I have an FO!!!

Ok, well sort of.

You know those Treads socks that I've been knitting?  Well I finally finished the first one!!  WHEW!  I finished it over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and guess what else?  I immediately cast on for the second one.  Yup, no Second Sock Syndrome for me!!  The first sock fits great and I'm so excited.  There is a slim chance that the second sock will be finished in time for Christmas ... but I'm not holding my breath for that one.  Good thing my honey isn't totally dependent on me to keep his feet warm :-)

And I bought yarn this week.  LOTS of yarn. But I bought it for a specific reason.  I live in a big ol' farm house and it's been a bit chilly at home, even with the furnace on and the fireplace going.  We tend to keep the heat on the low side because who wants to spend an outrageous amount of money to heat the home when we could just put on an extra layer?  So the other night I asked Eric if he was cold. He says, "Nope, I'm wearing this wool sweater."  I'm like, well DUH.  I have enough wool sock yarn to knit maybe 40-50 pairs of socks but not enough heavier wool to knit a sweater!!  So ... I went to KnitPicks.com and bought 23 balls of their Wool of the Andes yarn (worsted weight) in a color called Black Cherry Heather (http://bit.ly/66uTy7).  I love it and think it will look good on me :-)

I should also say that this will be my first time knitting an adult size sweater.  I'm using the Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan Sweater pattern  and I hope to make it with a V-neck.   I'm pretty excited and a little nervous.  I hope you sweater knitters won't mind my asking a million questions as I go along.  The yarn has shipped and should arrive sometime next week.  Yay!

In other news, one of my best friends asked me to knit her a scarf with an XOXO pattern.  She asked for it to be knitted in red, and it turns out I have "plenty" of red (acrylic) yarn in my stash.  I'd like to knit it with something a little more luxurious than acrylic but I also have to be mindful of spending.  Oh, I'm using the pattern that's on the center of the Staghorn sweater, which is in a book called A Fine Fleece. I have finished nearly a full pattern repeat (just enough for the XOXO pattern to be established and it's turning out quite nicely!  I warned her that the last scarf I knitted in a similar pattern took me about 6 months to knit, so as long as she doesn't mind waiting, I don't mind knitting it for her. 

I would like to get back on the ball with my charity knitting as well.  I am thinking of knitting helmet liners for our troops  I know that lots of people are contributing to the effort and I want to join in!  It's my understanding that hats/helmet liners etc should be made with 100% wool, and that black, charcoal, brown, tan, olive drab are the only military-approved colors.  I found TONS of patterns on Ravelry for helmet liners (or balaclavas) ... so if you're interested in participating you can find lots of inspiration there.  Completed items can be mailed (year round!) to:

Citizen SAM
PO Box 10565
Peoria, IL 61612

I hope that you all will consider knitting even one hat for a soldier! I would like to find a local charity to knit for as well.  More details on that later. 

For now though ... Good night!

~mz