Successes Galore!

 I'm back!  On Christmas Eve of all days.

Everything was a roaring success:

cat sweater was sent to recipient and adored!

I Agonized about the size that it ended up, but the lady absolutely adores it, it fits her nicely and that's that.  I sent the remaining batts and small balls of yarn along with the sweater.  It is out of my life! I think I've had enough cat knitting and spinning to last a lifetime.  Also, the knitting with it was giving two of the three people in my life hay fever.

Tom Servo came together well!

What a Cool Guy!  YES, the hoverskirt is just several inches too short, BUT I think he looks darling. 

My daughter's scoliosis surgery was also a success!

Before the surgery she was 4'11" (149 cm or so) and after, she's slightly taller than her grandmother, who is 5'2" (157.5 cm).  Her recovery is going well.  She's resting a lot, which is good.  Her pain is mostly controlled.  She's got a lot of spunk, and she's so brave.

For the surgery and hospital stay, I brought two new selfish projects.  I decided to first start a hat out of yarn I got in my knitting group's summer swap.  I chose the pattern mehendi, which is a lovely lacey hat in three sizes.

And I finished it!  I actually didn't finish it in hospital, though I stayed with Hazel for three days.  It took that long to get through about half the hat.  Which is very slow for me. Hospitals aren't the most inspirational happy places.  I ended up finishing it the day after we got back.

The other project I brought was new socks.  But I didn't end up starting them until I finished the hat.  I made a peculiar decision to make them toe-up.  I also chose to knit a pattern into them!  I went with these Christmas tree socks and I used yarn that I bought from, well, ironically from the same person who gave me the purple yarn above.

And I actually just finished the pair yesterday!

You can see the Christmas trees better in the second picture.  So, I did modify the pattern.  It's written to have two columns of trees going up the instep and a pair of columns up the back of the leg.  I omitted most of those and just did a single column of trees up opposing sides of the insteps.

I didn't use the short row heel from the pattern either, I borrowed from another toe-up sock pattern to get a similar shape as the heel flap and gusset socks that fit me best.  It's funny cause they look pretty much identical to my usual top-down socks, even the heel flap is an eye of partridge texture!

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the other project that I dove back into the other day.  Pokemon!

The start of page 21.

continuing.

 finishing page 21.

And the start of page 22!  This is about where I am today.  It's very exciting!

I do have some stash acquisitions.  I was mentally knitting a sweater the other week, something stripey, and raglan and shades of purple.  So I dove into my stash and pulled out a few skeins that would work well together.  But, I was missing a shade of rosey pink, taupe and a goldenrod yellow.  Those three skeins arrived a few days ago and I added them to the ones I picked before:

And I think I'm going to wind the yarn and cast on to participate in the New Year's Eve cast on!

Meanwhile, there's pokemon.  and for knitting I do have a pair of vanilla socks going, which I'm not too thrilled about.  The yarn is not meshing well with me.  I've turned the heel and am currently zooming down the foot, but it's not very exciting and doesn't feel great in my fingers.

The other project I still have going is the Jumper 49 cropped tee.  I actually worked on it last night after I finished the christmas tree socks.  It's a nice vanilla sweater, but it's hard to want to work on it because it is going to be short sleeved, and it's rather cold out.  So, when I finish it, I'm not going to want to wear it right away.  Makes it hard to motivate myself to work on it.

Anyway, sorry that was so long!  I've been through a lot in the last few weeks, it was difficult to find the time or the gumption to want to post about crafting.  Tomorrow is Christmas, and it's been a difficult season to fall into with everything going on.  Surgery is no joke, and it's been exhausting.

I do hope your season is merry and bright, or at least peaceful and warm.  And if you don't celebrate, I hope you enjoy your chinese food!  <3