Knitting Saturday

Today was craft Saturday at the church. Normally, this is the day I get a ton (or, since my country measures in metric, "tonne") of scrapbooking done—or at least a page or two! However, today I decided to finish seaming the sweater that I've been making for my sister-in-law since spring. And guess what, Ang?

IT'S DONE!!!

This is a design by Vladimir Teriokhin from Vogue Knitting's Winter 2005/06 edition. I changed it from a mock turtleneck to a V-neck hoody (with fear and trembling) at Angela's request, and substituted Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Thick and Quick yarn for the more expensive (and less accessible) Plymouth yarn it was originally designed for. Despite my timidity at messing around with knitting patterns, I am quite pleased with the result.

PLUS! Yesterday I finished these yummy slipper-socks (of my own design) for a friend of mine, Colleen, who hadst a birthday on the very same day. (So, um, they're going to be a little late. But you can look for them in the mail soony-soon soon!)

(This blurry photo shows the prototype of what eventually became the Graceful Slippers pattern.)

These gray pretties are mine very own. They are a "prototype," so to speak, of my still-developing slipper-sock pattern. I saw something similar on the internet, and loved them, but could not quite figure out how to make them. I have never knit a sock, so I had no practice turning a heel. So I sat, and I thought, and I thought, and I drew, and eventually I wrapped my brain around a 3-D visual model of how these things must be put together. Except I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the holes at the end of my "short rows" (as I discovered this method of shaping is called), so eventually had to cheat a little by looking at a sock pattern with short row shaping to discover the trick of wrapping the yarn around the stitch at the end of each row, both on the decrease and the increase. Now, no more holes! Yippee! Someday, when I am finished making slippers for other people, I may actually knit myself an unholy pair. (Or is that un-holy? Or non-holy? Um... You know what I mean.)

And, for the last photo of the night:

These are stars that Noah made at Awana when they were talking about Day 3 of creation. (When God made the sun, moon, and stars.) They looked so pretty on our fig tree, upon which we keep lights year-round, but have really started using full-force since Daylight Savings Time ended last Sunday--and the sun started setting at 5:00 p.m.! (No kidding, I was coming home at 4:47 p.m. tonight and the sky was a glorious painter's palette of oranges and pinks behind the clearing snow clouds.)

They just looked pretty, so I took a picture of them.

How was your Saturday, friends?