Finished

It's finished! It only took 17 months. It came out great--very soft, fits as it should, and best of all--I had so much fun making it.

Details: 6.58 skeins of Louet Gems Fingering weight. Color, "Ginger."

Yes, fingering weight. It's a sweater out of yarn the size of sock yarn--but so worth it. It's so soft, and the ribbing looks so good in the fine gauge knit. (If I do say so myself.)

Piroshki

They were so delicious! (This is about half of them.) We roasted turkey, then ground it with plenty of onion, hardboiled eggs, herbs, spices, s&p--and wrapped it all up in a sweet dough made with eggs, real butter, and milk. The dough took all day to rise, this time of year, but it was worth the wait!

They went down easily with this year's Christmas ale from Anchor.

The Daily Sweater

I really like the look of the Daily Sweater in Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines, but according to the Ravelry page for this pattern (requires login), extra-small is for a 38 inch bust.

I just don't live in a universe where a 38" bust is extra-small. In my universe, where I buy all my clothes, extra-small ranges from about 32" to 35" and anyone with a 38" bust would be shopping several racks away from extra-small.

So although the sweater looks really cute, the pattern was apparently written to be made in a universe far, far away from the one in which I live.

Gearing up for the upcoming holidays

Sure, the solstice has passed, and December 25th has come and gone, but in our house, we're not only getting ready for the New Year, but for La Befana and for what our family calls Russian Christmas.

We usually make a passel of turkey piroshki.

Happy New Year, and enjoy the holidays to come!

Booties

I made these awhile ago for Jonah, and I'm afraid that it took me so long to give them to him that Mr. Panda, or another of his friends, will end up wearing them instead!

The pattern is Ruth's perfect baby booties, and they took just a tiny bit of Schachenmayr nomotta Regia stretch color yarn.

Elephant surprises

So I'm watching the Colbert report on radical knitting, and, suddenly, there's my elephant:

The original that they obviously grabbed from Flickr:

It would have been nice if they had asked.

Mending again

We've had some mornings with frost, and near freezing temperatures near the Bay, so I've wanted more wool layers for my bike commute. But I don't want to spend a lot of money--it's not just the economy being in the toilet, it's wanting to have some money to spend on Christmas presents, on paying off debts, and, dare I dream, a vacation? So, luckily, there's Goodwill, with darling wool sweaters for $5.00. This one had many holes in it, and I didn't do extensive darning--if I can get it decent-looking so it lasts for one winter, I'll be happy.

So I just ran horizontal stitches across the holes to cinch the knitted fabric together:

Many holes were mended in about ten minutes, and then I replaced the buttons, since a few were missing. And, voila! A very warm, darling cardigan, suitable for biking & wearing to work.