So I made a real list for my gifts. An official one. Unfortunately it made me realize that I don’t have very many gifts done. I had three done but my dad needed another hat and I decided to not make him wait two months for it. Now I have two gifts done out of 12 and luckily 4 gifts are for kids. I’m really trying to focus on gift knitting so I put my socks on hold and I finished a shawl I was working on for me. This is the Lonely Tree Shawl made out of reclaimed yarn.

I used my hand spun alpaca to start this lined beanie. The brown gradient is the hand spun and the blue is reclaimed alpaca yarn. I’m a little more than half way done and I think I’ll be able to finish it this week. 

I felted these slippers and they ended up a little furry. They are a little too fuzzy right now and one of them felted more than the other but it was good practice for the ones I’m making as gifts. 

I started these new slippers last night and I might be able to finish the knitting today. I’m making these women’s size medium

My plan for this week is to finish the felted slippers and the alpaca hat. I also want to make one of the kid’s gifts but I keep changing my mind on what to make them.

In other news, my pattern is almost done being tested and I took some new pictures of my completed shawlettes. Thursday I’ll be starting the raffle for this blue shawlette. 

I took lots of pictures today! I found batteries while we were moving so I had some to put in my camera. It’s tricky to get decent pictures but it’s better than nothing! I finished two projects while I was on my road trip and made a lot of progress on two other ones. The projects I finished were two pairs of little kid’s slippers. I held the yarn double and used big needles and they were done in no time. 

I made a ton of progress on my scarf that I’m making for my mom and it looks done but I don’t like how the ruffle looks on the cast off end. Making increases for the ruffles just doesn’t look as good as the side were I decreased. I think I’m going to cast on a ruffle and sew it on so they look the same. 

On the socks I’m making for my boyfriend I got about 10 rows into the gusset increases. I have a feeling that I’ll be using all of the yarn I have for these socks because of my gauge and how big his feet are. 

I made one slipper using the non-felted slipper pattern and even though it’s a nice pattern I just don’t know if I can make myself make the other one. I don’t like seaming and I honestly don’t know how many stitches I cast on for this first one. I wrote it down somewhere but who knows which random receipt or scrap of paper it's on lol. 

I finished binding off my shawl and I got some pre-blocked photos. I also took gauge and measured its pre blocked size. I can’t wait to get some time to finish this up because I think blocking is going to make all the difference in how this shawl looks. 

I was able to borrow someone’s phone for a minute to take some pictures! The handspun alpaca is is a gradient that goes through some different shades of tan and brown. It’s a three ply yarn and bounces between super bulky and heavy worsted. I consider it to be really rustic looking. I also purchased some mill spun alpaca yarn from a local farm that I can’t wait to use. It’s worsted weight and I’m going to be making a hat from it. 

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the scarf I’m making. I’ve used about half of my yarn so I’ve placed a marker so I’ll have a good idea of where I need to start the next ruffle. 

I’ve started my next Christmas knitting project! I wound the yarn into a cake yesterday morning when I got home from work and did a little test swatch. I had trouble sleeping at first because I was coming up with a pattern and I wanted to start it and see how it was going to look! I might publish this pattern when I’m done. It will most likely be free and on my blog. I’m using fingering weight super wash merino. It’s from Dicentra Designs and I purchased it at Tangled Purls here in Salem, OR. I’m using the citrus colorway and I have about 170 yards of this yarn. My initial thought was to make a scarf with ruffles and ribs so I could call it the ruffles and ribs scarf. I didn’t see a pattern on ravelry that had everything I wanted (which is typical for me). I wanted a reversible scarf that was narrow enough for colors in the yarn to be stripey more than pooled and I wanted it do have just a little bit of something without being too fancy. I ended up with no ribs but lots of garter stitch and I love how it looks with this yarn.

As for further stashdown cristmas knitting I’m planning on toys for the kids, hats for the dudes, and slippers for most of the chicks. I want to keep the pace of finishing something every week but it might take two weeks right now because I’m starting more things than I’m finishing. I have lots of stash diving and pattern browsing to do before I find the right combinations of things for gifts. I also have to work and keep up with school as well as move in a couple of weeks and I have a vacation planned as well… It’s going to be a busy fall!

For anyone who is curious, my pattern so far is:

CO 40

4 rows of garter stitch

K1, *YO, K2tog*, K1

Knit

K2, *YO, K2tog*

6 rows of garter stitch

K2tog across (20 stitches left)

Garter stitch forever until you are ready to do the ruffle on the other end

Increase to 40 stitches probably using the knit front and back increase but I’m not there yet so I might change my mind

6 rows of garter

K2, *YO, K2tog*

Knit

K1, *YO, K2tog*, K1

4 rows of garter

Bind off.

I wrote up the scarf pattern today and took some pictures of the finished scarf. I’m naming it the Ramona scarf (after my mom who will be getting this scarf for mother’s day). Before I print it out or publish it I need to measure my scarf again and I need to proof read one more time. I should probably have someone else read it too. It might not be nearly as clear as I think it is.

Monday I’m going to my sister’s so she can help me with making the tags for my yarn. I’m hoping that by Tuesday I’ll be making my Etsy listings! I have a laundry basket full of prepped yarn that just needs to be tagged. Well there’s still the yardage issue… but I’ll get that worked out on Monday or Tuesday as well. As of right now my Etsy to do list is: figure out my yardage, create and print tags, attach those tags and label them with the yarn info, create listings, create a ravelry ad to announce my grand opening, and then watch the sales (and money) roll in. That last one is mostly wishful thinking ;)