Good Tidings

Hi Knitters,

I hope you are doing well this holiday week. I love this season and all of the home-y activities with which we devote our time. I've been planning gifts and sewing and knitting up a storm and baking and cooking, etc. All of my kids are home and on break from school. It is bustling and busy. You, too?

Well, I have randomly selected a winner for the Kermis Kit giveaway from Infinite Twist! And the winner is...... matildachelsey on Ravelry or Josette! Congratulations, Josette. I have sent an email to Cate Carter of Infinite Twist with your contact information and she will be in touch with you directly to plan out your kit specifics. Click here for the Kermis pattern on Ravelry.

Thank you for the fantastic Kermis Kit giveaway response. Cate is just thrilled and has sold a lot of kits this past week. She is so thankful and excited to give good homes to her beautiful yarns and kits.

Here is some information and links for the photos in the collage:

Rainbow Socks: Quaere Fibres 10-Stripe Rainbow colorway, sport weight; US size 2 needles; toe-up with an extended afterthought heel. 56 sts for the leg and foot count.

Knit Collage Mittens: Yarn is Knit Collage Castaway in the Prism colorway, 2 skeins. I made up the pattern but there is a similar pattern on the Knit Collage website. I knit the mittens with the knit side facing me and then turned them inside out so the purl side is the right-side. I used US size 10.5 dpns to make the mittens. I gave the finished pair to my niece as an early Christmas gift. She LOVES them and now my other niece wants a pair, too. I see more of these fun mittens in my future.

Socks for my son: Regia Cotton Summer Smile Color (purchased right here) with Opal heels and toes in gray. My son wants lighter weight handknit socks and so I am trying out this cotton/wool/nylon blend from Regia to see if he likes it better. He is so knitworthy! He wears the two pairs of socks I knit him constantly, they are always in the wash. I didn't enjoy knitting with this cotton blend yarn as much but it is doable. It feels a bit like string in my opinion. But I love the end results. He picked out the colorway (I love that he likes colorful pink stripey socks!). I used US size 1 dpns and my free pattern How I Make My Socks for men (here is the men's sock information).

Rag Quilt Placemats: I made a quick set of 6 placemats for my sister-in-law. I made the same rag quilt placemats last year and wrote a blog post (click right here) with all of the details and the YouTube video tutorial I used. I made a few more for another gift for this year, too, nine in total. They are really fast!

And lastly, my son has been baking and baking and baking! I try to sneak in and bake and cook when he's not in the kitchen which is not often. He has gifted most of his cookies, muffins and breads to others but leaves plenty for us to enjoy as well. He is currently working as a baker in a popular Madison bakery and loving it.

Yesterday as I was working on the rainbow socks I sat across from TC at our kitchen table. She is working on her beaded ornaments which she has been making for the last several years. I love her focus and concentration while she is working. It is so much fun to have her on break from school and sports and whatnot. I enjoy her company so much.

And I want to mention the Santa project bag that I've been using for the holiday season this year. It is from ShopLouleigh on Etsy and it is just the cutest bag ever, honestly. I'm so in love with Leigh's work and fabric choices. She is spot on.

Click here to visit ShopLouleigh!

Here are the ornaments TC has finished so far! She'll wrap them up in little sets to give as gifts. It's so sweet. Each of these designs come in kits that we purchased at the Wisconsin Craft Market this year and last year. Some of the kits only cost a couple of dollars and include the materials for several ornaments per kit as you can see. 

Merry, Merry and Happy Holidays, dear Knitters. Thank you for the support and for the fun here on the blog and everywhere else. I appreciate you all so much. This is the tenth Christmas I have celebrated on this blog, it's hard to believe that it has been that long.

I'm wishing you all good tidings of great joy! 

xo ~ susan