First off, congrats to #20, Heather!  You won the gift certificate.  I’ve emailed you;  let me know if you don’t get the email by commenting.

I really enjoyed reading all your movie favorites.  Somewhow  A Christmas Story had slipped my mind — I really like that movie, too.

Early December WIPs and DIPs

Earlier this month I went on a small frogging frenzy.  (At least it felt like a frenzy.  Turns out I only frogged two WIPs).

I have only a few WIPs left on the needles: St Brigid, Hedgerow socks, Lau socks, Dave Finally Gets His socks (pair for a gift), and Conwy socks (not even entered as a Rav project). If I just buckled down and DID them, I could get the socks, at least, done fairly quickly. 

St Brigid I’m figuring I’ll rip back to where I started the shaping, and re-do it as darts.

I love the yarn for Lau, and the stitch pattern is nifty, but I’m still not a fan of toe up.  These may get frogged for that very reason. I’m right before the heel on the first sock. I like cuff down heels, but I really don’t like the toe-up techniques I’ve tried so far.  I also don’t like binding off the cuff.  Do I want to do all those things twice still?

For the Hedgerows, I have one sock done, and am on the leg of the second.  No excuse on these, except my gauge has changed.  Agh.  That can happen when you’ve not worked on something in over a year.  The yarn (Malabrigo sock) is pretty.  These were intended as a gift for my mom.

No excuse on the Dave socks.  Gah, it’s my own pattern.  I just honestly forgot I had started another pair.

For the Conwy socks, what can I say?  One sock was finished but was too small to fit my mom.  I’ve since started the 2nd, but haven’t yet frogged the first (was going to use it as comparison for length).  I started these several years ago.  I should just frog both & start with another pattern.  Realistically, I doubt I’ll ever finish these.  The yarn was some Lorna’s Laces in Lake Tahoe, a bit variegated for my taste.  When I need another moment of frogging catharsis ( procrastination excuse), I’ll grab these & frog them.

All other WIPs (well, two) have been frogged.  I love the Polar Chullo, but I decided I wanted to redo the earflaps and not tack down floats.  The Galileo Mitts….they were too tight for Dave’s hands, and I wasn’t really satisfied with my yarn choice.  Also, my stranding has improved since I started these.

Regading DIPs:

The SHELTER mitts are with the lovely Knitcircus folks.  The Ennea mitts will be published in their upcoming issue (release in a week or so).

I received the yarn for the Black Water Abbey cardi Saturday — some lovely golden brown 2 ply sport in the Autumn colorway and a pretty lavender, Ash Violet, for contrast. I’ve swatched a little for it already.

I’m expecting the yarn for the Spring Sanguine Gryphon pattern shortly.

I’ve also started a short sleeved cardi/vest for one of the Spring issues of Ennea as well, using some small producer, millspun yarn that I had in my stash.

My quota for sweaters is full for the next several months, but I have some smaller projects ongoing too.

I’ve been working on a mittens ebook.  One mitten prototype, in the Pippin Black Water Abbey, is done.  The second, in some lovely celery colored Targhee from Sweet Grass, is nearly done.  I’ll b doing one more pattern for that collection.  If you’re interested in test knitting, please head over to the Ravelry group and post here.  I’ll get some pictures posted this week.

There’s a second ebook in the near future as well, for worsted weight fingerless mitts.  These will all be one skein projects in SHELTER.  (I made a trip to the Purl Soho warehouse in Tustin — not too terribly far from my house, as long as you avoid rush hour — and got a skeins of SHELTER in Fossil, Wool Socks, and Hayloft.) I’ll let you guys know when those will be ready for testing too.