Well, Well, Well

....can we just pretend that I haven't been ignoring this blog?  I've honestly thought about not writing it anymore, but every time I click on "memories" and am awarded with pics of the boys and silly stories from the last ten years, I don't want to quit.  (SHUT UP....ten years???)  I know that I write mostly for myself, and my husband, mom and maybe a friend read, but really, it's just to preserve what I want to preserve:  time.

So anyway.....here goes.

1. I successfully said "no."  Mostly by non-action, but a "no" nonetheless!  I swiftly avoided the school fundraiser.  The kids came home from school all excited, saying "MOM!  We could win a Nintendo Switch!  We only have to sell like a million items in the fundraiser to win!"  Well bud, we have a small family and not a big need for cookies, wrapping paper and magazine subscriptions.  Mom does a great job ignoring the magazine subscriptions that she already has.  (Except the knitting ones, of course!)  So the deadline quietly slipped by and I triumphantly recycled the materials. 

2.  We're having a really weird Autumn.  No foliage, and warm temps.  I keep forgetting it's October.  Until yesterday, we were still using air conditioning.  Usually by now I'm bringing out the cooler weather clothes.  Not that this has stopped Sean from wearing long pants and a henley shirt every morning.  And no matter how many times I send him back to change, he's unhappy about it.  That boy is always freezing....he's the only person I know that needs a sweatshirt at the dinner table if the window is open.  My sweet, chilly boy. 

3.  Speaking of Sean, he had a great solution for being out of chip clips the other day.  He grabbed a toy wrench to keep a bag of frozen strawberries from rolling and spilling the other day.  Nice.

4.  In less than two weeks, I'm going to have a pre-teen.  That's right....Will's turning 11.  I wonder if he'll get a Hogwarts letter?  I'm prepared to be super jealous. 

And finally,

5.  I'm not knitting Christmas gifts this year.  Yes, you read that right.  I'm giving myself a gift of less stress at the holidays, and I'm knitting what I please instead.  Which turns out to be shawls for me actually, who knew? 

Maybe the next post will be about Halloween.  We shall see.

Loading--Please Wait

Oh, my poor neglected blog.  What can I say?  Stuff happens, I want to write about it but then things get busy.  So here's some things that have happened.

-I took on a new property for my job.  Note:  I didn't get a new job.  I took on a SECOND property.  More work, (hopefully) more money.  So needless to say things have been BUSY!!  I start my days early and work late, last night I was here til 6pm.

-I went to this year's NERSC conference!  It was up in Rockport, ME, which was beautiful.  Not a lot of sun, but it is Maine in the spring, so what are you gonna do?  I walked the Samoset Breakway one day and that was breezy and the perfect ocean setting for a walk.  I spent an extra day up in Maine to visit friends, and all around had a good time.  An exhausing good time, and a good time nonetheless.

-TheWebs Tent Sale is coming up!!!  Or what I sometimes call "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year."  :)  I'm usually pretty organized about it, and have a list going months in advance.  Um....I made the list last week on the back of some junk mail and it has like four things on it.  I guess pulling my yarn stash out of the closet twice for the air conditioning repair guy (it's been replaced...yesssss)  has made me re-evaluate my yarn stash.  Somewhere my husband is jumping for joy...

-It's almost the end of the school year!!  Yep, limping along to the finish line.  More MCAS testing today for  my oldest, and my younger boy has his end of the year field trip next week.  What a year...it absolutely flew by.  Now we're back to making summer plans.

Well, now that I've read this, I've got to say....busy, but not super interesting.  Anyway, Happy Spring and maybe see you next month.

Last Knit of 2016....

....was a hat for one of the karate instructors at the boys' school.  She had been through some tough stuff and I saw that she liked slouchy hats.  Blue's her favorite, so I set out to find blue yarn in my stash.

I didn't find much....

Brian picked out the pattern ("Greystone" on Ravelry) and it was off to the races!  At first everything was going well, until I missed some cables because I was engrossed in a little binge-watching of "Code Black,"

The end result?  Stunning.

BTW--meet Greta.  Greta is going to model all of my hats from now on.  She was a Christmas gift and although she's creepy-looking, I think she's awesome.  The hat makes her slightly less creepy, but only slightly.

Rhinebeck!!

Mom and I made the trek out to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in mid -October.  If you love fiber arts and yarn, it is THE place to be!  Alpacas and sheep, knitting notions, clothing, souvenirs, project bags and YARN!!!  So much to choose from.  And the people watching is pretty incredible too.  Everyone wears Hand-knit so there's a lot of oohing and ahhing, as people add more projects to their Ravelry queues.  Most of the time everyone is friendly and you meet lots of people.  The only dust-up was at the Miss Babs yarn booth.  Frantic, crazy knitters high on yarn fumes!!  I will have to check out Miss Babs online to find out what that was all about. 

And I finished The Joker and the Thief in time to wear it!  This was a beast... it ate yarn like nobody's business.  I ran out of yarn several times, and ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money to finish it.  It's gorgeous though, and I couldn't be happier with it. 

I came home with something that I've wanted for a while....a Harry Potter project bag.  Apparently they're a little difficult to find.  I spotted this and snatched it up quickly, MINE!  :)

The weekend was dual-purposed....to enjoy yarn obviously, but to distract from the upcoming kidney surgery.  Yep.....another boulder stuck between kidney and bladder.  I was shocked and bummed to get the news.  Mom and I had so much fun though, that I forgot several times!

2016 Ravellenic Games!!

Now that Cursed Child has come out and I've read it (I have mixed reviews.....I liked it but I didn't LOVE it) it's time for the next thing:  the 2016 Ravellenic Games!

The Ravellenic Games, formerly known as the Knitting Olympics, is something that Ravelry puts on and takes place during the Olympics.  You challenge yourself to do something yarn-related starting during the Opening Ceremonies and finishing during the Closing Ceremonies.  I've done it twice, getting medals during the 2010 games in Vancouver and the 2012 games in London.  (I don't know what I was doing in 2014 during the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.)  Looking to add 2016 in Rio to my Knitting Glory List.

Usually I cast on something new and challenge myself to finish it.  The first time, I was a green knitter and cast on a simple scarf.  In 2012, we were on vacation and on the road a lot.  So I challenged myself to make as many baby hats for charity as I could in that time period.  This year, casting on something new seemed daunting.  So I am wrestling with WIP's.  (works in progress.)  I chose six things:

My Hufflepuff House Scarf, which just needs ends woven in and fringe.

My Sewanee shawl, which is off on it's stitch count before I can do the lace edging.

Oh my goodness---my spring cardigan.  This thing.....I want to finish but I don't know if I ever will.  I'm going to try!

A newborn hat and sock set--I can remember working on this in 2014 and tossing it aside, since it didn't have an intended recipient.  Hat and one sock are done, and how hard can it be to pull off a second sock?  Pretty hard, I guess.

Sundance lacy hat for charity-a little white lace hat that I started the other night while waiting (fuming) on additional yarn for something else.  (I'm not ready to talk about it.)

And finally, the damned, damned blue vanilla socks.  

Thanks to Brian hooking up a fancy antenna to our TV (no channel 7 on DirecTv because of some crazy dispute) I will be watching the Opening Ceremonies and starting on the WIP pile.  The way I see it, I'm a winner if ANY of these things are completed by the end of the Olympics!!

"Legendary Stash"

I've officially crossed into "SABLE" status in terms of my yarn stash.  (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy.)  I can hear my husband's eyes rolling as he's reading this, and probably nodding enthusiastically in agreement.  I finally put away all of my yarn from the Webs Tent Sale earlier in the month and made the mistake of telling him how many yarns I have stashed in Ravelry.  (Answer:  triple digits.)  He did some quick calculations to see how much I spent on all of it and almost fell off the couch.  Dude, don't do the numbers.  We don't wanna know.

This year's Tent Sale was on May 14th and was fantastic as usual!  A gorgeous day, not a whole ton of people the second we got there and a small group to boot.  I had been squirreling cash from yard sale items and things for quite a while and was pretty proud that I covered all but $10.00 of my yarn with it.  We had a fantastic lunch at Northampton Brewery and then Maureen and I headed home to get our knit on.  We've also picked out a new KAL project, "The Joker and the Thief."   (Photo courtesy of Melanie Berg, on Ravelry.)  mine will also have grey as a base color, but then varying shades of turquoise and purple.  Fitting, right?  :)

Anyway, I wish I could say that I'm going to go cold sheep (no yarn purchases until a set amount of time/stash is used) but I know that I don't have the willpower for that.  Especially since I'm making my first trip to the Maine Fiber Frolic with Maureen and Cindy this weekend!  AND Mom and I are trying to make plans to go to Rhinebeck in October.  Yep.  The stash will continue to grow, though no exponentially.

End-of-Year Gifties

Believe it or not....it's almost time to think about the end of the year for school.  I'm talking about making plans for summer camp, what the heck we're going to do between school ending and camp starting, etc.  And most of all.....teacher's gifts.

I asked Will recently if he would like me to knit his third grade teacher an end-of-year gift and he said yes.  He wanted a scarf, and it should be colorful because she likes lots of color.  Well good....because I already have a ZickZack scarf knitted up and it is quite colorful!  :)

I asked Sean the same question and he readily agreed.  However, when I asked him what I should make he surprised me.  "How about sweaters for her kids, Mom?  She has a 2 year old and a one-year old."  So sweet.  I pondered on it for a little bit and you know what?  It's a great idea.  Not only is it a kind and generous gesture on Sean's part, it's not a typical "teacher" gift.  In talking to my friend Jen (who's younger son Pat is in Sean's class and happens to be one of his best friends) she loved the idea and offered to make one of them.  Awesome!  So I took the 2-year old (girl) and she took the 1-year old (boy.)

After poking around on Ravelry a bit, I picked the Gidday Sweater.  It comes in a multitude of sizes and is really cute.  I decided to stick with the gray with red stripes, after "agonizing" for a while over colors.  (Navy blue and white?  Purple?  Pink?)  It's a unisex sweater, so her little brother can wear it later.  It'll be adorable with a pair of jeans and a white tee underneath.  

Now I'm just waiting for my yarn to arrive!  

Hey, Big Spender!

A few Somethings for Me

So, with all of the Christmas knitting behind me.  (Hey it's February, let's hope so) I've decided that it's high time to work on a couple things for yours truly.  I still have gifts to work on for other people, things that I've picked out for one reason or another.  But it's my turn.  So with that in mind:

here is the short term Project.  Sewanee, a shawl.  One can never have too many shawls.  This one is a navy blue wool sock yarn, with streaks of purplish-pink and greenish blue.  It's quite pretty, and I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I LOVE that lace at the edge.  Whether or not I'll love knitting it is yet to be determined.  (Pattern and photo credit goes to Beth Bradford, aka Bethasaurus on Ravelry.)

The long-turn project.  It's a sampler blanket.  It's 63 different squares, and supposedly by the time I finish them I will have knit pretty much every stitch pattern out there.  I chose a teal acrylic for this, since let's face it:  I am not rich and pretty much only afford acrylic for such a large project.  (this is a Bucilla pattern, vintage from 1964.)  Photo credit:  jjgordon on Ravelry.

Note:  mine will not include a cat.  However, Joey will probably try to claim it at some point.

Future Yarn Plans

Happy New Year!

I've already finished the first project of the year:  boot cuffs for my friend Lauren.  She was over with her son the other day (my oldest and her son are best friends) and I had finished the knitting.  So I seamed them while she was there, and she wore 'em home!  She loves them, almost as much as she loves wearing boots.

Now I am a bit obsessed with boot cuffs, and I've cast on a pair of gray ones for my hairdresser, as a little gift since she won't be back at the salon til June.  (college coursework)  AND THEN I have another pair for a friend, who's insisting on paying me for them.  My first for-profit knitting.  Not something I've ventured into before, and I don't think I want to make a thing out of it.

So many plans with my yarn and needles this year...I'm making hats, blankets and sweaters for babies at the hospital that the boys were born at for Project Nathaniel, and I've signed up to crank out mittens as part of the Secret Santa program that the local police does every year.  But first....time for some things for me!  I always cast on one or two things after the new year, to balance out all of the Christmas knitting.

Piles Upon Piles

It's October.....and my yarn is organized.

Christmas gifts are going on and off the needles and it's all coming together.

Until it isn't.

Hopefully it's just a bump in the yarn pile.  I'm very good at  biting off more than I can chew, but somehow making it work.  It usually works out but having so many projects going at a time is stressful!  Just looking at the pile of "stuff to block" and unfinished projects on my living room table is......ugh.

Thank goodness this is a long weekend coming up.  Lots planned, but definitely some knitting time.  It's time for make-or-break.

The Woman, The Legend, The Yarn Harlot

Poking around online a few weeks ago I saw that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka "The Yarn Harlot," was coming for a lecture series in Massachusetts!  And I was pretty excited, I've read most of her books and followed her blog for years.  She is a professional knitter, teacher and writer.  And to knit and yarn enthusiasts, somewhat of a rockstar!  She had come out to Webs last year but the tickets were ridiculously expensive.  (though I admit it I was still tempted!)  Plus the weekend that she was coming to Boston was already chock-full of activity:  my husband's birthday, a 5K that he was running, my nephew's first birthday....etc etc.  Sigh.....next time I guess.

Then I got a text from my friend Jenny, asking if I wanted to go with her.  Wheels started turning in my head....and then she told me the tickets were $20 apiece.  Yeah, I was sold!  We signed up for the Sunday morning lecture at 9am in Dorchester.  I was "gonna make it work."

Sunday morning I head into the city, and discovered one of the nicest yarn stores I had ever been to!  The Stitch House in Dorchester is decent sized, has wonderfully helpful staff and a great selection of yarn.  And more importantly....they hosted the Yarn Harlot.

Let me tell you, Stephanie is every bit helpful, gracious and funny that I had thought, and more!  She talked for three hours (while we all knitted, of course) about the importance of blocking, how to pick out yarn for sweaters instead of just the "OOOOHHHHHH SO SOFT" that many of us use.  (Guilty.)  Not only that, she named names when she was talking about yarn that's bad for sweaters, and she went over all of her tools in her knitting toolbag.  Needless to say, I've got a Christmas and birthday list going.  And the first item on it is a Wanda.  

This woman makes me feel like knitting anything is possible.  I left ready to take on charts and to buy enough yarn to start a really good sweater.  (I'm on sweater hiatus though, at least for myself.  I'm still working on losing more weight and there's no way I want to put all that time into a sweater that will be too big)

Afterwards she was signing books and I was thrilled that I remembered to bring my copy of "Knitting Rules!"  She was also kind to let Jenny take my picture with her, and here it is!

The Drunken Starfish

This is a very busy knitting time of year.  Birthday gifts, some friends and family are having babies, and of course, the start of the Christmas Box.

I'm working on a gift for a friend.  The pattern is called "Fractal Danger" and it's from one of my favorite designers.  I've made a few of her patterns before and she has a definite style that I like a lot.  I've liked her patterns so much that I've made two of her patterns more than once, one for me and others for gifts.  Usually the patterns go very well, and I love the item that I've made at the end.  So much, actually, that I usually cast one on for myself immediately.

This one isn't working out as planned.

See, it's a skinny, triangular shawl with eyelets.  Here's a photo from the pattern:

Mine is not coming out like that.  At all.  I've followed the instructions to the letter I believe and honestly, I think it more resembles a drunken starfish.

Looking at other people's notes, I'm not seeing anyone else with a drunken starfish so I know that it's not the pattern.  Maybe I've been concentrating too hard on the Netflix lately....the third season of "Once Upon a Time" has been great and I just LOVED the first season of "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."  (You should check it out.)

My head tells me to keep going, to trust the pattern and perhaps a (very) aggressive blocking can fix it.  My heart says that despite being halfway done, this is a goner and to frog and save the pretty red yarn.

I'm not sure which direction I'm going to head in.  On one hand, the yarn is gorgeous and tis' a pity to have it become something unwearable.  But then again, nobody's wearing a "drunken starfish." For once in my life, I could be a trendsetter.

200 and counting

I sent off another bunch of baby hats for charity a few weeks ago.  Sadly, Stitches from the Heart closed their doors earlier this year, but i was lucky to find a local baby charity!  I donated them to Project Nathaniel, which sends hats, blankets and booties every July to a hospital in Worcester, MA in memory of Nathaniel.  Nathaniel was a preemie that was born in 2007, and this is how his family honors his short, beautiful life.  I hope to be able to donate every year.

And with that, I've made and donated over two hundred hats!!  Wow, that is incredibly hard to believe.

A Show-Off Post

I finally finished the Cable Monster!  No, that's not the real name.  This is a cabled baby blanket that I made for my sister and brother-in-law, who are expecting their first child in August.  I always wanted to make them an Irish Cabled something....and I chose a blanket because kids grow out of sweaters.  This took about three months to make and was tedious at times, but worth it.

When Brian was on deployment to Italy, he saw a beautiful cabled white sweater in a shop.  Unfortunately the shop was closed and he's sad to this day that he didn't buy the sweater.  He's asked me to make it for him and I want to....someday.  Let's just say that this blanket was "good practice."

I like the sound that deadlines make....

Ever had a knitting project that feels like it's never going to end?  I've got one of those right now.  I'm working on a GORGEOUS cabled baby blanket for a new niece or nephew due in August.  It's bulky-weight cream-colored yarn and I'm loving how it's turning out.  (No pics yet.)  The only thing is....the shower is on June 20th and I just reached the halfway point!  I also am about to run out of yarn....I did find a website to order some more but seriously....not what I need on a deadline.  In the zone.....

Also, staying up late last night working on it while watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows #2 seemed like a good idea at the time.  For the most part, I don't sleep well on Sunday nights anyway.  Today, my brain is screaming at me while I'm processing the usual beginning-of-the-month stuff.  I'd like to say that I've learned my lesson, but I doubt it.  :)

My (Almost) Waterloo

This sweater.  It's called the "wonderful Wallaby" and I've been working on it since June.  I remember starting it while binge-watching the second season of Orange is the New Black.  Every time I came to an intimidating part, I'd put it down and fret.  The first spot was the pouch.  But then I just pushed through and did it, and the construction was fun.  A little unorthodox but fun!    Then came the fusing of the top of the pouch, and I hid from that for a little while.  I was hoping to finish it in time for Will's birthday in October.  That deadline whooshed by and then I was caught up in Christmas knitting.

 Finally I determined that this thing needed to be done before my big kid grew out of it.  I picked it back up and cast on the sleeves, and carried them everywhere until they were done.  Each sleeve was thirteen inches long, so this went on for awhile.  I joined them to the body with much fanfare, and started to make the yoke.  Everything was going great!  I wasn't even worrying about the kitchener stitch for the underarms.  (Kitchener stitch,  for the uninitiated, is a way of joining stitches together in a bit of a daunting way.  It's also how you finish the toes of a pair of socks.)

Then the big roadblock came.....ready to rib the neckline and make the hood.  That's when I discovered that I had 54 additional stitches on the needles.  And naturally, I had removed the stitch markers that were showing where the decreases should be.  Ahhhhhhhh!  Brian gently suggested I put it down for a couple of days instead of ripping out rounds like a maniac.  And a bit of a pleasant surprise....I listened.  Two days later, I was ready to take action.  It took an entire evening in front of the TV, but I managed to rip out a couple of rounds and re-place the markers.  This is a testament to how far I've come, because there was a time that having to pull out several rounds would've been my undoing, I've put projects in permanent time-out for less!

You didn't beat me, Wallaby.  I beat you.  And now Will has a great sweater that goes with everything.  See that smile?  That's what this is all about.

By the way....Will wanted to make sure everyone saw the pouch, so he used his two favorite stuffed animals to illustrate.  That's Brownie on the left and Oshawott from Pokemon on the right.  And nope, he's not photogenic AT ALL.  :)

That Neverending Cleaning Thing

The Craft Room Cleanout marches on.  The floor is finally clear, but every surface is littered with stuff.  I've got all of my knitting needles tossed into a laundry basket, which is kind of pointless since they're all poking OUT of the basket.  I've put aside a bunch of yarn from leftover projects and single, lonely skeins (Looking for love on Match.com) that I'm putting to use in a new yearlong charity project.  I'm going to make hats and mittens for the local Youth and Family Services outlet, and donate them at the end of the year.  And man, do I have unfinished projects, a lot of cross-stitch stuff mostly.  Some baby blanket squares that just need to be sewn together, then donated.  Some things require more work, but many are just a couple of hours away from being a work in progress to a finished object!

two things I learned at Christmastime this year...to avoid excess stress, upload pics throughout the year instead of all at once and WEAVE IN YOUR ENDS, DAMMIT.

But now it's time for another game of:   Finish or Frog?

This damned, damned sweater.  I started it in March of 2012...at the wedding of my brother in law in Pennsylvania. Literally....I was working on it in the church during rehearsal.  All that's left is button and neck bands, and short sleeves.  Why is that, you say?  The sleeves have too many stitches to do them on double-pointed needles and FOR SHAME I have not yet taken the time to learn the Magic Loop method.  From what I understand it will take a Youtube video or two and I'll be good to go.  So....laziness?  It stays in the "finish pile."

This is a cute sweater.  I started it...oh I don't know, two years ago for my niece?  It certainly won't fit her now, and I screwed up royally on the lace bottom.  But for some reason I just cannot bring myself to frog it.  Maybe I'll put button bands on it and give it a good soak, then put it in a pile for gifts.  The only person that knows there are mistakes is me.  Well, now YOU know, but are you gonna tell??  :)

An adorable baby blanket that I started last year.  It's more complicated looking than it actually is, the hearts are pretty easy to make.  What happened with this project is that I started working on other things and didn't note where I was in the pattern......so I'm going to frog it.  Perhaps I'll start it again later, it seems less maddening to do that than try to figure out what the hell I am supposed to do next.

 My 2012 Ravellenic Games project.  The idea is to start a project during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, and be finished with it by the end of the Closing Ceremony.  There are people out there that start adult-sized sweaters during this time, AND finish!  I chose a shawl, the Marrowstone Shawl to be exact.   Major fail, I got the lace edging done and never went back.  I should've chosen a freakin' hat.  Time to frog, my dear, no matter how pretty the lace is.

Lastly....a pair of plain vanilla socks for me that I started in the old house.  I moved 18 months ago.  (Have you noticed that "Projects for me" always take a backseat?) I'm at the toes of the first sock.  Finish Pile.

And now, instead of "having to" buy a second bookcase, I have room for things!

Handmade with Love

Here it is.....the post you've all been waiting for......:)

I make a lot of Christmas gifts and this year was no exception.  I also was able to stay sane and not make myself crazy in getting them done in a timely fashion, starting early.  I did however, have to abandon two projects that I knew wouldn't get done in time.  I'll work on them in the next month, possibly making them the first finished items of 2015.

 Babylegs for my nephew, Jacob.  Essentially they're leggings, but the pattern is called "Babylegs."  He's going to look adorable in these!

 Yes yes, Brown Dog (oops, I'm supposed to be calling him Brownie now....but he'll always be "Brown Doggie" to me!) finally got his blanket.  Hint:  it's a dishcloth!

 A cowl for my sister-in-law, Kim.  It's folded here, but basically it's an infinity scarf that she can double around her neck.  Very fashionable.  :)

The next three things are shawls from my favorite designer, Martina Behm.  She is a German designer that favors simple garter stitches that turn them into something really elegant.  Two of them are the same, "Hitchhiker", the one with the pointy edge, for my mom and my aunt.  The other is Martina's "Trillian."  Mom complimented the green Trillian that I made for my friend's birthday last year and so I knit this up, in FEBRUARY.  I felt so accomplished!

 Next up is a trio of hats for my niece, Abby.  She ADORES hats and immediately started putting them on.  

And last but not least, are "Howlcats" for the boys.  Howlcats are awesome, because they can be a cowl or a hat. I picked this pattern for the boys based on how cold it was last winter.  (Which was NOT to be seen on Christmas day, it was in the sixties.)    Here's Sean wearing his as a cowl, playing a game that the boys invented called "Bandit."

 And then here's Will with his as a double-knit hat.

And new for a little knitting geekery for New Year's...

In 2014, I started 59 projects, and actually finished 51 of them.   My final tally for yarn used is 11.7 miles.  Whew!  No wonder why my arms and hands are a little tired.

Happy Heart

Last Friday was the annual Hook and Needler holiday get-together, which was held at my house.  It was a little different this year because not only did we have our ornament swap, we also had taken part in a group-wide charity project knitting winter items for the women and children of a local homeless shelter.  When I first announced the idea at the end of the summer, I never expected such an overwhelming response!  Between all of us there was:

75 hats
6 cowls
5 scarves
15 pairs of mittens
3 blankets
1 pair of socks

And one child will be the lucky recipient of a handmade stuffed elephant.

Thank you my knit and crochet friends.  This is one of my favorite reasons to be part of this group!