Getting ready for Christmas

Well, I actually bought yarn to knit a sweater for my daughter for Christmas. It has been a while since I bought yarn for a project instead of spinning it. I am feeling a little spoiled. But when the Winter 2006 issue of Interweave Knits came in the mail earlier this month and I saw the Equestrian Blazer by Kate Gilbert on p.26, I immediately thought it would be a beautiful gift for my daughter, Teresa. She told me she would like a sweater that doesn't fit 'like a box'. This pattern uses short rows and paired increases and decreases to give a nice feminine shape to the sweater. I wanted to make it in time for the holidays (this year!), and, well, I can't possibly spin enough yarn and knit the sweater in just a few short weeks (and still sleep and eat and do all that other necessary stuff that uses up so much of my fiber time!). I chose Jamieson's Soft Shetland (the Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran that the pattern calls for was a bit beyond my budget, though it is quite wonderful!). The Shetland is nice too, and I like the color, # 1330 Wilkinson. It is a pretty purplish tweed, not quite as blue as it looks in the photo above. I have been knitting for a couple weeks and finished up today. I am blocking the finished pieces on towels on the dinning room table and hope to have the sweater complete by next week.

This photograph makes the yarn look a little more purple than it is in real life. After Christmas, I will photograph my daughter outside in natural lighting wearing the sweater. Hopefully that will better show the true yarn color.


My next holdiay project will be a knitted turtle puppet for my grandson, Christopher, who is 2 years old. Teresa and I thought it would be fun to write a short children's story about the adventures of Topher Turtle, a character that likes the same things Christopher likes. A knit puppet will be a fun gift to go with the book, once it is complete.


Christopher is allergic to wool, so I will make the puppet out of cotton yarn which I purchased yesterday. I also picked up a copy of Vivian Hoxbro's Domino Knitting. I plan to make a turtle shell fashioned after Vivian's Potholder #4 using the light and dark green yarn shown here. The shell will then be attached to a green knit puppet. I will see Teresa this weekend and we can finalize some of the details for this project.


I also ordered a T-shirt for Christopher for Christmas. My wonderful German Shepherd, Shasta, was on the cover of the October 2006 issue of Dog World magazine.

I am having the magazine cover printed onto a T-shirt for Christopher. I am also having the picture of my German Shepherd, Monroe, that I posted earlier herding sheep, put on a T-shirt for Christopher. Christopher loves the dogs and I think he will like having T-shirts with their pictures on them. I might order a T-shirt for me, too. After all, how often will my dog get to be on the cover of a national magazine?