Major Catching-up to Do

It sure has been a long time.  We're all healthy, and confused by the weather:  A few days of minus 30 then a few days of plus temperatures.  Lots of ice.  Will start by catching up on projects since the last time I shared with you.  The girls all got cocoon scarves, also my 2 best friends.
The girls also got their perennial socks, this time with metallic threads in them:

Kubota Man got his Retro sweater.  He wanted one like his grandpa's heavy sweaters with deer and fish on them, but no pictures.  He chose Briggs &Little yarns, Sheep's Grey and Light Grey, which I plied together to make bulky weight.  He practically slept in it for the first few days.

Daughter #1 got her Mary Maxim Swing coat, which I had to knit twice, because the pattern didn't work out right, and with the gauge the pattern required, the sweater grew and grew as I was knitting it.  So, having made a poor product, I frogged, and re-knit it with smaller needles, the way I thought it should be--and it worked.  She loved it!

I've also started on my 2011 goals:  this year everyone gets their sweaters as soon as they are finished.  Youngest daughter's 2011 sweater.  She received it and wore it right the next day.

And there are always the Prayer Shawls: 2 more Rainbow Baby Shawls:

A pair of socks for me (the raspberry aloe vera socks) and a pair for my cousin in Germany.

Also a white wool scarf with multi-colored metallic threads:  I call it the Snow Queen Scarf--a gift to myself.

Then for a while I was working on a test-knit for a ravelry friend "Brunhilde", sorry I can't do the link.  At the time of this picture, the long sleeves weren't finished yet.

Another project that I'm just loving is my Design Challenge for a Ravelry group.  Here is the yarn from Virtual Yarns (Alice Starmore's site) in the Shetland Islands.  I can show a sneak peek of the ribbing, but the sweater can't be revealed because I have submitted it to a magazine.

And, finally, the start of some more 2011 projects:  Zack in Black, a sweater that Dughter 3's boyfriend requested;  Black, with a bit of red trim.

My Irish Moss sweater from the Alice Starmore book:  Aran Knits.

So that's all the knitting news.  I'm almost finished the re-decorating, just the back porch and crown mouldings left to paint.  The downstairs and two bedrooms of crown mouldings will be on the agenda for Fall.  Next week we are going back into the greenhouses again.  That's kind of a bittersweet time.  It's exciting when we first start, a nice change from winter, but it soon gets to be too much work.  But spring comes quickly once we're in the greenhouse.

In the middle of March I will get phase 2 of my dental implants, then a new denture to clip on, and, I really hope that is the end of my painful mouth.  But since I put on 15 pounds over Christmas and due to inactivity, I hope that being able to eat lots of raw veggies and the spring work will help me get trim again.

Till next time :  Memories are stitched with love.