Slipping By

I forget how many years ago younger son face me a knit-your-own slippers kit for Christmas. I got everything made and actually sewed one together in the first year. Then, they migrated too far back in my basket of current projects and fell victim to the out-of-sight, out-of-mind curse. When the felted slippers made by a friend started to wear through, I dug these out, sewed the second one together, and continued to have warm feet through the rest of winter.

Paying It Forward the Second

I started this scarf back in 2006 or 2007, when I did an after-school knitting group with members of the academic team at the sons' high school. I finally finished it and sent it off to a high school classmate who responded to the pay-it-forward with something handmade Facebook meme.

Paying It Forward the First

The yarn is handpainted wool, purchased when I was in Montana in October 2011 to help scatter my dad's ashes. I started knitting the scarf to have something to work on while visiting friends in Maine in September 2012. I finished it in February and sent it to a friend's daughter who had responded to one of those Facebook memes of "I will make something for the first five people who comment on this post and promise to continue the making things for others bit." I also sent a small felted bag, but since I made that a couple years ago, it doesn't count here.

Classic Icelandic Cardigan

The husband and I went to Iceland in February 2010 to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary under the Northern Lights. While we were there, I insisted we make a stop at the Lopi outlet store, where we each picked out a pattern and the yarn for it. I finished the husband's sweater first, then started mine. It languished until 2013 because of my fear of cutting the steek to put in the zipper. I finally sucked it up, took it on, and finished it up right. Interestingly, I got a book on Icelandic handknits for Christmas, and both this cardigan and the sweater I made for the husband were in it. I guess both are basically classic or prototypical Icelandic knits.

Replacement Large Sweater

I had a large, loose, very comfortable sweater from Goodwill that I wore almost daily for several winters. When it was clearly on its last legs (or arms since sweaters usually don't have legs) in the fall of 2012, I bought some Icelandic Lopi bulky yarn on sale and commenced knitting a large, loose, very comfortable replacement. I finished this early on in 2013, and it served me well, including on a trip driving from Wyoming to Virginia through something called Winter Storm Q.