It looks as if I'm finally coming to the end of the road on Ben's Cambridge Jacket.  

The pieces are sewn together, all edgings done, the zipper has been ordered.  This sweater has not been without its issues:

Issue #1 – My original intent was to spin the yarn for the sweater.  After months of spinning and plying, I came to the humbling realization that I am just not that good a spinner yet.  While the yarn I produced was quite lovely, it was too bulky for this pattern.  I ended up buying Cascade 220 for the project.

Issue #2 – My son is quite tall and slim, so I knew I was going to have to alter the pattern.  I made the next to the smallest size, but lengthened everything – including using the depth of armhole for the largest size, which led to:

Issue #3 – In addition to the problems associated with altering the armhole depth, I knew I would also have to alter the sleeve width.  In reading the Ravelry comments (whatever did we do before Ravelry??), I saw that the width of the sleeve was way too wide.   I narrowed the sleeve by about 3 inches, and with these two alterations, had to rework the sleeve cap calculations.  After about three tries of coming out with rather bizarre looking sleeve caps, I found a trial version of Sweater Wizard, downloaded it and met with success.  I think a full version of this will be in my future.

Issue #4 – Once the sweater was seamed, I realized I was not out of the woods yet.  The lower edge has several areas of stockinette stitch with no border or ribbing.  The pattern instructs you to do a single crochet edge to control the curl.  That didn't cut it.  I tried adding a second row, and it still curled.  I briefly considered doing an applied i-cord, but worried that after all that work, it would still curl.  In a brief flash of brilliance (if I may be so bold), I decided to pick up along the lower edge and knit a hem.  That did the trick and it lays perfectly flat:

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that this will be the end of my issues.  I've already tried it on Ben and it fits him beautifully.  Thanks Ben for your patience.  He only had to wait a year!

Christmas knitting continues on and I'm starting to get just a tad panicky.  I have one sleeve left to do on Ivy's, but that should be the work of only a few hours of knitting.  I've started Isobel's and the worst part of knitting the little ladybugs is over.  I do so hate carrying three colors in a row!

But I am finding that the stranded knitting tires my hands out, so I hope I will hold up.  I am remembering one of the downsides of multi-colored knitting – ends!!

Who would think that a tiny little sleeve could have that many ends to weave in?  Thank goodness Isobel's sweater is a cardigan and so I can whack those ends off.

In digital scrapbooking news, I received some incredible encouragement.  I belong to a subscription through Scrapper's Guide.  Every month I receive at least one (and sometimes two) kits and at least four video tutorials.  Linda Sattgast and her crew are absolutely the best teachers for digital scrapbooking and I highly recommend her classes.  Every month she picks a "top pick" of a scrapbook page using that month's kit.  My page, Cookie Time, was chosen as the top pick for November.  There were so many amazing pages in the gallery that I was very flattered and encouraged to be chosen.

I had predicted that our snow would be gone by Thanksgiving, but by last Thursday we still had roads that were icy and many were unplowed.  We decided not to risk having the family drive, so postponed our personal Thanksgiving until Saturday.  But on Thursday hubby and I headed over to our community Thanksgiving.  This is the 9th year of a community celebration and it's grown to serve over 5,000 people!  We volunteered to deliver meals to those who  couldn't get out and ended up delivering 17 meals on icy, snowy, hilly roads.  Forest came through like a champ!  I do miss my MINI at times, but was very thankful for the new car this year!  Monday we're taking it back so they can install the heated leather seats.  I'll like it even more then!  This car doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but that was one thing we both insisted on.  We had them on the MINI and we were thoroughly spoiled.

Off to do more color knitting – hubby and I have gotten hooked on the TV series "Heroes".  With four seasons of at least 21 episodes each, that's a lot of knitting time!  I'll just be glad when Hiro learns English so I don't have to keep looking up to read subtitiles.