The Last Day

There are a couple more gifts I wanted to share with you before we wrapped up this holiday season and 2006 for that matter. I spent the majority of my knitting time the week or so before Christmas on a sweater for my brother. This has been a secret knit for a while as I wasn't sure if he ever looked at the blog. I know that his wife reads from time to time, but I figured I really wanted it to be a surprise, so I better err on the side of caution. So, this is what he got Christmas morning: A 3/4 finished modified Durrow Sweater in charcoal Kilcarra Donogal Tweed ordered directly from Ireland from this wonderfully friendly and fast ebay seller Irish Yarns and Crafts.

I had planned and really wanted to finish it (and I believe I could have), but after discussing issues with his sizing, it made more sense to have him try it on and check out the measurements before it was all sewn up and finished. My sister-in-law had helped by measuring his existing sweaters, but his arm measurements were way off from what the finished measurements were in this pattern. Let's just say I am really glad I decided to finish it later. Once the body was on him, I could tell I was going to have an issue with the neck openning. After talking to my other sister-in-law who also recently finished a Durrow for her husband, she turned me on to what is apparently a fairly common issue with this sweater. Again, I saved myself a ton of work by decided to do a pre-fitting. I now know what to do to finish this puppy up and should only have to rip a little of the front and possibly the top back. You've got to love the internet. Now if I could only get myself in the habit of doing full Google searches on patterns BEFORE I start them!

The best part was that by decided to hold off on Brother's Sweater meant I had all of Christmas Eve to work on whatever I wanted. This meant that the socks I was making for B (and had planned to finish this week while I was off for a belated Christmas present), got a second chance to become an on-time FO. I got them out first thing that morning and decided if I could get to the toe before he got up (I was about a 1/3 into the foot), I would be able to finish them that day. Well, sure 'nuf a disk worth of 24 episodes did the trick and was half way through the toe by lunch time. I ended up adding them to the toe of his stocking and then alternating all the other stocking gifts with pairs of plain store bought socks to through him off. It worked! When he got to the last pair, he pulled them out and said - oooh, and warm snuggly socks! But didn't realize they were handknit! So then I whispered - I made them. And he said - Your kidding!! That was the best present I got!

And they fit!! The pattern is the TechGuy Socks from MagKnits in the 3X1 rib version made in the amazing Socks That Rock. For the body of the socks I used almost a full hank of lightweight Obsidian and for the toes and heels a bit of lightweight Black Onyx. Both colors I either called or emailed them about. I had some issues with these socks, mainly running out of the main color yarn. Luckily Blue Moon happened to have one hank of exactly what I needed to finish them out properly!

And since a week off from work also lent itself to lots of Jenny time, here is Jenny in her new favorite place:

Wrapped up in the microfiber blanket my mom got us. She LOVES this thing! We wrap her up in it before we leave the house and you can see it in her face as she goes - Ahhhhhh.

Have a safe and wonderful New Years Eve tonight!