My boys are just starting to understand about days and weeks and months and how long it takes until holidays and birthdays come around. As soon as we hung up the new 2006 calendar (a SpongeBob calendar, of course), they asked the all-important question: how long until Christmas comes again. Conclusion: "it's a loooong way from Christmas."

So I guess that means it's time to send the holiday gift knitalong to the archives.

holiday gift knitalong
(who wouldn't love a handknitted gift?!)

November 2005 - January 2006

And I can now say that my holiday knitting is really and truly all finished! Yeah, I finished my 12 of 12 gifties back in December, but I had to take the Scarf Style turtleneck shrug out of the count, since I was waiting for more yarn to arrive. Well, the yarn arrived just in the nick of time for nothing on February 9th and the finished shrug finally went out to the recipient this weekend.

picture by B

picture by S

and as a scarf

The cash iroha feels so warm and snuggly on. And the style is really fun. I just know it's going to look great on the person I knit it for. Still, it's a long way from Christmas.

(I hope you caught some of the other late but great knitgifts, like Angela's man sweater, Orli's daughter's sweater, and Anne's Spectacular patterned sweater!)

With the third round of Sockapalooza ready to begin, I'll officially close the doors on the Sockapaltwoza, the second second swap with a staggering 352 participants. What fun it was to watch all those socks being knit and knowing that hundreds of socks were being sent around the world last September! Thanks to all who successfully participated, especially to the dozens of generous sock saviors who knitted make-up socks.

Here's a few of the latest sock savior sock pics:

Jenn finished sock savior socks (close-ups here)
Tara finished a beautiful pair
fellow Knitsmith and fellow sock savior, Ariel and I worked on our sock savior socks together at knitting group this week!

I finished mine and they'll be off to a very worthy and patient recipient today.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

sockapaltwoza
(another sock exchange)

summersock tour: June 15 thru September 15, 2005

Put two of my favorite obssesions (knitting and Harry Potter) together and how could I resist? Apparently, I'm not alone.

After one round of knitting weasley sweaters (the "letter sweaters" that Molly Weasley made for the family, Ron, and Harry in the first book/movie) last year, we've moved on to another weasley along where we're knitting everything Harry Potter in preparation for the release of the fourth film, the Goblet of Fire, this November.

You all did such an admirable job of pulling out those old projects gone wrong and putting them right! I ripped out an old sweater and made myself a new one, but still, I didn't finish all my fixing. And I know we've all gotten distracted with new projects now. So, we'll call this knit-along finished, but keep an eye open for a finishing marathon in the fall!

february fix-a-thon

we fell in love with our knits again in february 2005

As always, let me know if you've done more finishing and I'll update this final list!

The sockapalooza was by far most work and most fun I've ever had with a knitalong. And what a huge success! With over 150 participants, there was a large chance of failure. But we only had about 6 folks not finish and dozens of generous knitters offered to donate yarn and socks to those pals who were forgotten. Thank you so much to everyone who participated and offered to donate!

sockapalooza
a sock exchange

sockapalooz-ers

green = finished

sockapalooza archives

Did someone yell "encore"?? See ya this summer for the summersock tour! (Sign-up coming soon.)

Teased by Rowan's gifting its International Club members with this yarn and simultaneously discontinuing it, several of us decided we had to give this lovely looking yarn a real try before it disappeared. I think now most of us realize we could have lived without it. Hee, hee.

got linen drape?

started may 1, 2004

The pooling of variegated yarn is such a cool phenomenon. It's not one I usually liked, so I was pleased to see this beautiful scarf pattern in the Fall 2004 Interweave Knits, which took control of the pooling and used it to create stripes. Several other knitters were also intrigued by the idea and took up the challenge of making the pooling scarf with me. It didn't work out for most of us. Turns out Schaefer Anne doesn't pool that reliably. And six feet of adjusting gauge to insure pooling was too much for the majority of us. I learned a lot though and even managed to get some variegated morehouse merino yarn to pool in a short scarf.

pooling colors scarf

Fall 2004

Any other finished pooling scarves out there?? Other successful adventures in pooling? Or just plain ol' crazy pooling (like in this sock from fellow Knitsmith, Dava)? Do tell!

With every new issue of Interweave Knits there will be a pattern that catches my eye because it's so original and cleverly constructed (like this issue's Fitted Dolman or Fall 2004's Sideways Spencer) and inevitably it's by Annie Modesitt. It's not always something I could imagine wearing, but I always want to knit it just because it's so cool looking and I wanna see how it's made.

Last summer, her bright, brilliant little tea set inspired a tea party. Thanks, Annie!

the tea party

summertime 2004

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.

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!)

A quick look at the calendar tells me that it's time to say good-bye to summer. Now that it's mid-September and fall is bearing down upon us, I don't think we can get away with spring bearing anymore. Anyone still flinging out there? I'm happy to update this list with links to final pictures - just let me know!

It was a beautiful spring, wasn't it?

spring things!

started march 15, 2004

This project and knitalong kept growing strong for over a year. It was a real phenomenon! But now I think it's run it's course. There are a couple of sweaters out there still underway, but pretty much everyone's all set with funky striped phildar sweaters in crazy spongey yarn now. Let me know of any updates though and I'll update the links!

striped sweater

started june 1, 03

Yes, my fellow phildar fillies, the time has come. Not only have I finally fininshed my cardi raye, which was the initial inspiration for starting this knitalong, but the guys at Threadbear Fiber Arts Studio will now be carrying some Phildar yarns, so we can all be phildar fillies!

phil' fall knitalong
fall Phildar fashions

fall & winter 2003

As usual, let me know if you finished so I can update your link here. And if you're still working on your project (maybe it's on hiatus for summer) just drop me a line when you start working on it again. I'd love to reopen this knitalong next fall. I'm sure I'll have plenty of new Phildar projects by then!

I love that ponchos are back in style - they're so fun to wear and make such interesting knitting projects! Some are rectangles, some are diamond shaped, some are knit in the round and some in pieces. So many neat ideas for such a simple garment. I hope you all got to watch as Bonne Marie designed her Mini-Chic Poncho during the ponch-o-long. Knitty editor, Amy, also just came up with a great poncho design of her own. My absolute favorite new poncho pattern though is FoKnits' sheer poncho (if that pattern had been available back in September...). And did you see that there's now a Poncho Crochetalong? Look what we've started!

Yes, the poncho craze is catching on. But now that I've finished two, count 'em two, ponchos (mine and mom's) and helped my advanced beginner's knitting class make Melissa's Cape Mod poncho (from Stich n Bitch), I think it's time to call it a knit-along and move on. Thanks to everyone for knitting along. I had so much fun!

ponchos!

started sept 15, 2003

A great knitalong started by Leigh and Carolyn, that I just had to join. Yes, several people stopped knitting along the way, and I ripped out my finished ribby to make Banff out of the yarn, but there were some gorgeous ribbies made too (be sure to check out Claudia's tips if you're thinking of making a ribby). And some are still ribbing on (like Kerrie, who's working on Bonne Marie's new 2x2x3x1 ribby pattern!).

ribby cardie

started august 2003

This was by far the most fun I've had since I started blogging! Thanks to everyone who participated. I will definitely be doing this again in the near future!

late January 2004

As others get ready to put away the menorah and take down the tree, I'm ready to retire the holiday gift-along. It's a nice change having a knit-along with a pretty definite ending date: holidays off, knit-along o-vah! We now return you to your regularly scheduled knit-alongs.

happy knitsmas

December 2003

Sometimes a project, or a knit-along, will transform itself into something other than what you had originally planned. Well, this little knit-along did just that. Seems like summer just sort of ran out on our little group. Clemence finished a great striped top and then I converted the pattern into a fun vest for Fall. The knit-along itself was reborn as the Phildar Fall knit-along now ongoing. Anyone knitting anything Phildar this Fall, please join us!

summer top
Phildar #378

red = finished

Time to retire the super chic chicKami knitalong. Just thinking about my chicKami here in the throes of fall makes me want to knit more ponchos. Hmmm.... maybe a MiniChic poncho.

ChicKami
ChicKnits Pattern

green = finished

Old knit-alongs never die, they just move to the knit-along archives.

smooch

all seasons cotton collection

project archive here

(If you've finished a smooch tank and I don't have it noted, please let me know and I'll update the list. I'm also happy to post a finished picture if you don't have your own website. Thanks for an awesome knitalong, everyone!!)

Time to retire the first of the knit-alongs, Pagan. As a knit-along wraps up, I'll post the list one last time and then save it in the knit-along archives, so everyone can still find their knit-along buddies. After four months, Pagan's been pretty inactive, so away she goes. Let me know if you also made one and I'll be happy to add your name to the list and link to a picture.

All the other knit-alongs are still going on. There have even been a few finished Smooches recently, Deena's and Maureen's. Great work, girls!

pagan

Rowan #27

other tank girls

Swatchy
Julie
Melissa J
the not so skimpy?
Ucan2 gals

project archive here