Merry Christmas!

And a finished project or two!

We’re having a low key Christmas. Given the latest covid spike, we have been hanging close to home until we see how this looks for those of us vaccinated and boosted (which we both are). We’re supposed to leave for a two week vacation to Mexico in a couple of weeks. I’m not as much worried about getting Covid there, it sounds like they have a pretty strict masking policy in Puerto Vallarta, and we’ll be outside much of the time that we’re not in our rental place. There is a mandatory 14 day quarantine to reenter the US if we DO get sick, so that is a consideration. An unplanned 14 day lockdown in a foreign country likely wouldn’t be a whole lot of fun. We have not been more than 25 miles from home since March of 2020, so I am more than ready to get the hell out of here and go someplace. I’m just ready for this to be over, and pissed as hell at all the lunatics who have driven this pandemic to where we are.

But on to the knitting. There has been knitting.

New socks! The photo doesn’t show it well, but those are sparkly! The yarn is from West Yorkshire Spinners, one of my favorite sock yarns. The color is this year’s holiday themed yarn, Vintage Tinsel. It’s the same old pattern, size 2.00 mm double point needles. These are for me, just in time for Christmas. I started these November 6th, finished last night.

The bigger project is my Snark-o-Meter shawl. I finished it earlier this week, and it came off the blocking board today.

Project Details:

• Pattern: Snark-O-Meter mystery knit along, by Casapinka
• Yarn: The gold gradient is Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock yarn, the other three colors are also deep stash, three different shades of yarn from the Sanguine Gryphon, a long-closed shop.
• Needles: US size 3 and 5
• Started: August 14, 2021
• Finished: December 24, 2021
• For: ME
• Modifications: I added a section of 2 row color stripes to add a bit of length, otherwise it’s as written
• Rating: ***** on both yarn and pattern.
• What I learned: I don’t hate mystery knit alongs as much as I thought I do. I actually finished this in the same year that the KAL started, so I count that as a win. The changing stitch patterns were loads of fun, and these colors work together better than I had hoped.

There is already a new sock on the needles, and a new shawl. I’ll save that for next time.

Lastly, a photo of our Christmas tree.

I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season!