One Down and...how many to go?

Raise your hand if you're planning at least a partial handmade holiday. Ok, good. Now raise your hand if you (already) think that maybe your plans will fit a little too snugly into your schedule. Yep, me too.

And yet, I can happily say I have one major item finished and officially crossed off the list.

It's Brit by Heirloom Stitches, but stripey. I know I'm breaking my own rule about gray (it's this, in case I haven't mentioned it before now: living in the Pacific Northwest means that any gray clothing that must be worn during the winter months is to be avoided at all costs. The winter sky provides enough gray, thank you very much.) But I don't know, I just thought gray would be cool for a boy. Ok, ok, I have to admit that I was inspired by this post over on the Purl Bee, and well, coupled with the fact that this yarn is so, so luscious (it's Cascade Yarn's Eco Alpaca), the "no grays in winter" rule had to be broken. Right?

Brit is an easy, quick pattern, and I could see using it a bunch of times. The lines are pretty straight forward, which makes it easy to dress it up or down with minor changes (like making it stripey, for example). Adding cables would be a breeze, and even fair isle would be pretty simple with this pattern.

I've got two more sweaters on the docket for the holidays, so you know my fingers are flying over here. But I suppose that's not so unusual. It's just that now I'll be knitting madly while belting out "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" with the kids!

Happy knitting everyone!