting Head (a wacky Christmas gift from ma), which has chapters such as "The Sickening Fluids that Fill Your Skull" and "Where Does All the Snot Come From?". Check out this sample page at Amazon.com! Anyhoo, there I am all snotty and not knitting and I come across a joke "knitting pattern".

it's supposed to be for a tongue cozy - yuck!

And guess what came on the television while I was reading my disgusting book? Why, Monty Python's Flying Circus, of course. With one of those "re-enactment" sketches where the Python gang are dressed up as old ladies who like to act out famous battle scenes. In this one they were doing a submarine battle and three of the "ladies" were knitting!

looks like Jones (2nd from left) and Idle (far right) may actually know how to knit!
Palin (in red hat) doesn't have a clue though

So that gave me a little chuckle, which brought on a coughing fit and got my runny nose going again. And so it goes.

Well, here's wishing everyone a happy and HEALTHY new year!