Fait accompli!

Sound the trumpets! Bang a gong! I have finally completed my very first pair of socks!

Aren't they bee-you-ti-ful? I feel as though I've crossed my own personal Rubicon of knitting. No longer am I fated to read sock patterns and sadly wonder what "turn the heel" means.

Thanks to all of you who have been cheering me on through this process. Without your encouragement, I would have learned to knit socks anyway, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun, nor would I have had a chance to show them off.

(The photo doesn't show it, but those socks are exactly the same size. I just flattened one out more.)

Oh, I suppose someday I'll look at this picture and be thoroughly appalled that these socks appear to be related, but not absolutely identical. I kind of like the idea of "fraternal twin" socks, actually -- and since I bought two balls of that green Opal sock yarn, I actually can make another pair just like these. Things have a way of working out in the end.

FOs seem to have been flying off my needles and out the door lately. Seamus, our cele-Beardie spokesmodel, would like to show you a lovely shawl in Cherry Tree Hill's Big Loop Mohair, in the Fall Foliage colorway.

Too bad the photos don't do these colors justice. In real life, the colors are so beautiful they'd make your mouth water. Here's a closeup, though it's not much better at showing the colors.

The felted bags are all still damp, but they're coming along. I picked up some absolutely fabulous Fimo buttons for closures. I can't wait to see these things finished and on their way to their new homes! (Film at 11.)

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

No, I'm not ready for the Christmas onslaught, but that's what taking time off is all about. I'm taking Friday off to finish up the things that really need doing, such as the Christmas cards, baking dog cookies for the neighbors, and hanging the wreaths on the house and barn. Oh, and there's an increasing pile of presents that need to be wrapped. They were all purchased over the Internet weeks ago, and every day more arrive and demand to be attended to.

My company shuts down for the last week of December each year as a cost-saving measure, so I'm free of the place for a week! Woo hoo -- all the more time available to knit and to clean this horrendous messy house in preparation for our New Year's houseguests. (I'm having an anxiety attack about that last bit. We've been trying to work our way around the fact that we have more stuff than we have house to put it in, and now we either have to face it, or make our guests sleep in the hayloft. It's not the way I would have chosen to spend my week away from work, but we'll be better off for it.)