the first wash.

there is nothing-nothing- like handknit socks. fancy, plain, scalloped, fuzzy, angora, worsted...i don't care. any will do. if you have not the occasion to wear a pair, i highly suggest it. and if you are not much of a knitter-- i still encourage you to get down to work. there is a great 'classic sock' patters available in most yarn stores. and i'm not a strong knitter but was able to fashion alexander these brown and red cuties in last year. i was lucky enough to have a dear friend show me how to turn a heel but other than that things went pretty smoothly. the small red socks on the left were knit up by my friend jill and given to me for christmas. oh the coziness. as soon as i put them on i never wanted to take them off. having knitted for others, i myself, had never had anything knit for me before (see the hats post for more of jill's lovely work). i have hardly ever felt so pampered as when i first put those ruby slippers right on!
well - as you can imagine i wore them. a lot. and so this week they had their very first handwashing. i threw in alex's for good measure.
now our cozies are all fresh and new again!

all hail handmade coziness!

the swap.

here it was. jill nad i were at the common ground fair back in september. we decided we would pick up a few skeins of yarn and make eachother a cozy hat before it got too cold. mine (the one jill made for me) was aptly titled the 'autumn leaves hat, with secret heart' (because it had a secret heart sewn into the back)and the one i made jill...well..as you can see it befell a much different name. an apology. i just put hers in the mail on monday a full 3 months i've been wearing MY cozy hat!
also- one really neat thing about our hats are that while jill's is a peachy orange and mine is a pinky red the accent color is from the same skien of yarn. and it is this terrific bulky weight yarn with all of these great variations and slight flaws and a bit of glitter running through it!
well - at least i finished it in time for three snowstorms in one week! hope your cozy jill!

a strong knitter

i help teach kindergarten and so, i get some of my inspiration from my 4-6 years olds. they can knit, sew and some can even play the fiddle. talk about motivation...to keep up at least!