I finally got around to blocking most of the pile of lace that's been sitting on a chair in my bedroom for months.  Our annual knitter's Christmas party is coming up and I realized that since I'd given away most of my knitting this year, I had nothing to show.  I did let once piece get away without a photo, so I'll have to borrow it back later to show you.  First up – In Dreams by Susan Pandorf:

This was a Mystery KAL and was great fun.  Susan is a terribly gifted designer and I love the way the patterns just flow into each other.  This was a pretty intensive knit with almost 3,000 beads.  It's rather heavy, but I love the way the beads feel and it won't be the last beaded project I do.

And – I finished the Advent Scarf by Kristen Benecker:

This scarf was rescued from hibernation by my acquisition of the Knitting Companion app for my iPad.  I honestly do not think I would have finished it any time soon otherwise.  It's too bad that it's so long that you really can't get a good look at all the patterns.  I was a little worried about it being too long, but I really wanted to do all of the patterns.  Although long, I don't think it's too long and it's such a beautiful sampler of lace patterns.  Although you can't see it in the photo, there are little pearl beads on the separator sections.  Lace knitting is always an exercise in faith because you really can't see the patterns very well while you're knitting it and the true beauty doesn't come out until it's blocked.  Multiply this times 24!  It was so much fun seeing the beautiful lace patterns appear.

Last up is the Heart to Heart scarf by Sivia Harding:  

This is really a blast from the past – I finished it over two years ago!!  The picture does not do it justice – look on my project page for a better depiction of the color.  It was a really enjoyable knit, but I think I put off blocking it because I'm not sure whether or not I'll wear it.  I admire people who can wear scarves with panache.  I just don't seem to be one of them.

Some mystery knitting is going on that I can't really show until after Christmas, so until then I'll have to come up with other things to blog about.  I can always resort to showing more photos from our photo session with joeplusjill.com.  I really can't say enough about how these photos capture our family's personalities.  If you live anywhere in the Seattle area I highly recommend them!