The Fourth Finished Item of 2010 . . .

. . . hardly counts as an item at all to me, but these doll mittens were eagerly awaited by J_____. I started them while babysitting her a few months ago (August, to be truthful), and ever since it got a little wintry here, she's been pestering me. Whenever I talk to her mom on the phone, there's a "wherrrrrrrre's Emma's Miiiiiiiiiiittens" in the background. Thankfully, the mittens arrived in the post, and now "Emma's not cold anymore!" Evidently, the lack of mittens has been keeping her from getting warm, and NOT her habitual half-nakedness.

As you can see in this ancient post, I improvised this mitten based on one from Emma's vintage wardrobe. The yarn is Dale Baby Ull, in red and white. There is no excuse for it taking four months, but I really have to be in the right mood for tiny mittens in two colors. I really hope that Emma hangs onto them!

The Third Finished Item of 2010 . . .

. . . may well be a sweater that's been in need of seaming since last May:

Just referring to Grumperina's zipper installation instructions--that's all that's left. Frieda is clearly unimpressed.

Purple Haze, Purple Rain, Purple Toupee--take your pick

I really need to think of more purple lyrics--I've used at least two of the three song titles above already.

Here's the second finished item of 2010, a gift for my friend E__. These are the felted slippers from French Press Knits, and I'm fairly happy with the way they turned out. They were pretty quick to knit, but the trade-off is that they take a lot of seaming. I used Cascade 220, which felts very nicely, but the slippers (and the decorative tabs) didn't really felt quite the same, and it was hard to tell which slipper was R and which was L. That's the risk you run with felting, I suppose--the results are not guaranteed! Also, they picked up a lot more lint than I expected from the towels I washed them with, so next time I will try to find some old, too-small jeans to wash them with. Once E__ has had a chance to break them in, I'm hoping that she will give them good reviews. They are definitely cute (especially with my purple owl Christmas pajamas), but that's not good if they aren't functional!

Pink, Pink, Pink, Pink, Pink, Pink, Pink Moon

First finished item of 2010--a doll shawl for my friend J______, the proud owner of the Pink Ishbel I knit in mid-2009. Really, she loves the Ishbel--she was suspicious when I borrowed it for Liberty's Sock Summit booth, and she told me on New Year's Eve that she was going to get me a blue shawl so that we would both have shawls. The yarn is Liberty's Yarn Kaguya (same as the Ishbel), in the lovely color Zsa Zsa. I think that I may never run out of this yarn--I think I probably still have enough left for another (very) small project.

I usually try to start a new project on January 1, but haven't started something new yet. I'm really hoping that 2010 is the year I FINISH (or frog) some of the many projects I already have started. I'm running out of needles, and space to store half-done things!

Hope that everyone has a Happy New Year!