Finally!

About the third week of October I finally sent in Level II of the Master Knitter course.  What a relief to have it out of my house and off my mind, as I don't expect it back for at least another month or so.
Finishing up this level made me crazy.  Right now I'm not feeling like I want to go on to Level III, but we'll see how many things I have to resubmit to pass Level II.

At a doctor's visit this week, the doctor noticed my barn jacket (pattern on Ravelry) and told me she is a knitter too although she claims to have two left hands and three thumbs.  I'm glad she's not my surgeon! She said she'd like to knit socks but has trouble managing those "double sided" needles.  I told her about using two circulars and later e-mailed the Simple Sock On Two Circulars pattern I wrote a few years ago for the class I taught.

I also sent that pattern to the young man who waited on me at Office Max who was having trouble learning to turn a heel.  Amazing how I seem to find other knitters everywhere.

Learned yesterday that Braeden, age two and a half, asked to wear his backhoe sweater on Thanksgiving.  (Photo on my ravelry projects page) .  Braeden is our next door neighbor who often asks to come see my husband, Clint,  and dearly loves all kinds of big equipment, especially backhoes.  He doesn't seem to have any feelings for me one way or the other, but I keep making sweaters for him anyway just because he's so cute.

My birthday is coming up soon, and I'm using it as an excuse to get all kinds of goodies I've wanted for a while.  Yesterday the UPS man brought three books: Stephanie Pearl McPhee's newest "All Wound Up,"  Mary Jane Mucklestone's beautiful new book of fair isle patterns, and Shirley Paden's book on knitwear design.  What a volume that one!  It could be a design college textbook.  Can't wait to finish my Christmas knitting so I can start a new project using the techniques in Shirley's book.

Speaking of Christmas knitting, I have several projects in process, and can't quite seem to finish any of them.  One sweater only needs a button band and buttons, one is about a third finished, a scarf needs to be a little longer, a cowl is waiting to be cast on, and one sweater is waiting to be sewn up, although that may take a bit of doing since when blocking the pieces I discovered that while the sleeves and back are worked with raglan shaping, the fronts are designed for set-in sleeves.  How on earth I managed that one, I do not know, but to comfort myself from this strange turn of events, I've made three Scandinavian fair isle mittens since last Friday.  All for right hands.  The first was too small, the second too big, and the third just right. (I'm wondering if the Big Bad Wolf is waiting to gobble me up).  No, it's just that all these projects needing to be done before the 25th are gobbling me up.  The second mitten to match the third - that does make sense, think about it - may have to wait until January, or at least until Dec. 26th.

I hope everyone else is doing better than I am with the Christmas knitting.  Maybe I should think about a nice glass of wine rather than Scandinavian mittens.