Boxing Day musings

Another Christmas is now passing, and this year I did not do any handknitted presents, although I bought yarn for a future sweater and some kind of accessory for my husband, and am sending Julia a random gift of the Nolita Lace Hat and matching shawl after her visit here. Like most other knitters I have learnt to only give handknitted gifts to peope who appreciate them, usually people who craft themselves.

So I have resisted the single skein urge, and have continued on with Surface over the break, and am now in the closing stages of the final sleeve - all going well I will complete it in the next few days. That will leave me with my husbands 1940s sweater, and the Great American Afghan on the needles - so maybe there will be an opportunity for a single skein project (I have been thinking of adding a corsage to the front of Surface to ramp up the vintage look a bit - that would be a good single skein project before I go back to work).

I have spent a lot of today clearing and sorting, prompted by our plan to go for a bike ride on xmas day morning. The plan was foiled at the last minute by our inability to locate the bike lock keys (the bikes were locked up in the back yard), and so we went for country ramble instead. While just as nice, it does point to the fact that there are still things we can't find after our moves last year. Clearing is therapeutic, and I have enjoyed pottering around sorting stuff out (although completely failed to find the bike lock keys), and creating a kind of to-do list to deal with the things I found. One of them (or perhaps I should say three of them) are jumpers to frog and rework. One is for Linda (of which there is a picture below - she dislikes how this turned out so I agreed to rework it for her), and two are old ones of my husbands, made by (gasp) ex-girlfriends. (He has a history of dating knitters). These have been languishing in the loft, but we have less room and less disposable income now, so I suggested to him that I rip and re-knit them and he was keen on the idea, although it brings new meanings to the "sweater curse" I guess! I've been waiting for a snow day to do this ripping, but alas the weather remains mild and damp, so I will just need to get on with it, particularly as I promised Linda a reworked sweater this winter!