YOP Week #22

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving if you celebrate it.  My company couldn't come so I made good use of the time although I still cooked my traditional Thanksgiving feast.  The thought of company coming got me cleaning and organizing which I am still doing.....on a roll here!  But what's great is the balance I seem to have achieved (and I hope it lasts) in taking care of maintaining the regular chores plus cleaning and going through things and clearing out.  On top of that I have the strongest urge to finish things.  All of a sudden it bothers me to have so much on the needles but despite that fact I managed to cast on another and ordered supplies for more!  LOL!
First, I am STILL working on giraffe....I took a few You Tube video's on pom pom making and I made one decent one but it was too large so then I tried the fork method for smaller ones but it fell apart so after messing around for way too much time I ordered a small pom pom maker which should be here this coming week.  This method worked good but it was too large for my project.

 Meanwhile I knitted the ears and linings and sewed them together and attached the horns and the tail..............

I had literally forgotten these socks!  I finished them finally..............

In going through things I also discovered the 2 kits I bought for myself last year for my birthday and Christmas which I never worked on!  So, I decided to get started.............these are the yarns for the hat below............I gathered everything together but realized I needed some needles I didn't have for several projects including my sweater..........so I placed an order for those..........the hat cannot be started yet for that reason..........

 This is the pattern....I may have shown it to you when I got it last year..............

 The other kit was this cutie pie...........and I was able to get started on it.........

One of the reasons I bought it was 1) I fell in love with it and 2) I thought it was a good foray into color work which is a goal this year in learning new techniques and increasing my skills..........
 I had the needles for this part which was simple................

 I knit the top and underneath of the head and then the ears and their linings.............

Now comes the challenging part...........the color work and there's a chart!  I have never read a chart nor have I done any color work in knitting.  I think I will be looking at some You Tube videos before starting this section!  Feel free to give me any tips or techniques if you have done this before as I think I may need them! LOL!
What I am loving about both these projects is that they use really nice yarn.....no acrylics here! 
I still haven't found the other 50 gram ball of this sock yarn....I know it's here somewhere as I remember buying them.  Do I dare start them with just one ball and pray I find the other?  Or maybe I should just wait as I also ordered a 'bare' skein of sock yarn to dye myself and I know once I dye it I will want to cast on socks with it right away!

  The CMB (Cozy Memory Blanket) did not get much attention this week.........but it got a little........
and I found more yarn for it in organizing my 'crafts room'..........I probably have enough for several of these CMB's!  Excuse the lighting as the sun was shining brightly and the weather has been gorgeous here which is great for putting up outside Christmas decorations which I have yet to do plus I still have windows to wash too!  But Christmas presents first! 

Are you making presents this year?  If so how is it going?  Every year I swear I won't do as much handmade but each year I must forget and I do it all over again!  I think that is the definition of insanity if I'm not mistaken! LOL!  But it will all work out and with all the Thanksgiving leftovers I haven't had to cook so things are getting done slowly but surely!
Please stop by our Year of Projects group on Ravelry
and see what these talented friends are doing!  Plus, feel free to join us and show us your creations if you so desire.  We'd love to have you!
Happy Trails!!!
P.S. I did try on my sweater again and I'm going for a few more inches in length before I do the bottom edging.  Which reminds me I still need to weave ends in my daughter's shawl!  There's so much to remember at this time of year!  And only a few more weeks before I need to get it all in the mail!  YIKES BATMAN!!!