Christmas Knitting Updates

The February Lady Sweater for sister Carrie in North Carolina just needs sleeves.

As always, I'm enjoying knitting with the Coto Canapone. And, big relief, the yarn is working well with this pattern intended for wool.


Pattern: February Lady Sweater.

Yarn: Elann Coto Canapone. Worsted weight. 52% cotton, 48% hemp.

Color: Murano Blue.

Needles: Options #7.

Gauge: 4.5 stitches/inch in garter stitch.

Brother Dave and his SO Karen are getting socks. We finally touched base Sunday evening about size and color preference, so they may not get done by Christmas. They will get done before I start any after Christmas projects.

Karen requested "dark", so I hauled out some Opal Smoke and Cookie's Monkey pattern.

Opal yarn is perfect for gift socks because it's long wearing and indestructible in the laundry yet it's soft and warm like hand knit socks should be.

The Monkey pattern is perfect for gift socks because it's interesting, pretty, and has plenty of stretch for a good fit when the exact size needed is a guess.

Brother Dave (size 14 feet) has requested "bright" for his color. I'm headed for the yarn shop to see what I can find for him. I've never knit socks for such long feet before. Maybe I should buy two skeins just in case?


Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. in Knitty, Winter 2006.

Yarn: Opal.

Color: Smoke.

Needles: Options 2.5

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

Just in case anyone is waiting with bated breath to know how much snow we got Saturday night and/or if I made it to church, the answers are: About a foot on top of what we already had and no.

In the picture, Glory is breaking the path for us on our first dog walk of the day. She's a big dog and she was plowing the heavy, deep snow with her chest. We all needed a nap when the walk was over.

This will be the second night we've had a freezing rain/ice warning. Alwen, who lives somewhere in SW Michigan as I do, wrote a post about why this is even worse than snow. Check it out here: Two Words I Dread