Christmas in Alexandria

We saw a beautiful green wreath in Old Town Alexandria yesterday. I had to get closer to see what it was made with. Amazingly, it was done with brussel sprouts. How original and quite a striking wreath.

With four days off from work, I have been getting a lot of knitting done. I am trying to get some things together to take with us to the Continental Line annual meeting. So far, I have knit a Liberty or Death Cap and two Monmouth Caps (in my new design). I want to knit one more Monmouth Cap and then two or three pairs of stockings.

Hopefully everyone had a great Christmas. The pies were delicious.

The Hawk Cometh

Every winter we have hawks that come to our yard and eat the birds that come to the bird feeder - mostly Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk. Saturday, we had a visit from one of the hawks. It just sat there on the fence waiting for a bird to make a mistake.

In the past, I have seen the hawk on the ground jumping from bush to bush looking for any birds that are hiding. Our neighbor has reported that they have had one on their sky light eating a bird.

I knit a mobius scarf today. Now I am knitting a head warmer to match.

Home Sick - Socks Knit

I stayed home from work today with a cold. I didn't get much sleep. My husband is sick as well but he had to go to work. The only thing I really missed was the office Christmas Party.

Gave me time just to sit in front of my knitting machine with Gwen on my shoulder and knit some socks. Both are Christmas gifts. Nice. It will be an early night tonight. I am exhausted.

And in my new packaging, they look like this when finished.

Knitting Machine Eats Socks

While trying to knit some more machine knit socks, I purchased the wrong size yarn. I have two balls of Knitpicks Andean Treasured (100% baby alpaca) in Woods and four in Mystery Heather that I had planned on turning into man's socks (for Christmas). These are sport weight yarn balls which my knitting machine decided it didn't want anything to do with except to eat the yarn. I just don't do enough hand knitting to justify keeping these in reserve.

Know anyone that is in need of some soft baby alpaca?

Christmas is Getting Closer

Finished knitting another pair of stockings. These no longer have holes showing the increases up the leg.




And, I finally put up a Christmas decoration - on my front door.

Sock Difficulties

I finished knitting another scarf. This time with KnitPicks Imagination in Seven Dwarves. Very nice yarn. I didn't make socks out of them due to their chance of felting (they are marked as machine washable).


I have stopped making socks for right now. I usually make over the knee stockings and I never do ribbing at the top. With the regular socks that I have been trying to knit, I haven't found a way to add ribbing to the top in a manner that looks good, isn't too much of an issue, and can be done using the machine.

But, I finally figured out what to do. Not on my own though. I had help from another machine knitter, Lorna in Australia through Ravelry. Thanks Lorna. She has coached me into buying some decker combs to be able to move one bed of stitches over the the other bed. She has been doing it and her socks look great. I especially love her Marokko Socks.

I also caught Gwen playing with a toy with red and blue LEDs.

Not a Finished Pair of Socks

I knit up a sock using KnitPicks Risata. I am not happy with this yarn. Works great until you have an issue- like ripping out stitches or grabbing a lost stitch. When that happens, the yarn untwists and is difficult to handle.


I balled up some other yarn that I can't wait to use - Knitpicks Imagination. Pictures later.

Tomorrow evening we are going to the DC zoo to hear Irene Pepperberg speak about her new book Alex and Me. She is the woman that trained Alex the African Grey Parrot. I am really looking forward to it.

Another Pair of Socks

I finished another pair of Christmas socks. These are made form Knitpicks Shimmer in Bayou. I double-stranded this lace weight yarn. I love this pattern and am probably going to make a few more.




I knitted my new heel on these stockings (see detail below). Instead of having the usual machine knit heel I attempted to make these more hand-knitted in style. I believe this is what I need to do with all of my re-enactment stockings since I am attempting to mimic the hand-knit stockings of the day, not machine knit.


This yarn is very soft and I believe the color is good to give these socks to a man on my Christmas list.

Another Pair of Socks Completed

This is the first time that I am posting my blog using email while I sit in the Dallas Fort Worth airport waiting for a flight.

I finished my pair of Noro socks.

I brought my Baby Cables sweater with me but in my rush out the door, I grabbed the wrong yarn. So instead I was working on my travel sock. I am now at the heel so perhaps I can finish the sock this trip. I'll try to take a picture tonight in the room.

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