Post-Christmas

Christmas was lovely. Unsurprisingly, I didn't finish all the new projects I'd started, but the recipients still loved the half finished gifts. Apparently I didn't take into account that the people I was knitting for would be around during the time I'd planned to knit for them. I'll have to remember that for next year.

I did finish a few things though. I decided (sort of last minute) that I'd make some washcloths for my aunts and grandma. They were actually the fastest projects I've ever knit. I'd say it takes about an hour and a half to finish one.I went out and bought some nice natural soaps and wrapped them with the washcloths and I'll be giving these gifts when I go down to Virginia tomorrow. I'll be gone for a week (and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to having five whole days off from work!)

In other knitting related news, I received two gift certificates to my LYS for Christmas... looks like my family finally caught on to the fact that I like to knit! Ha!

In which I manage to make myself a present this Chirstmas

So... remember in my last post where I showed you a bit of the Serpentine Mitts I had started? Well, forget those, they've been ripped out. When I got to the cable, it became clear that the variegated yarn wasn't going to show off the cable very well. Not to mention the yarn was just a tad on the itchy side so I probably wouldn't wear them as often as I'd like to.

I dove, yet again, into my stash to find some KnitPicks Essential sock yarn. There is something different about this yarn. I once bought the Essential yarn a couple years ago and it was sort of scratchy. Now it's so soft. I don't know what they did to change it, but I love it!

I started a new pair of Serpentine Mitts and guess what? I finished them within a couple of days.How much do I love these things???? Ummm, that would be A LOT! They're so comfortable. They keep my hands super warm and the best part is I can knit while wearing them. Fabulous!

I finished up all my Christmas presents well ahead of schedule. I think there's some sort of trick that goes on around Christmas that makes you think you have all the time in the world because i started thinking of all these other present I might make... ummm, for some reason a week seems like a perfectly reasonable amount of time to finish four more presents....Perhaps I didn't think this through....

Christmas knitting and giggle fits

First thing's first. I am officially finished with Christmas knitting!
The final pair of socks are complete. They're the Uptown Boot Socks out of the Favorite Socks book from Interweave made in KnitPicks Gloss. They're a little loose on my feet, but my mom has slightly larger feet than I do so they'll fit her perfectly.

I started a pair of Serpentine Mitts out of some Mountain Colors Bearfoot that I had in my stash. So far I'm loving them, but I haven't even gotten to the cable part yet.
The colors are actually a bit darker in real life, but they're still gorgeous.

So I have a little story to tell you folks, but I have a word of warning to you, if you don't appreciate potty humor, you may not appreciate this story.

Recently I've been feeling the need to join some sort of community and not really knowing where to go, I happened to run across a Ravelry group for Unitarian Universalists. I'd heard of them before but never really looked into it because the idea of church never sat well with me. For whatever reason I decided to do a little research and it turns out that UU principles speak pretty closely to some of the things I already believe.

A little more research later and I found a local UU group where I live. The boy and I decided to go to the service last Sunday. Being new, we sat in the back and took in the feel of the service. About five minutes in, a woman brought two elderly gentlemen in to sit in the row in front of us. I barely even noticed their arrival until, not five minutes after that, a rather powerful odor reached my nose.

Turns out one, or quite possibly both, of these gentlemen had a case of the old man farts. Rather than be disrespectful and move, the boy and I sat through the onslaught of pungent flatulence. Somewhere through the middle of this, I looked over at the boy and notice he has his hand to his nose and for whatever reason that sent me into a fit of the giggles.

I don't know if you've ever had a giggle fit in a completely inappropriate place, but I can tell you it's awful. All you want to do is let out this giggle energy but you can't!!! And what escapes your nose is some kind of outward snort and your body is shaking from the silent laughter.

I couldn't even look at the boy because when I did, I would start to silently laugh harder because he was laughing.

Aside from the old man farts, the service was quite nice. It wasn't preachy and there were even light hearted moments where laughter was complete appropriate. Thank god for those moments. Hopefully next week we can pay a bit more attention to the service and less attention to calming a giggle fit.

Up goes the tree.

Last week my roommate and I put up the Christmas tree. Granted it isn't real, but the majority of my Christmases have been spent putting up the artificial tree. In many ways, for me at least, it has become tradition. I can remember every year getting so excited after Thanksgiving because the day after was usually the day we pulled out all the Christmas decorations and put up the tree.

This year was slightly different, but memorable all the same. My roommate (who's also my best friend) never fails to make me laugh and laugh we did as we brought the tree out of storage, out of the box and "fluffed" the branches. What made this particularly festive was the Kid Rock music playing in the background. (I must add here that neither of us actually listen to Kid Rock voluntarily, rather we had a party a couple of weeks ago and made a music mix full of one hit wonders and music you haven't heard in years. It went over well at the party and Jill just happened to have her iTunes on the party playlist while we put up the tree.)

As we headbanged while fluffing the tree it occurred to us that perhaps Christmas music would be more fitting. So the Christmas music was put on and the tree was put up a little jollier and a little less violently. It's amazing how music can affect ones activities.

Here is the tree in all it's glory with the foot of fresh snow outside.It certainly doesn't get much more Christmasy than that.

There's an ornament that I have that has a bit of a story to it. A long time ago, my mom bought an ornament from Hallmark and it became a most cherished ornament. My brother and I adore this little thing. For years we talked about who would get it when mom finally decided to give us the old ornaments. When that day happened my brother conceded and let me have this ornament.Can you see why this is the best Christmas ornament in the world? Imagine yourself as a little kid looking up into the tree to see a little elf working on the light bulbs! It just doesn't get much better than that!

I think the year after I had the elf I was trying to think of a great Christmas present for my brother. A few things came to mind, but mostly I thought about wrapping up the elf and giving it to him. I knew it'd be something special that he'd love. So I did.

Would you like to guess what I received the next year?

So this little elf has been passed between my brother and I for about 5 years now. Each year we try to come up with better ways to wrap it. One year I wrapped it inside box after box after box. (I know this is wasteful but I wouldn't have done it had I suspected these boxes wouldn't be reused!)

This year I have the best plan... and it sort of just fell into my lap. I knew the elf came to me last year so when the tree went up, I went looking for it. Keep in mind I moved rather quickly midway through the year. For the life of me, I couldn't find it. In desperation I called my brother to confirm that it came to me last year. Oh yes, he said, I have it this year and he didn't sound too pleased that I didn't know the whereabouts of the elf. Well friends, I found it today... but I'm not going to let my brother know that!

Happy December everyone!

It's December already? When did that happen?

Lucky for me I'm moving right along on these Christmas presents. I finished up the Jaywalkers.
And, of course, started on another pair. I recently bought the Favorite Socks book from Interweave. I'm already in love with this book. It's so convenient to have all these great sock patterns in one book. I decided to make the Uptown Boot Socks with Knit Picks Gloss.I'm changing the pattern slightly to make short row heels and toes, other than that I'm leaving it alone. It's such an easy pattern too. Very fun to knit.

In completely unrelated news, the boy and I went to the symphony last night to see The Nutcracker Suite. I think it's the first time this season that I've actually started feeling like it's Christmas. Personally, I think retailers ring in the holidays just a tad too early (*read= extremely early) that it kills the feeling sometimes. But anyway, we had a very nice evening and the show was well done and entertaining. It was a nice way to welcome in December.