All I ever do . . .

I recently joined an online knitting community which links to my blog, so I guess it's about time I blogged about knitting, lest someone visit me here and get the mistaken impression I don't care about the craft.

I've been trying to hand make all my gifts this year. It's been challenging, but fun. And since I love to knit, most of the gifts are turning out to be knitted. If I run out of time, you get baked goods. Please don't interpret this to mean I love you less. It simply means that you should have chosen your special day with more care in regards to my available time.

Anyway, here are a few projects I've worked on since January:

A "prayer shawl" for Grandma. My own design.

A scarf for Mother (out of some yarn she gave me, some stuff I had on hand, and my own design).

A hat for Sakhmet's Valentine's Day, in an attempt to do penance for never sending her Christmas gift on time. My first attempt with soy yarn. (Pattern from The Knitter's Bible: Knitted Accessories)

Daltonboy's Valentine's socks. Some pattern I got free off the Internet. I think it was called "Men's Socks." I know they're boring, but that's the way he wanted them.

Daltonboy's Valentine's hat. Made by request--my own design, which I'm happy to share if anyone is interested.

Daltonboy has more photos of the rest of the stuff I've done on his camera, because believe me--when you work this hard on stuff, you want it documented! Perhaps I'll post additional pics later.

I've also finished one bootie, one wristlet, 1/15th of a sweater, and half of a poncho. If any of you have a baby with one leg or a child with one arm, let me know. I will cut you a deal.

I can't tell you what the current project is, because it would ruin someone's Mother's Day surprise, so stay tuned. But I was knitting furiously last night when the family was over for dinner, and my niece said, "All you EVER do is knit!" This after eating the dinner and dessert I made. And I'm pretty sure I did put down needles and yarn for the few moments it took me to throw that together. But if I had my way, all I would ever do is knit. So maybe she was right about where my heart is.

And finally, a shout out to my friend Robbie, who got me back into knitting after my stash sat idle for many years. I joined her knitting group a few months ago, made some great new friends, and then the leader of that group got overwhelmed with life and had to dissolve it. So we're going out on our own and starting a new group. Hopefully this will be as fun and inspiring as the last group was.