So three of the Christmas presents made it to their recipients, and the fourth is still in progress. I say that’s not bad.
First I finished K’s tam, about an hour before she was going to come over. It was still a little damp from blocking when she got it. Here are some hastily taken photos.
K always appreciates handmade things– in high school I did a large painting for her, and she brought it to her (very small) college dorm room. And the hat looked cute on her, so I think it was a success.
I finished the dog sweater while my sister and her boyfriend were already there, and they gave me guidance on the size of the dog’s head (it was a lot smaller than I thought). Reportedly the sweater fits, and I expect pictures soon.
I finished C’s scarf on Christmas day. I am so happy to get that project off the needles!
I gave it to her when I came home Christmas night, and she seems to like it.
Finally– the dog mittens. I made one on Christmas Eve, but I’m not happy with the dog part, so I’m going to frog it and see if I can redo it (smaller, this time). I think the cuff turned out nice, at least.
I did manage to squeeze in some knitting this past weekend. Here’s the dog sweater, minus the hood:
I’ve never made a hood before, but it seems easy enough. I’m going to take the hood from Under the Hoodie in Stitch ‘n Bitch, and scale it down to dog proportions.
It’s tough making a sweater for someone when they’re not available to try it on. I had to use the next best thing:
I love how my cat just goes along with anything– I woke him up from a nap just to stuff him into this sweater, and although he looked rather confused and uncomfortable, he cooperated and was very patient about it.
I also made progress on K’s tam. I’m just a couple rows away from the crown shaping, and it should be smooth sailing from there. I have to get this one done by the 23rd, allowing a day for blocking, so I’m relieved that I’m close to being done.
C’s scarf has been languishing, but that’s ok because we won’t be exchanging gifts until I get back from NJ late on Christmas Day. This weekend I’ll be visiting my grandfather, which involves a 3 hour car ride each way and nothing to do there besides eat and play with the dog… so I think I’ll have plenty of time to finish it. If not, it will be a birthday present.
My sister’s mittens? Still haven’t started them. But mittens are quick… right? I want to have at least one mitten to present as a gift on Christmas. She leaves for Brazil on Christmas Day, so it’s not like she’ll be needing the other mitten right away. And I think she’d enjoy getting a mitten in the mail. Wouldn’t you?
You’d think, after being done with my class, I’d want to kick back and relax, or at least do the next best thing (i.e., frantically work on Christmas projects).
Instead, I said, “Let’s throw a party!”
And I’m not content to open a few bags of chips and let the details take care of themselves. That would be too easy.
Instead, I have a small feast planned:
I bought the ingredients at Wegman’s last night ($186). Am I insane? Probably. And that’s not counting the booze, which I told C she has to buy. I doubt I’ll be able to do any of the prep work tonight, because we have invitations to this super-swanky Christmas party downtown (hmm, maybe I’ll get some more party ideas there)…
I’m hoping C will volunteer to clean the entire house, so I can focus on the cooking part.
Anacostia is in the running for HGTV’s Change the World neighborhood makeover. I have no idea what the makeover entails, but Anacostia could use all the help it can get. Please vote here– you can vote once a day, every day until December 21st.
If you vote, the Neighborhood Fiber Co. will enter you in a raffle to win a sock club membership!
Since I’m living in a house this year, I decided to decorate for Christmas.
The garland, wreath, and red bows are from Michael’s, and everything else is from Target.
The tree was only $10 and I fashioned a skirt for it out of an old table runner.
Target had a lot of knitted and crocheted ornaments tthat were really cute, but I was going for a more elegant theme. They were also selling paper chain garland, which made me kind of sad. What sort of person buys something for $4.99 when it takes zero skill and 5 minutes to make their own?
I finished my Christmas and December birthday shopping last night. First I went to the liquor store to buy something for my office’s gift exchange (alcoholic gifts are popular where I work), and then I headed over to the Downtown Holiday Market.
C and I spied the market on our way to the Portrait Gallery last weekend, and I made a mental note to come back to it. It runs every day until 8 pm, and it’s a festive spot to stroll around and buy unique/handmade items.
I bought this pendant to supplement K’s present; it’s made out of a piece of china.
Of course, I still have a lot of gifts to finish making. Last night I cast on for the bottom of the dog sweater– I still have the bottom, the hood, and one leg to finish. I also did the keyhole section of C’s scarf. I have maybe another 10 inches to go. K’s tam is about half done and I should be able to finish it in a night or two. I haven’t started the mittens yet. I also plan on making homemade marshmallows for everyone, if I ever stop being sick.
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot have a final exam coming up.
So my schedule from now until Monday will be: Knit. Study. Knit. Study. Knit. Study.
And after Monday: Knitknitknitknitknitknitknit.
I rarely get truly sick, but it seems I spend half the winter running around with a sore throat and a hacking cough. Last night I made a soup that was very soothing.
It’s very easy– just throw the following things in a crockpot and heat.
- 1 can of corn
- 1 can of black beans
- 2 cans of diced tomatoes (I used 1 with chilis and 1 fire-roasted)
- 1 carton of chicken broth
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 bottle of beer
- 2 chicken breasts that have been cooked and shredded*
- 1 package of taco seasoning, or your own seasoning blend
You can garnish it with shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, sliced avocado, sour cream, cilantro, sliced green onions, diced tomato… you have a lot of options here. Also, you could easily veganize the soup by using vegetable broth and maybe throwing in an extra can of beans.
* I cooked the chicken in a frying pan, but you could bake, boil, grill, or even microwave it. I think this would be a great way to use up leftover cooked chicken, as well.
This weekend I added a few more inches to C’s scarf, bought yarn for L’s mittens, and finished the top and one leg of the dog sweater. I also cast on for K’s tam last night:
This is Tam C from the Three Tams pattern on Knitty. I said I was going to do this in black and white, but these colors (in Paton’s Classic Wool) just looked so appropriate for K.
The pattern is really easy to follow and it’s a lot of fun, but I’m running into a couple problems with my yarn choice. For one thing, the variegated yarn is a lot darker than it looked in the skein, so the pattern isn’t showing up as well as I’d hoped. I like that it’s subtle, but in some places you can barely see it at all.
Also, the Paton’s seems to change colors a lot faster than the Noro. In the photos accompanying the pattern, it looks like the yarn stays the same color for many rows, but my yarn changes color several times during one row. I tried to line up the colors, but it’s not working that well. This is something you should keep in mind if you plan on using some variegated yarn other than Noro.
Anyway, I think it will look nice, if not exactly what I envisioned.
Remember this sweater? The one that made me look as wide as a house? Well, I finally got around to blocking it last night…
Before:
After:
The first snowfall of the year, and the Winter Knitty is up! I breezed through it and saw a lot of things I’d like to knit.
Some of my favorites…
Ice Queen: One of those cowl/hood things, made of mohair-and-bead lace. Totally impractical, as it offers no warmth, but so delicate and pretty.
Quant: This may be my big opportunity to learn entrelac. I could use something like this, since my ears get cold and my hair is too big for hats.
Three Tams: Tams and Fair Isle, does it get any better? If I have time before Christmas I’m going to make a two-toned Version C for my friend K.
Dahlia and Abotanicity: Two empire-waisted sweaters. I really like Abotanicity.
Laughing Carrots: I didn’t think I’d be interested in this, since it’s a kids’ sweater, until I realized that the cables are smiling at me! I would love to incorporate the cable pattern into something more adult.
Cables & Bits: A cabled dog cardigan, and just after I started that dog sweater, too. This looks like it would be better as spring dogwear, anyway.
Jeanie: A beautiful cabled drop stitch shawl that’ll give Clapotis a run for its money.
There are also a lot of patterns for things I’m never interested in: a kids’ hat and toys, a couple purses, and five types of socks.
