On the other side of "Whew!"

The holiday season was fast and furious for both the BF and for me. If seems to have flashed by like the Silver Surfer, but to have been so FULL of events that it left me gasping.

We started with a visit to the BF's family in Cape Cod, where everything was so beautifully old New England - in keeping with their ocean-side cottage with its traditional door wreath! I made a Christmas Pie:



And, as I reported earlier, my knitted gift for his sister was (whew!) finished on time:





This is Saroyan, and was very well received. She wore it the entire day as a shawl. She was especially delighted that I had knit for her without her "having to ask for it". It never occurred to me that this would be an issue, but once she mentioned it I could understand that people don't like to feel like they're begging you to make them something. And then there is the embarrassment if you have to turn them down because your knitting list is too long (ahem)... as in 'all projects planned for the next year long'. So I was glad I decided to knit for her this year and so happy she was supremely knit-worthy, as in "loving it!"

The next day, back home, we had our own day and I opened two most wonderful gifts from friends and family:



These most incredibly beautiful cards were designed and drawn and printed by the artist Julia of Thorazos. I love them beyond belief - the little bird, the cosy nest, the escaping yarn ball... it's so me!

and my great friend Nad sent me this French Sajou scissor set which is To Die For!



It's the mother-of-pearl set with thread bobbin and thimble in a velvet box! There are little crosses on the handles, like Templar crosses. Last year she gave me one of Sajou's sewing boxes full of various notions so I am really over the moon about all these treasures!

I made knitted gifts for friends, too. I (whew!) finished this one the morning of Christmas eve and got it into the mail that day, so at least the "done-by-Christmas" thought was there! This is a simple cowl for a hiking, biking guy friend:



It's made from Hand Maiden 4-ply 100% cashmere in a size 7 needle. I plan to write up the pattern and post it for free in Ravelry, since when I went looking for a pattern like this I couldn't find one. This is tall enough to pull up to the nose when cold, but sophisticated enough to fold down and look like a black turtleneck under a formal wool winter coat.

The third knitted gift I made - and this one was finished just 3 days before Christmas but enough time to get it to the recipient by Christmas day! Whew! - was, again, for a guy friend. It is a striped scarf - wide and long - knit in simple K1, P1 on a size 9 needle from Madeline Tosh Vintage (worsted) that I ordered from Happy Knits. The colourways are Graphite, Cloak, and Silver Fox (a gorgeous burnished white bordering on light, light grey):





This knit was also well received and has been in use almost constantly since it was opened!

Shortly after Christmas, the BF and I traveled to DC again for a week. Our family there have a most gracious home, beautifully decorated for the holidays:



We had many teas:



And loved interacting with both Lamp Cat:



and Crib Cat:



and, while there - and this should not surprise you - I enjoyed a leisurely, soul-inspiring, second visit to Fiber Space in Old Town, Va while the BF slept in the car (we had gotten lost about 5 times in DC traffic while he tried to find our way there so I think he was emotionally exhausted!). This time, I met the shop dog, a pretty little miniature greyhound who happily stretched in the sun from the wide front windows or tip-toed clickity-clack back forth between people:



I loved the Fiber Space holiday windows: a fiber-dressed astronaut and alien:



and Rockets!



I was able to wander all around the store, looking at every single thing, the way I love to do and gathering everything into my shop basket. The staff is so respectful of shopper's space but so helpful when needed. After an hour or so, I sat on the couch and sorted (I wasn't able to get everything I wanted LOL), and still ended up with an inspiring collection of new yarns and patterns:



I'm especially excited about 3 skeins of Brooklyn Tweed's Loft that I acquired, along with a perfect, vintage style scarf pattern. I'm dying to knit these up! You can see my choices, set out on the couch beside the basket above: Long Johns, Postcard, and Cast Iron.

So there you have about two weeks out of my life, not counting annoying illnesses and going-back-to-work-nesses. I've started a KAL in my Piecework group in Ravelry and am still finishing up one last big & complicated knitted Christmas gift. But I'm definitely on the other side of "Whew!" and ready for a short and simple winter.

Christmas Cheer

(9th century Irish)

This I Heard:

Belled the stag, the winter snows
Summer fled,
Winds high and cold

The sun is low, short its course,
high the seas,
Deep red the bracken, leaves lost;

The wild goose utters mournful cry,
cold its wings;
season of ice,
This I heard.

miles to go....

"Now trees their leafy hats do bare,
To reverence Winter's silver hair;
A handsome hostess, merry host,
A pot of ale now and a toast,
Tobacco and a good coal fire,
Are things this season doth require."
-- From "Poor Robin's Almanack," 1684.

I have miles of knitting to go before I sleep. That's right, I haven't finished my Christmas knitting and the time is drawing near when my knitting will be officially late. Christmas boxes have been mailed - sans knitting - and a kind of sub-aware knitting panic has set in. I rise early to knit, and then spend 2 or 3 hours on the webz looking at everyone else's wonderful gift knitting while my little project bag rests quietly beside me...

I drink tea...



from my wonderful new Winter Robins mug...



I plan future, post-holiday projects...



and peruse websites for knitting gifts I'd like myself....

I make ornaments for our tiny little tree...



and I bake the Christmas bread...



But what I don't do is finish the Christmas knitting, as lovely as it is. I am very close to finishing. An hour here, two hours there, an embellishment, blocking - all of these things would create the finished projects I desire. But my will-power is exhausted and my mind just craves a period of marshmallow-y old holiday movies. How to call my knitting energy back again? I know! I'll have a cup of tea!

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

~ Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
~ by Robert frost

Silence in the Snowy Fields....

Well, we don't have snow yet - we got rain instead - but we do have silence!

I have been stymied as what to post because I am knitting on nothing but Christmas presents. And those are, you know, secret.

And I'm not doing very well with them either. How could my knitting mojo pack up and fly south with the talkative V-shaped Geese migrations? Honk! Honk! Honk! they shout overhead, and I look up and see my inspirations flying away like ribbons behind the birds.

I do truly want to knit for everyone I know. Socks, Hats, Fingerless Gloves, Shawls, Scarves, Balaclavas, Cowls... alas, nada. nul. nothing. I think I'm doing only 3 gift projects this year. Unless I get in my butt in gear.

One project I can show you because the recipient doesn't read here. Here is the Bloomsbury Saroyan scarf in Madeline Tosh Pashmina, colour: Bloomsbury:



I've made this pattern several times. Knit side to side, it is easily modified to suit your purpose - scarf, shawl, shawlette - and is fast simple and easy! Its a free pattern on Ravelry and one I go back to again and again.



I plan to put little soft pompoms on the ends, maybe today!

But for now, I am cooking cinnamon buns instead:

running, running...

I feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland, running through the Red Queen's garden, trying to avoid having her head de-necked. Time is moving so quickly forward, and all that I have left undone is catching up to me, with the swift sword of guilt brandished over my head.

My holiday knitting plans are actually quite modest compared to recent years - only four projects. Well, there should be five, but I've had to give the 5th one up before it was even started because... well,... it's December 3rd and I have to get these things in the post.



Most of my projects I won't be able to show in my blog, but this one is for my boyfriend's mom and I don't believe she owns a computer at all.

This is Rivolo, from Knitspot, in Jojoland 100% natural cashmere laceweight. It took frackin ForEver to make long enough because the yarn is so fine, but I'm rather happy with the results now that its over. It blocked perfectly.



I don't think his mom will actually like this scarf/stole at all. Now that I've met her, I don't think that this is something she would wear. But it's what I've got for her, so she's going to get this. Maybe she'll gift it forward. I love it when people do that with the things I make that they don't like. I tell my little sister that if she doesn't like the hats and scarves I make her, to just leave them casually on the bus and let someone else have their turn with them!

Wouldn't you love to find an abandoned cashmere scarf on the bus?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Good News

Merry Christmas, everyone!



This morning, as I was doing yesterday's dishes, I listened to National Public Radio's news show, which was all about Christmas and holiday-related subjects. In one story, the editor of Wired was interviewed regarding his views on good & evil, "naughty and nice". He said that he had done a study, categorizing news of note into two lists. He found that the "good" news - news about a new cure, or a significant kindness, or a peaceful act - outweighed the "bad" news: news of war, crime, death, and disease...but not by much. Good news was 51%. Bad news was 49%. But - he went on to say - that one percent is a powerful thing. Like compound interest, it is one of the powerfull forces in the universe because, over time - like years - it becomes so much greater...

To me, this meant that no act of good, however small, is ever unimportant... that it adds compoundedly to this 1% more goodness in the world.

Thank you all for your kindness to me throughout this past year and I hope that I've added in some small way to your happiness, too.

Winter calm after the storm

I can't post about knitting, because all my knitting is Christmas knitting and that's - you know - a surprise. I don't think my sister and her boyfriend read my blog, but you never know....

So instead I'll show you a picture of our little Christmas tree:



It's the doll's Christmas tree, actually, with a rag doll angel on top. And our three stockings, mine, my sister's, and her boyfriend's, are waiting below it to be filled with surprises!

And Catherine, slowly regaining her comfortable winter roundness after her surgery, approves...

Retractions

So much for my quirky sense of humour in my last post. Funny? maybe. But I've signed up to be part of the Ravelry Tea and Yarn swap, and I wouldn't want my swap partner to *really* think I have enough yarn or enough tea. Come on. Enough yarn? Enough tea? can you spell O X Y M O R O N??????? The words "Tea", "Yarn", and "Enough" just don't belong together.

Last night I had one of those experiences that knitters dread. I've been knitting a sweater for a Christmas present (so no pictures here) and its been going on for some weeks. The pattern is the Spring Forward Fall Back Sweater, a great top-down raglan pullover by the Thrifty Knitter (free on her website). The pattern is cute and is well written. It looks great on her and is adorable. She used some yarn she spun herself. I used some Noro Silk Garden. Last night, I had finished to the point of attaching the very last skein of yarn to the bottom - sleeves finished, shaping finished, almost the entire length finished. I smoothed it out on the couch and gazed down proudly. Imagine my surprize when....Ahhck!! It's ooogly! Very Fug! For some reason, the Noro stripes - going sideways around the sweater - just didn't seem to work. I'm going to finish, and block, and gift it anyway - its a huge investment and I'll just tell my recipient that if she doesn't like it, she can hand it to a stranger on the street (something I love to do with knits! another thing I like to do is make hats and mittens and "accidently" leave them on the bus for others to pick up and own...)

I'll take a picture before I wrap this up, and you can tell me what you think. Maybe its not as bad as I thought. When I looked at it this morning, the colours looked a little more subtle.

I've finished Exsanguinate my 'river of blood' red Chevron Scarf from Mountain Colours Barefoot yarn. Its 77 inches long (before blocking) and will be very dramatic wrapped around a long neck. This Christmas gift I'm more confident about:



I've more holiday knitting to go....and so little time!

Holiday FO's

My computer crashed just before Christmas, so I never had a chance to post about the things I was making!! The good part is that I can show you the finished views instead of the WIPs :-)...Knitting Madness…

This is a scarf I made for my friend Rose from a fancy mohair yarn with metallic sparkles. It only took a couple hours to make. It’s just CO 11 with Garter Stitch. When I finished, I threaded a matching ribbon yarn through it from end to end in random places and then used both the sparkle mohair and ribbon yarns in the tassels:


This scarf took a LOT longer! It’s a hand-dyed lace weight merino in subtle pinks and roses – you can’t see the colours very well in the photo. This was my first try with lace knitting and I had to frog more than once! The pattern is from my LYS, but it says on the pattern that the lace design is from Mary Thomas Knitting Patterns so you could find it. The cast on was 41 stitches with 3 knit st at each end to keep it from curling and three knit rows at beginning and end to make that scalloped edge.



This is my favorite scarf – it was for my sister's BF John, who is the lead for the band Terrene (www.terrene.net) . Isn’t he cute in it? The picture was taken at Tealuxe in Boston yesterday. The yarn was a hand-dyed thick yarn (Malabrigo)I got at the Windsor Button Shop in Boston some time ago. It’s a mix of beautiful browns, black, and dark green. I used a simple 24 st CO and k2 p2 until I used up the whole ball.



Here’s a better photo of the colours of the yarn:



I started to make a nice black sweater for my sister, but didn’t get further than the back, so I packed it in a box with the picture of the pattern. She thought that was great and laughed and said “An open-ended knit project! Great!” But I wanted to give her something finished too, so I quickly made these fingerless gloves. The yarn is the same type as the brown scarf, only with variegated light blues, and the lacy part at the beginning is the same lace pattern as I used on the pink lace scarf because when I got done with that it was indelibly burned into my brain LOL! Then I just K2 P2 until with was the right length and sewed up the side leaving a hole for the thumb.



But the very BEST thing of all was what my sister made for me for Christmas! This is a cover for my Gameboy Advance SP! It’s an owl (obviously) and the eyes, which don’t show up very clearly in the photo, are vintage glass swirl-y buttons! I love it very much. She also gave me “Harvest Moon More Friends of Mineral Town”, which I’ve been playing non-stop.

She’s really creative! While she was here, she made a pair of lacey fingerless hand warmers and a cover for her new i-Pod.



Well, that’s everything so far…. Now to finish the sweater and hopefully make some sock gifts for friends