Christmas
This is me showing off the lace scarf my talented daughter made. She actually made six of them, all for gifts, so I hope she isn't too bored with the pattern and can make herself one, too. She didn't say what kind of yarn, but it's light and warm. Love it. I love getting things that people have made for me, and that's what this Christmas was. We gave each other knitted things, CD mixes (and ipod downloads, for those who have that sort of technology), pictures we'd taken and put in albums and on coasters, favorite recipes and the makings for them, and even a birdhouse with pictures of my grandson on it.
I cropped my sister-in-law out of the picture because I wasn't sure if she wanted the incredible fame of being on my blog.... And below, floating around because even though I've learned how to import pictures without its taking all day, I haven't learned how to move them yet, is my son with his son and the truck that my husband made for the grandson, though you can see that the son is just as interested. My son and daughter are both graphic designerss, and my husband is enough of a graphic designer that he designs his own books as well as writing and illustrating them -- so do you think I inherited any of this talent?
Last minute Christmas stuff -- Thank heavens it's almost here!
In the past week --
I finished the shawl/poncho for my daughter, and decided to keep knitting. My DIL had said she might like some mittens, and I thought it would be fun to make some, the simple sew-up-the-side kind. Then they needed a hat (pattern out of the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book). Then I found a pattern, I think a Yarn Harlot one, for a very very quick hat, so I tried that with some yellow yarn that a friend had dyed and spun. I stretched it with some dark green.
Don't try the pattern -- the hat, on the left, will (maybe) fit Miles, who is almost a year old. So I tried the same pattern, enlarged, for my son. The picture doesn't show that it's dark gray and maroon. It does show that that, too, is too small, and will need to have a few rows of single crochet around the bottom to make it wearable. The cat, Bibi, short for Habibi, is after the pompom.
So now I've knitted something for everyone in my admittedly small family -- not for my inlaws, which is the Mormon branch of the family, who are all wonderful, but there are so many of them that I'd never be able to keep up (and new grand-nephews and nieces arriving almost every day). And I haven't made my dad anything. He turned down my offer of a vest a bit too quickly. But I could do a scarf in just a few days....
What I really want to do now is make something for me. The beautiful yarn calls.
Thanks to my SP
Now if she'd just send me a couple more days in the week so I can take even more time to knit. The latest is a ball of Rowan kidsilk, which I have to keep out of the way of the older cat, who thinks it's her kitten; plus a pattern for a scarf that looks like a cloud. The amazing thing is that I coincidentally took the book containing the pattern (Last Minute Knitted Gifts) out of the library yesterday becaue I wanted to drool over that particular pattern and came home to find the gift. Right now there's a combination of sleet and freezing rain outside, so there is absolutely no reason to do anything but stay home a knit. Lucky, lucky me.
catching up
Haven't written for a couple of weeks partly because my knitting is stuck on the Teva Loop-d-loop poncho/shawl for my daughter. I like the pattern -- or at least, I like the result (I'll try to post a picture before I send it), but aside from the cast-on the thing consists of about 150 rows of rib stitch knit in the round. Booooring. I can't wait for the holidays to be over so I can go backto knitting for me. And my DIL has hinted that she'd really like some mittens. Maybe I'm just as glad that Jerry has no interest in wearing anything I've made. Not true -- if I make him a shirt he'll love it, but he says he doesn't want a vest or sweater or yet another scarf.
I did make a dishcloth, inspired by my spoiler SP, and except for the fact that I won't allow anyone to scrub anything dirty with it it's a success.
What else? Town Band is in full Christmas swing, and if I do say so, we sound pretty good. Three more gigs and we're done for the season.
And I haven't written anything since Nano. I gave the ms to my writers' group on Monday for their comments, hoping they won't tell me to stick to my knitting.
