I'm awake

No, really.

I'm up.

Just let me lay here for a minute and get myself sorted for the

dazzzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Sleeping Sickness

Today, my body decided that I had done quite enough and it was going to sleep whether I approved or not. I stayed in bed until around noon, but, even now, I don't think I'm really quite awake.

I'm working on the Wavy Wrap and will hopefully finish the damn thing today. For some reason, I've turned into a one-at-a-time knitter rather than my usual method of cast on eight things and knit them at will. The only other project I have on the needles is Jaywalker socks that I started about a month ago.

I'm jonesing to knit a pair of socks out of some of the beautimous Koigu my Bestest Pal sent me but I want to finish at least one of the Jaywalkers first. I have a feeling that the Jaywalker pattern would be gorgeous in the bright colorway so I need to make sure I'm knitting the right size sock and then, gangbusters! I'm also wanting to cast on for the Hip Hop Coat in the new IK. I've got enough Muench Naturwolle for the project and I think it will be pretty fabulous.

But maybe I'll go back to sleep first...

Christmas Amusement

This year, when my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him it was up to him but I absolutely wanted two things: a box of ginger-scented bath delights from Origins, and Sweaters from Camp. I even sent him a link and the title of the book and the cost of the book and the phone number at which to order the book. So he could get the right book.

Yesterday, we're running one last errand and he turns to me in the car and says. "You didn't want that book for Christmas, did you?"

Um, no, I guess not.

I am going to order the book tomorrow and make him write, "You didn't want that book for Christmas, did you?" in it. This one has legs. We're going to be laughing over it for quite possibly every Christmas from now on.

So, I hope all of you got whatever you wanted for Christmas. And remember, if you didn't get what you wanted, it's probably gonna be 60% off tomorrow morning!

Merry Christmas!

And what to my wondering eyes should appear...

But a really amazing package from my Better Pal.








First of all, a big thank to her from The Bean.

My Pal took the time to get some fabulous Princess stuff for The Bean.

As you can see, Bean is really excited.

There is a fabulous feathery fan, a tiara, a magic wand, and bracelets.



Then there are the goodies for me.

And Oh MY! Koigu!

Four skeins of Koigu.

I'm a bit overwhelmed.

Two skeins in a fun, bright colorway with hot pink and turquoise and orange and yellow and blacks and grays. And two skeins in a really lovely sort of autumnal colorway with dark rosy reds and more muted blues and oranges blending into browns. My pal really nailed my taste.

And, to top it all off, two of the prettiest Christmas ornaments I've ever seen packed in gorgeous silk and velvet boxes. They are Chinese ornaments created by someone painting the inside using a miniature brush through a small hole in the ornament. They suit my tree perfectly.

Thank you Better Pal. I'm truly stunned by your generosity. Not to mention your fabulous taste!

The eyes have it

Mom is fine. She can already see out of the new eye! We teased her that it's green instead of brown but she figured that trick out pretty quick once the drugs wore off.

Of course, since I can't seem to function without looming disaster, I decided on Tuesday night to put books on the top shelf of our new bookshelves. One of them, a murder mystery natch, decided to leap to its death and whack me on the bridge of the nose. And whack my eye.

Yes, gentle readers, my mother had a cornea transplant on Tuesday morning and Tuesday night I sympathetically scratched my eyeball with a book. I have paper cuts on my eye. Mostly it just stings. They gave me some nice eyedrops and tried not to make me feel like a total idiot.

I seem to have the wackiest accidents. One time, I busted my ass. Literally. Coccyx go boom. And they can't cast that one.

The mitten knitting is all done and wrapped except for the last pair, which don't have to be completed until some time after Christmas. Or maybe Christmas day if I decide to give that pair to someone else and knit yet another pair of the damn things for the original intended recipient. I even had time to knit a scarf which is also already wrapped. So, no pictures.

The pattern is from the Louisa Harding accessories book and it's the Gardening Mitts. Very quick and fun to knit. Lovely yarn. Makes me itch. I loathe angora!

And what to my wondering eyes should appear today? Husband never shops until the absolute last minute. However, he gives pretty good gifties. There is a Little Blue Box under the tree now. Of course, it's gonna have to be pretty good because he's get season seven of The Simpsons and a PS2 from me!

Sleep of the Damned

I have this little problem with insomnia. Last night, no sleep until around 3.30am. Bean awakened me at 7am. You do the math.

Mom came through the surgery fine. Now it's just a waiting game to see how well the transplant heals.

Outlaws arrive today. I'm actually very lucky in that my inlaws are, generally, very nice people and we get along fairly well. I'm planning on sleeping very late tomorrow!

There was so much sitting and waiting yesterday, that I finished the knitting part on two more Gardening Mitts.

Lavendar pair: One complete. One needs ends woven in and flower applied.

Pink and orange pair: One needs ends woven in. Knit and apply flowers for both.

Blue, black, purple pair: Both need seaming and all other finishing. Second mitt is in back bedroom and I'm not fetching it.

I need to have the lavendar and blue pairs really finished for giving tomorrow night.

This whole experiment has taught me that I'm not so sure about angora. I was thinking of ordering the kit for the Sugarplum Sweater from Handknit Holidays from Kimmet Croft, but the angora is really starting to make me itch. My only saving grace may be that while the Louisa Harding is 70% angora, whereas the Softie is only 25%. I'll continue to think about it.

Tomorrow, COOKIES! If you're nice to me, I'll give you my fabu rum ball recipe.

2 mitts, 4 mitts, 6 mitts, a dollah

I have one mitt complete completed and three more ready for seaming. Hence, I've added another pair to the mix.

My mother is having a cornea transplant today, so I'll have plenty of knitting time while waiting around. She had the other eye done last year, so it's not anything we're terribly afraid of but it is surgery so I'm a bit nervous. The babysitter arrives in about half an hour and then, because I am completely insane, I invited a friend over for dinner. He's in town on a last minute business trip and we haven't seen him in probably 15 years, and tonight is the only night I have free. So...

Pernicious Pony Parade

A little something for Lee Ann.


Bean has been gifted with numerous ponies. I think they all came from the nefarious Happy Meal. How we ended up with 11 of them, though, is a puzzle.

Bleh. The beverage in the background is fortification for playing with ponies.

Losing my mind

Whine whine whine
Bitch moan
Whine
Crabby crab crab

In summary: Bleh

So sue me already

The Christmas knitting that was supposed to be finished last night? Yeah, well, it's in exactly the same state as it was in the last picture I posted. Although the little sweater dealies were attached to my gifts and are now gone so I don't have to think about them any more.

The latest development in what is rapidly shaping up as an Interesting Christmas is that Bean has a cold. To the point where she actually *requested* a nap.

The sucky part is that the school pagent is tomorrow and I'm really hot on her attending because her class is singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and Bean's favorite way to sing it is in the style of Dean Martin. I'm thinking of getting her a tiny martini glass she can hold while she sings...

O Christmas Wrap

OK, yesterday I did an ode "O Den-M-Nit" to the same tune on Kay's blog, but I'm going to reuse the tune today.

O Christmas Wrap
O Christmas Wrap
How I've come to loathe thee

O Christmas Wrap
O Christmas Wrap
How I've come to loathe thee

The tape that sticks to fingers small
The ribbons wound up and down the hall

O Christmas Wrap
O Christmas Wrap
How I've come to loathe thee

This piece too small for this big box
Not e-nough left to wrap some socks

O Christmas Wrap
O Christmas Wrap
How I've come to loathe thee

The dog has eaten half a roll
The helpful child doth take her toll

O Christmas Wrap
O Christmas Wrap
How I've come to loathe thee

Forget this crap, I need a beer
That will restore my Christmas cheer

O Christmas Wrap
O Christmas Wrap
How I've come to loathe thee

More Like Itt

Forget being possessed by IT. I am possessed by the Cousin Itt of Holiday Knitting. No, I don't have the hair for it (now about two inches long, but hardly in the qualifying races). But I'm beginning to babble incoherently.

Exhibit One
Two "Gardening Mittens" unseamed without flowers and without alot of yarn left.







Exhibit Two
Two little mini sweater ornament things and half of the ribbing for the first of the second pair of Gardening Mittens. I need them by tomorrow night. Granted, they don't take long, but I'm going to be lucky if I finish the mittens. I've aborted the idea that I might have 6 more mini-sweaters to join them. The ornaments are now package decorations.



Exhibit Three
A little project I'm referring to as The Mess but which shall be referred to as the Wavy Wrap when it's complete.

Two hundred stitches long.

Occasional rows of the Old Shale aka Feather and Fan lace pattern to give it some oomph.


Random changes between Mohair/Wool regular yarn and a small mohair loop yarn.

My swatch indicated that it would be somewhere around 6 feet long and 20 inches wide but then I went up a couple of needle sizes and I think I have plenty of yarn, so it'll be done when it's done.

Alcoholidays!

Because the Twelve Days of Christmas
Are just two six-packs awaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

IT happens

I never do holiday knitting.

I rarely engage in gift knitting of any sort. Knowing that I "have" to knit something makes me never touch it again.

And, yet, I find myself possessed by IT. Utterly consumed.

I decided that I wanted to knit little holiday mini sweater ornaments for everyone in my card group. I need 8 of them. And two pair of "Texas Mittens" from the Loiusa Harding pattern from Kimono Angora for a couple of friends in the card group.

I decided this yesterday afternoon.

I need all this by Wednesday.

Today, we are having my parents over this afternoon for a tree decorating party.

We are also having a dinner party tonight.

We have plans tomorrow night.

We have a big dinner party to go to on Tuesday night

Think I can make it?

Frenzy

Not much knitting but alot of cleaning and shopping and wrapping going on. My mother is having her second cornea transplant on the 20th and the outlaws will get in town on the 22nd, so I'm going to have enough going on then that I thought to myself, "Self*, get going!"

Surprisingly, I have been doing just that.

I have also discovered the IT that Stephanie refers to. But we'll discuss that later.

I had a teacher in grad school (one of the three times I've been, exhaustingly enough) who used to refer to herself in that manner. She also called herself Anna all the time (yes, it was her first name) which discombobulated us enough to occasionally slip and call her Anna rather than Dr Whatsit. She hated that but it was her own fault.

The weather held long enough for me to get a nice haircut (damage control mostly because there wasn't much hair to work with) and get home with the Bean. It's been sleeting on and off since then.

What the?

Two days ago it was 89F.

Today, not so much.

And the mercury is falling.

Yes, I'm happy that I can wear my woolens, but there's this whole sleet thing going on that is a total pain.




I'm supposed to have my hair cut at 1pm. It's taken me TWO MONTHS to grow my hair out to where it's over an inch long. Seriously. The nutjob who cut my hair last time was, clearly, a nutjob. So, new guy cutting my hair today, I'm all psyched and lo and behold - sleet. It had better hold off until after I get my hair done and pick the Bean up from school. Or I'm going to be Not Pleased.

In the plus column, I got alot of Christmas shopping done today. I loathe Christmas shopping.

To hell with Dorothy Parker

I got these on Friday.

Going from no glasses to progressives is a bit of an adjustment. Nevertheless, they do rock. And the inside of the frame is purple. Baby!

Wait 'til you see the sunglasses.

I was a little bit busy over the weekend with a church Christmas party. The Bean had fun.







As promised, Nykvarn:

Still Life with Pre-School Foot











The main color is much less variegated in person. I had to start a new ball of yarn for the ribbing around the neck and arms, and it is a bit darker than the other two balls. I was a bit perturbed but I got over it.

The original pattern called for the fair isle section to be the same on the front and back. I felt that on me, it would be a bit much - I'm short enough without a pattern cutting me in half. So, I took one motif and put that in the center back. I'm very pleased. Overall, this was a fun and quick knit.

The pattern is from Araucanian Moments by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton. The yarn specified was Nature Wool Chunky. I used regular Nature Wool and also added waist shaping. The only issue is that the shoulders hang over mine a bit, but it's not an actual problem. More like something I'd think about for the next vest I knit but not worth ripping this one back.

I bought this today. Bad, bad Liz. This stuff is like crack.

One skein of a mohair loop and one of a mohair and wool. They are from Lonesome Stone in Colorado. The colorway is Hot Rod Red. I think a more accurate name would be Lipstick since it's reds and pinks but, regardless, it's pretty stuff. I have an idea in my head but what really happens may be another story.

The best knitted thing EVER in the world

Really.

No, REALLY!

A pattern for a Flying Spaghetti Monster Hat!

Pastafarians Unite!

Toast

As in me.

I just got home. I spent all day decorating the great room at the church for Cookies with St. Nicholas on Sunday. Now, I just have to bake and decorate 4 dozen or so cookies on Saturday. And confirm the power supply issues for the bounce house. Because a Christmas party needs a bounce house. After saying "No" to serving on the party committee, I suddenly found myself serving on the party committee.

I finished Nykvarn last night and, so, was able to wear it today. Pictures tomorrow. There are a few minor quibbles I have with the finished product, but, considering that I deviated fairly substantially from the pattern requirements (beginning with the fact that I am a woman and not a teenage boy), I'm happy. It certainly was a lovely thing to wear today. I'm thinking that wool vests may become the new Texas Sweater (kind of like the fingerless mitts are Texas Mittens). I can knit with my beloved wool, but I have half the warmth of your full size sweater, thus enabling wearage on more than the three days a year it is actually cold!

I sent my husband a link to the Schoolhouse Press web site today and told him to order me a copy of Sweaters from Camp. Given that he usually waits to do any Christmas shopping until the 24th, we'll see what reality brings ;>