These are Elizabeth's Christmas socks. I had to reknit the first one after E couldn't get it on her foot (OOPs, 4-year-olds have rapidly changing feet). Consequently, since she had to try them on to see if they did fit, she has already worn them even though I tried to tell her they were intended to go in her Christmas stocking. She generously told me that I could still put them in her stocking and she would wear them again on Christmas day.
The next picture is Elizabeth wearing her China Flower sweater. I finished the last sleeve and the button band. In the picture she is wearing it without buttons, but I have since put them on. It looks great on her, and just in time because this will be the only winter she can wear it!.
This is the stole-that became a table runner. This is my project for the spinning exchange. I originally thought it would be a great stole, but when I wove the border parts, it was clear that it would not have enough drape to be appealing. Although, once I had it off the loom, I realized it might have worked fine as a thin scarf. The warp is navy shetland, with two bands of white shetland/pale green handspun in a "random" arrangement. I did not like the effect here, as they were not as random as I wanted, and just look like threading errors. I ran out of the navy shetland right at the end of the warp and had a knot in the last warp end that I naively thought I could coax through the heddles, and indeed I did. The reed was the end of it though, and I ended up with a broken warp, and nothing left to fix it. So my selvedge is pretty uneven. UGH!
The main weft is Jagger-spun Zephyr wool and silk, used double. I love this but even with some wet finishing, it did not really lock in place and there was some shifting of the pattern (by the way, a twill). I have a couple of threads to weave in today and this will be done!. The deadline for this project was two days ago but fortunately, the meeting was canceled due to bad weather.
I finished several other things that I will post later. I also frogged and reclaimed the yarn on several projects, and decided that several more will never get done (I don't like them anymore). The sum of all of this activity is that I am down to 13 knitting WIP, four weaving WIP and two spinning WIP. Very successful. So successful, in fact, that I am going to limit my 'new starts' this month to small, one-skein projects, and try to tick off a couple more items.
Other "finishings" occurred in November, namely Charlie died. It happened quite suddenly. He bled a lot from his bladder, and this may have precipitated a cardiac, or neurologic injury, but within one week he died. We were able to keep him at home, with the aid of Hospice during the last few days. The aftermath has been surprisingly calm, with everyone doing remarkably well. We have been bringing Wendy with us on many of our excursions and she is enjoying this. She is really too demented to leave alone, except for short periods of time. This morning, Mike reported she really didn't understand how to use silverware to eat breakfast, so she may be rapidly deteriorating as well. I am taking her in to see her doctor tomorrow.
I spent the last two days attending my first weaving class, towels with Louise French. I missed the first day due to chaos at home (jewelry and identity theft perpetrated by one of the cleaning ladies from Molly Maid). All I really accomplished was making two warps, on 6 yards, and one 2.5 yards. I decided not to warp a loom at the guild because things have gotten so crazy, I am not sure I could get the weaving done by the January 7 deadline. I managed to beam the 6 yard warp on my mightly wolf last night. I may be able to find a block of time tomorrow to thread the heddles and, who knows, I may be weaving by next week.
