December roundup

This is my monthly roundup of projects and stuff. (Not doing a yearly roundup, though. Let's just say that I knit a lot. And finished a lot. And bought a lot.)

Five projects were finished:

1. A pair of monkey socks, 'cause everyone needs to knit this pattern at least once.
2. An EZ's BSJ. Ditto the above reason. (The next challenge for CIC is for sweaters and vests in sizes 2 and 4 which is convenient since this measures at a size 2. Ha! I'm ahead in a challenge.)
3-4. Two Christmas projects (which were finished on time and with minimum stress, thank you very much.) They were a cabled purse for DD#1, and 3 dishcloths for my dad that match his kitchen.
5. Five felted potholders that match my kitchen. They haven't been used yet, but I'm admiring the stack of them. (The stack is in my kitchen, so at least they're getting closer to the stove.)

The only real UFO is the teal cardigan which was ignored (but will be one of January's projects).

There are two WIP's: another pair of Horcrux socks and another BSJ, but that's a story for another day.

Happy New Year!

Enough?

Let's talk about presents.

Here's a magnet that RB gave me for my birthday. I just love cute knitting things.



Is that lady driving a yarn car, or knitting with it?

Next is a picture of what I got for Christmas. (You didn't think I missed out on knitting things at Christmas time, did you?)

Several years ago DH and I decided that I should pick out my present, he should pick out his present, and we'll both be happy.

For this year's present, I chose roving. Two pounds of it from the Copper Moose.



I've been learning to spin on 4 oz. at a time, and while it makes a nice little ball, it's not enough for a very big knitted item. I'm jumping in full force and my goal is to spin enough for a sweater.

The roving wasn't quite the color I was picturing, though. I wanted a red and purple blend, and while I love purple, I don't really need another purple sweater.

What's a girl to do? Buy some more roving, of course.



This is one pound of red. I'll make one strand red and one strand purple and ply them together and it'll give me what I want. (Assuming the whole spinning thing turns out okay.)

Looking around the site (The Sheep shed studio), I saw a couple of other items, and they jumped into my cart.

One pound of grab bag roving:



One pound of brown tones:



And a "thank you" bag:



Think I went overboard?

Preparations

It's been a fun few days around here. Family came to visit, and in preparation I finished my BSJ.



Admittedly, time would've been better spent by doing such things as cleaning the bathrooms, sorting through the piles of junk that cover every available surface, finishing the painting, or anything else that normal people do to get ready for company.

I do knitting. (Then I stress. Why is my house still so messy? What is that imaginary maid doing, anyway? Shouldn't she be cleaning?)

It's not even like this sweater is for anyone who's coming. It's just going into the charity pile.

Well, whatever. The house ended up being passable and the sweater is done.



I loved making this (but not hiding the ends. There were a lot of ends.)

The next thing I finished could almost qualify as getting ready for company.

I felted the potholders. This would qualify as getting ready if I had actually used them, rather than had them sitting in a pile. The plan was to have nice new ones, rather than the old grungy ones (see pic below).

Why didn't I use them? I don't know.

They came out the right size (see comparision with the grungy old, but favorite one.)



Now, when I was felting them I kept thinking about Catusneedles' comment that if they came out too small I could use them as coasters. Coasters would be fine, but hotpads are the desired result so pay attention to the washing machine!

They turned out good (although I actually forgot about them for a period of time, even though I was sitting in the same room), so I'll have to try them out soon.

The details, as I can remember:
Cascade 220 wool, 2 strands held together, size 15 needles.
Cast on 23 sts, 3 rows garter st, 26 rows st st (with 3 sts garter on each edge), 3 rows garter st. BO. Crochet a loop for hanging. Hide ends and felt.
They were all felted together, but still turned out slightly different in size.

In the past day we've gone from 9 people in this house to only one. (That one would be me.) (Ten, if you include the "devil woman". Jasper finally started tolerating her, just in time for her to go home. )

I'm planning an evening of knitting. How about you?

Present #2

Now that Christmas is over, I can show you one of the presents. (I could show you more but for present #3 I forgot to take pics, and for present #1 I'm still waiting for some photos. ahem, hint, hint.)

This is present #2--a purse for DD#1. She saw mine and loved it, but needed it to go over the shoulder. Hence, endless i-cord straps were knit. (And as it always goes, they stretched and were too big, so were shortened. Dangling ends were left to see if they were the right length. They've now been hidden, so no more stretching will be allowed.)



Here's the inside lining.



Christmas knitting was short and sweet this year. It was nice to have a couple of presents that were handmade without going overboard and getting stressed out. (Painting the living room had enough stress all by itself, and it's not done yet.)

Modeling session

One of the many nice things about Christmas is spending time with family. And their pets.

Here's the newest addition to the family--getting ready for her photography session.



She's a 4 month old cocker spaniel that's owned and loved by DD#1.

Our 15 year old dog is less than thrilled with her. (As DH says, "Look, Jasper, that devil woman is here again!") He stands and shivers and occasionally runs away. Today he's made progress as he licked her face.



Her shirt describes it all.



A model must change clothes during her photography session, so here is Lucy in the sweater that I made for her.



She's been growing mighty fast, but it still fits.



Here's the Christmas sweater, still big, but fitting okay.

Rebuttal

Me: Hey son, guess what I put on my blog yesterday? Pictures of your G.I. Joes.

DS: They are not G. I. Joes, they are wrestling figures. The black one with jeans is Rey Mysterio. The one with the white shirt and jeans is John Cena.

Oh, ok. That shows how much attention I pay.

Me: Any comment about the spilled paint?
DS: My mom did it. (What a tattletale.)

Me: Do you have any response to the ponytail comment?
DS: I don't want a ponytail.

Me: So, when are you getting your haircut?
DS: Never.

A Productive Day

Even though I haven't done a bit of knitting, it's still been a productive day.

Shopping was done, lunch was enjoyed, and a new light was installed in my foyer.



I was a good supervisor, while DS#1 did the work. Playing with my camera, I came up with this picture. The above picture is the way it actually looks, but this is cool, huh?



Christmas cards were finished and a batch of cookies was baked.

"What do you mean you need a present for tomorrow?"

"Oh, honey, while you're out can you buy...."

The tree was decorated by DS#2 and DD#2. I always announce that so if ornaments look clumped together and the branches aren't fluffed, then it's not my fault. But the kids get points for doing it all themselves. (Kinda like when they were little I'd always announce "She got dressed all by herself this morning!")

Some penguin ornaments were made.



They joined this year's other new penguin friends.



Is it a gaggle of penguins? A group? A flock?

My new knitting ornament was added (thanks, RB!) (Don't blink or the knitting content will pass you right by!)




Wonder what DS#2's doing? (And why doesn't he get a haircut already--does he want a ponytail? And why is there paint all over the chair? Was there a recent painting accident? And why do the garlands all meet at this point? Hey, have I told you that the kids decorated the tree all by themselves?

I digress. Back to the main question.)



Can you see what's in the tree?

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you guess which thing is not like the others?
Now it's time to play our game.
It's time to play our game.
(Anyone remember that from Sesame Street? It most likely has some words wrong, but it's close.)






Here's a pic of the lower branches.






G. I. Joes. Doesn't everyone have them in his tree?

I-cord garland

Today the tree finally went up. Not decorated, mind you, but up. I finished painting the woodwork last night (doesn't everyone paint a room the week before Christmas?) The walls are a light beige, and the woodwork is "baby bear" brown. I think I'm as enamoured with the name as with the color.



Knitting has been going slowly (see the above "painting the week before Christmas"). However, here's a piece from Christmas present #2 pretending to be... I-cord garland.



Don't worry--I'm not going to make I-cord garland for the whole tree. That would be crazy.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

My knitting this past week has been composed of a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Christmas present #3 was completed and given to my dad (3 cotton dishcloths). An accompanying picture was forgotten. (Natch).

Present #2 has a bunch of fiddly finishing work to do, but I'm pretty sure it will get done in time.

I went on a road trip over the weekend and knitted 5 hotpads.



They will be felted. I just guessed on the size, so if I'm wrong and they're too small, I'm going to be wrong 5 times over.

They were easy to do in the car and will be nice to replace my icky ones I currently use.

On my car trip, I also started knitting with my handspun yarn. This is as far as I got.




There won't be enough yarn, so I guess I don't want a scarf. Maybe I want a hat.

More gift knitting

Not much to show you around here since I've been working on Christmas gifts.

Here's gift #2 (funny picture due to the chalk and charcoal effect which gives it a mystery element.)



It's getting there, but has lots of finishing at the end.

Gift #3:



This has been finished since the picture was taken. I took it to DD#2's choral concert last night. We got there late enough to miss sitting on the hard metal seats and instead sat on the wooden bleachers. My circs were nowhere to be found (which is a little insulting since I just sorted them all, but whatever.). I took my long metal straights....and only dropped one once. Fortunately DS#2 was sitting next to me and was more than happy to go around back and crawl through to retrieve it. So much so, that when he was bored he asked me to drop another. (I didn't).

By the time the concert started, I stopped knitting, which was okay since it was too crowded to do so anyway.

Now I'm packing up some projects for a short trip. Are 4 projects too many for a weekend?

Breaking news

I found the STR ball band and the colorway is Tonalite. It was on the breakfast bar. Silly me, I should've thought to look there first! :)

Monkey socks

Dog lovers everywhere will be pleased to know that our dog is still among the living. The most punishment he got yesterday was several stern looks from me.

In case you're interested in more details... I was painting the foyer yesterday where the dog stepped in the paint tray, proceeded down the hall and into the carpeted bedroom (where the pics were taken).

Ever watch "America's Funniest Home Videos" and wonder why did they keep filming when some disaster happened rather than dropping the camera and running to help? Well, we didn't discover the prints until they were already dried up, so that's why I could take the time to take the pictures.

The prints in the hallway were on subflooring, so no biggie. The carpet in the bedroom is old, but there's no plans on replacing it in the near future. (Or maybe now there is.)

Someday, this will be a funny story, right?

Moving on....

The beginning of my day went well. I went to the DMV to renew my driver's license and it took a total of 10 minutes. I went to the post office to mail some packages, and there was no one in line. I went to the dump to throw out trash. (Not that exciting, but necessary.)

First, though, I finished my monkey socks.



I refrained from wearing them until these pictures were taken, but now I think I'll wear them to work tomorrow.

Details: Monkey socks by Cookie A., knit in 10 days on size TWO dpns not modifying the pattern at all--64 sts and the same number of repeats. The yarn is Socks That Rock medium weight (argh--I've been keeping track of the loose ballband for awhile, but can I find it now that I want to know the color name? Nope.) in a nice black/white/gray variegated.

The colors swirled, so if you look at the socks this way you can see the gray,




but if you look at them this way, the black/white is predominant. Alslo, it camoflauges my reading glasses.




Did you see them?

And how was your day?

One picture equals a thousand words, so this must be worth 2000.

This was my day:






And how was your day?

(Tune in next time to see if the dog survives or if he's extinguished by his really mad owner.)