Tablecloth of doom (and KnitFrenzy pics)

Again with the Boxing Day Luncheon lobster-claw-like allergic reaction, in spite of this year's custom table favours and entirely fresh menu ingredients! I'll be lucky if my stricken friend ever comes back. We narrowed down the problem either to the farm where the turkeys come from, or my beloved Christmas tablecloth. Yes, the tablecloth of doom:


It looks so innocent and pretty and OH how I love it, but it's much more likely to be some problem with the dye than it is a random turkey, don't you think? So away it goes, at least for Boxing Days. And I guess I will cook a ham next time to be safe.

In other news, as promised, I have random photos from this year's KnitFrenzy, which means you'll have to scroll through this post - I know, take a moment to catch your breath. I usually keep my diary so short and snappy, but some people have been complaining about a lack of pictures so you'll have to live with the length, or stop reading now if knitting bores you, in which case you can't possibly be enjoying my procrastinations at all.

As you may recall I designed most of the patterns, which made things interesting in that not-generally-so-good way, especially when one is pressed for time. Christmas Eve for example was a bit panicky and looked something like this:

I had to tell the girl whose boyfriend was stolen by God that she couldn't come to visit that night so I could finish the Thing that was still on the needles and intended for her, but it was sort of worth it because they looked great on everybody who got one and they did seem like a surprise.

(Less of a surprise was Lannie's cute hat with the pink stripes and felted rose, seeing as how she reads my diary, but the ponytail hole I put in for her got raised eyebrows so that was a nice bonus.)

Here is a mohair tube as cowl - which is to say, when it's not a scarf or muff or very very itchy tube top or skirt, all of which were proposed as possible uses for it:


I did between 12 and 14 hats (I deliberately lost count), one of which was for my friend Carol, plus a neckwarmer because the wool for her hat was so weird I knew she could never match it:


The neckwarmer was pure design bliss and came out right the very first time. I was less lucky with other patterns but mostly that was bearable. For example, an early design failure with the basic hat pattern turned into a warm cloche I coveted, especially after I added felted roses:


And then of course there was the Lucky Scarf, which I still have to parcel up and mail to the friend who helped so much with my writing this year. I designed it in a three-stitch pattern of 8 stripes on one side and 7 on the other, and knit it in red, partly because it's lucky and partly because it is my favourite. To add more luck, I brought it along to work on at every happy social occasion over the 8 or so weeks I worked on it:


The most fun thing though was the felted roses (pattern courtesy Jennifer Pace), which I made to put onto projects I ended up having to jettison. They were so fast to make and so pretty when they were done! The ones that didn't go onto hats pretty much sat around all glum and stuff until I realized I could make these adorable little pins for people I didn't have time to knit anything else for:

The final tally for the KnitFrenzy is a little scary, given that most of it happened over 6 weeks. I made twenty-seven successful Things, of which four or five were superfast rose pins, plus at least two Things that were not only not at all superfast but failed horribly, as well as one that was successful but should wait for a companion piece, I think, before I give it away. Oh, I feel tired just thinking about it... but I will do the revisions to a too-short hat anyway, because I am so knitty. And then I will write up my own patterns properly and post them at marykeenan.com for anybody who knits and would like to try one.