Lots of knitting, not so much blogging

I have been very busy over the past few months doing quite a bit of knitting, but unfortunately haven't managed to blog any of it yet. Here's a quick (and very photo-happy) rundown on the major projects of the past several months. It's worth noting that I also produced a lot of dishcloths, kids' hats, and other miscellany which I didn't necessarily consider blog-worthy.

Christmas was very hectic as I worked to finish several Christmas stocking orders during December. One was a repeat order from a customer who ordered stockings a couple of years ago. The first stockings were for herself and her husband, and she wanted matching ones for her new twin daughters.

Original stockings on the left; new ones on the right

The second batch was for a friend from church who had seen this post last year and was thrilled because her own stocking from her childhood was made using that exact pattern. I ended up making five for her; one for her husband, each of her two children, and her son- and daughter-in-law.

The new year got off to a roaring (but not especially happy) start with the news that my daycare baby's mommy was suddenly unexpectedly unemployed and a week later was diagnosed with breast cancer. I found this pattern and was happy to make it for her.

Almost at the exact same time, a little girl in my grandson's first grade class was diagnosed with cancer, and the nine year old daughter of my cousin's nursing school classmate was diagnosed with bone cancer. I made these two fuzzy hats for the two girls.

Then my grandson's school held Crazy Hat Day, where each child could pay $1 to wear a hat at school. The proceeds were donated to the family of his classmate with cancer, and nearly $1500 was raised to assist with their expenses. Naturally Kindon decided that he needed his own fuzzy hat for the occasion.

At the beginning of March I participated in a new craft fair where I hadn't set up before. Although I was somewhat disappointed in the sales for the weekend, I was assured by folks who had been there before that this was an unusually slow weekend. I'm hoping that I'll do better when I go back in the fall.

Note the astonishing lack of shoppers crowding my booth!

Now I'm finishing up an order for 23 pairs of knitted slippers. Having to put pompons on each of the slippers has given a whole new dimension to the term "tie one on". I'll be so happy to have those done and out of the house!

Then I have a prayer shawl to finish up before Saturday, and an entire stack of projects awaiting my attention. I'm also hoping to get some time in on the sock machine now that I supposedly have a lot of "free time". Never a dull moment in the knitlady's household!