Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all around me was unfinished knitting not under the tree. The stockings weren’t hung by the chimney with care ‘cause the heels and toes had not a stitch there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds, but I had not finished the caps for their heads. Dad was asleep; he was no help at all, and the sweater for him was six inches too small.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I put down my needles to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tripped over my yarn and fell with a crash.
The tangle of yarn that lay deep as the snow reminded me how much I still had to go. Out on my lawn, I heard such a noise, I thought it would wake both Dad and the boys.
And although I was tired, my brain a bit thick, I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick!
What I heard then left me somewhat perplexed-ed, for not a name I heard was what I expected. “Move Ashford; move Lopi; move Addie & Clover; move Reynolds; move Starmore; and Noro - move over!”
“Paton, don’t circle round, stay in the line. Come now, you sheep, you’ll work out just fine! I know this is hard being just your first year, I’d hate to back to eight tiny reindeer.”
I peered over the sill; what I saw was amazing, eight woolly sheep on my lawn all a’grazing.
And then, in a twinkle, I heard at my door Santa’s coming across the porch floor. I rose from my knees and got back on my feet, and as I turned round, Saint Nick I did meet.
He was dressed all in wool from his head to his toes and his cloths were hand knit from above to below. A bright Fair isle sweater he wore on his back, and his toys were all stuffed in a aran knit sack. His cap was a wonder of bobbles and lace, a beautiful frame for his rosy red face.
The scarf round his neck could have stretched for a mile, and the socks peeking over his boots were Argyle. The backs of his mittens bore an intricate cable, and suddenly on one I spied a small label.
SC was the duplicate stitch on the cuff, and I asked “Hay Nick, did you knit all this stuff?”
He proudly replied “Ho-ho-ho, yes I did. I learned how to knit when I was a kid.” He was chubby and plump, a quite well-dressed old man, and I laughed to myself for I’d thought of a plan.
I flashed him a grin and jumped in the air, the next thing he knew he was tied to a chair. He spoke not a word, but looked in his lap where I’d laid my needles and yarn for a cap.
He quickly began knitting, first one cap then two; for the first time I thought I might really get through. He put heels on the stockings and toes on some socks while I sat back drinking scotch on the rocks!!
So quickly, like magic his needles they flew, that he was all finished by quarter to two. He sprang for his sleigh when I let him go free, and over his shoulder he looked back at me.
And I heard him exclaim as he sailed past the moon “Next year start your knitting sometime around June!

While this christmas song is rather depressing, it's one of my favorites.

And I heard this one the radio today and just loved it. And it makes up for the whole depressing song above.

Merry Christmas!

It's the final countdown!

Holy crap it's December! You know what means. It's time to start freaking out about whether or not you'll be able to finish everything in time. And cookies. December is the month when the most cookies are baked! (I totally just made that up, but it feels true to me) For Christmas, I'm knitting 4 things. For my Mom, Endpaper Mitts and a pair of twinkletoes which I finished!! Well, mostly anyway. I just need to crochet a strap (I chose to make them like Mary-Janes) and sew on some buttons. For my Dad, a pair of knucks and a Bokaclava. I showed my parents a photo of the bokaclava, saying that it kinda freaked me out, (my friend and I agreed, it was the eye slits) and as soon as my Dad saw it, he said " Cool! Can you make me one?". This was the first time he ever asked for something, so I figured why not. He puts up with my fiber habit, he jokes that a drug habit would have been cheaper, and he's going to build me a lazy kate. And he loves the handknits I make for him. He wears the hat I made him for his birthday all the time. Which brings me to why I'm not knitting on any of the Christmas gifts.
Dad's birthday is in 12 days and I've been planning on knitting him a hat. In fingering weight. GAH. I'm convinced I can make it because I've knit a pair of socks in less then two days, so a hat should go fast too. I hope.
I finally got my Sexy space aliens skeined up, and I couldn't be happier with it! The roving came from The flying ewe on Etsy, it was 4 ounces of Corriedale.

I tried to not over twist the singles so that when I chain plied it, it would be rather soft. When I was spinning it up, I was worried the finished yarn would be mostly green and purple. But I was pleasantly surprised at how it came out.

It's about a dk/sport, and 240 yards. I think it's destined to become a hat and maybe a pair of mitts.

7 Random things

1. My family and I have yet to have thanksgiving. We're planning on having it tomorrow. There are a few reasons why we didn't have it on Thursday. The sink was clogged. And none of us really felt up to cooking. I felt very bad because..

2. Last Thursday, I suddenly got sharp, stabbing pain right above my belly button. It then later moved to my lower right side. I thought it would go away, but Monday, I gave up and went to the doctor. 2 minutes after seeing me, he told me to go to the ER. I went at 4ish, they did a few tests, and hours and hours later, they told me nothing was wrong and to go home. At around 12:30. I still have the pain, and have no idea why. My parents think it's chronic appendicitis, because that's what my mom had.

3. I need to knit faster so I can have all the gifts finished by Christmas. There are 26 days left to knit. I have one gift mostly finished, just need to crochet a strap and sew on buttons.

4. I have lovely bruises on my hands from being poked at the Er. They hurt. Especially when I poke them.

5. I'm reading a YA book about fey. After I'm done reading it, I'll be reading Issac's Storm.

6. I've been spinning. A lot. I finished Sexy Space Aliens and I'm now working on a yarn so bright it hurts your eyes. Needless to say, it is pure awesome.

7. Is it possible to eat too many clementines?

Walking on Sunset

A while ago, a friend of mine on Ravelry asked if anyone wanted to test knit a hat for her. She graciously offered to not only ship the pattern, but the yarn as well. I've had it finished for a bit, just needed to get photos.


Walking on Sunset
Pattern: Harvest Hat
Yarn: Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm Cormo Worsted / Super / Heavy. Color was Mememsha Sunset
Needles: 3.75 mm size 5. I used my kp options and magic looped it.


The pattern was easy to follow, very straight forward instructions. And it made such a lovely hat! The yarn was so nice and squishy and I just adore the colors.

I decided to give it to my mom since *gasp* she doesn't have a single handknit hat. Well, I just had to fix that.

Ovid's

I couldn't think of a name for my socks when I first started them, so I went and did one of those random name generators. Ovid came up. Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – AD 17 or 18), known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation. While reading more about him, I read this quote from him, which is fast becoming one of favorites. "Time, the devourer of all things".

I love this pattern. I found it to be really fun and not completely mindless. I could watch movies and still knit on it.

Ovid
Pattern: Charades
Yarn: Austermann Step, I don't know the color way
Needles: 2.75mm
Mods~ I knit the heel flap for 15 rows (30 really) and therefore, only picked up 15 stitches on each side. Since I knit the sock using Magic Loop, and I was too lazy to figure it out, I changed the toe to what I consider my normal toe (k1 k2tog knit across to last 3 on needle, ssk k1 and the repeat on the other needle) until I had 28 stitches. .

I've used this yarn before and I really love it. It's so soft and yummy. And when you're knitting with it, I think it makes your hand softer. Out of so many commercial yarns, it has to be one of my favorites.

Swinebeck

First, thank you so much for all your kind words about Miss Marple. She was such a wonderfully sweet cat and she will be missed tremendously.
The day after I got home from Rhinebeck, I got sick. Turns out, the group of people I hung out with (Completely pointless and arbitrary group group on Ravelry), most of us got the Swine Flu, so we've taking to calling Rhinebeck, Swinebeck. Hence the post title. I'm mostly better, but I still have a cough and I can't do a lot for a while. I've been somewhat drained of energy. But compared to how sick I was, I'm much better. At one point, my fever was so high I thought the seals were after me and the monkeys wanted to eat my brains. Of course, I couldn't find a thermometer till after my fever broke and then, it was about 104. A day or so after it broke, I also passed out. Apparently, eating helps you not pass out. Which, in case you didn't know, really is not good. I had no desire to eat at all and even now, it's hard for me to get up the desire to eat. For some reason, the entire time I was sick, all I wanted was a kiwi. And I still want kiwi's. I get the oddest cravings when I'm sick.
Now, RHINEBECK! My gorgeous Entrelac scarf that I finished in the nick of time and I had a great time. And the scarf even got it's photo taken a few times and was told how lovely and gorgeous and amazing it was (blog post coming soon). I barely took any photos. I blame the wool fumes. Wool fumes tend to make me forget everything. My mother couldn't make it because she is having health problems (she can barely walk, she has such pain in her legs. The doctors have no idea why) so I went up by myself. And I'm so proud of me. I didn't go insane and buy everything in site. I had a plan and I stuck to it. I know, I'm as shocked as you. I wanted to get the cowboy Tsock kit, a spindle, some Ellen's half pint sock yarn, and a fleece. I did really well. Other then fleece. I got 3. Whoops.


Here, we have my haul. The cowboy Tsock kit that I can't wait to make, my spindle with a merino/tencel blend on it, above that is some more merino/tencel. Both are from the Sheep Shed and I just adore them. Then we have the yarn, the red and blackish grey (which I call Vampire yarn) and the blue and yellow (one of her new colors, Santa Fe) are from Ellen's half pint and the other yarn, the mulberry and grey from this little stand in one of the buildings. I thought it was such a great price (about $8 for the two skeins and $4 for the grey) that I couldn't resist. The spindle is from Adam's Woodshop. I got it at the Carolina homespun booth. It's a Lizzie spindle, 16 grams cherry whorl and birch shaft and spins like nothing I've seen before. It's like the energizer bunny. It keeps going and going and going and going....

Close up of the yarn

While I was up there, I was knitting a sock. A few weeks before, I decided to knit my mom a pair of socks since well, because. I finished turning the heel before I got home, and finished the sock while I was sick.

I'm hoping to finish the other one this week so I can get started on *gulp* Christmas Knitting.

I just got home from rhinebeck and found out my cat, Miss Marple passed away.

I'd only had her for about a year and a half, but I loved her so much.

Race against time

Rhinebeck is next week (If anyone knows where summer went, please tell me. I have no idea) and I'm hoping to be able to wear my scarf. Without the needles in it and all the ends wove in would be preferable. I want to be able to wrap it around my neck and it still hang down quite a bit. Right now, it's my height. 5 foot, 2 inches, in case you were wondering.

I'm still on my second ball. Will I have it done it time? Tune in next time for the trails and tribulations of the never-ending Entrelac Scarf!

Triumph over Joy

Finally! This seems like it took forever. It still has to be blocked and the ends woven in, but all the knitting is done.

I love this thing. Insanely so. I spun the yarn, and knitted it. I so rule.

Scones

A while ago, while I was in my knitting slump, I cast on for Toast, hoping to get my mojo back. It didn't work (or if it did, it was a month or so late). But I picked it up yesterday, and fell in love. I finished the first one, and cast on for the second right away. In a few hours, I had Scones. I think the main reason I love it is the yarn. If I could, I would marry this yarn and make babies with it. Of course, it's malabrigo. You know what yarn should make babies with malabrigo? Noro. How amazing would that be? I got the yarn at Stitches um... 2? years ago. It was FREE! The malabrigo people were handing it out so I somehow wound up with 3 skeins of worsted in red and 2 of lace in a tan. One of the red I made into a foliage hat and the other one I'm thinking about making into a cowl.

Size 8 needles and I cast on 38 stitches. I really love this and would make another pair. Mindless knitting at it's best.

This is me trying to do that twilight apple in hand shot. I had no apple, so I used the closest thing. A small dog.



In other news, Rhinebeck is getting closer. So I decided to have my scarf finished by then. I still have 2 more skeins to go. I have also decided I'm insane.

Parade of pink

I love pink. Always have, always will. But lately, it seems that I've been knitting (yes, I've been knitting! A lot really. Shockingly, I got my knitting mojo back when the AC was turned on) more pink then normal. Case in point.
I cast on for this in April according to my Ravelry project page. I just finished it and I have no idea why it took so long. I think it maybe took 2 nights in all to knit it.

Winter'snow more
It's the Urchin pattern in the largest size (I have a big head) by Ysolda. Flipping brilliant pattern. Size 11 needles. And the yarn? That would be my handspun. Thawed Roses .
I didn't do any mods, unless you count the fact the somehow a stitch got lost from the cast on edge, so when I was grafting it, I just grafted 2 together so it would be even.

Melting Sunrise





My own pattern, and my own handspun yarn. Needles are size 9's. I love this so much I can't even begin to say. I cast on, did some 2x2 ribbing and then knit till I had enough left over to do the k2tog decreases.I have no idea why I look so sad in that photo.


I think this has spurred a hat obsession. Because this is what I'm working on now


Belphoebe. My own pattern with a cable pattern I borrowed from Cables Untangled.

Still, I have more pink.

That? Would be a sweater. For me. A pink sweater. I love pink.

Recap

In the past few days, this is what's happened. Thursday, I went to the ER because I could no longer breathe. I spent the next 5 hours there. I had blood drawn, chest x-rays and lots of other stuff. I found out I have (Had?) a very bad case of bronchitis, and that my asthma is out of control. So that's all being taking care of. Saturday, I went and got my hair done. And by done, I mean I got it cut and dyed red with Atomic pink and blue mayhem stripes. The entire underneath back of my head is blue.


I can't begin describe how much I love it. It's my favorite hair ever.

Later that night, I went and had dinner with my dad's family. It's no secret I don't like them, but I was nice and put up with them. I decided to be uber nice and take my cousin (who was visiting with her dad from Seattle) out the next day to a book store and a chocolate shop. Which I did (we won't get into how she never thanked me for buying her books or for her hot chocolate). I took her home and her father said he wanted to have a talk with me. The talk? Was about how fat I am. Not only did he say that, but he went on about how I'm going to be dead before I'm 40, that I need gastric bypass and lipo. For about 5 minutes, he did this. And I listened. I didn't want to cause a fight in the family, but it's too late now. After a few minutes, I stood up and said "I'm fat. and happy" and left (altho I really wish I kneed him in the balls. but I took the high road. He said more, but I think you get the idea. I don't think I'll hear from that family again, which doesn't upset me. More of a relief that I never have to deal with them ever again. This happened yesterday and I'm still upset over it. No one has any right to tell me that. or you. It's your life. You decide to live it the way you want. Yes, I'm fat. So what?

A loss

A few weeks ago, something tragic happened. I lost my knitting mojo. I tried to knit, but my heart wasn't into it. Part of the reason was that I was sick. I caught this nasty flu bug and had no energy at all. I finally started feeling better a few days ago when my knitting mojo began to return. Today is the first day I woke up feeling like a human. Hopefully, I can get back to knitting all the time again.
But none of that has anything to do with these photos. I just loved how very goofy my dog looks.

not dead yet

I'm alive! Mostly anyway. Last month I went to the shore for a few days, came back and caught a nasty bug that's going around. Took me a while to get over it and it zapped my energy. I'm finally feeling somewhat better so I thought I would show you some pics from the shore. If you want to see all of them, clicky here. Bowen and I stayed here and this was the view from the hotel. A block or so from the beach.


View from where we ate dinner (With a rainbow!)


and a cute bird thing that was there

And there was the big blue thing that I love so much.

This is one of my favorite photos that I took

And this one too. I just love the bird next to it.

I had a fantastic time, and I was even in the pool!

I make black eyes look good

Last friday, I did something stupid, even for me. If you don't know already, I'm klutzy. Very dopic. A Walking disaster really. I was balancing my laptop on my knee and holding a piece of chicken in one hand. My laptop started to fall and I quickly moved my hand to catch it. I slammed my right hand on the edge of a table so hard. It got swollen, turned blue and on sunday I went to er. The x-rays showed no breaks, it was just VERY badly bruised. Which means I can't knit or spin or crochet without a shooting pain after a few minutes. So all last week I read. And read. And read. One of the books I read was The Guernsey literary and potato peel society, which was amazing. Had to be in the top 5 best books I've read this year. If you haven't read it yet, you must. It's so good. Anyway, then Saturday night, I opened the freezer to get some ice cream (cherry Garcia in case you were wondering) and a bucket that was on top of the fridge fell and hit my nose. I woke up Sunday (When the bucket fell, I had been up for almost 24 hours and was tired and it just hurt, I didn't think it was broken) with a lovely swollen nose and black eyes.

I've never had a black eye before and I thought it was cool, but they really didn't look like black eyes. More like I just put some eyeshadow on. It was still pretty neat. Yesterday, I went to my ear, nose and throat doctor and have to get a cat scan to see if it is broken. If you remember, I broke my nose last may too. I'm starting to think I should call this summer "The summer of klutziness".

Distractions

On Friday, I sprained my ankle. So I spent Saturday bumming around and knitting mostly. Then Sunday night, my mom came home from the grocery store and asked me to put the cold stuff away. I went out the kitchen and was going to put the bag on the stove to unpack it, went to move a muffin tin (which had held pineapple upside down muffins) and knocked a bowl over. It fell, shattered and slashed my foot. Blood started gushing (ok, maybe not gushing but it was a lot of blood) and I was bleeding everywhere all over the kitchen. The stove was a nice bright red. I thought I was going to have to ER but thankfully, after a while it stopped bleeding. Now (over 2 day later) it's mostly stopped (just a tad on the band-aid every once in a while) unless I do something stupid like get up to pee and then it bleeds a bit more. It also hurts like hell. Only I could do something so klutzy. In case you have a morbid curiousity about what it looks like, you can click here and be grossed out. And this all means that, unfortunately, I can't make it to MSW. I'm so upset but I know if I did go, I would be in so much pain.
To keep my mind off of my sprained and gashed foot ( also not going to msw, swine flu (someone in the completely pointless and arbitrary group on rav that it's really a cover-up for zombies, which amuses me so much) getting everything planted in time, and a ton of other things) I've been knitting on 2 main things. The first one is a handspun (the big top I spun) Shawl. It's dead easy and totally mindless.

I've knit 2 skeins and have one more to go. Of course, it's 90 degrees so I really don't have much need for a wool shawl. This is why snow beats heat anytime in my book. The other thing is an entrelac scarf.
The yarn is an Easter gift and it's Zauberball, which is very nice. I can't wait to make socks out of it sometime.

this is first venture into entrelac and it won't be the last. It's addicting. You keep saying to yourself "just one more square one more, this is the last" and before you know it, you've done 2 rows of squares. Which may or may not be a good thing.