Lost in the Shuffle

Somewhere in all the chaos that was the Christmas queue I completely forgot that I needed to have samples for the two upcoming library knitting programs!

Whoops!

Luckily the teen program just needs a garter stitch scarf or two...I have plenty of those in the bin-o-scarves.

But...

How long is it going to take me to design, knit, and felt a simple beginning purse?

Hopefully not more than this weekend, since I need to have it when the library reopens on January 4!

Wizardy Whiz!

Funny, I had been feeling bad about not giving Whiz enough blog attention...and this is his 3rd post in the past month or so!

For Christmas, Psych commissioned a scarf for Whiz. A Wizard scarf. Specifically a Harry Potter Gryffindor House Scarf for Whiz.

I have a knitting book called Charmed Knits in which every pattern is from/inspired by/based on the Harry Potter books and movies. In it, there is a pattern for a Gryffindor house scarf.

As usual though, I didn't like the pattern all that much. I thought the stripes were too wide, the scarf itself was too wide, and that the yarn called for would be itchy. So I changed it up. I substituted a different yarn, used a different needle size, cast on fewer stitches, and changed colors more frequently. In fact, the only thing that stayed the same was that it was striped, knit in the round, and had fringe.

The first problem I had was with the yarn. As mentioned in previous posts, this scarf DEVOURED yarn. It sucked it up like it was the black hole of knitting projects. For more information on the pain I suffered as a result, please refer to previous posts.

The second problem was that the pattern did not give a very accurate finished length, instead it told how many stripes to knit, and what the finished length would be (approximately) including the fringe. My scarf stripes were a different dimension, so when I had finished the completed number the scarf was still really short. Since Whiz is a kid, his neck is thinner than mine and he is shorter than I am. I had a hard time judging size based on myself. Solution: take the scarf to the library and try it on one of our volunteer's third grade sons! Success!

I delivered the scarf to Psych at the ornament exchange. (My normal delivery time/place is church, but there was no way to do that without Whiz seeing.) She loved it.

Christmas morning, bright and early, she texted me a picture of him proudly wearing the finished product!

Merry Christmas Gift Parade!

Here are all of the projects that I haven't been able to blog about over the past several weeks. Some of them will be featured in individual entries over the next few days...but for right now, a picture parade:



Sister and her felted catnip mice



Mom and her Scarf that Goes with Everything



Sis-In-Law and her knitted earrings



Dad, Brother, and Nephew in their Generational Beanies



Nephew's Manly Sweater (which looked so tiny when I knit it...but huge when I held it up to him!)



Ontie with her version of the "Blood and Shadows" scarf

The parade of pictures will continue as I get photos from the Christmas commissions I took on as well...

Packing...?

I have actually finished my knitting to-do list for Christmas. With two days to spare!

This leaves me with an interesting quandary...I no longer have any projects that I have to do...so what projects do I want to do?

I am heading to WA as we speak to be with the family. I needed to take at least 3 projects, one of each type:

1. Purse Project: Beret Pour Moi, which doesn't require a pattern, but does require attention.

2. Brain-free Project: Les Tuileries...which just keeps going and going and going

3. Pattern Project: Martinelli Sweater...I have the goal of completing it by New Years.

(I am also taking my Rivendell socks...they are small and portable, but totally require a chart. I figure they will be good for the car trip to my aunt's for Christmas, or the plane trip home.)

You're in the Wrong Field

Candid, my nay-saying coworker, has finally come around.

All the way around.

When I mentioned that I was making my ornaments for the ornament exchange, she poo-pooed the idea. She felt that I should just buck up and face the mall traffic. She thinks my whole knitting thing is silly. I apparently act like an old woman.

(You may recall that she was also averse to the whole CONCEPT of knitted dishcloths...until she got one!)

Well, I took the finished ornaments to work with me on Saturday, and wrapped them on my lunch break. Candid saw them and told me that they were beautiful. She was astonished at how professional they looked. (She even went so far as to say that she might pay for something like that.) She also saw one of the Christmas queue commissions on Saturday, and was impressed by it as well.

I was flattered, and surprised...since it was, after all, Candid.

I was even more surprised this morning when I heard her discussing them with one of my other co-workers. She brought them up, and asked if Miss-A had seen them. She then told me that she thinks I am in the wrong field. She suggested that I open a retail store or a yarn store...or at least teach classes professionally. (As opposed to the for free stuff I do here at the library.)

Hmmm...my own boutique...it is a thought.

(Although, I fear if I knit as a full-time professional that it might lose some of its charm...and I highly doubt that I could completely support myself that way...)

Ornament Exchange

The ladies at my church had an ornament exchange tonight.

I hate ornament shopping, especially this time of year. The ornament shop at the mall is always crowded, dark, and claustrophobic making. The mall in general is to be avoided at all costs.

So instead of buying my ornament...I made two!

I used the same mitten pattern I used for my mitten storytime. I used red and green dk wool, and embroidered the snowflakes on in white. (Actually, the yarn is all from my stash...the red is leftover from Twilight's beret...cream is from my beret...green is from Hawaii's wrist warmers...)

I think they really turned out cute.

And, Blondie seemed very pleased to take them home! (She stole for them!)

FINISHED

...kind of.

That is to say, I have done all of the knitting required for everything in the Christmas queue.

I still have all of the finishing up to do...such as weaving in ends, blocking, etc.

This is a continual struggle with me. I finish the knitting and my brain is creatively satisfied. I know what the finished product looks like, or will look like, so I have no more motivation. Also, I hate weaving in ends. HATE it. This is how I have, in the past, ended up with garbage bags full of projects with "tails".

I need to buckle down and bust out the darning needle.

I need to do it. Tonight. NOW.

The goal: by this time tomorrow the queue will be both completed AND wrappable.