Gift knitting

 So, the gift knitting continues.

Can't show anything more than the pile of  yarn on my desk because these items are pretty obvious what they are once they have a few more rounds.  Even in black and white, it's obvious so ...

Meanwhile,

My friend, Monica, demonstrated her spinning talents at our booth this past weekend.  It was a slow weekend because it rained Friday night, POURED down RAINING Saturday and Sunday was Freezing cold.  I don't know how Monica sat there all night not even wearing a sweater, much less a coat.  As you can see, even the men were bundled up in their hats and heavy coats.  I even had to scrape ice off my windshield when I got out to my car.  Brrr!

But hey - I'm not complaining about the cold.  Well, maybe I am a little.  But it's nice that the weather feels like Christmas time.  😊

Hope your gift knitting is going well and on schedule!

Christmas Gift Knitting

The Christmas gift knitting continues so no knitting photos today.  Not even black and white ones.

We had a visit from Jack Frost during Winterfest this past weekend.  Everyone in our booth loves it when the various Christmas charecters stop by for a photo op and to say Merry Christmas.

But back to talking about knitting...

Boy!  I am so far behind on the knitting schedule.  So very, very far behind.  But, I've revamped my calendar, made a detailed plan, and if I don't have a single interruption and I can manage to focus on the knitting rather than the Hallmark Christmas movies, I think I can get it all done.  All it will take is zero interruptions and a small Christmas miracle.

And, since I'm so far behind on gift knitting, I'm even further behind on the Winterfest sweater project.  I'm actually now two full, gallon Zip-lock bags of yarn behind.  Two very, very full gallon bags.  Luckily, that sweater doesn't have a deadline.  Well, actually I guess it does now.  A little boy stopped by the booth this past weekend was quite concerned about when it would be finished.  He wouldn't settle for "a long time from now."  So, I now have the deadline of March, 2022.  And a six year old boss.  😁

Winterfest knitting

 The Winterfest sweater is coming along.  Slowly.  Very, very slowly.

I can't keep up with the stripes on a nightly basis.  Sitting outside at Winterfest, my hands get so cold and stiff I can't knit with any speed at all.  I'd gotten caught up last week and started fresh this past Friday night but...  I now have a gallon ziplock bag crammed full of yarns waiting to be knit into sweater stripes.  

Two things are amazing me about this project.  One, is how many nine and ten year olds there are visiting our booth.  I'd bet eight out of every ten kids are either nine or ten.  I find that mathmatically weird.

The other thing that amazes me is that I can remember what order I'm supposed to knit each of the little balls of yarn crammed into that ziplock bag, although half the time I have to ask the kids how old they are multiple times.  I can't remember where I parked my car, where I set my phone down, my kids' names (only occasionally,) or what I ate for breakfast but I can remember what order the colors go and even which little ball of the same color goes first, second or third.  It must be a knitter thing.

I'm pleasantly surprised how okay the colorful sweater is looking so far.  I fully expected it to be THE most hideous mess of color but it's not.  It's sort of like those scrap sock yarn blankets where all the wild colors that clash horribly somehow just magically work when put all together.

And in the event I ever participate in another Winterfest or attempt a similar sweater, I think I'll knit the year into the hem for posterity.  Of course, my fingers will need to thaw out enough to knit to the hem...

On a different note, we had a few visitors at our booth Sunday night.

Mr. Peppermint and Miss Candy Cane stopped by.  And admittedly, Mr. Peppermint is not really his name.  I have, of course, forgotten his official name but I do remember that his lady friend is Candy Cane.

This couple is John Dough and Ginny Gingerbread.  And no, Gingerbread is not Ginny's official last name.  I've forgotten it too, but personally, I think Ginny Gingerbread sounds okay so I'm going with it.  

And last but not least,

I have no idea what these folks' names are but they walk past our booth frequently and always give us a smile and a wave.  I call them The Christmas Couple.  The Mister reminds me of Mr. French from Family Affair.  And yes, I'm definitely showing my age with that comment!

And now, now I'm off to knit a few Christmas gifts for family members and then knit a few thousand sweater stripes.

Stripes!

I have either lost my mind completely or had a wonderful, fun idea.  I'm hoping for wonderful and fun.

I have a bunch of, as in, a whole dresser full, of Palette from Knit Picks that I'd like to use up.  Or at least make a noticable dent in.  So I thought I'd knit a striped sweater.

And that's where the craziness kicked in.  I decided to take as many different colored skeins as I could cram into a large container with me to Winterfest.  While the moms are shopping in our booth, the kids can look through the yarn and choose a color.  Then I pull their age in yards off the skein and use that yarn to knit the next color stripe.  

And to make it more fun, I plan to post updates weekly?? Maybe every other week??  I haven't really decided that yet.  We'll just have to see how quickly the sweater progresses.  Since the kids seemed interested in seeing photos of their color choices knit up, I am hoping to post more frequently on Instagram.   

I think letting the kids choose the colors will make a fun and interesting sweater while taking the decision making pressure off me.  I'm going to do my very best to keep the stripes in the order the kids pick out but I may occasionally have to apply a little artistic license.  For example, three kids picked out the same color, one after the other Sunday night.  And one of those kids was 16 and the other two were both 10.  That would have made 36 yards of one color - so I decided to break them up a little.  But other than instances like that, I'm going to do my very best to (1) not influence the kids' color choices, and (2) keep the yarns they choose in the right order.

Wish me luck and a wearable sweater. 😊

Oh, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  I'm having a hard time believing it's Thanksgiving already.