A Little Yarn On The Side

So....I didn't get all my Christmas cards sent before we left for California, so today Theo helped me send out a few more then watched while I shoveled the 3-4 inches of snow from our sidewalks and driveway.  Then I think he decided I was just completely crazy, because he left me for most of the rest of the day.  Taking advantage of the opportunity, I have kittyless pictures!  First, the finished scarf the alpaca sweater with buttons, which is a FABULOUS sweater.  I have already worn it about 10 times.  Love, love LOVE it!!! Then...... Ta-da!  The December project of the month!!!!!  So far I have two wine bags and one little bag done, which I have managed to make a seriously bizarre shape which I attribute to sewing while under the influence of cold medication.  Same excuse for that last sentence.  The cold is STILL with me and is beginning to make surgery recovery look both pleasant and short.  I rested a lot yesterday that...

And it's even blocking without kitty assistance!  How did I manage this amazing feat? It's on top of the ironing board! Not that Theo can't or hasn't gotten up on the ironing board many, many times.  He is just unaware that there is knitting on top of it.  Okay, I admit it....I REALLY enjoy it on those rare occasions when I can outsmart Theo.  It doesn't happen very often....

We spent the holidays with family in sunny California, and at the last minute I decided to cast on an easy-to-do scarf to take with me instead of Andy's sweater, so I have this  to show for my absence.  I'm doing a simple stitch--knit one row, then *K1, P1* across for the next row--which I really like because it makes an interesting reversible scarf.  I added a seed stitch border on the end & each side (3 stitches on each side) but the darn thing still wants to roll. I can't decide whether to be really annoyed with it or admire it's determination, but I'm hoping some severe blocking will help. I took the lace scarf down as well, but there was one moment on the plane on Tuesday when I had the most horrifying thought: I could run out of knitting OK, I think this on every trip--which prompted me to take two entire sweaters along on my honeymoon even--but this time I was traveling and only had two scarves with me .  What would I do if I ran out of yarn? ...

*  Deciding that the sport-weight yarn you found that you just love looks "small enough" for that lace-weight project you want to make. *  Spending hours making one of your first sweaters for someone who will absolutely never wear it. *  Presenting a mother-to-be with a precious, hand-knit baby sweater in a gorgeous yarn--only to have it meet it's death in the washing machine because no one with a baby has time to hand-wash anything except the baby *  Not checking gauge "just this once" because you always get gauge and ending up with a cabled tent *  Finding yourself with bags of the ugliest yarn ever that you just bought because it was more than 50% off *  Creating the king of snarls before discovering that yarn in hanks must be wound into balls before knitting *  Giving a knitted gift to someone (usually a relative) who feels the need to actually tell you that he or she doesn't like it *  Discovering that you twisted the cable the...

So, I have one mitten.  Granted, it's one really LARGE mitten and both hands would actually fit into it, but I think it still only counts as one mitten.  I can't get excited about casting on the second mitten.  I think it's the idea of felting--or perhaps that it is 40 degrees warmer than when I started the mitten, and 40 degrees makes a HUGE difference even to someone as naturally cold as I am.  So, I have one mitten.  It wouldn't even work for a golf-club cover as A) I hate golf and B) it has that little white part for the thumb trick, and even I know that golf clubs rarely have thumbs.  I'm going to give it a week, and if I can't get motivated to make the second mitten, it's off to the frog pond for the poor thing.  Why do I never have this problem with socks?

I've been thinking about this--which probably has a lot to do with the amount of cold medicine I'm taking--but I'm thinking Santa probably isn't a knitter.  I could be wrong, of course, but look at the evidence: *  Santa has reindeer.  If Santa were a knitter, his sleigh would probably be pulled by a team of alpacas.  After all, what yarn does one ever get from reindeer? *  Santa gives toys, not sweaters.  A true knitter gives sweaters to any small children that she can, because children's sweaters are small and fun to knit, and are about the only time a knitter can try out bobbles *  Not a single part of Santa's costume is knitted.  Not to say there aren't knitters who maybe don't wear knitted gloves or sweaters or other specific knitted items, but generally a knitter will wear SOMETHING knitted, if for no other reason than having run out of other people to give them to *  If Santa were a knitter, I think he'd hand out really splitty...

You know it's a bad cold when I don't even feel like knitting. Thursday night I woke up in the middle of the night to find that the cold I thought I had gotten rid of had returned and brought friends.  When I was still working, I admit that I wouldn't have minded so much--maybe a free day to knit and watch movies, but now it's just a big bother.  I have things to do, parties to attend--I even missed Finishing Friday!  Why is it exactly that we can't cure the common cold? 

So my goals for the year were to use up 150 yards of material & 150 skeins of yarn, and while I am nowhere NEAR being close to either one, I realized that I was really close to using up more fabric than I did last year, so yesterday--taking a break from the holiday party marathon--I rounded up and finished this which looks a bit like a circus tent, to be honest.  I really REALLY thought the material was nice & light and drapey until I tried this on....which incidentally left me with an odd craving for salted peanuts in the shell..... BUT Andy likes it, so I can wear it around the house, which is fine.  I used up 3 yards of material on it, so one more project finished should put me over the 75 yard mark--leaving me halfway to my goal and at least better than last year.  We've reached the "grasping at straws" part of my goals.... I think I'm going to try felting the mittens--largely because it would involve knitting 1 mitten and not 2, but we're enjoyi...

So, the mitered mitten pattern calls for a gauge of 4.5 stitches/inch, and knowing that I usually get 5 stitches per inch with worsted weights & size 7 needles, I opted to try size 8 needles.  I knit a little swatch, got out my ruler, found that I had just knit 4 stitches per inch, and said to myself, "Oh good, it will be just a little snug." ???????????????????????????????????? What happened???  A week ago I swear I could do basic math & count and everything.  We get arctic temperatures and I start talking about knitting pastries & think that somehow 4 stitches per inch is smaller than 4.5 stitches per inch. I hadn't realized that when people mention a "cold snap" that it referred to what happens to the brain when it gets cold.  I'm going to take my monster-sized mitten and go relearn the alphabet while hoping for spring......

Well, she was.  I'm doing her mitered mitten pattern and you know what that little bit of white is?  It's her "thumb trick."  When you get to where you want the thumb, you take a scrap piece of yarn and knit 1/2 the number of thumb stitches with the scrap yarn, then put those stitches back onto your left needle and knit them with the main color.  When you're ready for the thumb, pull out that scrap yarn & you have the live stitches to pick up for the thumb.  NO CUTTING INVOLVED!  I have survived steeks and will eventually steek again, but it's hard to voluntarily cut one's knitting.  It's just wrong and while I know EZ would never tell me to do something that wouldn't work, let's face it--the woman was tougher than I am.  She seems to have faced steeks undaunted.  I, on the other hand, am completely daunted.  I have spent a large part of my life trying to make sure that my knitting and sharp objects never get a chance to meet, and ...

Tonight while Andy and I were shoveling snow in the relatively balmy 23 degree weather and my fingers were tingling with cold, it occurred to me that as a knitter, I could actually make myself some warm items that might make such activities a little more bearable.   Amazed by my own brilliance--and that it only took me about 30 years for this to occur to me--when we came in I announced to Andy that his sweater was going to be back-burnered for a while because I was going to make myself a baklava.  Andy gave me the sort of quizzical look that one would normally give someone who had just announced that they were going to knit a very rich pastry, and about that time my brain unfroze and I remembered that the word would be balaclava .  Of course, Andy really wants to see me knit pastry, but I haven't yet ventured into the world of knitted food.  Not that there's anything wrong with knitted food--I just don't think it's going to do much to keep me warm.  So,...

Frogged.  Twice. As soon as I posted yesterday, I dug out the yarn for Andy's sweater and cast on.  Knit two rows, checked gauge, WAAAAAAAY off, frogged.  Dug out needles two sizes smaller and cast on.  The gauge is fine but You know how stockinette rolls if it doesn't have ribbing attached?  Well, the designer doesn't.  I was willing to give the designer and Interweave Knits the benefit of the doubt here since there is ribbing on both sides of the stockinette patch, but NO.  Like ALL stockinette, it rolls.  I have frogged it for a second time, and cursing all designers I cast on a lace scarf instead.  NO designer to mess things up or not double check.  Just a stitch pattern I like, a nonrolling edging, and I'm a happy woman. And it's NEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So....I didn't have the cast-on frenzy I thought I would, and technically am only at 11 WIPS right now, and I might just finish this scarf before having another go at th...

Two--count 'em, TWO--WIPS done, leaving me with....... ONLY TEN WIPS LEFT!!!!!!! (I realize that for some, having 10 WIPS would be a reason to start a WIP marathon, not the conclusion of one, but I've chosen to be realistic) I have met the Double Dog Dare Challenge!!!!  I'm down to 10!!!!!!  And I'm off to cast on something new........

In the past, I haven't liked mittens because one can't really DO things when wearing mittens, and as a slightly hyperactive child (* cough cough *) the restriction drove me crazy.  However, as we woke up to NEGATIVE 3 degrees this morning, I think I can get over this problem.  The cats won't even go outside this morning.  Now I grew up about 2 hours north of where I'm at now, and we did get lots of snow and subzero temperatures, which has quite a bit to do with why I don't live there now.  Normally we here in Boise get to whine about it being cold when it's in the 30s.  This week our high temperatures won't even REACH the 30s.  What happened?????? The one bright side--Andy and I each have lovely alpaca sweaters that are so dang warm that we rarely wear them in normal circumstances.  Today I would be wearing alpaca underwear if I had it (sorry for that visual).  And I'm feeling better about the 3 or 4 sweaters' worth of alpaca I still have in...

If I were not on a WIP marathon, I would be casting on 387 pairs of mittens right now.  Normally, I hate mittens and have never bothered to knit any, but it's currently 8 degrees (Fahrenheit, or NEGATIVE 13 degrees Celsius) and frankly, it's time to rethink my mitten stance.  Of course, I really shouldn't complain because according to Accuweather, while it is truly 8 degrees, the "real feel" is NINE degrees.  Well, break out the bikini!  Why even bother to say that?  ( Wow, Martha, I wasn't going to go for that walk if it was 8 degrees, but since it really feels like 9, I just can't pass it up!)  How can it really feel one degree warmer?  I just shoveled 3 inches of snow off our driveway & sidewalk, and I'm pretty sure it feels like 8 degrees.  Maybe 5.  When I regain feeling in my cheeks I'll let you know.

I know I have raved about their yarn & customer service before, but yesterday I received an email from Elann.com saying they had credited my account for the skein of yarn--bought TWO years ago--that I just sent back.  In my letter, I had even told them that I could completely understand if it was outside their time limit for returns and that it really was more about letting them know about a problem, but one of the reasons I am a devoted fan & loyal customer is their commitment to customers, and it's nice to see a company that recognizes that little things can go a long way.  In reality, it was only about $5, but they could have stuck to a "policy" and said it was too late.  Instead, they chose to spend $5 to make a loyal customer happy--how many companies do you know that would make that choice? Of course, now I get to go through an entire year of Cold Sheeping knowing that I have a credit at my favorite yarn source........uh oh.......

Tonight is our Christmas party.  ORIGINALLY, I had planned to make little mitten ornaments out of felt for all the guests.  HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! Thankfully, foolish optimism seems to be a character trait most people find rather endearing.  Or they're just waiting to see what crazy thing I'll do next......

Gift bags!  Or, more accurately, gift bags to be!  This is some home decorating fabric I found on sale one day, and I actually did buy it to make gift bags (since I buy so much fabric without ANY idea what I'm going to do with it, I'm always rather amazed when something DOES have a purpose......and downright shocked when I eventually remember what that purpose was ), which it should work really well for.  I haven't decided how many bags I'll be making, but considering how many gift bags I give away, the more the better.  Of course, I'll need to fit it in with making more of these which I just love.  Two have now found new homes, and I think we're going to need the other 3 for Christmas gifts (have to go back to my spreadsheet to check), so thankfully I bought enough material to make 10 more, as it looks like WE won't get one otherwise.  I have decided to alter the pattern slightly--namely to leave a hole in the bottom lining so I can stick the trim ends...