Did I finish the Icarus shawl in time for Christmas? Yes, barely! As it turned out, the final rows and bind off were more intimidating on paper than on the needles. A long car trip on the 23rd provided lots of time to finish the edging. It blocked overnight and by the 24th Icarus was ready to go, a whole day to spare.

thanks to squid for modeling

a close up of the edging

It was a very shawly Christmas at my house. In addition to the Icarus Shawl for my mom, I also gave an Ene's Scarf to my grandmother.

Ene's Scarf is worked from the long edge in, so it starts with the longest rows of 400 or so stitches, and decreases on each row. I like how those daunting long rows are completed while the project is new and exciting. However, errors on these rows can happen - on Ene's, I had to rip out the edging and redo it because I placed the center point not at the center, and only realized it after the whole edging was complete. oops.

In the end I won't remember redoing the edging on one or fretting over having enough time to complete the other. They are both great patterns. It looks like I tend to choose simple, modern shawl patterns. I like that you can see the components that make up the shawls fairly easily - Icarus has those straight lines that morph into feathers with the edging, and Ene's is made up of a center textural pattern plus an edging. Next, maybe I will try something more complex..

This year I sewed a whole bunch of box bags as gifts, and made a coordinated zip bag for each shawl (More on my box bag obsession in a future post).

Technical details on these projects are on ravelry:
Green Icarus Shawl
Red Ene's Scarf

and no, I didn't choose red and green for these shawls as part of a Christmas theme.. it is just a coincidence..

Way back in September, I found this Tofutsies sock yarn and decided it would make a good pair of socks for my brother. I've never made socks for Lars because he doesn't like itchy wool. Tofutsies is 50% wool, plus cotton, soy, and chitin, and felt non-itchy to me.

Then, of course I forgot about the yarn until mid-December when I realized I better get going if these were going to get done in time for Christmas. It was a close call - I finished them December 24th! Sidenote: while knitting them at the airport on the 24th, I met a woman who made 18 pairs of socks for the holidays! She said she started knitting in September. She must have knitted only socks for three months. That's dedication.

The pattern is the Gentleman's Plain Winter Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks, and I extended the ribbing down the whole cuff and instep. Someday I will knit these socks as written, but they seemed huge when knit in stockinette rather than ribbing. Is it Elizabeth Zimmermann who says the best fitting socks are ribbed? I believe it.

The heel is a new one for me, the Dutch heel. Its hard to see in the photos, but there is a set of 5 stitches that curve under the heel. I thought this might be uncomfortable, but was short on time to change it. Plus, the Dutch have likely used this heel for hundreds of years, right? must be okay. Lars ended up liking them, so all was good! Next year, I will start knitting sooner!

Specs:
Needle: Size 0, Magic Loop
Yarn: Tofutsies, plus some Lang Jawoll Reinforcement Thread for the heels and toes.
Pattern: Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks from
Ravelry Link