I did not Shoot My Eye Out but....

I knitted my arms off!!!!  I literally gave myself tennis elbow from knitting!!  Who knew you could do that?  I didn't.  I DO now.   Tennis elbow is pretty painful for quite some time.

I made quite a few knitted gifts this year for the Holidays.   I made a lot of the Fisherman's Wife cowl from Raverly.  I love this pattern.  Its by Kalurah Hudson.  She has a knitted version and a crochet version.  I made the knitted version.  It knit up quickly and who doesn't love Aran knittting? Everyone who received one said they loved it.  I had trouble finding enough buttons.  It called for the braided shank button and I could only find 3 sets at Central City.  I bought out one bin of yarn at Hobby Lobby so went to a polyester yarn with alpaca fiber woven in.  It seemed to work out okay.  

The cream Fisherman's wife cowls.

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Also Ravelry patterns.  The owlet sweater and Owlet hat.  See the buttons? those are the eyes of the owls.   I learned a different way to set in my sleeves with this sweater.   Gray for a little boy.

And in pink for a little girl.

3 more Owl hats for more children.

Blocking some of the cowls.

Surprisingly, I am NOT a fan of natural fiber knitting.  I find the colors tend to bleed, usually you have to hand wash and line dry and phooey! Who wants kid's items like that?  Plus natural fiber is very expensive.  I vastly prefer polyester, machine wash and dry yarn.  Even I was surprised at this since we used to raise sheep and wool.

I find knitting to be a great de-stresser and very addictive.   I love to knit.  I self-taught myself in high school (now that was a few years ago!)  Did half of a fair isle vest front and did not knit again.  I liked it but had other fish to fry at that time of my life :)   Last fall in 2014 I took some lessons and it came back quickly and I've been knitting ever since.  I really enjoyed the knitting lessons.  They have a group on Tuesday evenings I would love to attend but alas! distance is one of the limiting factors here 60 miles north of nowhere.  Very limiting in the winter.

I decided to get back into Knitting when Nancy at Wyoming Breezes sent me a pair of her hand knitted socks, which I loved.  So Nancy, YOU were the cause of my painful Christmas elbow!  

Christmas was a white Christmas here and COLD!!! very cold in Wyoming.  And it's stayed cold since with sub zero wind chills.   Weatherman says it will stay until the New Year is rung in.

As I get older, I don't get out in the sub zero temperatures much any more.   I worry about falling on the ice with no one else home and injuring myself.   I don't have chores to do since I got rid of my chickens so it works out.

Well now I think I should start earlier than September with my holiday knitting.   So have been thinking of doing slippers next year.  Like maybe felted ELF Slippers?

or

Grinch Slippers?

So many patterns!!!!!!

HAPPY KNITTING!

And a Happy New Year.