Friday, November 21, 2008

Sweater and Santas





























I finished the body of Dakota Earth and Sky (Ta Da! The Title!)!! I wound 2 hanks of blue yarn for the final border (and used a small ball of already-wound intermediate blue) and some pale gray, but ended up not needing the darkest blue. So, now I have to do the steeking, the banding, the sewing, and the blocking. And then the sweating, because it's not going to be an indoor sweater (though it was only 12 degrees here this morning, so I suspect that I'll have plenty of reason to wear it outdoors).


But finish work is going to be interrupted, not only because I have to spin some more dark charcoal yarn for the bands, but because both sons, their SO's, some of each SO's family, and all three grands are going to be here for Thanksgiving, and I need to clean the house, and I want to have it all decorated before next Wednesday.


I started yesterday with the hand carved Santa display. About 15 years ago, I was driven to make Folk Art Santas. Of all the things I've made and done in my lifetime, I think these Santas come the closest to Art (with a Cap A). Each year, as I take them out of the box, I marvel again at whatever it was that pushed me to pick up a chisel (and mourn that the urge has gone completely). BTW- the little triangle Santas have Christmas Trees on the reverse side. Outside of the Half-Moon Sangta bowl on the top shelf (which was a gift), I carved all of the other Santas.

Today, I have out of town errands, and then I'll tackle The Big Tree. And maybe some steeking. Oh yeah, and cleaning...

6 comments:

RuthieJ said...

I love the colors in that sweater! I'm amazed at your speedy knitting abilities.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely gorgeous sweater! Someday, I'll tackle something in fair isle... someday... :-)

Stacy Kraus McDonald said...

The Santas are amazing!

Fríða said...

love your sweater, and your santas are just pretteeeee!
best wishes from Iceland
Frida

Kate/Massachusetts said...

You are truly amazing, Kathleen! The sweater and those santas are stunning!

OzKnitter said...

I'm constantly amazed at how quickly you make knitting progress on things that would take me eons! The sweater is beautiful and reminds me I need to pick up the stranded knitting I started twelve months ago...

The santas are fabulous!