Christmas Knitting

I didn't do a ton of Christmas knitting this year, but I also got a late start and didn't have a whole lot of spare time.  There's actually one project not pictured here that I finished, but haven't gifted yet, so I'll have to wait to post about it until I send it since the mom of the recipient reads this blog.

My first project was a cabled hat for an older lady who rides the same bus as me.  We live near each other so maybe once or twice a week for the past couple of years we wind up at the stop at the same time in the mornings and then we chat on our way into work.  She's always interested in whatever I'm knitting on the way in if I happen to have brought my latest project on the bus with me.  She wears black all the time (like a true New Yorker, which she is in her heart), so of course I made her a black hat.  It's really difficult to see the cabled pattern in black, so here's the hat I made her:

And here's someone else's hat in a color where the cables show up better:

Next, I made matching tams for our niece Anya and her brand new baby sister, Mira.  My SIL Sarah sent me this picture of Mira in her hat, which is hilarious and which prompted Jason to comment that she looks like one of the mushrooms in Super Mario Bros.

Well, she was a preemie.  She'll grow into it.  Sarah assures me that Anya's looks adorable, but she wouldn't keep still long enough to get a good picture of her in the hat.

Finally, this is the project I was talking about before with the Ocean-colored yarn that I wanted to make into an afghan, but made into a sweater instead because afghans are tedious.  Anyway, I made this sweater for my mom.

She has rheumatoid arthritis and is home in bed most of the time, so I thought this would work well as either a sweater to wear when she does go out, or as a cozy bed jacket.  She loves it and I'm so pleased!