Obligatory

Ah yes, it's the requisite time of the year for the Christmas knitting post.

I haven't really made much of a list of what I'm making. I started one and have added and crossed out about a billion things. I'm not really sure what I want to make, mainly I've just figured out what I don't want to knit - scarves, blankets, anything that requires more than one ball of yarn... I've made a few sets of dishcloths for my Mom, Grandpa and Aunt. I'm thinking about doing some handtowels as well, but until I finish some larger items, I'm not too sure about those. I have some hats stashed away that will be random gifts to various people and a few cute hat patterns that I might whip up as other gifts.

I'm thinking about making some random knitted ornaments for a few people as well. We'll see.

Lemming

Since everybody else is doing it...

Knitmas Knitting:

I don't really have a definite list... but here is a run down of some stuff in the works (hopefully...)

1. Mystery gift for Lauren... (which I'm working on now and hope to have done before the weekend)

2. the Skull Illusion scarf for my aunt (doesn't have to be done before the actual holiday)

3. something else for my mom (I have one thing done already)

4. random dishcloths

5. random hats

We'll see what I actually get done... I don't really have a lot of time for knitting in the next 10 days or so, but after that, it should open up a bit. I also have a lot of free time over the holiday break to get some stuff done. It's hard even trying to to think of what to pack because of limited space while traveling. Oh well, I'll think about that later.

Merry Cowl-mas

Everyone gets cowls this year.

I finished my second one up on Saturday during another college football game. It got blocked on Sunday and is now in the Christmas pile to be gifted.

I haven't decided who gets what yet. I'm just sort of knitting things. I have a stash of dishcloths that will divided out the same way. One here, two there, stack of a thousand over there. I made a list, but frankly, it scared the crap out of me, so I'm not looking at it again. Every year, I make this stupid list thinking I can magically knit a hat for everyone I know and still have time to knit a sweater (or 8) for myself.

Oh! I found my camera. I'll take some pictures this week!

Progress...

Bars!

I got added to the list for the new fancy Ravelry progress bars. They are in early, early testing stage. Now I have yet another thing to distract me from Christmas knitting...


ETA:
7:43 PM

Blogger no like bars. Fix no make sense. Jessica going to knit hat and rub forehead.

Late nights.

I just noticed that it's 3 am. Oops. I should stop playing with yarn and the internet and go to bed.

Quickie update:

2 ballbands done!
2 diagonal stripe dishcloths done!
2 scarves done!

Woot!

I just cast on for a hat and will probably get started on the matching mittens tomorrow. I have a few other hats I want to knit but those can wait until after Christmas (they're being mailed places) and I want to make a few more dishcloths. And that log cabin... I almost forgot. It's growing. I need to spend some quality time with it tomorrow. I'm sure I'll need a break from insane cabled hat knitting.

It's the final countdown!!

Two scarves down. One ballband down. One halfway done. Log Cabin almost done.

Now I just need to knit some hats and a few more ballbands. Not too shabby. I'm going to be up weird hours this week because Vince has a million papers to write and I'm trying to offer moral support by staying awake with him. Which might actually be distracting him more... Anyway, I'm going to go knit a few rows on a ballband.

14 days.

That's two weeks. Yikes.

The Hive hat was frogged last night due to some shitastic yarn issues. As in I was using shitty yarn and it sucked. I dropped a stitch about 4 repeats below and was trying to repair it but the yarn would not budge. It was being a prat. So I ripped back a few rows to try to fix it. No good. Ripped back another few rows. Nope. Ripped back more and now I am only one repeat above said dropped stitch -- FINALLY got it fixed...

And. I. cannot. get. the. stitches. back. on. the. damned. needle.

I dug into the DPN stash and pulled out 6 tiny sharp metal DPNs. All size 3, I was using a size 8 for the hat. I picked up all the stitches (which was still frakkin' hard with those tiny needles!) thinking I can just transfer them over to the 8s as I go.

NOPE. The yarn had other ideas.

So I showed it! I ripped the whole hat out. HA.

I think I may have screwed myself over while teaching the yarn a lesson.

Crap.

Back to the drawing board for me. I'm reinventing a few items already knit. I have some better yarn to knit hats out of and I have a rather large scarf that I need to start but I don't have the right yarn. Nothing in the stash was speaking to me.

Some stronge language and violence.

Mesa Dating

Gosh. I thought I cussed a lot more. Whatever.

I'm almost done with the Bzzz Hat for Queen Bees (which may be the most annoying project name ever so I'm calling it the Hive hat) from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. It seems a little large, but since it's a gift I'm just going with the flow. I really like the pattern though. It's an interesting way to add some texture without doing ribbing which I'm a little done with for the time being. I'm doing the hat without the bee buttons all over it. That just seems a little childish for me.

I'm going to try to churn out a few Ballbands this week. I haven't done one in quite a while so I'm looking forward to it.

I'm on the hunt for a good Celtic knot pattern. A friend wants a cashmere scarf with some interesting detail -- since he's Irish and I love impossible cables, I thought it would be perfect. Now if I could only fine one I like.

Speaking of violence (the title), we finally watched The Bourne Identity last night. Yeah. We were the only people on the planet who hadn't seen it yet. I enjoyed it. I like spy movies.

For the love of...

Ravelry.

Seriously! Have I mentioned how much I love this website. I think I could spent my entire day on there and not get bored.

Today I got a message from a lady about a hat she was knitting. I just finished one with the same yarn. It was very neat being able to help her out.

I cast on for two Christmas gifts yesterday. A hat and a funky wrap/scarf thing. The hat is going well. It's a new pattern that I haven't tried before and I'm really enjoying it. The wrap/scarf is a complete experiment, so I might be knitting a disaster. We'll see. The dog really enjoys trying to steal the yarn from me though.

We gave him a ball of purple Fun Fur the other night and he was one happy camper.



Needless to say, the entire floor ended up covered in bits of purple, but he enjoyed himself, so it was worth it. The purple knot he made now lives on top of the bookshelf so he can't eat it when we're not watching.

OMFG. Christmas? Seriously?

Where the hell have I been? What the hell have I been thinking!?! I haven't gotten ANY of my Christmas knitting done. I just made a quick list and I need at least 9 hats, probably at least a dozen ballbands, maybe a scarf or two and finishing a blanket. Who am I kidding???


*deep breath*

Hats.

Hats are easy. Hats take a few hours. Hats I can manage.

Ballbands.

Also easy, also take just a little while. I need some more yarn though. I'm out of white.

Scarves don't really have to be fresh knit, I have quite a stash hidden away... the main one I'm worried about is the blanket. I want to finish it! I need it done and off my plate... Granted I haven't touched it in months but whatever...

I have 19 days. In that time, I have quite a lot of car time. At least 20 hours to Ohio and then the 20 hours back. Some things might get mailed after the holiday, but we're pushing for before.

Wish me luck!

Lincoln Logs

I'm knitting right along. Currently there are a lot of projects on needles: Grey IHS, Coral IHS, Blue IH headband, Magic Stripe socks, the red side-to-side throw and finally a log cabin blanket. Whew.

I do have to admit that I haven't really touched the socks or the scarves in about 2 weeks... I got distracted by the thought that the holidays are quickly approaching and I had a huge project planned for my mom.

So that's where we are now... 6 projects on needles: 2 huge (one of which isn't on any sort of time line), 2 medium (both of which need to be done by the holidays and a hat made to match the coral one), and 2 small (neither need to be finished any time soon but the headband will probably end up getting finished as I get sick of knitting row after row of garter stitch.) OK, now I'm exhausted.

I'm also planning to knit a few more things out of Mason-Dixon Knitting for the holidays. Lots of dishcloths. I also want to knit a log cabin rug for myself. I need rugs. A lot of rugs. My floors are freezing!!!!

Here's the problem I'm having right now: I can't decide if I want to knit the log cabin blanket in long, long, long, long heavy never ending rows of garter stitch -OR- if I want to knit 9 smaller, more manageable squares, but then have to do miles and miles and miles of seaming.

Please excuse the crappy camera phone photos. I was too lazy to take two sets of photos that day.

Here is my progress as of last night. It's getting down to the wire about the blocks... I could always do 4 large blocks. Ugh. I can't make decisions!!!!