I've heard of planning ahead for Christmas, but this is ridiculous

Elizabethan Jacket for MIL

I can't stop working on this! I've just started another great new project, and yet, my hands still keep taking this out of the bag to work on. I suspect a large part of the reason for this is that the suspense of whether there will be enough red yarn to complete it is driving me nuts. I MUST know...and the only way to find out is to knit and knit until either the red or the cardigan is finished. Which is really quite insane, when you think about it. How many people have you ever heard of who get a major piece of Christmas knitting done by, say, February? I'm a freak!

But...I'm a freak with a really gorgeous WIP:


Carrie K caved to the pressure of all this loveliness and asked where she could get the pattern. :) (Muahahaha.) This is a Jade Starmore design, from her book "A Collector's Item". You can't get this off-the-shelf from any of the big online booksellers, but eBay has it sometimes. However, after missing out on several of those auctions, I finally thought, 'screw it', and ordered my copy directly from the Starmore site. I think my total cost with shipping and exchange and everything was about $65, and that was back when the exchange rate sucked a lot harder for us Canadians. So it wouldn't be so pricey for you, Carrie. Plus, there are a lot more awesome patterns in the book than just this one. To be honest, if this book is any indication, I believe Jade actually surpasses her mom for design genius. Her concepts are more modern, and she throws in more variety and new ideas, not just in terms of motifs, but also in terms of cut and style. The Persian Tiles shawl I made for my grandma is also from that book. So if you buy it, prepare to be stunned (in a good way). Honestly, I can only think of one design off the top of my head that I don't want to make from that book - I'm pretty sure that everything else in there is on my list of 'projects to complete before I die'.

Peacock Feathers Shawl for Mom

The yarn is lovely, the design is absolutely gorgeous, and the work is easy. Unfortunately, the knitting is kind of mind-numbingly repetitive right now. I'm in the middle motif, which consists of an eight-row repeat that just keeps going and going over increasingly bigger rows.

So, while the outcome continues to be lovely...


...the process is starting to wear a little thin. However, I do keep at it. It makes for very good subway knitting.