I have been knitting!

I was chatting with Michele of PDXKnitterati about her newest scarf design and she asked if I'd like to test knit it. Since I would be using my own yarn, I said sure!

I was able to make some suggestions to make the pattern easier to read for a beginner knitter and I got a scarf that I'll be able to gift to someone this holiday season. A win-win! Plus, I get some test knit credit for it too. ;-)

Since that project went well, I thought I might be over my knitting slump and while in one of the Ravelry groups saw a suggestion for doing the BFF cowl in Oregon State University colors. I thought that might make a nice hostess gift for my cousin's wife. She's been hosting the HUGE family Thanksgiving since my Aunt Zoe Anne has had breast cancer.

Kristin is an elementary school teacher and a busy mom of three kids, so I did it out of a mystery orange acrylic I had gotten and some Lion's Brand Wool-Ease. I think it came out well and hopefully she likes it!

I was in the middle of working on the BFF when I commented on Larissa Brown's Litla shawl that she posted in FaceBook. One thing lead to another and I was soon test knitting for her the Litla shawl. Its one of the only times I can think of that I actually did a gauge swatch! I had to go up a needle size to get close to gauge and was still a little off, but I don't think its enough to affect the end shawl. ;-)

This too is planned as a gift. Anyone who is in the SCA with me could probably see the connection, but I'm not going to spell it all out here. Suffice to say that I was also able to help make the pattern easier to read and solved a math crunch at a critical point. ;-) I get another lovely finished item to give as a gift and Larissa's offered me another shawl pattern as a thank you.

Here's my Litla Shawl:

I'll need to make a little shawl pin to keep it closed, but that will be fun for me to do too!

With these three successes, I hope to do a slew of slippers, so look for those coming soon! I'm going to continue my success by re-visiting Michele's Thrumbelina slippers first. I might let Brandon drive so I can start these on our way down for Thanksgiving in Corvallis.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgivings surrounded by family and friends!