The boys Aran sweaters are done and machine washed and dried to be sure they held up and didn't shrink or pill. The blue one is for a 5th birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. It's a good weight for this time of year and a bit big so he should get a year or two out of it. It is made out of Plymouth Encore Chunky on size 9 which is way larger scale than my last few years of knitting. The red sweater is the same yarn and is a good brick red, not orangey like in the photo. Gloomy rainy day in Maine today and not good light for picture taking. I was going to give them for Christmas gifts but the birthday is first and (along with a small toy) will be usable now. The red is for a 1 1/2 year old and it already looks too small. Better give it now before he outgrows it.

We went through the dozens of quilts and quilt tops in the house this morning trying to see if there were one that would work well for mom as a lap quilt Christmas gift. Lots of square wall hangings that didn't work, large quilts way too big, and class samples that look worn. There were a couple of UFOs (unfinished objects) that have possibilities but Joe and I took down the boxes of reds and off whites in case none of the UFS caught my fancy. Will probably spend the afternoon rotary cutting strips for a red/white scrap quilt. Have a good book called "Combing through the Scraps" by Karen Coombs that has a lot of graphic scrap quilts in it. I've been knitting so much lately, I've missed the quilting. Nice book if you like scrap quilting http://tinyurl.com/y9hq9z