Last of the Holiday Knitting

The blocking rectangle is a neckwarmer/scarf.

It got five of those little brown buttons to go along with the 5 buttonholes along the end that you can't see.  The recipient loved it.  The yarn is a particulary soft merino given to me by Terri Minkin. 

The blue hat and mittens were for a little boy named Ethan.  They are all the same yarns--a wool aran weight stranded with some acrylic dk--except that the hat has some floofy yarn stranded along. I can't remember what it is.  I had given him an earflap hat 2 years ago and last year his mom asked me for another one because it covered his neck well.  It only took a year.  I hope he managed to keep warm last winter. 

The remanining knitting is OPK which falls into the category of holiday knitting. OPK stands for Other People (who don't have blog)'s Knitting.

  Laura made me the red clogs. They are the famous Fiber Trends' felted clogs pattern. She sent them to me to felt to my own size. I did this with her a few years ago. As you can surmise, the first picture is pre-felting. The second picture is after one run-through with a load of laundry. I was happy with the high amount of shrinkage on the first try.  I'll keep putting them through until they are ready to wear.

 This whale flap hat was made by Sue.  Now that's good knitting.  Even though I'm modeling it (because I like to try on hats), it is for Sue's sister, Laura (lousy with Lauras lately).  The earflap is lined with supersoft polar fleece.  Aaaaah.

Monster

Here's a monster guy whom I am knitting for a friend's son who has been knitting for a shelter so that every child who comes in will have at least one toy or buddy or whatever. He's created a poem that goes with each one explaining that the monster is feeling lonely. He gives each one a name which goes in the poem. He's got a few of us doing this.

I had made 2 earlier ones, but this one seems the softest and most cuddly. I think it looks bigger in the picture. It's about 8.5 inches or 21.5 centimeters tall, not including legs and ears. It's an old stash yarn called Rainbow from Cascade. It's a cotton boucle with a nylon (I suppose nylon) binder thread. It's as soft as all get out. Not to worry, it will be getting a face, but I'm not done thinking about it yet.

This is for Laura, she who encouraged the blogging and then enabled it by providing the I-Phone. Thanks, hon.