Christmas Knitting

Now that there is just one month before Christmas, why the hell can I not remember what it was I wanted to knit for people so badly? It's no wonder I fail at the knitting time/space continuum thing.

Black Friday can bite my booty

Good lord. It is just way too early for me to go out and shop. I was going to hit Purlescence and Knitting Arts this morning like I did last year, but I just cannot convince myself to go out in the cold weather, in my pajamas, after 5ish hours of sleep. I am clearly not lacking for sock yarn, though I am wanting to knit some Aenemoi Mittens for my mother in law and I would like some variegated Koigu KPPPM maybe to go along with my bright pink Koigu KPM I bought last year.

I'll just settle for a trip to SF later for a yarn crawl I think.

Back to bed I go!

Still alive, have not impaled myself on knitting needles... yet

Mom's back home now (boo). We had a fantastic time together. It was a really good visit. Well, except for my asshole father not leaving my house when I asked him to so that my mom could come into my house for ONE FREAKING DAY. She got to meet the kittens, but I had to take them out to the car one at a time. I had wanted to show her Bratty and Chubbo's beautiful containers but I didn't take them out to her in the car. I had really hoped that my dad would pull through for me. Just once. Selfish jackass.

At any rate, I'm back to work now for just 3 days. I have my new-old employee (she worked for me 2 years ago) working for me at my employer (yippee!) and it is a dream to have her. She has a really great laugh and is getting along very well with the rest of the staff. I am so happy she wanted to come work with me again!

No Thanksgiving dinner cooking for me this year. We're going over to a friend's house. Even before last Saturday (the day I wanted my mom to come over) I wasn't feeling the cooking mojo for turkey day. I am a very very picky eater for Thanksgiving. I only really want all the foods that my mom cooked when I was growing up. I just didn't feel like cooking for the 3 of us (I couldn't get a response from our friends if he and his wife and their 2 kids wanted to come down for Thanksgiving). So I am letting go my particularity and going with the flow. I'm still having something that my mom cooked, the cauliflower in cheese puff that I cooked last year. Who knows, I may twist up so tightly because I didn't have my normal turkey day spread that I will end up cooking my usual foods by the weekend. (Probably not, there's Christmas knitting to be done!)

I haven't downloaded any of the pics from my mom's trip, I will have to do that over the holiday weekend.

Anyways, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everyone~!

On Vacation..

I am on vacation this week! My mom is here with me in California for the first time in a few years (3, I think). We are doing lots of stuff together and having a good time. I have pictures and such, but I'll get to that another day!

The best part? Ok, the best part is that my mom is here.

The best part other than my mom being here?










I.am.not.working.this.week!

FYI...

Leaving work at 10:30pm after arriving at 8:15am sucks.

Will post more later about knitting space/time continuum issues.

Another month gone.. I want a refund from 2007!!

Again, another month has abso-friggin-lutely ripped on by. People keep asking me how work is, and I keep responding that I *think* I am on the downward slope, but there are sure times when I question that! I am enjoying what I am doing and I really like the people in my department a lot, we have a great time together and I laugh quite a bit working with them every day.

Not a lot of time for me to knit lately, I can hardly believe that I have been so slow at finishing sock projects. I'm still knitting, but I have been knitting far less than usual. But, I did manage to finish one of my Marigold socks.

This is Yarntini in the Vintage colorway in the self striping yarn:


I love the colors, I love the feel of the yarn, I love the pattern. I just freaking love these socks. I don't know if after I finish these, anyone will be able to pry them off my feet! The pattern is easy, it's very much like a feather & fan pattern with a purl ridge tossed in for flavor. Here's a closeup of the leg:
I can't wait to start the second sock! I am going to do my best to get the striping to match. The skein is rather large so I don't have to worry about yardage. I am JUST past the part I needed to start at for the toe, so I'm going to have to waste a full repeat less one color segment. Maybe I can knit it into a swatch that I can make out with while I'm sitting around working. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Have myself a little swatch lubbins.

I'm still working on my beaded scarf. I did have to cut the ribbon yarn and add more beads, I was WAY short on what I strung the first time. It was impossibly hard to tell how many strands I actually managed to get strung with the whole thread tangling issue I had. Argh. It is beautiful though, I am looking forward to finishing it.

Both projects are going to have to be patient with me though, I have to finish a baby sweater for a shower I'm going to on the 10th (coincidentally the same day my mom is coming to visit, hooray!).

Oh, and the alien that is sucking my brains in the last post is a pattern I found on Ravelry on Tuesday while I was surfing the pattern page. He's a brain slug from Futurama. I used dishcloth cotton from my stash! I knit the body and the tentacles and legs on size 6 needles and then the I-cord ties are knit on size 7 needles. I started the first tie on 6's and I was like, wtf this is a tie... it doesn't need to be a tight fabric, it just needs to freaking get done! So I ripped the few rows out that I had done and started cranking out the I-cord on the bigger needles. I took a few more pics than the self-portrait one.





I totally freaking love him. It's tempting to knit another just to have him sit around or rip out the I-cords on this one so he's just a stand alone stuffed toy. I struggled to find my bags of polyfil I know I have, so I was trying to decide what alternative products I would use to stuff him with. But then I managed to get enough brain cells together to realize that I had an old pillow taking up space in my closet that I was fairly certain used polyfil stuffing. So hubby ran to grab it for me and I ripped it open and walla! Polyfil! Woot. Now I have enough stuffing for 130598103985 brain slugs! (Or amigurumi projects... no excuses left to not make some of the patterns I've been buying!)

Xi Xi says, "Zzzzzzz."