My mom, the Lion, and the Harlot

My lateness of the season is well recognized - as a friend wrote in her Christmas card "I always look forward to your January letter". True to form, I didn't manage to get my gift package for my family sent out until December 23rd - and forgot to include my mom's present inside it.

I had been planning to send my mom the Booga Bag I knit for her last summer as a Christmas gift, but forgot to put it in the package I shipped down with all the Christmas presents. When I called her and told her her gift was coming later, she excitedly asked "well, what is it?" After prodding, I told her it was a felted bag. After a faintly disappointed pause, she admitted, "well, I'd really like a poncho".

Again, time to drop back and punt. My mom LOVES purple. She also loves synthetics - if it generates static electricity pulled over your head, she's into it. So on Boxing Day, I dutifully fought the crowds to buy a couple of skeins of Lion Brand Homespun, downloaded the Yarn Harlot's Very Harlot Poncho pattern and cast on.

I am by no means a yarn snob and was indeed seduced back into knitting by novelty yarn, but the Homespun was slippery, sweaty, and squeaky. I did not LOVE knitting with it, and when my crocheting stepdaughter on the couch next to me asked "what smells like rubbing alcohol?" I sheepishly indicated the pile on my lap. However, a couple of episodes of Firefly, the movie Serenity, and Bogarts Treasure of Sierra Madre later, it was done.
And although the yarn is not fun to knit with, the finished product is warm, silky, and comfortable.
Hooray! I feel like such a good daughter. Here it is.




In other holiday knitting, I finished off my Conwys. I went from thinking "yay, this twining cable is so fun and easy" to "when will this tedium end?" and was very happy to cast off. I am fretting about whether it will fit my friend, but since her feet are almost the same size as mine, I should stop worrying and just put it in her mail box.
These were on size 1 addis using Magic Loop, Fortissima Colori sock yarn, and would have taken a lot less time to knit if I wasn't so distracted by other projects....



Like these Polar bear mittens:




These are fulled mitts from the book "Knit Mittens". I think they are based on the traditional Lovikka mittens. In any case, after knitting they are fulled, brushed, and embroidered. This only took one evening to knit in Alafoss Lopi on big needles, and an hour or so to full the next morning.

I'd always heard that fulling or felting hid all sins, but in this case, the mittens started out the same size, then felted to slightly different dimensions. Oh well. They are still very soft, thick and warm.

I am also still somewhat addicted to Moebius knitting:



This is one of Cat's shaped Moebius scarves, the Mercurial Moebius from the First Treasury of Magical Knitting. The shape really makes the scarf behave differently when worn, and is very warm.
This one is Noro Kureyon in colorway #90, held with some sort of variagated mohair I had in my stash. 100 stitches MCO on size 13 needles - another fast knit.

I'm not sure about the fingers...I put them on by misinterpreting Cat Bordhi's instructions. I might rip the edge back and cast off more sedately.

Meanwhile, I am still working away on the Samus body, trying to keep up with my pal Andrea, cast on for legwarmers a la the Mintyfresh Legwarmer Knitalong and my moebius enabler Loretta has tempted me to cast on for the Arrow Pathways scarf. Since I am sleepless these days due to fretting about school and life, the only solution I see is to keep knitting.