christmas dress

christmas crochet model

Here's my latest project. I charted out the first stanza of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Christmas Bells" poem on a mitten. Longfellow had endured a tragic couple of years - first his wife died from a freak accident then his son was severely wounded in the Civil War. He wrote the poem on Christmas Day 1864 - here's the first stanza:

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familar carols play

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, goodwill to men."

I'm using three colors of Knitpick's Palette - white, ivy and pimento (a really lovely red). This project is going pretty fast - I just love knitting letters.

Wedgwood Socks

I'm getting in the Christmas mood. These are the Wedgwood socks from Socks, Socks, Socks - I added the Merry Christmas and gave these socks away in a swap a few years ago.

Santa is giving me some yarn money. This is my big chance to buy the sweater kit for the Ron Schweitzer Pine Forest vest but I've been reading Flor's blog about her experiences with the Shetland 2000 yarn and now I'm not so sure. Flor showed on her blog how the colors photograph much differently if you're not using a flash. I suspect I'll get bored working on a design in only natural, grays and black.

I may buy the Virtual Yarns Lismore pillow kit instead. I love Lismore - it may be my favorite AS design - but I'm not sure how often I'd wear the sweater. A pillow I can always use.

Cindy stated in my comments that Elann is also coming out with a Peruvian collection fingering weight wool/silk combo so I will save up for that and for more Baby Cashmere if I like it. And Mary was talking about her beloved Bernat Aero circular needles. I have heard they are the circs that AS uses (long tapered tips) so I will spring for some of those from Beehive Wools. For some reason they don't sell Aeros in the US.

Noel Stockings

There is a discussion on the Knitlist about adapting another type of needlework such as embroidery or crochet to knitting. A while back I purchased some inexpensive Dover counted cross stitch books of various designs. I use the Christmas one to chart out letters - here's a sock using Kroy sock yarn and a design from Katherine Pence's A Time to Knit Stockings. I added the Noel on top. (BTW, I really hated the Kroy yarn. It pilled a lot and actually shrunk in the laundry even though it is supposedly superwash.)




One of the best examples I've ever seen of using non-knitting designs for knitting is Catherine Devine's Sock page. Her Celtic socks are terribly inspiring and I already have the Celtic Charted Designs book she got the designs from. I need to get out my graph paper and colored pencils and make some charts for future mittens. The Harald mittens from Viking Patterns for Knitting in Tahki Sable wool/angora will be finished today and will go in my knitting box waiting for someone to fall in love with them.

This weekend I hope to do some tvaandstickning and report back here on my experiences. I'm sure you will all be holding your breath!