A Christmas to Remember December 29, 2009

So, my bff and I are only making each other hand made gifts this year, and I want to blog about them, but she checks my blog, so, I’ll blog, and schedule the posts for after the new year. When we first decided to do this, I was excited, and I still am. BUT, I don’t knit near as much as she does, so I have my work cut out for me. My goal, is to knit her at least 4 items of something. I also plan on making her some pecan sandies. I have some ideas of other stuff, but I’m not quite sure what I want to do just yet.

I have started a scarf for her. Well, I had started the scarf long ago. It was going to be for my co-worker. My bff expressed desire for said scarf, and it’s made with MY FAVORITE yarn. So, I made the executive decision, that scarves made out of my favorite yarns, are for best friends!! Not only is it made out of my favorite yarn, it’s a cable pattern. Every other row is cabled. It’s a pretty amazing scarf in my mind, so it will be the perfect gift for my bestie. And, I already know that she loves it!!

I have a couple of sock patterns on deck, but I’m not 100% sure which pattern I’m going to use. I know I am making her socks though. She will get my first pair of completed socks to be exact! I would have to say that I am about 60% done with the scarf, and I plan to put a hefty dent in it on Saturday. I have to work Saturday morning, and I plan to have an early dinner with her. And then I am going to go home and knit, and watch chick flicks. Or maybe the Boondocks. Either way, it will be me, the tv, and my knitting. I’ll definitely post some pictures of my work!!

Beautiful Sunset December 28, 2009

I have just finished my first skein of DIC on the first of the gifts I’m making for my bff. This yarn is more expensive than I normally spend, but, it’s so worth it. One skein, produced 53 inches of a cabled scarf. That is awesome. Because it’ goes so far, it makes it a little easier to spend the extra money buying it!

A preview of my progress.

This is actually the Shifting Sands scarf below, that I would love to have for myself. I actually have a hunch that La might be making it for me in some awesome green DIC yarn that I saw the other day. But, she could have mentioned it to try and throw me off, so I don’t know.

I think the next gift that I’m going to start for her, is either some awesome socks, or a hooded scarf. I’m not sure what color I would make it, but I’m thinking about ordering some malabrigo (the most awesome affordable yarn ever) to make it. Although it’s a little more expensive, I think 2 skeins would be more than enough to make it. I might order some next week to make my mom something, so I could do it all at once!!

Finally December 16, 2009

Making progress. Still not sure if I’m going to finish everything that I want to finish in time, but I’m making good progress. I finished the second gift for the Great Christmas Exchange. I also made a non-knitted gift. I hope I’m able to find the time to get everything I want to finish done. But if not, the exchange will still be nice.

Adventures In Knitting December 10, 2009

So, I went to favorite LYS yesterday, to pick up one skein of yarn to finish the second gift of the Great Christmas Exchange. I really only need about half a skein, but you can’t buy half. So, after work, in the cold, I made my way over to Sarah Jane’s. The sign on the door says closed, but, according to the schedule on the door, they should be open. So I sat there, like a lost dog, and just looked through the window, hoping for a miracle, and guess what, one of the owner’s opened the door and welcomed me in. I’m wondering to myself, why are you in here with the lights off, not accepting customers. She informed me that they were out of power, so she was going to close for the day. But with a flashlight, and a checkbook (I never carry cash), I was able to get what I needed.

In fact, I got some addi needles too. I was knitting something on some bamboo needles, but time is of the essence, so I convinced myself that knitting would be faster, and more enjoyable on addi’s vs. bamboo needles. I made decent progress on two gifts last night, I’m still on convinced I’ll be done with everything that I wanted to make in time though, but, I’m going to give it my all, lol.

The Countdown… December 2, 2009

Well, I have exactly 3 weeks to finish my knitting for the Great Christmas Exchange. If I didn’t have a second job, this wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m not 100% sure that I’ll have to finish. So, I’m on a sprint to the end. I refuse to change any of the projects that I plan on making, I just need to buckle down, and take advantage of all of my free time, and get-er-done.

FROGGING November 17, 2009

No matter how long I knit, or how ‘advanced’ I may think I am, I ALWAYS make mistakes. Seriously, I can’t recall one project that ended up perfect. When you make a mistake, and catch it right away, not a huge deal. But when you are working, and you think that you are making great progress, only to look at your project, and see that missed a very important part of the pattern. You can’t ignore it, well, because it’s obvious. Anyone who looks at it will see it. You have to rip it back. I worked on my second gift for the Great Christmas Exchange last night, only to have to rip it back almost to where I started, ugh. Ripping sucks.

Teeny Topper November 16, 2009

I interrupt my regularly scheduled Christmas knitting to share with you this:

A hat for McKlyn, well, she isn’t here yet, but she’ll be here soon. And her mother didn’t have a hat to bring her home in yet. So, this weekend, instead of making great progress on my current Christmas project, I made this hat. I wish I would have made it a little longer, but over all, the pattern was quick and the hat turned out cute. My index finger was tender, knitting with smaller needles does that to me. This might put me a couple days behind on my current project, but hopefully I can make up some time somehow. I can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week already!! Man.

That’s What Friends are for November 12, 2009

So, for the Great Christmas Exchange, I needed to get yarn for one more project, and since it was still daylight (hating daylight savings time right now), I decided to go in a craft store near my house. Patons was the yarn for this particular project. I was only going to look at colors, to get an idea of what I wanted to choose. And this yarn, caught my attention, a greenish, blueish, teal color, very pretty. Different than any color La mentioned that she would like. Mich.aels was having a sale, all Patons yarn was 2 for 4.99, you can’t beat that. So I got the necessary number of skeins, and was on my way. Immediately, I’m like, hmmmm, what if she doesn’t like this color, oh she’ll like it if I like it, but she might not want that color, blah blah blah. Well, we happened to be going to the same place, La and I, my sisters. So, when she got there, I told her that I wanted to know if she like this color, and I showed it to her. And she paused with this smirk on her face, and I’m thinking (like any other knitter would do) that I’ll have get her another color, and make something for myself with this yarn . And then she says, I am making one of your gifts, out of that exact same color. I’m blown away. Now, I have to admit, we do have similar taste in a lot of things. There are very few things that one of us likes, that the other one doesn’t, in fact, I can’t think of anything at the moment. But to choose the exact same yarn, for the exact same exchange, is crazy. My bestie is awesome is all I can say.

I believe the color is Jade Heather, but I can’t be sure from the monitor and I didn’t look at the actual color on the yarn, why I do that, lol. I bought plenty for the gift that I’m making her, so I wouldn’t need more. I’m sure she’ll know, and when she gets to work, maybe she’ll leave an awesome comment letting me know!!

Worst Night of my Life… November 10, 2009

So, Sunday, I developed a Urinary Tract Infection. My bladder was spasm-ing all day. So, I bought some Cranberry Juice, and sat down in front of the TV. I also took some Ibuprofen to ease the pain. And that seemed to help. So, I decided that I would make an appointment the next day, to get that taken care of. So I went to bed around 11. Woke up around 1:30, not sure what jarred me out of my sleep, it happens sometimes. So, I close my eyes, and my leg starts having involuntary muscle spasms. I mean, not painful, but very annoying, so annoying, that I couldn’t go back to sleep. So, I get up, go in the living room to watch tv. No-no, its so annoying, that I can’t sit still. So, I get online to see what the heck might be going on with my leg, Restless Leg Syndrome. Yes, that has to be what it is. It didn’t stop, until 8 a.m. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. Imagine being exhausted, literally being able to go to sleep within 2 minutes of sitting down, only to we awaken by you thigh twitching. The muscle spasms, and my body’s natural reaction is to stop it, because I AM NOT DOING IT. So, I cleaned up, anything I could do while walking/standing. I could not knit, because I couldn’t sit still, it was horrible. Ahhh, I wouldn’t wish restless leg syndrome on my worst enemy. It was horrible. I felt like I was being tortured. I took 3 tylenol pm’s, and nothing. So, I called the doctors office at 8:30 as soon as they opened, the earliest appointment they could give me was 2:50. So, I emailed work, and went to sleep. I slept until 2, showered, and went to the doctor. She gave me medicine for my UTI, and RLS. Yes, both of my issues are so common that they have acronyms. And for the record, cranberry juice does help a great deal for the UTI.

The icing on the cake, the medicine for RLS, makes me nauseous. Sucks to be me right now. Really makes me feel like I’m getting old.

The Knitted Thursday November 6, 2009

For some reason yesterday, I was really excited to go to the knitting class that my bff holds at her library. And class did not disappoint, good company, and great snacks. In fact, I snacked so much, that I didn’t even eat dinner. And if you know me, you know that I don’t miss a meal. Thanks for the cupcakes La!! Anywho, I finished the scarf that I was making for my bf.

I’m going to let it block today, and give it to him this weekend sometime.

Then, I started a noble cowl for my mother. I didn’t get very far, I knitted about 4 of 59 rounds. I really need to be paying attention when I work on this though, so I won’t knit on it for too long at a time. I’m going to commit to doing at least 2 rounds a day though. That way, I’ll be sure to have it complete by Christmas. I’m hoping that once I can start seeing the lace pattern, I’ll be motivated to work on it more though. It’s going to be really pretty!!! Here’s a sneak peak at what it’s going to look like!!

And, I started the next gift in the Great Christmas Exchange!! It’s going to be awesome, I’m hoping to finish it in two weeks, if I stay on it, it shouldn’t be a problem. I did take some snapshots, and even wrote a post all about it, but, the details won’t be published for a while .