The green socks are DONE!  No small thanks to Charlotte who did half the knitting!

It’s hard to catch these socks between feet and laundry and in fact I had to fish them from the top of the basket for this pic.  Zander loves them and immediately requested a new sweater.  I gladly put in the call to grandma who in fact has a wack of the same yarn, Plymouth Jelli Beenz, to make a child’s sweater or two.  Ball’s in your court, G-Terry.

I started some little green socks for Elinor, knit one almost to completion, crammed it on her foot and thought, Self, this sock is running small.  My daughter has big feet.

Riiiiiiiiiiip.  Cast on for the Size 2.  Immediately set aside because recipient has no long term memory and other things seemed more pressing…

Like this!

Elinor’s Christmas stocking, knit in Rauma Strikkegarn, a rough, sticky yarn that was perfect for colorwork.  The color is deliciously saturated without being a distracting eyesore.  I think the Strikkegarn natural is a little brighter than the Heilo used for the other three.  These stockings make me happy.

As for beginnings, I started a project for myself on Christmas Day:

I’ve reached that point of the holiday season when there is so much to do, holiday or otherwise, that I can’t keep track of it all and I know some things are time-sensitive and I end up so turned around that I don’t know what to do first and thus do nothing.  Thankfully, I’ve learned not to stress about it (too much).  Instead, I am bewildered, I suppose.  I called Matt this afternoon after dropping Z off at preschool just in case he knew something I forgot.  He suggested I do some shopping downtown.  I am burned out on shopping, whether it is for gifts or groceries, so I just went home and played with the baby until it was pick up time.

Now for the randomness:

*It’s so windy!  And wet!  I should make myself a cup of tea.  But I forget to before I make it to the kitchen.  Or I don’t hear the electric kettle.  I’ve heated it twice.

*Finished a small Thorpe for Zander last week.  It took me only three days–what a thrill to finish something so quickly.  I knit the small size using Cascade 220 doubled, and this is a good size for a child.  It’s a little loose on my preschooler but not so it will fall off his head.  I skipped the braided ties because I thought that would be safer on the playground–and they’re easy enough to add later if I change my mind.

*Elinor makes kissy noises with her lips.  And gives open-mouth, wet, baby kisses.  You know it’s love when you don’t care!

*Hanukkah starts on Friday.  We are ready with the gifts but not the food.  Someone needs to go to a grocery store with a real produce section so we can get a heaping mound of onions and potatoes for latkes.  And it’s windy, rainy, cold, and gross outside.  So far…I can live without latkes on the first night.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings (I hear it’s going to be very cold).

*I have had a crisis of coat buying for the children.  It has nothing to do with the holidays but has worn me out on shopping.  It involved going to the mall, in December, which I never do.  The best part, though, is that I found a coat for Elinor in her closet this morning, a coat her cousin passed down.  Hallelujah.  Crisis over.

*I/Zander inherited a UFO from Charlotte–a pair of half-finished socks–which her children outgrew before they ever got to wear.  I finished the first this afternoon.  Here it is yesterday.  The yarn is Plymouth Jelli Beenz, a fun and colorful acyrlic/wool blend.  Zander, my biggest fan when it comes to knitting, is very excited.  We’ve already had one serious discussion about his socks and the dog.  Ahem.

*My freelance work is ramping up again.  I have two projects right now, although one is in three pieces so it’s really more like four projects.  I must pace myself to avoid stressing out because I can only do one piece at a time and if I get behind it will be a vicious domino effect complete with loss of sleep.

*I am knitting Elinor a stocking to go with our other three.  The pattern is Christmas in Tallinn by Nancy Bush from Knitting on the Road.  I’ve made several patterns from this book.  I had to substitute the yarn because no one locally now carries the Dalegarn Heilo I used for the first three, but I am happy with the substitute, Rauma Strikkegarn.  It comes in lots of colors and is sticky, which is great for colorwork.  I may actually like this yarn better than the Heilo.

*The seed catalogs are starting to arrive.  I am thinking of planting more quantity of fewer types of plants next year in the vegetable garden.  Partly to get better at growing the things we love the most and partly because we really need to focus on the flower beds, get them organized.  They were empty when we moved in.  Now they’re kinda weedy.

Good night!

There would be more (and more recent) pictures in this post but I have had to hide my camera card reader from my son who thinks it is a spaceship — and now it is so well hidden that I cannot find it.

The Urban Aran Cardigan for my husband’s birthday (January 2009) is now being sewn up.  This photo is a few days old since both sleeves are now on and I just have the sides and underarms to go. I had to bust into my last skein for the sewing so I had just enough yarn.  The local craft store did not have a zipper of the right length and color–mostly because it had been raided by people making Halloween costumes, I suspect–so I will order one from Zipperstop.  Almost there!

I also finished the first Jaywalker from my Flat Feet yarn (again this picture is a few days old)–that was started on January 13, the day before Matt’s birthday.  Progress, ten months later!  Such is life with babies and young children.  I cast on the second sock and knit exactly one row before being interrupted last night by the baby who suddenly, thankfully, recovered from her flu and was tearing around the living room, throwing stuff to the floor.

I think the next order of business will be hats and mitts and scarves for the four of us.  None of us is completely without these items but probably the most needy is Zander for mittens.  I spent an entire day last winter knitting and reknitting mittens for him that never quite worked out and his store-bought insulated ones turn his hands into clubs.

I feel occasional pangs of holiday-knitting-itis but nothing has stuck, which is good because the only time it really works out is when I start in August.  I keep telling myself that I need to knit for birthdays instead of winter holidays.  But then I realize that I would probably spend 12 months of the year knitting for others and never for myself instead of 4 months.  I suppose I could try it for one year to find out for sure… but then I am also sure I cannot be that organized for another couple years.

Zander was healthy for Halloween, by the way, and had a blast.  I have no idea what the fever was fighting off on Wednesday–perhaps a very mild flu because at midnight on Saturday night, just as our last guests trickled out the door, Elinor woke up to nurse and was blazing hot.  She ran a high fever with runny nose and was very droopy for nearly 24 hours.  Then it was over as suddenly as it began.

(The marvelous view outside our living room window a week ago.  Then it all fell down.)

Today was one minute longer than yesterday.

Here we are on the other side of the year’s longest night.  Yes, some of us, myself included, managed to stay up all night.  There was a tough time between about 5 and 6 am during a Wii Golf tournament when I thought I wasn’t going to make it.  We were pretty useless the entire next day but it wasn’t stressful.  Matt and I took turns napping (and so did the toddler, whew), leftovers were consumed.

The holiday projects came out as well as I could have hoped and predicted.  Noah’s fingerless mitts - Dashing - were finished just in time but Abby’s slipper socks were not.  I finished those later in the evening and they warmed her toes all the live long night.  Completely unfinished were Matt’s felted clogs and Zander’s sweater, which only needs seaming but that’s not knitting so this is a huge (mental) hurdle for me.  As of today, the clogs are done and I’m just tacking the soles together with a backstitch before tossing them in the washer (fortuitous since there’s lots of laundry to be washed).  I hope they will be dry enough for Matt to wear tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, at his mom’s house.  They will be sans leather patch soles for a while because, well, I have other things on my mind.  And maybe he will do that part himself.  The only reason we have leather in the house is because he does stuff with it, crafty Eagle Scout that he is.

I started my Moss Stich Beret yesterday using Tahki Donegal Tweed probably in #894 Dark Grey-Green. I’m already planning to mod the brim with a turning purl row and no second needle to pick up the provisional stitches for knitting together the hem.  I do hems like this all the time, love ‘em, and will just pick up and knit the stitches as I go around.  It’s not really a pattern change, just a different way to do the same thing.

My sister gave me a crocheted hat with ear flaps for Solstice so my IMMEDIATE need for a warm head covering is relieved but… it’s not a beret so I am not satisfied yet.  I was explaining the beret series to Matt while we wheeled around on Saturday.  He was amused that I needed more than one but gamely went along with advising me on matching pattern and hat as I got started.  Also, I completely forgot that, being an Eagle Scout, he was also deeply into berets once upon a time.  I am assured he doesn’t want one (whew, they are still ALL for ME) but I know he needs a warm winter hat (like I need more books or yarn - he has a hat collection - I will show it to you one day - but it is true that woolly winter hats are underrepresented in said collection).  I am thinking Thorpe will be a welcome addition as well as easy to come up with some yarn laying around the house.

And omigod I almost peed my pants when I went to get the Thorpe link and saw the new pattern pair at Through the Loops: Lisa and Katie.  Will the slouchy hat love never end?  I am especially weak for Katie but unsure that a hat with that much slouch is good for me, whereas Lisa is a bit more like what I am immediately after.  Actually, Lisa is pretty similar to the Moss Stitch Beret with which I am currently engaged, only with some attractive star-swirling decreases.  Am I so fickle …?  Maybe.  The beauty of hat knitting is the shockingly small amount of yarn that goes into knitting them.  I could make myself a whole army of slouchy hats.  Bwhahaha!

Warmer days (1 Oct 2008)

I found my (first) beret pattern.  I was paging through patterns on Ravelry, found this one and I will look no further.  This is IT:

Moss Stitch Beret

A near second is Norah Gaughan’s Sunflower Tam.  But I would like something pretty basic for my first hat.  And don’t tweed and moss st belong together like PB & J?

SE Michigan is buried under 6+ inches - our first big snowfall of the year.  And it is STILL snowing.  It will be a white Solstice, hah.

I had a breakdown last night over the Solstice projects.  This was perhaps inevitable and you may not pity me because I gave as good as I got to my poor cohabitants.  Hopefully this will be my only “moment” - I am older and wiser after all.  I now have 3 of 8 projects done and the remaining 5 are half done, or more.  To accomplish this, Matt spent half his evening working on Tessa’s gift (which is not a handknit) and my sister’s gift did a 180.  That is, I magically produced a finished object which had been just waiting for the right recipient (hint, see the photo in the previous post). I went from having not even started her gift to finished in less than 5 minutes.  Whew.

I feel a lot better.

I also take Matt’s point, over Forage Night dinner (ie, leftovers), that I had sworn I wasn’t going to do handmade gifts this year.  That I was going to take a break, take it easy.  He’s right. I completely forgot I promised that to myself.  When did I change my mind?  I think it was a slow evolution.  I was always going to knit something for Matt and Zander, I think a hat and socks at first.  Then I made that deal with Noah and Abby and Abby’s part became a Solstice gift (Noah’s was his birthday legwarmers).  My mom’s gift was a happy accident.  Then I must have convinced myself I had enough time to make gifts for everyone else.  Except that I KNOW BETTER.  I know I need to 3-4 months to work on all of these to do it without insanity.  Sheesh.  AND I keep telling myself I should make birthday gifts, not Solstice gifts, so I can spread the love throughout the year.

Oh well, better luck next year.

Excuse me, I need to lock my computer in the basement and get back to knitting.  And watching Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys for the 351st time.

My site was down for a few days–apologies to those who were wondering what was going on.  My lifestyle is such that I am not hardwired to my computer so it took me a while to learn there was a problem (thanks to my friend, C, who emailed me repeatedly until something sunk into my pregnant brain).  The kudos are to Bluehost, our web hosting service for fast and easy and non-demeaning customer service.  I think I was on the phone for all of 2 minutes and my site was working before I hung up.  Not to mention the fact that in three or so years of being their customer, I think this is the first time we’ve had to call them.  If not, Matt’s not been complaining.

The flurry of holiday knits is upon me.  My family–my parents, sibs, and our SOs and offspring–celebrate Solstice as our winter holiday  (my husband and I do a traditional Xmas with his family).  I’ll write more about Solstice later in its own post.  What’s important to know here is that my mom introduced us to the idea of Solstice when we were kids and she would give us handmade dolls and whatnot.  It was awesome!  So we re-adopted this holiday as adults (in lieu of Christmas or Hanukkah) and try to give each other handmade or sentimental gifts.  Perfect outlet for a gift knitter, eh?

The Winter Solstice is at 7.04 am EST on Sunday 12-21-08.  Our party begins the evening before (some of us try to stay up all night).

I have 8 giftees total.  So far this year, I have exactly ONE gift done and tucked away…and 8 days to go.  This is not a strong year for me, clearly.  Two are half done or more.  Two others are not knit but involve sewing; I plan to do them this weekend.  Two more are not even started, although I have the yarn: one I will start today on the theory that I would rather gift everyone half-finished projects rather than some done and some not even close to done; the other I don’t have a pattern for and am trying to find one before I start designing it (love to design but damn, it takes a long time and I only have days).  That brings me to seven.

So number eight is my dad and I am not giving him a handmade gift this year.  Sadly.  He loves to receive clothing and will always wear the goods but I recently learned that my mom is hiding the handknits from him because she considers him too rough on them.  Which I don’t argue with per se, but I would rather someone wear them!  So while I sort through this conundrum in my head, I have only 8 days to finish everything and will gladly give him something that is not handmade but makes him happy: clothes.  He is, hands down, the easiest person to gift.  Just walk into the nearest department store and pick something masculine and warm, be it socks, sweater, jacket, slippers, or jeans, in a large size.  An optional step is to put it in a gift bag rather than the store’s bag.

The next week is going to be busy.  Luckily most of these gifts are of the hands and feet variety and involve worsted weight yarn.  I am trying to be somewhat realistic.

Of course, this crazy crafting schedule doesn’t take into account all of the extra things that come up on life like the stocking I am designing, which is only half-knit also needs to be done by Solstice.  Or my car, which broke yesterday.  And on and on.  You can imagine it.  It happens to all of us.  The best laid plans, etc.

My plan for foward momentum today involves starting Matt’s gift, which, I am going to go out on a limb and assume he’s not read this far and even if he has, he shouldn’t be too surprised since he just asked me for these last week.  I’m making him the famous Fiber Trends’ Felted Clogs with Cascade 220 in the Women’s 10 which is equivalent to Men’s 8.5, his size (their smallest Men’s size is 11!).  This is my first time through this pattern. I am hoping to find some seude scraps in his leather crafting stuff to put on the soles since we are phasing out carpet and wool+wood or cork or bamboo is SLICK!

Sorry about the lack of photos.  I am not in the habit these days, obviously, and when I sit down to start composing a post, it’s too late to start snapping because that’s a whole other brain wave.