I stopped by the shop today to collect the hats and mittens from our tree. I am so pleased with the amount of stuff we collected. I had another bag that I did not put on the tree. That bag had about twenty pairs of mittens and fifteen hats. I just love having this tree every year. This is the fourth year of collecting. There are some wonderful crocheted scarves that someone dropped off too. I had another lady ...who is not a customer of the salon drop of a bag of mittens. Forgive the way the photos are posting. I am still using the blogger photo button. I need to check out Flicker after the holidays. I dropped all the donations off at the homeless shelter this evening. I think I was telling you that they have thirteen little ones ages one to four. They were very grateful for all the donations. We are leaving for Pennsylvania on Saturday and will be gone for two weeks. We both are looking forward to seeing the kids and spending time with family. All of my family lives here in New Hampshire. I have been celebrating all week with them. They always have us for all the holidays the rest of the year. They are good about us not being here for Christmas. I am looking forward to checking out my favorite yarn store in Chambersburg, The Yarn Basket. If we have time... I would like to check out The Mannings . I have heard this is a wonderful store. If I think of it I will take pictures. I want to take a minute and wish all of you a wonderful holiday season. I am very grateful for all of my old and new blog friends. You have all enriched my knitting life in many ways. Blogging has been a fantastic experience. Again.... Happy holidays friends.
I managed to whip up a couple of small sets for my "Hat and Mitten" Tree. The pink and white set is for age one to two. Those little mittens are the "Stop and Go Mittens" from Knit Mittens! . I'll tell you...those are some very tiny thumbs. I think they are adorable. The second set is for two to four year olds. The hat is a great little pattern that I just discovered on Trek's blog. It is called the "Spiral Kiddie cap". It is a free pattern on her sidebar. What a great little pattern....I love the way it spirals.My Mom made about twenty pairs of mittens for the tree. She works on them throughout the year. I am going to take a picture of the tree next week ,which I will share with you. My other knitting, has been this cute little bracelet purse. I made this for my sister Kathy. She just loves purses. It was a free pattern from my local yarn store. It is made with a ribbon type yarn called "Showstopper". I am not sure who the company is and I lost the ball band. I decided to make a lining for it. I sewed the lining in by hand. We exchanged out gifts yesterday. She fell in love with the bag and can't wait to use it. Don't you just love to knit for someone who appreciates all your efforts? Now on to a technical question. For those of you who use Blogger. What do you use to upload your pictures to your blog? I have been using "Hello" for two years. They now have disabled their use of Internet Explorer to upload. I signed up for Picasa.....but, you can only upload one photo per post. At least that is the way I understand it. Right now I am using the blogger button to post pictures. I do not find it very user friendly. I would appreciate hearing any and all ideas. Guess, I will close for now. I want to head over to Knitting Chatters and catch up with Robbyn and the gang. Have a great weekend everyone!
Finally....I am able to knit. It is the greatest feeling in the world. Look what I found on Ebay. I have been looking for this book for awhile. My library had a copy ,but someone stole it. It is a fantastic book chock full of great Christmas stockings. If you have this book in your library.... be aware there a quite a few corrections . I found them on the Interweave Knits website. I plan on making several of these through the year. If you have been a constant reader of Irishknits, you know I have a "Hat and Mitten Tree" at the salon. We put it up after Thanksgiving. We donate everything we collect to the homeless shelter in my town. I called last evening to see how many children are at the shelter . They have four boys and five girls ages one to four . There are several children in the six to ten age bracket. Most of the things I have made and collected are for age six and above. So, I am working on some smaller size mittens right now. It is so awkward working on a thumb for a two year old mitten. Do you think one year old wear thumbless? I was thinking of adding some crocheted strings to hold the pairs together. You know the type you can thread through the sleeves of their coats. Do you think these are a pain for mothers of wee ones? I am hoping to whip up a few matching hats too. My fractured shoulder has really hampered my charity knitting. In shoulder news....things are really coming along. I am hoping to be back to work by January 8Th. The other photo I posted is Mini raglan ornament from the knitlist. I need to make a little hanger for it. It is the cutest little sweater. I want to embroider a letter on the front too. I am going to close for now...need to get knitting those baby mittens. Happy Knitting everyone.
