December Knitting

Hi guys, Imeant to post here sooner but time seemed to slip away. I am still working on my Jade Shawl. I know I wanted to be done at the beginning of the month andnI really thought I would, but when I started the edging all my motivation went down the drain. It just wasnt fun to knit when I started. It just felt all wrong, very foreign and uncomfortable. I trudged through though and got several repeats done before I dropped a stitch. Since I was still pretty unfamiliar with the design it was difficult for me to recognize my mistake so I frogged back a bit but then couldn't figure out where to start in the repeat and how far back I frogged. So I did what every frustrated knitter would do and threw it back in it's project bag for a time out while I did some Christmas knitting. Then I got busy making a whole bunch of reindeer and snowmen ornaments throwing Mr. and Mrs.Claus as well as a few Christmas gnomes into the mix.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus and their gnome crew are of course Susan Claudino's 'Gnome is where the ♥ is' pattern. Yes I am a bit crazy over this pattern, but can you really blame me? They are just so stinking cute! You can add all kinds of details to personalize them and they are a fast knit, perfect for gifting. You can turn them into ornaments, car or window hangers, pins, magnets, even a catnip toy if you have some frisky little guys! Just add catnip, a bell and WA-LA there you have it- a fun toy to keep your kitties entertained for hours. I like to personalize them to resemble the recipient. They are always a big hit!

Side note: Mr. and Mrs. Claus were gifted to my mom, the Santa gals were gifted to my sister and her roommate, while the gnome couple and their heart friend were for a couple co-workers.

I also used Susan's 'Snowball Buddies' pattern for the reindeer and snowmen. The snowmen are just a variation of the reindeer without antlers and ears. This is a great pattern if anyone is interested in knitting ornaments. It gives you directions to make a reindeer, mouse, owl, and bunny but is also extremely adaptable to make just about any other critter or character. I used Worsted and Dk weight yarn and they turned out to roughly be the size of my hand. They look great on the tree! 

Once these little guys were finished I blocked my Butter Beer Shawl.

 It came really nice and was roughly 3.5 ft wide give or take. My mom loved it and when she wore it to work the next day her boss asked if I would be able to make her one. So once my Jade Shawl is complete I want to cast on another Lonely Tree Shawl in some GnomeAcres yarn. 

Lastly, I have gone back to knitting on the Jade Shawl. I ended up ripping out all the edging I had and started over. I am still not thrilled about knitting the edge, it is going painfully slow  but it feels a lot more natural in my hands now and I have come to know and recognize the pattern now so that I can easily fix mistakes. I have about a third of the edge left to do. I find it more bearable to knit when I put on some Netflix or a well loved movie. 

It should look really nice once I've blocked it!