Hiccup...

I had good intentions of posting a couple more freebie patterns well in time for Christmas knitting. However, I've run into a couple hiccups in them, mainly in sizing, that will require some extra test-knitting time on my part so I can make sure things are accurate. Unfortunately, due to the Christmas knitting that still remains for me, I can't do that just now. So! I do apologize. I will get the patterns out as soon as I can, if not in time for Christmas knitting, then in time for some relaxing, post-holiday, curl-up-with-cocoa-under-an-afghan-and-watch-the-snow-coming-down-outside knitting. I don't know about you, but that's some of my favorite kind of knitting. :)

Here's a little tease, though...a swatch I'm working up in Malabrigo Rios, Sunset colorway...

Have you knit with Rios yet? Oh! My! Goodness! It is sooooo soft and squishy! It is my new favorite superwash worsted weight yarn. Actually, I'm being redundant in saying that, because I already shared one picture of a Christmas gift in progress that I made out of the Playa colorway, and I said the same thing in that post. But honestly? It bears repeating! It's just that good! And in a package from The Loopy Ewe today, I got a third colorway, Lettuce, that I can't wait to knit with. I hope they come out with more colorways for Rios, because I am totally smitten, and at $13.60 per 210 yard skein, I think it's an affordable option for gift knitting when you want to give something that doesn't need to be hand washed but you want it to have a nicer feel than, say, Cascade 220 Superwash (not that I'm bashing C220S...it's often my go-to, non-hand-wash, gift knitting yarn, mainly due to the multitude of colors available).

So, even though I don't have time to polish these last couple patterns right now, they will hopefully be the first of several I plan to publish in 2011. Interestingly, the more I work on writing up these patterns, the more pattern ideas I seem to get. I think that is the way of creativity. I remember that was always the case back when I was working as a freelancer. The more I wrote, the more ideas for writing I'd get, which is a far better problem to have than writer's block or - in this case - designer's block!

In the mean time, I've done a little housekeeping and rearranging here on the blog, including adding icons over there in the right sidebar that link to each of my available patterns. All but the Call Before Digging pattern are free (F), so please enjoy them. Maybe one or two will make the perfect gifts for folks on your list this year!

On another note, remember my nice, neat, new yarn room? Yeah...not so neat right now! Ack!

I put the card table up last weekend, brought all of my Christmas wrapping supplies up from the basement and set up camp for gift wrapping. I must admit, it's really nice to have the option of using this space in here for this task instead of having it spread throughout the whole dining room the entire month of December. Of course, when you supply the universe with a horizontal surface, it will attract matter, as you can see! In addition to my projects that keep landing there, my daughter has been making use of the space as she's worked on some of her own Christmas gift crafts (which I LOVE that she's making gifts, and they're turning out really well, too!). What you can't see is the ironing board she also had up, effectively making it an obstacle course to get to my desk. I tidied up a bit right after I took the picture. ;)

How's your holiday crafting coming along? What all are you making this year?

(ETA: I've needed to turn comment moderation on. If you comment & don't see it post right away, that's why! Sorry for the inconvenience.)