Almost ready

I didn't find much time to knit at work today, but after supper I managed to knit a few rows on my mitt and another gauge swatch for the Christmas sweater. I have now washed my gauge swatches and all that remains is to get the measurements for the sweater. With any luck I will have all of the measurements in the next day or two and I can really get started on this.

In the meantime I have my mitts and my spinning to keep me busy.

Reward for good behaviour

I think I was right about the universe hiding my mitt pattern so that I would get going on Christmas knitting. Tonight I picked up the yarn for the Christmas sweater I'm planning and there was the mitt pattern hiding underneath. I'm going to be good and make a sweater gauge swatch instead of working on my mitts tonight.
Since the swatch will need to be measured and washed and measured again, I guess I will just have to work on my mitts instead tomorrow.

M.I.A.

Not much to share tonight. I'm on the Thursday late shift and I had errands to run this morning, which means I didn't have much time to knit or spin. I did a few rows on the second mitt, but I seem to have lost the printed pattern for it sometime between when I went to bed last night and when I got up this morning. I think the universe is trying to make me work on my Christmas knitting.

Yarn

Another lousy photo, but it shows one of my fingerless mitts all but done. The problem is that I am knitting these with leftover yarn, which I carefully divided in two, and I've run out. Ideally I would knit a couple more rows of ribbing at the top of the mitt and a few rows of ribbing around the thumb hole.
My plan is now to knit the second mitt in the hopes of having a bit more yarn leftover on it. If I don't have slightly more yarn, or God forbid I have less, I will place the thumb hole a bit lower on the mitt and make up the hand length that way.
In other yarn news, my Knit Picks order was delivered today. I now have the yarn I need to knit my brother's Christmas present sweater. Now I need to get together with him to discuss fitting and other pertinent details. I won't show pictures of the yarn tonight, since I'm sure it will soon dominate my blog and you will be lucky to see anything but it.

Restart

Having finished the pair of socks, I needed something to take to knit night tonight. I would have taken my next Christmas knitting but I didn't have time to find the yarn and the needles, and print the pattern. So I picked up the fingerless mitts I've been making to match my orange hat. I found my 4 mm needles (or at least I found 4 of them) and my yarn and I was out the door.
I'm glad I switched from the 4.5 mm needle I was using on the first mitt (the one on the left.) The picture sucks, but the new mitt has better stitch definition and it also seems to have a better fit. Now I just need to finish the new mitt and rip out the old one and reknit it. I also need to not run out of yarn. Wish me luck (and remind me to get back to Christmas knitting).

Look what I have

The once-birthday-and-now-Christmas-present socks are finally finished. What is more, I have actual natural lighting pictures of them:
I'm pretty pleased with these and I really hope they fit. Next on my Christmas knitting agenda is a hat, I think.

Of course I could have cast on a new project once the socks were finished, but instead I spun a bit on my spindle and then spun a bit more on my wheel. I didn't take any pictures of this work but I did snap a quick shot of the little skein of finished Romney spun up on my new spindle:

The yarn is about a fingering weight and I don't have a whole lot of it. I'm sure I will find something to do with it. I should soon have another little skein of a lighter coloured Romney spun up on my wheel. Perhaps I will have enough for a small hat or something. We shall see.

Fresh air

My mother and I took advantage of the really nice November weather we've been having here and escaped the city. We drove out to one of the wetlands west of Moose Jaw and had a nice walk along the partially frozen shore. There wasn't much wild life around but I found plenty to interest me on the ground:
a pile of tiny shells,a patch of lacy ice,
and a patch of lacy ice catching the winter sun.
It was really nice to have a quiet walk with no real agenda. It was also nice to get home, curl up under a warm blanket and knit away at a sock. What a great day off.