Long Update since this has been in draft form for a day and half and since it is 2 weeks til Christmas, projects NEED to fly off the needles! :)

I cast on for the next gift today. I wanted something that would knit up quickly - hey it is December 11th!!! But I also wanted something that would be warm. The gal at my lys pointed me toward Lamb's Pride Superwash Wool, it looked good, I figured I'd give it a whirl. The pattern I decided to go with is knit flat and then seamed, but I didn't want garter stitch (already done those from the Knit Stitch), and this pattern uses SS. I doubled the yarn since I wanted to do the bulky weight sizing and so far I'm really loving it! Oh, did you notice that I went off my diet today??? Oh dear, well it is for a gift and that doesn't count does it? Here is the finished pic:



One very cool thing that I noticed is that I am now able to rib continental - how cool is that? I still can't purl very easily, but for some reason the 1x1 ribbing is fine - since the yarn slips to the back after I purl, it kinda works. I do end up twisting the stitches, but learned that if I knit into the back of the twisted stitches on the next row, it straightens them out. I believe I learned that tidbit from Stitch 'N' Bitch. Thanks Debbie!

And for a close up of the 1x1 rib, which just looks neat:


I also managed to get my latest Booga J Bag into the washer and it is now blocking. I think that means only 2 more to go! If I have enough yarn and time I think I will try to make another for a friend who has helped out watching Sean several times when I needed someone. The currently blocking bag is made with a new yarn for me. It is from Elann, it is their Peruvian Wool - the best thing about this wool is that it is slightly thinner in weight than the Lamb's Pride, which means that it WILL go through my handy Icord maker! (Lamb's Pride it just too thick and it gets stuck). I think it may be worth it to not have to do the Icord to switch to the Peruvian Wool - I also changed the needle size that I normally do (10 1/2) to 9. Guess I will have to pick up a new Addi size 9 this weekend :)

Here are a couple other FOs that I don't think I posted before. First is the finished Haiku:


Next is the Baby Albert:


I got an email the other day asking what progress I've made on the Prepschool Ties - basically the answer is not much. They are soooo slow going, perhaps in January they will become my car projects that just live in the car. Here are the latest photos with Prepschool #1 and then Prepschool #2 (the regia one).