Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

I hope you all had a happy and not too stressful holiday?

I am learning not to do stress at Christmas. I used to go nuts making gifts, making candles, making socks and other knits, making cookies - oh, the umpteen dozens of cookies that would take me nearly 2 weeks to bake, so everyone would get a full tin's worth. Nope. No more.

Not that I don't enjoy baking cookies, if it's just SOME, not tray after endless tray. And not that I don't enjoy rolling up beeswax candles, but after the first few, one's hands do get tired, as you have to press hard on the candle whilst you roll them up, so by the time you've got them all done, you wonder why you thought up this hair-brained idea in the first place! And knitting for gifts is SO very time-consuming. If I don't start in October, there's little hope of getting gift knits done, on top of my design knitting.

Christmas is no less enjoyable if you haven't knocked yourself out in the process, and it can definitely be more enjoyable - having time to spend with the one(s) you love, instead of running around harried, thinking did I do this, did I do that? So, I've just had the laziest 3 days since I can't remember when, and it was great! It's also hard to want to come out of! Hubby literally had to drag me out of bed this morning!

One of the many nice gifts I received was the following, from one of my brothers and his wife:



There WERE 5 chocolate-covered marshmallow sticks in that cup to start with! They WERE to be used to make the special cocoa recipes using the canister of European chocolate. But, noooo. I couldn't look at them and not eat them. I ate 2 and hubby ate 1. As he's not into sweets as I am, he wasn't crazy about it. So I asked why he finished it, then, when I certainly would have! But at 130 calories per mallow stick, it's better I didn't.

And I finally finished pumpkin's sweater. On Sunday, I grafted the underarms, hand sewed the steeks, cut them, then tacked them down on the inside, and picked up and worked the cable neck edge. It was hand washed and dried yesterday over a towel on the electric radiator, wrapped up this morning (after taking the photo below) and sent on its way to her. It's late, but it was the quickest I could get it done in between work.



Yarn: Peace Fleece worsted wt, 70% American and Russian wool and 30% mohair
Color: Latvian Lavender
Ndls: US size 8 (5 mm)
Gauge: 4.25 sts/1" in stockinette

I used only 4 hanks of yarn to make her sweater! I bought 7, but as she wanted it more fitted than even I wear sweaters, a mere 4 hanks only was needed. It's 22" in length, 36.25" at the underarms, and 18" sleeves.

I like it enough that I'm going to make one for myself. I have 7 hanks of Peace Fleece Galooboy Blue (a pretty french blue), which I'm going to add ties to today and put into a long hot soaking with Dawn dishliquid.

The Latvian Lavender is a bit thinner than the other colors, hence the 4.25 sts/1" gauge with 8's on washed Peace Fleece. I find that with washed PF, I get 4 sts/1", and if the Galooboy Blue does the same, I can make pretty much the same sweater (number-wise) and get a 38.5" sweater, which is perfect for me, and I can even fit a thin top underneath. She's got a petite frame, so even with a large chest, her sweater at 36" should fit her fine. But we'll see, after she gets it and tries it on. The problem area for me is that snugging ribbing across the belly. Gotta watch my weight and then it will be fine. But I tried on the sweater and hubby liked it on me, so that's a good sign.

I also begun, on Sunday, my next batch of CIC socks. Yes, I just sent 17 pairs and 2 sweaters, but the current sock challenge runs to the end of January and there are SO many cold children that need to be knit for. So, 1 pair done and am on pair #2. And I'm sure I have some wool sweater design samples I can send with this batch as well. I may not be able to give money to all the usual charities and agencies that help those in need, but I will always knit for CIC throughout the year, every year. Want to know more, see the links in my sidebar.