Beginning to look like Christmas

So I'm knee deep in Christmas crafting, so I can't show you everything I've been up to. No shopping has been done (eek!) and there's still much to be crafted and cleaned (double eek!) before next week. I foresee a very busy weekend.

But the tree is up, and now fully decorated. The progression:
Notice anything different this year? Yeah, it's not a white pine! I guess that's what happens when we send the parentals out on their own. And yeah, I upgraded to LED lights - for the first time in I don't know how long, all of the lights on the tree match. Craziness.

It was getting a bit late on Wednesday by the time Ellie and I were finished, which means that there was a little bit of silliness:
As always, right? I assure you, she didn't actually eat the tree, that is reserved for Paul.
Mom even stayed up with us to the end. Now to clean and decorate the rest of the house....

Sunday night, Mom and I went to Country Lights with the Perry Fam. It was wicked cold and windy (the storm that gave us not one but two snow/inclement weather days this week) so I didn't manage to get any decent photos of the light displays, but here you go:
Things we learned that night:
- Aubrey is good at going catatonic when in the presence of strangers
- Mason will freak out when a siren and lights sound off inside
- Mason will however meet and give hugs to the large furry mascots
- Aubrey will not
- Elliott will maintain stone cold seriousness when you want him to smile for a picture
- All three would like a pony
- It is near impossible to get a group photo with all three looking at the camera, let alone smiling
But we tried anyway. It was fun, the kids liked it, and we made sure to get a ride on the wagon that was horse drawn, not tractor drawn (what's up with that anyway?).

Now for a little bit of knitting, not much that I can show you, but oh well.
My Vaila. Now that my finger isn't sore anymore I put a little bit of time in on it the other night. If it weren't the holidays I would probably be farther, but my time needs to be spent elsewhere. Right now it's at the point where you put the body aside, and knit the sleeves. Woohoo.

I was bad a couple of weeks ago and started these for me:
The Snapdragon Mitts. I've been wanting to make them for ages, and I had the yarn that matches one of my coats, so I gave in. The first one worked up really quickly, as did the hand of the second one, but it's been put aside for holiday stuff (story of my life right now).
See how tricksy they are? Flip tops! Awesome. I plan to spin up some yarn to make the matching tam, sometime in the new year.

Last thing that I can show, I made a sweet little hat for Kaylee.
Reminds me of cotton candy. There's matching mittens too, but forgot the photo, and I need to get ready for work.

Have a great weekend!

Out of Touch

Wow. Missed November completely. Kind of wishing that I could go back and miss it all in real life too. Well, not all of it, just some bits. Not really a whole lot to recap, except the knitting, and there wasn't even a lot of that it seems. Maybe it's just me.

I have a new sweater. I've worn it once, and didn't manage to get any photos of it on me, so maybe this weekend - I have a feeling I need to wear it on Sunday perhaps...
Steeler Pink. Love it. Though I probably could have made the smaller size, and I had to go back and completely re-do the sleeves because they were ginormous on me as written. I even have enough yarn left over that I'm considering doing a cardigan out of the pattern and reversing the colors. Eventually.

I finished the Gryffindor socks, and have yet to wear them. Waiting for when I get to go see Deathly Hallows, which will be soon.
Hopefully. The color is way off in the photo, but it's crazy hard to get vibrant red and yellow to come out right. November ended up being the kind of month that knitting with handspun was needed. So I made a pair of fingerless mittens:
Susie's Reading Mitts, a pattern I've been wanting to do for a while. And they worked up so fast, I think I should make another pair one of these days. And yeah, I know that they don't match. And no, I don't care. It's handspun. I did try to go a little matchy with this one though:
Porom, out of the "Picnic Basket" yarn I did over the summer, made the scarf out of it, which is what I was trying to be matchy with. It's gorgeous, but it looks awful on me, and no matter which way I attempt to position it on my head it looks funny. So I think I'm going to frog it and find a different pattern. Good thing I like knitting with it.

I managed to get a sock done mostly during basketball scrimmages, and the hours of waiting in between basketball scrimmages (my work schedule the month of November was crazy, in the bad kind of way).
Tricky little stitch patterns to keep me entertained, though just plain stockinette with this colorway probably would have worked too.
I should probably start the second one one of these days... but I've got a lot to get done before Christmas.... hmmmm....

I busted out a hat for my niece during an evening of college football - that's always a good time, football plus instant gratification knitting.
It's not as cute on it's own, will be much cuter on Baby Girl, need to remember to get pictures of it on her.

I do have one Christmas present finished and am able to show it as the recipient doesn't read the blog.
The Whale Watch Hat, for Liz, whose favorite story is how she once gave a whale an enema.
I know, kind of random and gross, but she did, and she loved it.

I pulled out my neglected spinning wheel over the holiday weekend as well, and finished up the corriedale that was on it (I think I started spinning it way back in August, eek), and then Navajo plied it - which I still suck at, there are bits of the skein that I will have to cut out as they are not usable yarn.
But it's pretty. So I love it.

Last up is a sweater I started last week as a distraction.
It's a bit farther along now, as I put on a few inches yesterday, and now my left index finger is sore (stupid purling in the round!) but I'm too lazy to take a photo now.
There's almost 3 full hexagons done now, just to give you an idea of where it's at. And the color in the first photo is more true than that second one.

Alright, I think that's it. Basketball home openers this week - girls was Wednesday and it was a blow out of South, boys are tonight. Hockey continues, though the varsity season has started now - they blew out Ignatius yesterday in the first game of the weekend tournament. I'm hoping to find a bit of the Christmas spirit this weekend - and to get going on some presents. Hope everyone has a nice fist weekend of December!

PS - I had planned to add links to stuff, but Ravelry is having issues, so maybe later.

You can figure it out on your own

Too much of a slacker to take the time to write a real post, the pictures should give you a good idea of what's been going on.



Have a great week!