WIP Wednesday

No pictures until I get home but I can give a quick update on my WIPs.

1. The knitting on Ariann is now finished and the underarm seams sewn. She has been blocked and is now in my closet awaiting the weaving in of ends and the selection of buttons.

2. The little sewn knitting bag is complete and given away along with a beautiful Fleece Artist mohair/blue face soft mitten kit. The color combination of this particular FA kit was absolutely gorgeous and extremely difficult to give away.

I did hit a little roadblock in the completion of my goals, but when that roadblock involves knitting, it really is not too much of a hardship. I did run out of time to sew up the pillowcases, but decided that those gifts could be moved to the birthday category which would give me extra time. The first roadblock was that I had forgotten that my daughter's teacher had asked me to knit some mittens for her one year old and while I had quickly completed the first pair, the second was still sitting as a ball of yarn in my bag. I decided that I wanted to complete that before school closed for vacation so I knit up another pair of tiny thumbless mittens - so cute.

The second roadblock was not any problem at all, but an unexpected surprise. An email conversation with anne led to her asking me if I could test knit a pattern for her. I felt very honored but was initially unsure of whether I would be able to complete the knitting in a timely fashion (and you know how quickly anne knits!!). But, since I really wanted to work with her and this was just fingerless mitts and all of my holiday knitting was complete (or so I thought), I decide to accept. And I was so glad I did. The pattern was so much fun and I completed one mitt in 2 days. One funny thought occurred to me after I accepted anne's offer - I was glad that I was able to knit one of her fingerless mitt patterns since I would never have been able to finish one of her beautiful shawl patterns in a decent amount of time. And since I loved the idea of working with her I was glad that it worked out like it did. Thank you anne and I hope you will ask me again when the opportunity arises.

So now I need some goals for this week which are somewhat limited by what I packed in my suitcase. I found out a week or so ago that I will be needing a baby gift come February so I will be starting my Tulip baby cardigan kit that I had ordered from Threadbear a while back. I also started knitting the test pattern from anne in a smaller size for my daughter and will work on those. I'll provide any important information back to anne. This seems like enough for a holiday week. Have a good one!

WIP Wednesday

I love Anne's idea of a WIP Wednesday - there's even a button! Every week you list your goals for the week and update on your progress from last week. I believe Anne said that you should have no more than 3 goals - makes it easier to manage. I think I'll jump right in and I will try to update each week (but if it's not on a Wednesday, please don't hold that against me :)!)

First off is my Ariann sweater - so close to the end. I really have a goal to finish it by the end of the year. Currently I have about an inch and a half of the collar and then I need to weave in the ends, block it and find buttons. My goal will be to finish the collar by next week.

I also have some sewing to do - 2 pillowcases and one small bag (perfect for those mittens or that sock in progress). Since these are all Christmas presents, I really need to finish them for next week and I think I can.

I think those 2 goals are enough for this next week since there is also some other holiday stuff that needs to get done. Trying to wrap things up before the new year starts, I noticed that I have one last spot open for Pay It Forward (details here). Please let me know if you are interested. Also, I picked another winner for the monkey contest from a few months ago (I never heard from the other winner so I picked another name). So, a package will be going in the mail for anne and I couldn't be more pleased. Although, I am throwing her a curve and instead of sending yarn for her Monkey socks, I am sending some roving for her to spin up into yarn for Monkey socks. anne, you are one person who is always up for a challenge so I hope this package will be fun for you!

Cheers!

Friday was our yearly lunch and shopping trip and as usual, the time went by too fast. But we savored every minute and had a wonderful time. Once again I'd like to thank these awesome women for being my friends - for accepting me the way I am, knowing when I need someone to just listen and not necessarily offer a solution, and for giving me a shoulder and a hug when I need them. This was a tough year for me and I am thankful that I have such strong women as friends.