rock on

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and has stuffed themselves accordingly as a kick off to the "eating season": the period between Thanksgiving and the New Year when you constantly have a mouth full of food.

Thanksgiving was a little stressful for me this year. I offered to host, so my Mom could have a break and focus on her health issues, but she refused--so my sister and I ended up trekking over to her house several hours early on Thursday to do the cooking in her tiny kitchen. Of course, despite strict instructions to kick back and relax, she insisted on fussing about the kitchen, snarling at us when we tried to do something the "wrong" way. Not really relaxing for anyone. But the food was good and there was plenty of it--so much that I couldn't even manage to scarf down any pie after dinner.

So after that nonsense, I was happy to return home from Thanksgiving #2 (at the in-laws) last night to find my third package from the Falling for Ewe yarn swap. Check out the awesomeness:

The dark yarn, I'm quite happy to say, is Socks That Rock! I've been dying to try it, I'm so psyched. The lighter yarn is a delightfully squishy wool/silk blend that I can't wait to knit something snuggly with.

In other knitting news, I'm slowly slowly slowly working on un-knitting the last row of the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I have very limited patience for it, so I give up every 10 stitches or so.

I did manage to finished a project, I'm happy to say: the Through the Loops Mystery Socks are complete.Lovely pattern, interesting but not overly complicated.

And I've managed to actually get started on 2 Christmas gifts!

Classic Gloves

Using some KPPP I originally bought to make socks for J and then realized didn't have the necessary yardage.

Shifting Sands

Using this GORGEOUS Manos del Uruguay silk blend in pewter; I just adore this shade of gray/blue.

Shifting Sands, I'm delighted to report, has me using all kinds of new techniques. First, I decided to try Jared/Brooklyn Tweed's mods to create a hem, so I did a provisional cast on. Then, after finding the constant cabling too fiddly, I decided to try cabling without a cable needle. I got the hang of it very quickly I'm glad to say (I've knit about 2 more inches since I took the picture), and it really makes this a much much easier project--I knit through Home Alone this afternoon. :)