Finished!!!

I have finished all of the Christmas knitting that I planned on doing. On Friday I exchanged gifts with Eddie. I finished his beanie the night before while playing Scrabble with my sister. This is an excellent game to play while knitting because sometimes your opponent(s) take a LONG time to decide on what word to play! Here is the beanie:





I looked at a couple of patterns on Ravelry and then just combined parts of several different patterns together to make his hat. He picked out the yarn and told me what kind of beanie he wanted, so it wasn't too much of a surprise.

I gave him the socks that I showed in the "P.S." blog posting, but they were too small :( Maybe I will give them to my mom. She has tiny feet. I also gave Eddie the Planet Earth box set because he is fascinated by that kind of stuff.

I was very spoiled this Christmas! I received diamond earrings and new running shoes. The diamonds earrings that I got are the one in my ear lobe (not the cartilage):



(I know, I know...I have extremely thick earlobes. Ha! When I first got my ears pierced they told me to leave the earrings in for 8-10 weeks instead of the usual 6 weeks. Lol!)

This evening I finished the stocking for my mom. I really wanted to give it to her last night, but that's ok. I finished it in time for her to hang it tomorrow for Santa :) I blocked it this morning and put it in front of the heater to dry. It was still slightly damp when I seamed it together.



And the two stockings together:



SO CUTE!! Love it!!

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!!!

P.S.

I finished one pair of the socks for Christmas knitting!!! Just had to post it :) They are so plain and boring, just the way Eddie likes them.

I Love...

my new hat!!! It's An Unoriginal Hat and I got the pattern from the Yarn Harlot. When I first saw this pattern on her blog, I really liked it and wanted to make one. Since I'm supposed to be working on Christmas knitting I made myself put the pattern on the back burner. Then I went to the LYS this weekend (20% off of EVERYTHING!!) and bought some yarn that would be perfect for the project. I made it the next morning in about 3-4 hours.



I love everything about this hat! The color of the yarn, the softness of the yarn, the pattern, the cables, the way it fits, EVERYTHING!!! It's my new favorite hat. Now I just need to go where it's colder so I can wear it.

My friend mentioned that she would love a hat for Christmas. Although I wasn't planning on making her anything for Christmas, I love this hat so much that I decided she must have one too! I used some yarn that I hat at home (Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick). I had to not do as many rows in the pattern because the hat was too long. I'm not so great with taking the time to check for gauge :/ Anyway, it turned out pretty good:



The one thing that I decided that I don't love is the way my face looks from that angle! But that's what I get for trying to model a hat, taking my own picture and trying to keep my face out of it! It's challenging to get something decent, let alone good.

Another procrastination that I started to avoid Christmas knitting (a.k.a. the intarsia on my mom's stocking that is kicking my butt!) was a baby blanket. Eddie bought the yarn since it is his friends who are having the baby. He thought that I should knit a blanket and so he went to the LYS with me to pick out some yarn. He's actually been talking about this particular yarn and baby blanket for awhile. It is the SOFTEST YARN ever! The only bummer is that it is hand wash (probably not what a first time mother needs), but the softness factor won and he bought the yarn. Here is the beginning of the blanket:



The color is not so great in this picture, but the main part of the blanket is Lilac.

As far as the Christmas knitting goes I still have 2 hats, 2/3's of a stocking, a little bit more on a pair of socks and was thinking about a second pair of stocks (but time may not permit it). It's crunch time and I've really got to buckle down!

Need to Vent

So I am a little frustrated. As of this Monday I was supposed to start substitute teaching. I figured I could make a little extra money during my break from school and student teaching. All weekend (esp. Sunday) I was getting really anxious about the whole thing. I was thinking about all the things that could go wrong, that I wouldn't be familiar with the school, what if the kids were horrible, what if there weren't any lesson plans, etc. I like predictability for the most part and being flexible is one of those things that I'm working on. I worked myself up so much that I ended up denying the job that I got called for on Monday at 6:30am (it's automated) and went back to bed. I missed another call at 8:30am.

Then on Tuesday I couldn't sub because I had a final, so I wouldn't be free all day. I actually missed that call and wasn't able to deny it. Last night I mentally prepared myself for subbing today. I looked up a bunch of activities online for students to do in case there weren't any lesson plans. I was still nervous, but felt more prepared. As an added bonus, Wednesdays are a minimum day. I would still have to stay at the school until 3pm, but the kids leave at 12:40pm. I would just hide out in the classroom and read a book until 3pm.

I got up early this morning and awaited my call. I didn't get one by 6:30am so I figured I would get one around 8:30am (since that is the time they came the previous two days). I decided to read my book until then. 8:30 came and went,and by 9am I figured that I wouldn't be getting a call.

I'm not sure if there weren't any jobs for me today or that they didn't call me because I missed the last two calls that they gave me. I'm a little frustrated because I felt somewhat more ready today. The minimum day would have been a good starter day, but now if I sub tomorrow I have to survive a whole day, then go take another final, then a get together with all the students in my cohort and then meeting a friend for coffee. This will be a full day and I'm really not sure that I'm up for it. Argh!

On the bright side, I now have time today to read my book (P.S. I Love You) that I want to finish before the movie comes out and do some KNITTING!! I'm even going to go to a yarn shop today that I haven't been to in awhile. It will still be a good day. Just not the one I had planned on.

Busy, busy

I can't believe that it is already the 10th of the month and I haven't posted a blog yet. Shame on me. The thing is that I have been super busy (like everyone else) and blogging really hasn't been the first thing on my to do list. I decided I would post something before Samantha Who? comes on (which I can knit while I watch, so it's not wasting time!).

I finished the stocking for my dad, which turned out awesome, don't you think??



I was so proud of myself. This was my first project with intarsia. So here's the funny/ironic conversation I had with my boyfriend.

Me: Look at how great it is!!!

BF: It looks great babe.

Me: No seriously! Isn't it awesome!?!?! I mean it totally looks STORE BOUGHT!

Ok, so isn't the point of making a knitted gift the fact that it isn't store bought. And sometimes we buy things from the store and they are a piece of crap! I really don't know why I thought that this would make my stocking oh so much better. What I should have said was, "Doesn't it look like a PROFESSIONAL HAND KNITTER WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE made this?" I think that would better show the amount of pride that I found in this project, especially after all the frogging it went through.

I have started the matching one for my mom:



It will pretty much be the same except that it will have Mrs. Claus instead of Santa Claus on it. Matching! How cute is that? I'm still debating if I want (have time) to make stockings for my sister and me. If I do, then the whole family will have a set. We shall see how the rest of the Christmas shopping/knitting goes.

My boyfriend has asked me to knit him a pair of socks. So far I have made him two pairs and he's begging for more (so spoiled!). I started the socks (nothing fancy of course):



I was just going to finish them up and give them to him. Then I decided that he will have to wait until Christmas. There is no way that he gets "freebies" that will take up some of my Christmas knitting time. He will have to be patient. The socks are so "snuggly" (which is the name of the yarn) that I am tempted to keep them for myself :) But 'tis the season of giving...

'Tis the Season...

to be doing that last minute gift knitting!! I started working on my first Christmas project. Last Christmas my mom got engaged and then they were married on Cinco de Mayo (not that day for that reason) this last May. So this will be the first Christmas with the two being married. My biological parents got a divorce was I was six years old. My dad remarried right away, but my mom has been a single parent all these years. The man she married in May did not have any children of his own, but always wanted some. He was treated my sister and me and like his own children so I decided to knit him a stocking with "Dad" on it. I am also going to make my mom one with "Mom" on it. His will have Santa Claus and hers will have Mrs. Claus. How cute is that!?! Here is the start (almost done!!) to his stocking:



I am so proud of myself!! This project had a little fair aisle and intarsia! Besides a class I took where we did a little practice with intarsia, this is my first project where I had to use this technique. There was plenty of frogging along the way, but I did it! Eddie was watching me knit this stocking with about 6 bobbins of yarn hanging from it. He usually likes to poke me or tickle me. I told him that this needed my full concentration and he shouldn't even think about messing around with me. He looked over and said he could tell that I had plenty going on and he wasn't even gonna think about disrupting me at that point.

It was a struggle, but I'm looking forward to starting the stocking for my mom and finishing this one up (oh how I hate seaming!). I may do stockings for my sister and me so that we have a complete set for the family, but we'll see how I feel about it after I finish the other two.

I still want to knit something for my cousin's baby for Christmas. I have a lace scarf for my sister that needs blocking (although I'm not certain on how to do this for a lace scarf). I want to make an illusion scarf for my friend. I'm not sure I'll have time for any other Christmas knitting.

P.S. Another tiny thing... :)

Tiny Things

So I don't know if I am the only one, but I love tiny things. And when I say tiny things, I mean real life things that are made miniature. For example, sometimes at the craft store they have little dollhouse furniture and may also have things like little tiny fried eggs, little tiny dishes, little tiny tennis racket, you know, whatever. There is a point to this. Over the weekend I knit mini mittens! They are the cutest thing. I finished one and couldn't stop laughing. Something about that mini mitten that no one will ever wear brought so much joy to me. Eddie was like "what are you going to do with that???" Who cares! Look how cute they are:



I have patterns for mini sweaters and hats also. I was thinking that they could be Christmas ornaments or I could decorate a wreath with them. Or maybe I'll just keep them in my purse and pull them out every time I need some cheering up.

Also this weekend I finished a pair of socks, which is oh so gratifying! Especially when you have finished both socks :)