ready, set, go!

This year I am beginning my holiday knitting cheerfully and willingly! (Maybe it's because I've been doing so much knitting for myself lately...heh heh.) Oh yes, I said holiday knitting. I know I'm not the first to start, but I'm starting earlier than I did last year. And I have a plan. And I made my sister swear that the family doesn't hate getting handknit gifts from me every year.

The first thing I've done is resurrect a project I started about a year ago: the Lucy in the Sky cardigan. I'm using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a really pretty dark, muted purple. I'm also working on the Cabled Gloves from Vogue Knitting Fall 2007. I've already run into problems with the cable chart. Actually, I pulled one of my signature Panic First, Think Later moves. I could NOT figure out the instructions for the "right twist" and sent a frantic message to a fellow Raveler (knitsynthesis) who replied promptly and explained the "right twist" in perfectly plain English, leaving me wondering why the heck Vogue couldn't do the same thing?! Well. Turns out I was reading the directions for the Cabled Coat, instead. Boy that would have been a surprise---to think you're knitting a glove and wind up with a cabled coat! The chart is still a little whack, but I've got it under control now. Sometimes I wonder how I get anything knit at all.

I also started a hat for my brother-in-law. Originally, I wanted to knit the We Call Them Pirates Mittens for him, but I showed the pattern to my sister, who felt that he was not the "plundering type." Boo. She said he would DEFINITELY wear a hat if I knit one. I sent her about six different patterns and she picked the most boring ones for him. I didn't want to knit him something he could just get anywhere, so I took matters into my own hands and decided to knit the Utopia Hat by smariek. I'm using Elann Peruvian Sierra Aran, since I had 2 full skeins left over from my Dad's sweater last year, and the color was just right for my brother-in-law. Now I'm hoping I have enough yarn.