Festivus

Well, the boys were somewhat appreciative of their knitted largesse. Here's Older Son holding his sweater. He did wear it for a bit Christmas morning. After he had taken it off for his shower he came down with it and demanded that I show him the "right" way to wear it. I told him there was no "right" way -- it's completely reversible inside/outside front to back. "I'm always wearing it the wrong way!" he grumped. (Yeah, he's that negative.)

Here's Younger Son wearing his sweater later in the day. I admit that there was a bit of finishing that still needed to be done on it when he got it Christmas morning. The sleeves are a bit too long, but it fits well enough, even over a sweatshirt, as seen here.

NOT completed are The Husby (but you knew that) and the Fuzzy Feet for OS. I'm pretty upset with him (I said he was on the Naughty List), which will take me awhile to get over and which makes me disinclined to knit for him.

My Christmas gift was a new (to me) loom. It's a Harrisville 22/4. With the bench and everything. I picked it up on Saturday, and haven't had a chance to play with it yet. I got other stuff too. Now I have to get some yarn to weave with...

Hope everyone else had a great Christmas or whatever you celebrate, and that you got what you wanted (or even maybe what you needed.)

And So This Is Christmas

Well, we did finally get the tree up. And decorated on Christmas Eve, true to my German roots (at least that's the way I'm painting it.) Dave is waiting for me to help wrap gifts. Our Christmas Eve included dinner with the Celtings, then off to church, where the boys were part of the nativity scene.

Older son is Joseph, Younger Son is the Magi on the far left. I was tickled that the only animals present were sheep. I asked the boys to pose with them, and they agreed.

They're really trying to get off the Naughty List.

I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Happy Elves

I have wasted entirely too much time tonight here: http://www.elfyourself.com/ But, I made elves out of Older Son, Younger Son, the Elder Celting, and the Younger Celting. I even did Heather and her boys. No one I had a picture of was safe. (Except me, of course.)

Ok, ok, on to knitting. Not much done here. I was making necklaces last night (which were warmly received) for my coworkers. My Sadist was I'm sure happy with his gift of cash, since I didn't get the gloves done.
Here's the first. It fit me, but was too tight for Older Son, and he pronounced it "ugly". He was openly relieved when I told him it was not for him. Since it fits me, and matches my black coat, I'll make the mate for me. Sometime next year.

Have you seen the new magazine Craft? I'm definately going to look for it at the newstand. It looks like a winner to me. The cover robot is by Jess Hutchison. She did Kate for Knitty last year. I'll buy the mag just for the pattern. (Her oop pattern book is on my wish list for Santa.) And yes, I just recognized the robot, I didn't have to look it up.
Edited to add: I just looked further at the site, and it seems that although they show the Jess Hutchison robots on the cover with the banner "Stitch a Robot" the actual mag does not include a pattern for them. The pattern is crochet. As well as the dolls pictured with the logo "Knit Happens" as the website. Hmmm. Let's move this one from "Strong buy" to "Hold".

Smells Like Christmas

I had to attend Younger Son's Christmas concert tonight -- it was the first time I've been able to see him perform. Anyways, I rushed home and showered (I'd been riding the bike at the gym after work) and decided I wanted perfume that smelled...Festive. So I dabbed on some Chanel No. 5. Smells like Christmas to me. Who knew? There's YS to the left, the last trumpet player to leave the stage. He was way over there -- I couldn't really see him from where I was sitting (which was in the absolute farthest seat from him in the auditorium). But there was some light, and I got alot of knitting done while listening to the rest of the concert (I was too busy trying to find YS while he was on stage to knit).


Here's The Husby. The yarn is KnitPicks Wool of the Andes. I like the yarn alot. Wish the skeins were 100g instead of 50g, though. This is three skeins of knitting. So far I'm knitting up a skein a day. But with 19 skeins for the sweater, you can see I might fall short for Christmas. Also, Older Son is dropping some really broad hints for a pair of Fuzzy Feet for Christmas. What's a mom to do?

Also, I stopped at the craft store (Pat Catan's) to get some yarn for the above mentioned Fuzzy Feet, and they had a bunch of yarn on sale for $1 a skein. So I bought 28 skeins. (Come on, it was a dollar a skein!) Also, the wool yarn was on sale too (but not for $1 a skein, it was $1.50) so I bought 10 skeins of that. (Red and blue, I'm thinking stripes. And maybe some mittens -- hence the 10 skeins). Last I heard from Celtic Queen, she was headed off there to get some yarn for her own Fuzzy Feet gift giving. I wonder how she fared. I'm thinking of joining Wendy for . I could so totally do it. I think me an 5 other knitters could spend the whole year knitting from my stash.

Holly, I tried to upload a picture of the pooping sheep, but Blogger feels that I've used my quota for images today. (I was hoping for a holiday reprieve, but no such luck.) Here's the link, though: Pooping Sheep mouse over the sheep for a larger view.

A Little Rough

Knitting on Friday! Zeepo was there, along with his wife Carol. We had gifts. I got some bright sock yarn, and my favoritest gift, some personalized stitch markers. They have my name! Also a pooping sheep, the 2007 Knitting Pattern a Day calendar (both already on my desk at work), a fantabulous sock knitting bag (can't wait to try it out) and a gift card for some craft buying action. I gave everybody yarn and jewelry. I'm making more jewelry now. Pictures, hopefully tomorrow.

Otherwise, I had a rough weekend. And a rough night tonight. I had to make my own way home from PT. I'm cold and not happy.

Also, the Sadist gloves are no more. The first glove is done, but that's all I'm going to say about it at this time. I started on the The Husby yesterday. Not feeliing all that inspired to move heaven and earth to get this done for Christmas, though (see above).

Dude, Where's My December?

Here's the first Sadist glove. I'm almost ready to start on the fingers. And doesn't that thumb gusset look great? With luck, I'll finish up the pair over the weekend. I have until next Thursday so I'm pretty hopeful. The Husby sweater, on the other hand...I don't know. I may need another all-nighter (or two). The last item I stayed up all night on Christmas Eve to finish knitting for my husband he never wore, though. So I can't say I'm inspired to do so again.

There's a new love in Dave's life. He stopped on the way home last night and bought himself a new Martin guitar. He's out on a date with it right now (really, he's at choir practice trying it out on the church's PA system, alongside his old guitar so he can see how much better it sounds).

Gorgeous sunset today, again with the "I should take my camera with me." Therapy, I thought the Sadist would be mean, (because I think he wants to get rid of me) but it wasn't too bad. He still twisted my arm, though. My knee is still better -- I actually took some steps today that weren't painful. It was strange and kinda refreshing. Funny how you can take something like walking without pain for granted for so long....

It's Never a Good Idea

To pull out your knitting at 3:00 in the morning because you're having a bout of insomnia. Let this serve as a warning to you all. Because you know (and I have to admit, I did, but shrugged it off) that in the cold light of morning you're going to be doing some ripping. I'd love to show you a picture of the Sadist gloves, but they're in the exact same spot as they were in the picture I showed yesterday. (No wonder I thought it was Wednesday.) For the third time. I realised I'd messed up the thumb gusset late last night, so I ripped. Then reknitted, and realised (when I'd gotten to the same spot) that I'd forgotten to increase when setting up the patterns in the first round. By then it was 5:00 AM (the alarm goes off at 6:00) so I opted for the hour of sleep and ripped and reknit today. So I'm in the same spot (one and a half pattern repeats) that I was yesterday. But gee, that thumb gusset looks great. And I think they may be the right size.

And in other news, my knee and shoulder (which were extremely painful) suddenly feel much better. It happened last night sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. It was like someone turned a switch. I told the Sadist on Monday when I was at therapy that my pain was at a 6 or maybe a 7 (on a scale of 1-10) with my knee. Same all day Tuesday (I could barely walk). Today it's a 1 or a 2. Here are the three possible explanations:

1) I exercised more -- rode the bike yesterday for 20 minutes instead of 15, did 10 extra squats, an extra set of step-ups, plus contractions and leg lifts.

2) I took naproxin every twelve hours for the preceding 36 hours.

3) When I told my friend at work, she gasped and said that she had been really praying for me last night.

I'm going for options 3 and 2. It couldn't possibly be the exercise. Maybe you've all been praying for me too. I'll take the miracle (it's that time of year, right?) I mean, it was truly a very sudden thing with the pain/no pain.

Is It Only Tuesday?

All day long I've been thinking it was Wednesday. Tomorrow's going to be a big disappointment. I'm knitting the Sadist Gloves. This is one and a half pattern repeats, which is my progress for the day. I think I may have to get a move on here. The pattern is an amalgamation of the glove pattern from The Knitter's Handy Book of Knitting Patterns by Ann Budd and one of the palm patterns from Knitting Fairisle Mittens and Gloves by Carol Rasmussen Noble. I'm hoping it will be big enough for a man's hand. So far it's possible it's just one giant swatch and I'll have to rip back and reknit. Yep, we're nothing but edge of your seat knitting excitement here.

I saw my orthopedist today. He gave me a cortizone injection in my shoulder, and he wants me to continue with physical therapy for both my knee and shoulder. Call back next year if I'm still having problems. Both are still painful. I told him The Sadist twisted my arm. (Really we discussed physical therapy, and although I told him I can do the exercises at home, I can't do the manipulation. He checked my range of motion and agreed that a little more therapy would be good.)

I had a couple of realisations when I walked out of work today and saw a couple sauntering down the street towards me. One, men should never wear jackets belted at the waist (leather or not). Two, I really should carry my camera with me.

Pieces

The pieces of Christmas Cables are done. I have only to block, sew, and knit the collar to finish. I'm trying to figure out where I will block. I'll have some extra time tomorrow morning before going to the doctor. I think I'll stretch and steam on the bed. I'm hoping it will be done before I get home tomorrow night.
With that done, I cast on last night for some gloves for the Sadist. The cuff is done and I'm about to start on the patterning. I was originally going to knit them in navy and grey (to go with his amazing blue eyes) but I saw he had a black coat, so black it is. I'm thinking I'm just going to do an all over 4 stitch - 4 row pattern from Fairisle Mittens and Gloves. It's one of the palm patterns. I'll do the fingers in Fairisle, too. I hope to get them done this week. I think he's getting tired of seeing me.

Also, I have to start on The Husby. Which needs to be done by Christmas. And unlike Heather's husband, mine is not only tall but also a bit -ahem- wide as well. I think I'm going to be sick of dark green. Then there's my own sweater. I'm beginning to question whether I'll make it or not. Wonder if Yarn Harlot's knitting hotline is up again this year? I could probably use some encouragement. (Or more chocolate, or maybe the good drugs) Did I mention I don't have my tree up yet? So far my Christmas decoration (note -- there's no 's' there!) consists of an unplugged "Giant Illuminated Talking Santa" that my MiL sent over out on the front porch which blew over in the windstorm a couple of weeks ago and so is laying there face down. Yeah, a dead Santa. That's me!! Happy Holidays!

I Have a Bad Feeling About This

Still here, still have no time. I'm very concerned about my sleeve. It's looking not quite big enough. I keep telling myself the kid has skinny arms (which he does) and that I can block it out (which I can) but still, I don't know. I'll try it out on the kid tomorrow. I may end up ripping out and restarting. Christmas is looming, though, and I still have two more sweaters to knit, and they are for us larger folk. Still feeling a little knitter burn-out.

Under Pressure

I'm not dead (yet, although I had PT today and I feel it may be imminent). Busy at work, and dealing with some personal issues (some health/financial issues with my dad, and both my kids have decided to self-destruct in the same week). I'm still knitting my sleeve, and the pressure of the deadline knitting must be getting to me because I've been NOT knitting. Doing just about anything else (well, not cleaning or anything drastic like that.) Hopefully I'll have more to post later in the week.