Christmas Knitting - DONE!

Whew! I finished my Christmas knitting with a day to spare! Let me show you...

I drew Mom's name for the family gift exchange this year. She has been asking me to knit her a vest for quite a while now.

As a result, this is Windy. Windy is a top-down lace vest that I designed for my Mom for Christmas. (In case you're wondering, Windy was my Mom's nickname in high school) :-) This vest is knit from 4 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool, and the pattern will be available very soon - I'm doing the numbers right now for the smaller sizes.

Mom doesn't read my blog, so as long as Dad doesn't show her, the secret will be safe until the family gets together for Christmas Eve tomorrow. :-) I'm going to include a rough-draft copy of the pattern in the box.

For my MIL, I knit "Carol's Clever Little Shawl." This is a pattern that I got at Knitting Camp 2 years ago, and it's really, really easy. It took 3 skeins of the Berrocco Ultra Alpaca that I bought at camp this past summer. My MIL is in her late 70's and she gets cold easily, so I thought that this would be a nice pattern for her - it's warm and it stays on without getting in the way. Now I want to knit one for myself!

My mailman delivered my final Secret Pal 11 box yesterday afternoon! My pal was Ann at Yellow House Treasures . Since my birthday was this past Monday, she said that she included a few extra goodies for the occasion. Inside were some lovely (and delicious!) Christmas cookies

A really cute ornament (dated "2007")

Some dark chocolate and gummies (also yummy - and gone!!)

And a skein of soft, squishy sock yarn - Araucania Ranco. The picture is rather dark -it's more of a pretty burnt orange colorThanks, Ann! It's been a fun exchange! :-)

And, just because he's cute, a picture of Tick, the most pathetic doggy in all of doggiedom.

He would like you to believe that he is never petted or fed...and he would like to try to convince you that he needs both. :-)