Working 9 to 5

I wanted to post sooner, but Halloween clean-up has been getting in the way. Maybe Ava will get a chance to peek at the blog while she's on vacation. First, I've been working on new Christmas stockings. I made awful looking ones the first year I started knitting. I think they have a neon Fun Fur cuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but S.K. hated them. Enter some slip-stitch ones from Holiday Handknits. I still have to sew the linings, but they're done. This is the first project that I've done a slip-stitch pattern (not including Mason-Dixon washrag). I made SK's brown/green one first. Loved the look. I just finished mine and it turned out slighty different. It seems like the slip stitches are pulling & puckering more. I used Patons Merino for both stockings. Maybe a good blocking will whip mine into shape. Now I've got to figure out how to put a hook on that won't pull the fabric when filled (We never did Stockings as kids, so I hope to add that tradition).

My next project is a true WIP, no rush invovled. I have a thing for dark gray T-shirts. Not the crappy light gray ones, but the real dark heathered gray ones. The ones that the fabric drapes like silk, and like someone has loved it for decades. You know the ones. I have 2 that I would probably rummage a burning house for. One was a gift from Other Sister. Over-sized (in the 90s, weren't all T-shirts?) Army shirt. Shows she has some balls since she was in the Airforce when she bought it for me, but she knew that I really wanted one. The second was a gift from the Flyer. It's an old Batman shirt that he had outgrown. I don't remember why he gave it to me, maybe it was a Please-Don't-Get so Drunk-with-my-Wife-and -Pick -on-Your-Mother-all-Night holiday bribe. I don't care why I got it, but when it finally falls apart I may bury it. This brings me to my sweater.

One of my first sweater projects was Raspy from Rowan Denim. It's a raglan with dropped stitches. SK called it my Matrix sweater. I had envisioned myself wearing it all the time, dress it up with clean jeans and head to the store. It wouldn't have mattered if I ran into anyone with that sweater on. Well, didn't turn so great. The front & back were knit the exact same, so the front pleats. Since Gus' EZ sweater turned out so well, I started one of my own. My Gray Comfy Sweater, drop stitches and all. I bought enough of the green color for an entire sweater (wanted to make Raspy, but I wasn't smart enough yet to work around a pattern. Raspy is for a yarn that shrinks 20%), but I felt like the gray was safer. So the green will hide on the inside, maybe I knit 2 rows so it'll peek out. I'll decide at the end.

Hope you're having a fantastic time in jolly ole England. Don't forget my Lush stuff! Please...