Christmas is over...at last!

I did not finish all my projects on time for Christmas. I knew that was going to happen so it didn't upset me too much. I took the 2nd mitt of the 3rd pair of fingerless mitts intended for gifting with me on the needles to Christmas dinner. My cousin's tweenie daughter loved hers and my cousin was trying them on and asking if she could borrow them. That sounded like a hint to me, so I whipped out the pair I had intended for her. Just had to work in a couple of ends, and viola, another pair was gifted. About then the indented recipient of the remaining unfinished mitts walked into the room and said "oh, what's that?" in a not very interested voice. Explanation did not change her attitude so pair #3 remained unfinished in my bag. (They went to my computer tech, saving me time and yarn, who immediately put them on and wore them the entire day at work raving about how much warmer her hands were. Now, that's gratitude!)

I finally finished the back of Fred's vest yesterday. I had to rip it out because the gauge was off. I changed needles and did a swatch that came out about 1/2 stitch big per inch. I thought that was close enough, but when I worked on 120 stitches the back was enormous! So I ended up doing it in size large but with x-l length. That worked! (When will I learn to take the time to make the swatch? I've often used Red Heart acrylic yarn for children's sweaters without a problem and didn't expect the gauge to be off. Oh, well.) The left front is about half finished. I went to JoAnn's yesterday for their New Year's Day sale and got buttons that match the burgandy yarn perfectly. And at half price! I also got several balls of Sensation sock yarn to make more mitts. I finished the 1st mitt of Fred's fingerless mitts in Blue Ox Tweed Essential, a superwash merino blend from Knitpicks. I want to do a pair for his friend, Joe, a Chinese elementary teacher and for Lily, a young teacher from the Phillipines that I email. I hope to have everything ready to mail by the middle of January. According to the USPS, the package should make it to LuZhou by Chinese New Year, Jan. 26th. I'm betting on Ground Hog's Day, Feb 2nd. Or for the first day of classes, Feb. 6th. We'll just have to wait and see.