Happy New Year!!!
I wanted to be here, show you some new pictures and reflect on 2004 a bit but that didn't happen. I just didn't get enough free minutes in the day. But tomorrow I will be back here to ring in the new year and to give my thoughts on a new knitting year. Enjoy the festivities but don't drink and drive!!! I bet you that we won't even make it to midnight!!!
Come back tomorrow.
I just have to share this story with you......... the story of my lost Brittany Birch 2.5 mm DPN that I searched everywhere for. And I mean everywhere.........
Last night, Ian, Evan's friend who is visiting us from the Island was lounging on the couch. He grabbed the couch cushion and felt something "crunchy" as he called it. He went to feel the cushion up and down and couldn't find the crunchy contents of the couch at first. But what came out of the fabric after some more searching..... my lost DPN. We had a real good laugh about that one. It had slithered it's way through the pillow upholstry fabric (quite a dense fabric). Who would have thought....
My Christmas sweater is all knitted. No point to show you progress pictures. I'll show it off once it's put together. I also finished Erika's Bernat Velvet sweater yesterday. I hated making it and it's way too bulky but she looks really cute in it.
I hope to find some more time to figure out why my right side bar jumps down to the left after loading. In my edit view it doesn't do that. So if things don't look right around here today..... you'll know why.
Have a great one.
Christmas was a big family celebration this year with both sides of the family having lots of fun. Here are some tales and some pictures that are worth sharing:
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
Our presents are wrapped and waiting in the car. The Reindeer food has been sprinkled on the grass (so Rudolph will find his way to our house tonight) and we're off at noon today to see Oma and Opa. We'll be home late in the evening and up early tomorrow to celebrate Christmas morning with Nana and Papa at their house. Now that we are a "blended" family (Canadian - German) we do a little bit on Christmas Eve and a little bit on Christmas Day. I spreads the surprise.
By about 3 pm this afternoon, I'll be eating turkey. At 6 pm we'll go to mass and after we'll open our gifts.
Enjoy your holidays which ever way you celebrate.
Merry Christmas to all!!!
Here it is........... a bad picture but here is the MIL cardigan:
It's all dry. It's finished. I hope it fits. It looks good on me. It went a little bigger so the sleeves turned a bit longer in the washing/blocking process but it's all done. Tonight I just have to package it up. I'm so pleased. It's all done. Finally. Doing a big happy dance.
Other than that, I only just worked on Wavy a bit last night. I managed to get through exactly 5 out of 10 pattern repeats with my first skein of yarn. So I know that I'll be able to do the full 10 pattern repeats. Yippeee.
What will I take for knitting to my Mom and Dad's house for Christmas Eve and what will I take to my inlaws' on Christmas Day??? Maybe I'll finish up Wavy on Christmas Eve at Mom's house and maybe I'll start the Westside Raglan on Christmas Day as a Christmas gift to me. It's stocking stitch so it shouldn't be a big deal. Or maybe I should start some cool Christmas socks just for me. So we'll see what I will do..........
I asked Santa for one of these. I like the concept of the single cup coffee maker because I'm the only one in our house who drinks coffee and I don't drink more than one cup. I find the little amount of coffee I try and make in my 12-cup coffee maker never turns out as good as when I make a full pot. So I'm thinking that this is a great, although very expensive, concept. That's why I asked Santa for one. So, I probably just jinxed Santa. I was at the grocery store yesterday where I always check to see if they carry the coffee pods that are used in that system. They are far and few between but the store I stopped at yesterday had a bunch and they were on sale and then there was a big promotion coupon to buy one and get one free. So in anticipation, I bought myself two packages. Silly or what? I guess I'll have some lonely coffee pods at home if Santa didn't hear my pleas. And I'm not sure whether my asking for the coffee maker was as strong as my wishes for ball winder and swift. I certainly could not expect him to come through on all three gifts. So, only time will tell............ This year the anticipation is big. Evan always claims that he's never been able to surprise me at all and although I'm "expecting" some things, I have no idea who or what anyone has got for me this year.
All my gift wrapping got done last night except for the MIL cardigan which really isn't a gift but I will wrap it up with the big Merry Christmas 2002 note stuck to it. I also still have to print some labels and put them on the spice jars for my Mom and then wrap those. I think they will go in a big gift bag with lots of tissue paper.
Erika freaked me out last night. She had a great day with her cousins. They went for breakfast and then they went to for a Christmas Train Ride and they did some crafts. I hear Erika had lots of fun. She didn't nap for Nana and Papa though. So when we were heading home in the car around 5 pm, she fell asleep. She was dead to the world and we couldn't do a thing to wake her up. Eventually, clothes and all, we put her to bed. She hadn't been to the potty since about 3 pm that afternoon. I was scared out of my mind that she would wake up in the middle of night, ready to start her day. We went to bed around 10 pm. I fell asleep soon and sure enough, she started crying at about 11 pm. All I could say is "Oh sh....t" and I went to get her. First thing I did was take her to the bathroom and sit her on the toilet. A little bladder can only hold out for so many hours before an accident happens..... And then I did the only thing that I thought would keep her from really waking up. I stuck her into bed with us. Lo and behold, she didn't wake up again until I had to wake her up this morning. We had a less restful sleep but a this was better than not having any sleep at all. Go figure, she had slept for about 13 1/2 hours and she was still grumpy when I went to wake her. The only difference was that she woke up once she had some milk and then was awake and alert as compared to some mornings when she doesn't wake up at all. Hopefully tonight we're back on the normal sleep schedule.
Christmas Eve tomorrow................... I'll be here in the morning for a quick check-in and then I'll probably be back on Boxing Day. Enjoy your last minute preparations.
Well, Erika's Christmas socks were finished last night but they no longer are Christmas socks. She saw me weaving in the ends so she wanted to wear them right away. I let her put them on and she slept in them. So, no socks for Christmas for her. But here are her cute little feet:
The pattern is the Mermaid sock pattern from Lucy Neatby's "Cool Socks, Warm Feet" book. The yarn is Regia given to me just for Erika from a knitting friend. What and awesome gift. Thanks Shelley. Erika loves her new socks.
My MIL saw the socks on Erika's feet this morning and she did a mean trick to me knowing that I can't keep a straight face very easily. "I wonder if Santa will bring me some nice socks for Christmas?". I tried so hard to keep a straight face......
We built a ginger bread house last night. Erika had fun. I was disappointed in the amount of icing that came with the kit and I was way too lazy and tired to whip up some more icing to decorate more lavishly. As it was, Erika still had tons of fun putting on the decorations. It was a fun pre-Christmas activity. While Erika and I were doing that, Evan was mixing up the spice rubs that we are giving to my Mom. He made his basic BBQ rub, a Java rub and a Mediterranean rub and we put them in pretty jars and I still have to make some labels. That about concludes all the Christmas gifting. No more shopping, no more gift knitting, nothing else..... Just trying to wrap everything by tomorrow evening and get my MIL's cardigan to dry. That sucker is taking forever to dry.
Back to my regularly scheduled knitting. How long will I last before I cast on for the Westside Raglan? I don't know..... I swatched for it before. I think I want to get rid of that Bernat Velvet sweater for Erika first. It's the biggest pain. I ran out of yarn and I have another ball of yarn now. It's probably another 15 minutes of knitting to finish the sleeve. I just don't know how to put the thing together. I can't use the Chenille. I don't have a matching wool yarn. I wonder if I could use some DMC floss in a matching colour? I've heard that as a suggestion before but floss vs. finger thick chenille..... I don't know how that would work. Any suggestions on what to do? I still don't know what I was thinking when I decided to make that thing. The store sample led me to it. I don't think it will be worn often. I almost feel like abandoning it but I'm so close to being finished.
Wavy is growing, too but I don't have progress pictures. I'm almost at the halfway point and I'm close to running out of my first ball of yarn. I hope I can get to exactly half with the yarn I have left. That way I know I'll be able to make the scarf long enough.
Have a great Wednesday. I'd better go and get some stuff done.
On Sunday we stopped by at Santa's House............... look at that face. Let's not break out into a smile now:
We like visiting Santa at his house rather than the malls. This Santa is in a little house, there are usually no line ups. We haven't ever encountered one. You can bring your own camera. There are no professional pictures taken but they'll take a polaroid shot for $3. There is no pressure to buy anything and the Santa gives all the kids a little toy. Our well kept secret. 
And as you can see, as excited as Erika is about Santa, she really doesn't want anything to do with him. As soon as we left, she got excited and giggled.
It is finished............ Halleluja!!! You know what I'm talking about. Yes, the MIL cardigan. I have no pictures yet as it's drying on the spare bed right now. The yarn softened up incredibly after giving the cardigan a nice little dunk. However, I now hope that it doesn't stay too floppy. It felt so floppy and soft last night but that was when it was totally wet. I think it has also gotten a bit bigger (no, I didn't wash my swatch.....) but I don't think I need to be concerned about that. I was a little worried about it being a tad too small anyways. It's heavy, too.
That was it for me last night. Tonight I'm going to wrap some gifts.
I finally decided......... As a treat, I get to start the Westside Raglan using this Baby Alpaca yarn. I just don't see my shade. My yarn is a tomato red. I figure this will be a quick knit and I'm hoping I can finish it over the holidays. I will also actively get back to my Top Down Swing Coat. Yes, besides visiting with family, I'm hoping to do lots of knitting and maybe even some quilting. It's only a week of freedom and the time always passes so fast but one can only try to enjoy it to the fullest.
Enjoy your Tuesday.
It's all coming together but I'm starting to get tired of that MIL cardigan. I got up at 4:55 am yesterday morning and started seaming the cardigan. I didn't get up to seam but I got up because I couldn't sleep. I was crowded out of my own bed by Erika. My back was sore and I just didn't sleep so I got up. I started working on the collar - the very last thing to be done - yesterday afternoon and have about 2 of the 6 inches I need all done. I want to finish tonight. I want to soooo be finished tonight.
We went to my inlaws last night to have dinner and visit with Evan's sister and her family. They just arrived from California on Saturday evening. Erika was so excited to meet and see her cousins. She met them before but then she was too little to really get it. Now she is really into it and they had a blast. I was excited to see that my SIL is still working on her knitting and that she even had some projects with her. Guess what........... an accomplice to take along to Stitches West when we go.
Wavy is coming along nicely as well. I worked on it when we were at my inlaws last night but when you're sitting and chatting, even though I was keeping track of my rows, it was easy to make mistakes to the pattern flow.
I'm very, very ready to work on some other projects again now. I will start either my Take it from the Top or my Westside Raglan as a reward for getting my Christmas knitting done. But I will try and keep the starting it to a minimum. Can't wait to start.
Oh, it's Friday............. tra-la-la-la-la........
I was sure I had lost my Kureyon multi-directional scarf at our Christmas luncheon yesterday and I was very sad. When I realized it was gone, I phoned the restaurant right away. No such luck. But one of my lovely co-workers came to me this morning and what did she have...... my scarf. Bless her soul.... She made my day and she was good enough to pick up after me. I'm very happy to mhave my scarf back.
After our luncheon, I had some time to kill and I went to my LYS and sat in a corner and knitted for a good hour. I made another repeat's progress on Wavy. It's starting to look good.
I'm almost finished the Soft Socks for my SIL and that's a happy and good thing. The MIL cardigan is still waiting for its finishing touches. This weekend......... this weekend. I want it all finished and wrapped up this weekend. I'll have to do some of my wrapping this weekend because next Friday, Christmas Eve..... the day I usually wrap, we both work and Erika goes to daycare until noon. I pick Erika up then I pick Evan up and then we go straight to my Mom and Dad's house where our first turkey dinner will await us. I had a long talk with my Mom last night and she was avoiding making turkey because she didn't want us to have to eat turkey two days in a row. And if you've been reading all my posts, you'll remember my whine about the potentially missing Christmas turkey at my inlaws' on Christmas day. Well, turkey dilemma solved. Mom wants to cook a turkey. We want to eat a turkey. And if somehow we do get a second turkey (and my Mom and Dad will be there on Christmas Day, too) on Christmas Day, we won't mind. So, it's all good. We'll be eating mid afternoon because we'll be going to Christmas Eve mass at 6 pm. It's the best time for the kids and my Dad will be Eucharistic Minister for the first time so he has to go to that service. That will be good because then we'll open gifts after church and we can have a leisurely Christmas Eve. I can't wait.
Yesterday Erika came home with paper crown on her head. She loved that crown. Being Christmas and all, I asked her if she was one of the Wise Men at daycare. And she said that she wasn't. And Evan agreed. No, she wasn't. He said that they must have been singing the song Jack and Jill...... and something about Jack broke his crown (I don't know it obviously). And Erika sang the song. Didn't make sense to me. A week before Christmas, they're reading all the Christmas stories, they have nativity scenes in every room......... the crown certainly pointed in the direction of a Christmas play to me. So I asked this morning and yes, indeed, Erika was one of the wise men and they had a big procession at daycare with a big star leading them and they followed the star to find Baby Jesus. Well, it sure sounds like they had fun and Erika went to sleep with her crown on her head.
Back to my own knitting soon. I want to finish some of my UFOs but I also want to start something new. I feel like something simple. I can't quite yet make up my mind about what I should start first but I'm sure when the moment comes to decide I'll figure it out.
Have an awesome weekend. I hope that on Monday I can report that all Christmas knitting is over and done with.
