We're back from Christmas with family and had a wonderful time. Mom was able to participate in a lot of events, meals and travelling a bit while we were there. She really enjoyed being out of the assisted living center and with all of us. Sure wish we lived closer.

The sweater for sister was way, way, way too big for her. It just seemed to keep growing in length as well as the sleeves being monsterous. I've reclaimed it for myself and started adjusting by taking 4" off the bottom and knitting tighter ribbing andthen taking about 3" off the sleeves and making tighter ribbing there. Last was to rip the rolled collar and put in a graduated ribbing to tighten up the neck.



Not sure what to do about the underarms near the body but am thinking of basting a curved line from the elbow to 2-3" down the body to see if that will get rid of some of the bulk. If it does, will machine sew and then cut out the excess. At least the cables look good.

I've started "Town & Country" from Lisa Lloyd's book "A Fine Fleece" in purple Cascade 220. That will be her very late Christmas present. And yes we remeasured her to be sure this one fits. The yellow one was in too heavy a yarn (Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride) and it dragged the sweater too much to hold it's shape. Oh well!

It's done! Sister's sweater is drying on the wooly board. It turned out larger than I wanted as my gauge changed part way through the bottom. Oh well - if she doesn't wnat it, I'll take it home to cold, winter Maine. I doubt she will pass it up as it will make a great outdoor VA winter sweater.



Met up with friend Shirley and her DH today for lunch. She gifted me with a gorgeous pair of mittens and a bag of home made ginger snaps. The mittens will be well used.







The next project might be another stranded/fair isle sweater. I went stash shopping today and pulled every single of the 20 colors for Lismore, an Alice Starmore design from "The Celtic Collection". Here is a link to another knitter's photos in progress to see the basic colors - http://theraineysisters.com/?cat=19 . The original pattern called for Rowan yarns, long out of production. An internet friend who is a master AS fair isle knitter sent me her yarn conversion list to Jamieson & Smith jumper weight yarns. I changed out a couple but mostly liked what she had done. I'll leave them laid out for a few days to see if they grow on me or not as this will be a very long knit and I've got to really like it.

Snowed again today but the temperature keeps going up and rain will follow. The roof ice dam electric cables worked well so maybe we can prevent ice dams this year

Racing to the end of the yellow sweater. Not a great photo but it shows the bottom down 10". Hope I'm not knitting on the drive to mom's for Christmas.



First good sized snow storm supposed to come in early next week. We've finished and wrapped holiday gifts. A few will go into the mail today. House is decorated in the minor manner we do so all we need is a bit of snow to get into the mood.