Another Christmas present finished or "vor die Hunde gehen"

I must be on a roll as I've knocked out the second knitted Christmas present in a row. Dear Husband (or Mr. Daisy as he is sometimes known - not by his friends or anything but . . .) saw the pair of mittens I knitted for the MKG's charity, the Marvelous Mitten Makers, and requested a pair for Christmas. His hands are large but as freakishly large as they appear in the photo!



In order to give a little better perspective, we called Zelda the Wonder Hunde over for a photograph. She was a muggins and wouldn't cooperate so Mr. Daisy wrestled her into submission.

It sounds like we'll be needing mittens this weekend - snow, glorious snow is finally arriving this weekend! I've got some skis that need to see daylight!



Also, Good Friend Melissa and I have a date on Friday to beat the snow and go to the No Coast Craft-o-Rama at the Midtown Global Market. We had a great time last year and I've been saving my Christmas money for just such an occasion! I highly recommend you stop by this weekend!

A full pair at last!

Sometimes, my working on socks can drag on for months - I could only wish that they all went as quickly this pair. I think I just get bored and have to put them away for awhile. I must not be a sock knitter because they just don't fly off the needles for me. But then, all that gorgeous sock yarn calls to me and I can't resist. I only wish that I could find sweater yarns dyed half so beautifully as that produced by independent sock yarn dyers.

On this project, I just broke down and ripped back every time I made a mistake. Even last night, I was just about to do the toe decreases when I made the yarnovers for the right side pattern on the wrong side. About an inch of absolute wrongness. So wrong, I must have been knitting in my sleep. Perhaps all that cold medicine caught up with me?



The Saturday Seven came about when I looked long and hard at my closet and pulled out seven things that I have no idea why I was keeping. All were very nice items but NOT me. Over to St. John the Evangelist's Big Sale.

We are all now officially sick - except for Youngest Child. He is fine as frog hair, full of energy and ready to wake up at 6:30 a.m. Unfortunately, we are not. So, this is the messy week at our house - lots of dust and dog hair and used Kleenex - but I can handle that for the time being. Now, it's time to sleep!

The Monster and Me

After one last day fighting the Monster Virus from Pre-School, I ended up with this lovely prize. One set of blue and red mittens made with leftovers from my yarn stash - Nature Spun, I think but there weren't any ball bands left. They were actually a pair for the Minnesota Knitters' Guild's quarterly charity, the Marvelous Mitten Makers, but I didn't get them finished in time to give them away at our meeting last night. The pair took one day of on and off again knitting to complete.

Our meeting was about becoming a Master Knitter from The Knitting Guild Association. It sounded very interesting but nothing I would start until Youngest Child is in school full time. Intense but in a good way . . . I guess. I have a few knitting issues that this program would force me to solve and that's probably a good thing.

I really enjoyed making a simple pair of mittens again, however. This pattern used doubled yarn and I think it makes the final bind offs at the tip and thumb too pointy. I like all the rest, though. It's the Family Mittens by Lucy Rogers from "Homespun and Hand knit." My husband forced them onto his XL hands (they are supposed to be Adult Small) and asked for a pair in Black and Orange. Halloween for Christmas, I suppose.

Thomas, we hardly knew ye!

This Saturday Seven was a light romp through the movie aisle at our house. I am more than thankful for these to leave. My Oldest Daughter loved watching "Thomas the Tank Engine" on television when she was young but Youngest Child was entertained for about 12-24 months. I will offer the train DVD to a friend's son and the rest go to a rummage sale.



Since Youngest Child kindly passed his cold around the house, I've been spending a lot of time sitting and then falling asleep. In between, I've been spending time with the Second Sock. This one is much easier to follow - I've only had problems with the purl edge stitches that border the instep portion of the lace. They tend to fall off and then I find them, unravelled down two or three rounds. Grrr! Ow, that hurts my throat. Time to find some Throat Coat Tea and a quiet spot to read my book group book, "Straight Man" by Richard Russo. So, far, I'm not seeing the humor . . .

Sock One - friend or foe?

I made Middle Daughter take a few moments away from her strenuous television schedule tonight ("Pushing Daisies" - we had to wait for a commercial!) to model Sock One of the Lovely Lupine Lace. Lucky Lulu to have such a luscious looking - er, sock. I could only go so far the whole alliteration thing.



I won't block the socks until I have a pair so the whole pattern is pretty lumpy looking. I am satisfied with how it turned out despite the numerous ripping back. Hopefully, the second sock will take less time. Wonder if Lulu wants them for Christmas?

Oh, and on my way to correct spelling, I had a sidetrip to Dictionary.com. I couldn't pass up the word of the day:

flaneur \flah-NUR\, noun:
One who strolls about aimlessly; a lounger; a loafer.

That sounds like a pretty good lifestyle to me. Maybe in about sixteen years?

A New Year for a New Baby!

Happy Birthday Oldest Daughter!

I wished I remembered more about the birth of First Child but it was 18 years ago so I'll be forgiven if I forget a few details. Welcome baby!



Youngest Child insisted that we play "birthday games" so we made our own "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" game. Duped by a four year old - he won!



Saturday's Seven was another matter of cleaning out closets - three pairs of pajamas, a tank top and three pairs of underwear.

Now, back to our birthday evening's entertainment - the complete "Firefly" television series DVDs!

Lupine Lace review

Well, I could have been at the Guthrie, watching "Jane Eyre" with the rest of my book group but . . . real life interfered. Instead,
DH and I hired a babysitter for Youngest Child and spent the rest of the evening ferrying teenagers around to their various school social functions. Swing Dancing for Middle Daughter. Senior Scavenger Hunt at the Mall of America for Oldest Daughter. Billiards for Youngest Daughter. Good Grief! I would be willing to take a few classes to get this kind of social life!



Knitting time has been a highlight in my week. Youngest Child has spent the last three days at home with a flu/cold - it all blended into lots of sofa time for him - so I've been spending some time with the Lupine Lace Socks. Once again, ripping out was painful, but necessary. I've begun to memorize the pattern - but since the pattern is only the instep now, I sometimes forget the "rest" round in between Lupine Lace rows.



I think I'm still off on my row gauge so I only did four sets of lace repeats instead of the five outlined in the pattern. They are still very long socks. Hopefully, I'll get to the toe tonight!

In honor of Misses Lime and Violet and That dance!

Oh, if only this were true. It would really make carpooling easy!

Which "Firefly" character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Captain Mal Reynolds It's your way or the highway, but for some reason your friends stick around anyway. Probably because they know no matter how harsh you might be sometimes, you'll always have their back (or come to their rescue) in a sticky situation. Simon Tam 83% Shepard Book 83% Captain Mal Reynolds 83% Kaylee Frye 67% River Tam 50% Wash 50% Inara Serra 33% Zoe 17% Jayne Cobb 17%

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(I was actually hoping to be Zoe so I'd look better in a dress, but, whatever!)

Going, Going . . . Gone!

Remember this? I knitted this top down "V" neck sweater for Oldest Daughter a little more than a year ago. She never really took to it even though I knitted just what she asked for. This year, she's looking for a cardigan and she suggested that I just take the old sweater apart. So, I did.



It didn't look much better after a year of being worn as sleeping wear.



It did look nice on the swift, however.

I spent Friday ripping it apart and winding up the wool on my swift. By the end of it, my arm was tired! Luckily, I had two discs from Netflix, Season one, Disc One and Two of "Highlander", and with judicious fast-forwarding, made it through the evening. I am pretty sure I won't be getting any more of that television series! It was ridiculously bad - every "New Yawk" accent was tinged with Canadian vowels and that side-kick boy - oh, he must have been the 80's eye candy! Bleh!



I stayed up late last night, washing the wool with "Soak" and hanging it up to dry. I think I'll start looking at Elizabeth Zimmerman's aran sweaters. Oldest Daughter likes the cables!



Today's Saturday Seven was easy - Middle Daughter had to clean her room and she cleaned up her closet as well. Unfortunately, I do remember when she just "had to have" at least two of these items. By the way, I just realized that I've been doing this "Saturday Seven" business for over a year now. I started in August 2006. It is a great idea started by Earthchicknits and it's been very easy. Sometimes, too easy. It really makes me think, "Do I really need this?" and my closet has gotten quite a bit emptier. I only wish my kids could figure this out! Give them time, I guess.