Gifties underway...

So, Christmas knitting is underway. (Note to self: start Christmas knitting way earlier next year. Like, January.) The pirate socks are for my kids and possibly my niece, if I get that far. They aren't particularly difficult, just time-consuming, as socks can be. I'm doing all three pairs with different main colors to keep things from getting boring. But then I think what if I don't get them done? Or what if I only get one and a half pairs done? What then?

Enter the mitts. I love fingerless mitts and have finally started making them. Everyone on my list might end up with a pair of mitts this year, frankly. Even the kids. And that way, if the socks don't make it, there will be something knitted under the tree! I'm enjoying knitting the mitts more than the socks right now, though, so you know which one I'm working on most. (The mitts pattern is from One-Skein Wonders and is called, appropriately, Fingerless Mittens.)

Then there is my m-i-l's white shawl. Oh, lawdy, if one more person requests an all-white knitted item from me, I may have to use my DPNs as weapons. To keep it interesting, I chose a complex lace pattern to do...and about 60 rows in, I realized something important...I really don't like knitting lace that much. Yeah. Hm. I mean, it's pretty, but what a freakin' pain if you make a mistake. (Ask me how I know.) So, just another 135 ever growing rows to go on that one. Must start dedicating some serious time to that project daily if I want to have any hope of giving it to her on the 23rd (when we're doing Christmas with that end of the family) and not have it still on the needles with a note promising to finish it.

Then my husband came to me the other day and said, "You know how you always want to know what you can knit for me?" And I am, because he won't wear sweaters, or scarves, or gloves/ mitts, and the socks I started for him just aren't happening for some reason. Just not feeling inspired on those. Anyway, he handed me some obscure outdoorsy catalog with a picture of a headband-y thing through which the beak of a baseball cap fits. That's what he wants. Okaaaaay. I've never seen such a pattern, but it shouldn't be too hard. I'm envisioning circular knitting, short rows (to make the top and bottom at the back wider than the rest of it) and a big bound-off buttonhole of a thing in the front. I'm probably envisioning it far more complicatedly than necessary, actually. I usually do.

And then there are the people on my list who I have no knitted item planned for. I wonder...will they care? Will the be disappointed? Feel miffed? Perhaps a few extra pairs of mitts will be added to my list for that purpose. Hm.

At least I can say, now that I've finished my harvest pullover, I am being very good and not doing any of my own personal knitting. I really, really want to work on my Malabrigo sweater, but that will have to be my reward for getting through the Christmas knitting.

Thanksgiving Day musings...

Growing up, Thanksgiving was always my mom's holiday to host. She loved it. I can remember her making the stuffing the night before, helping cut up bread into cubes and then toasting it (which I never understood why you'd do that if you wanted moist stuffing) and eating a few of the squishy cubes along the way. I've got vivid memories of our kitchen in the hour or so prior to the big meal, my mom and her cousins' wives all in there taking care of last minute preparations. Flo always -- always -- brought her special hand potato masher to use, because the mashed potatoes wouldn't taste right being done any other way. Someone would hold the pot, and she would mash them into white, fluffy goodness. Sometimes we'd play some sort of game that lasted the whole day. One year, it was the safety pin game...everyone got a safety pin, and if you were caught crossing your legs, you lost your safety pin. Somewhere, I have the funniest picture, taken at dinner time, of Wilma peeking under the table cloth during the meal, trying to catch someone off-guard and take their pin.

As we kids got older, got married and had kids of our own, it was no longer feasible to continue the same hosting arrangements for the holidays. There was more extended family to be considered and to share the holidays with, and so things changed. Unfortunately, they changed the same year my dad died, which made things even more different that year. No dad. No big family Thanksgiving. Life goes on.

A couple years later, though, I found myself in my mom's place. Thanksgiving became my holiday to host for my mom and step-dad and my in-laws. Some years we had as many as fifteen people here around our table. The only year I didn't cook was the year I was pregnant with our second child and due within the week. I vividly remember our first Thanksgiving here...it was the first year my husband and I were married. My son was eight. I remember that morning, all three of us cuddled in our big bed, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, late autumn sun streaming in through the windows. Later that day, I remember my husband carving the turkey that had cooked overnight (that's how Mom used to do it, as she said it helped cut down on the mess later in the day), standing in our chilly kitchen, that same soft gold sun shining through the bare branches of trees and into our kitchen resulting in shadows and light that will always be a part of my memory of that day. It was so special.

Now here we are, fourteen Thanksgivings later, and things have changed again. My mom and step-dad moved to Florida last year, and while they came back for Thanksgiving last year, they aren't doing so this year (they'll be here for Christmas instead). I miss my mom's presence. I had to bake the pumpkin pies this year. That's what she always brought. I realized, as my daughter and I were mixing the filling yesterday, that I don't even own the right spices for pumpkin pie filling because I never needed to make it before. (We improvised. Hopefully they'll be edible.) I just spent a half hour on the phone with my mom this morning, talking about our day ahead (they'll be celebrating with some friends down there...my mom hosting the meal) and other things of little consequence. Just the talking is nice, though. Thank God for unlimited calling plans.

And this year, my oldest son is also missing from our Thanksgiving picture. He'll be celebrating this day at Parris Island, with the drill instructors and 84 other recruits in his platoon at basic training. I keep hoping he might get to make a call home today, but I'm prepared for it not to happen. Or for it not to be to me, anyway, as he does have a wife who is higher up on the call list. Either way, I miss him. He's a third of the way through his training almost, so I just keep thinking about his graduation in January and seeing him then. But it is still going to make today (and Christmas) feel strange.

I might feel a little blue today because of the changes that have happened this year, but it doesn't make me any less thankful. I know I am blessed...with love and family and health and a home and food and more material things than I really need. More than anything, I have the promises of the one who provides these blessings, the one who says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thes. 5:16-18)

And so I give thanks...for everything.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends.

Peace.

Finishing...

I've made it my goal this week to finish the UFOs that have been laying around (not the ones in the box under my bed...the more recent ones that I've just been lazy/procrastinating about). I'm making progress!

So far this week, I've...

...blocked my Red Scarf Project scarf, which was supposed to be mailed off last month (guess it will either wait until next year's project to go out, or, if I need it to, it will turn into a Christmas gift).

...sewn the zipper in the baby sweater I made for friend's new baby (who isn't quite so new anymore...here's hoping it will still fit said baby).

...finished my Seesaw Scarf I started a couple weeks back (and I wrote up the pattern for it!).

...finished my daughter's little black shrug that I just started last week (so she can wear it to church this Sunday...a week late, but hey).

...both started (yesterday) and finished (today) an impromptu neck warmer...actually, it's being blocked overnight, then I have to sew on three buttons, but that's it. And I will sew on the buttons tomorrow! It will not languish!

I'm trying so hard to not cast on anything else new until my finishing is...well...finished. But I've got ideas, you know? And pretty yarn. And...and...it's so hard not to cast on when you're feeling inspired! :}

Shrug This

My altered version of the Shrug This pattern from One-Skein Wonders. I added long sleeves, lace detailing and a little extra length in the bodice. It fits my 11-yr-old daughter perfectly, and she's pretty slender. I have no idea how this shrug is meant to fit an actual adult woman. You'd have to block the bejeebers out of it, is all I can think! But it will be perfect for her to wear with these winter dresses designers insist on making short-sleeved.

Free Pattern: Seesaw Scarf

In the midst of a lot of time consuming knitting recently, I felt the need to create something bright and fun that would finish quickly. I had some odd skeins of Noro Kureyon sitting around, their colorfulness just screaming at me to do something with them. Thus, I came up with this scarf pattern. It's a pretty easy knit, even for newer knitters.

Seesaw Scarf

This scarf is built from a series of garter-stitch short rows that create wedged sections of fabric that alternate in direction. Once you understand the wrap and turn technique, this will be a fairly quick and easy project. I loved how it turned out with the colorful Kureyon, but due to the design the pattern creates, it also looks nice done up in a solid.

Yarn: 2 skeins Noro Kureyon (220 yds.)

Needles: US 9 needles

Gauge: 4 stitches/inch in garter stitch. Getting gauge is not critical to this project. Just be sure to use the correct size needles for whatever yarn you choose so that you get a fabric that is pleasing to you.

Finished size: approximately 5” x 54”. Note that this pattern will not result in a rectangular-shaped scarf. It will either be an isosceles trapezoid (if you work an odd number of pattern repeats) or a parallelogram (if you work an even number of pattern repeats). Do whichever pleases you.

Key:

W&T – (Wrap and turn) Move yarn to the front (between the needles, as you would to purl), slip the next stitch, move yarn to the back, return the slipped stitch to the left needle. Turn work around to begin the next row.

Pattern:

Cast on 20 stitches.

Row 1: Knit.
Row 2: K18, W&T.
Row 3 and all remaining odd rows: Move yarn to back (between needles), knit across.
Row 4: K 16, W&T.
Row 6: K14, W&T.
Row 8: K12, W&T.
Row 10: K10, W&T.
Row 12: K8, W&T.
Row 14: K6, W&T.
Row 16: K4, W&T.
Row 18: K2, W&T.

Repeat rows 1-19 for the remainder of the scarf, either until you’ve run out of yarn or you’ve reached your desired length.

After finishing your final pattern sequence, ending with Row 19, repeat Row 1 once more.

Bind off loosely.

Block or don’t block. Your choice.

Seesaw Scarf in Noro Kureyon.

























Sample swatch of Seesaw pattern done in solid.

© 2007 Lisa Beamer, a.k.a. Fibernymph ~ This pattern is free to use and share for personal use only with this copyright notice attached.

E-mail: fibernymph@comcast.net

Stash Math

For you fellow yarn stashers out there, this could be a sensitive subject. After all, stashing behavior has a touch of obsession/compulsion mixed in with it, I believe. And those of us who share this sickness don't always really want to admit just how much of a problem we have. The idea of quantifying one's stash can, to say the least, be daunting...or perhaps downright frightening.

However, in my newfound obsession with all things Ravelry, I've been both counting and photographing my yarn stash so I can input the info in my "stash" database on the site. Currently, I have :::deep breath::: 160 skeins of yarn logged. One. Hundred. Sixty. That be a whole lotta yarn.

The database then offers to show you your stash in either thumbnail photos, in list form with all pertinent details visible or it will allow you to download it to Excel. All of this greatly decreases one's ability to be in denial about just how much yarn one has stored in the closet, under the bed, and/or in bags and baskets around the house.

I should note that this tally does not include yarn being used in current projects nor yarn that has just come into the house in the past week. :::sigh::: Keeping an accurate stash count could be as difficult as keep count of rabbits...or hamsters...or other quickly propagating things.

I haven't even tried to log my needle collection yet. Like I could even find them all. Sheesh.

Books

I am a self-confessed bibliophile. If my the size of my house allowed it, I would have bookshelves in every room, and they would be filled to the brim. As it is, I have bookshelves in my bed room, dining room and office...and they are filled to the brim. I also have boxes of books stashed away...books I'll probably never read (or read again), but I'm not ready to purge them from my collection just yet.

Along with novels and various topical non-fiction, I always manage to amass huge collections of books aligned with the topics of any hobbies or passionate interests I develop. My scrapbooking obsession? Yeah...dozens and dozens of books on that subject. Photography? A respectable shelf-full. Christianity and religion? Stacks, which include at least a dozen different Bibles.

And so we come to knitting. I only went whole-hog on knitting last January, though I had a couple books around before that. Since then, though? Thirty-six books. Thirty-six. That is an average knitting book purchase of 3.6 books per month. And I can tell you that working at the knitting shop has only furthered this habit because now I see all the new, pretty books as soon as they come in. And I can buy them at a discount. Dan-ger-ous.

I was adding some of my books to my Ravelry "library" today, and it very coolly then also links the books to any patterns you've used from them. I only have about 2/3 of my books listed there because of the way their book system is set up currently, but of those 24-ish books, I was surprised to see that I've only used five of them for a total of seven patterns (two of which I made twice). That hardly seemed right! I've done a ton of knitting this year, and while I've gotten some patterns online and bought others at the shop, I'm always looking at my knitting books, so it seems I've had to have used them more than that!

Then it dawned on me...even though I don't use the book patterns as much as I think I do, they do offer me scads of inspiration. I get ideas from them. I learn techniques from them. I glean from them and then use the information in different ways.

Not to say I don't have a list a mile long of patterns from books that I'd like to make some day. I definitely do. But I think it's cool that isn't the only use for them. And in some instances -- like, The Natural Knitter -- the books have such beautiful pictures in them that I love to just flip through them and gaze lovingly...especially at the sheep. :)