Almost forgot

These little owlets are long gone, given away as gifts. But here they are all finished.

Special Birthday Socks

I finally, finally, finally finished these socks. Ripped back two times, but this time's charm. For my mom's 80th (!) birthday. She liked them. She is a serious quilter and the stars are called the "Friendship Star" in the quilting world. I had originally made a cuff covered in friendship stars, but I couldn't get my foot into it because the two-color knitting was so tight. So it had to be ripped.
It was hard to rip this back. It looked so good! Ah well....

Christmas stars

I, too, like to knit little gifts for people for the holidays. Because, you know, it's not like I have all that much else to do. . .

But I didn't make up my pattern like Jennifer's owls. It's Stjarna, a free pattern on Ravelry. I've been using primarily leftover sock yarn, which is great because the pattern only calls for small amounts of yarn. But it isn't so great if, like me, you don't tend to knit with holiday-ish colors in your normal life.

But here are some anyway, showing the variety. I've already given away three, and I think I'll probably do about five more. A fun if fiddly pattern.

Stuffed and Beaked (is that a word?)

Sixteen Eyes

Hmmmm...

Monkey Blanket

I've been jonesin' to make a Monkey Blanket for quite a while now. It incorporates stranded knitting at a large gauge, cool colors, and steeking. What's not to like?

So when we found out our friends were having a baby, I showed the pattern to David and he liked it. So he bought the yarn and I knit it up.

It was quite a project, involving not just numerous balls of yarn but also a team-effort of machine-sewing the steeks to reinforce them, since I used superwash yarn. (I couldn't really give a new mother something she'd have to handwash.) The border, knit on each side and then grafted together, was its own project. You basically knit two blankets, which the pattern conveniently neglects to point out.

Anyway, here it is.
Monkey side:

Doughnut side:

Some of the monkeys. (I changed the pattern to give each monkey his own expression.)

More monkeys:

And finally, baby Olivia! Not sure yet how much of a monkey she might turn out to be. . .

Why?

Why would anyone dig through a great big pile of antique buttons, match up 18 of them and then color in the centers black with a Sharpie? What is going on? Stay tuned...