New Year, New Knits

This is a knit heavy post - can't help it, there hasn't been much else going on around here. Lots of snow - most places got a snow day today (my school wasn't set to start up til tomorrow so it's a non-issue, but Mom got another day off). Where to start? How about a Christmas present?
You saw this in it's early stages, but never finished. The Entrelac Button Cowl for Mom, out of the Redwood Forest Handspun. It turned out better than I imagined, and Mom really likes it. I don't think I showed the matching headband ever.
It's the Quant pattern, from Knitty. It also turned out well, but I would do it differently if I made it again. And she's going to kill me for this picture, but as my sister would say "Whatevs."
And since the project is such a big hit on Ravelry, I'm working it up in commercial yarn so that I can write it up and other people can make one. How crazy is that? People also seem to want the pattern for the Gameday Hats (the fade away hats that Mason and Paul got for Christmas), so I'm going to work on that too. I didn't get the gauge right on either of those prototypes, so another one has to be made.
Anyway, that's the start of the cowl with some Noro Silk Garden. I was trying to add an I-cord edging to it, but I don't like it, so I need to frog and start over. The good news is, it goes faster than the handspun version (thicker yarn and bigger needles and fewer squares will do that).

Another little knit that was finished before Christmas but never featured, my Blue Multnomah.
Made specifically because it's school colors and therefore will match everything I wear to work. It debuted the first game in the new gym, to many compliments. Too bad there were entirely too many people in the too small gym, and I had to take it off after a while. I used some yarn that I got at KotS, the woman who does all the spinning lessons has also started dyeing yarn to sell on consignment there. You can also find her on Etsy.
It's heavier than a fingering weight, probably more of a sport/DK yarn, so the dimensions of the scarf are different from the first one I did, and it's not as soft as the Malabrigo used in the first (but is any yarn as soft as Malabrigo?) I love it all the same. Gorgeous blues, I'm a sucker for blue. I'm also on a kick for knitting these little shawlettes. I love them. Want to make every pattern I come across on Ravelry. Trying to restrain myself - not very successfully though.
That is the start (and a few charts in) of an Aeolian Shawl(ette). I couldn't help myself. It was after Christmas, and I needed to start something new, and wanted lace... it just kind of happened. But it's going so fast. That's not even all of it (I worked another 28 rows after the photo was taken yesterday), so I only have 18 rows left before binding off. That's record time for me and lace. In laceweight, with beads. I never work that fast.
See the leaves? (I'm such a sucker for leaves in my knitting, why is that?) See the beads? Not too noticeable, just a touch of bling.
And the nupps? There aren't that many of them, but they're still fun. I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the week, then I can show you one of my Christmas presents in use (blocking wires!). I know you're all excited - please try to keep it under control.

Wow, this is getting long, and I'm not done yet. Guess there's been more knitting than I thought. I'll try to go fast with these last ones. So, BFF Bridget had a little girl - Baby Kaffaween as her big sister says (Kathleen if you don't speak toddler), so I needed to knit something pink and adorable.
The Baby Surplice by Elizabeth Zimmermann. You really can't go wrong with EZ for a baby knit. It's DK weight yarn and worked up really quickly - haven't been able to gift it yet - can't be infecting the household with my icky cold germs, but I'm hoping to get over there this week. It still needs buttons, and I'm contemplating an edging (the first one didn't work so it was ripped out). So stinking cute. And the delay in gifting meant that I could work up something with the leftover yarn.
The Aviatrix Hat. Also, so stinking cute. Oh my goodness, it really is the cutest little hat. Worked flat - which is always fun, and quick, would have been quicker had I not been watching a movie I'd never seen before. Still have to do the other earflap, and find a button, and then it's done too.
The photos I get of her in the ensemble may be too cute to post, they might just overload the system. Moving on to something less cute, I finished a sock. It feels like it's been forever since I finished a sock.
It's the right foot (yeah, this pattern has a right and left foot) Slant. Really cool pattern. Would go faster if there weren't so many twisted stitches, but it looks cool so I can't complain. Moved on to the left sock on Saturday - halfway done with the leg (but it's a short leg). Other projects consumed me the rest of the weekend though.
Like a sweater for me. Been waiting to cast on a sweater for a month or two - as I now have 3 sweaters worth of yarn in the stash (I usually only have 1), so I thought I better get to it, now that Christmas knitting is done.
Doesn't look like much, but that's the neck and shoulders of Ingenue. Using some Valley Yarns Williamstown (purchased at WEBS on vacation). I got to the point where you separate the sleeves, but haven't done it yet. That's the moment of truth. I'll be able to try it on to see if it fits. Eek. Much of the knitting got done at the hockey tournament on Friday night. What can I say - there weren't any injuries. And stockinette in the round - so fast!
That's what the neckline will look like when it's done. It gets folded in half and hemmed to give it some stability. Never done anything hemmed in my knitting. Good times. And that wasn't even the only think I did this weekend (I really should get out more, I'm thinking). I got some spinning time in, finally.
That's 5.4 oz of Romney (new to me fiber) in the colorway "Rugby" from Feeling Sheepish. Really good spin. Nice long catchy fibers.
Did some nice fine singles for a 2 ply. Started on New Year's Eve, and finished Saturday. Than plied it yesterday after lunch with the Perry bunch ( I couldn't resist).
Will take it off the bobbin and give it a good soak today - unless my wool wash is still at Ellie's, which I think it is. Never mind. Anyway, plied it up while listening to the Steelers game. Happily, they won, but others that needed to lose didn't, so no playoffs this year. Oh well. We still got more than anyone else.
Alright, I think that's it, and if it's not, it can wait til next post. This is crazy long.

End of Year

So I had planned to do a nice big end of year wrap up post, but that didn't happen. Instead, I'll just post some pictures of the last week. Christmas here was very merry - I got wonderful stuff from everyone (a big THANK YOU to all of you).
Check out all that loot! Seriously, next year we really need to scale it back a bit I'm thinking. That was before the opening, and afterwards the right side remained untouched, and we spread it out for when the Perryites would arrive later on.
After dinner at Aunt Ginny's we all met up at the house for the rest of Christmas. Lots of good stuff. There were a bunch of hats knitted and gifted:
Didn't manage to get a picture of Elliott in his, and that was the best we got of the other boys. Warning - the next photo is slightly PG-13.
The infamous reindeer hat. As my sister requested, to match the infamous Mittens of Doom. And that is it for the knitting of reindeer/moose for a good long while.

The kiddos did get some good toys - never mind that there was a no toy rule this year.
That may not actually qualify as toys - are musical instruments toys? Nah, we'll count them as educational. Next time the Jersey kids come to visit they can put together a band, with the drum that Sarah got (she's good, she demonstrated for us on the video call).
Next post I promise to show some knitting - there's been some going on here and hoping to get more done. Hope everyone has a very happy, healthy, safe New Year, and I'll see you in '010.

Merry Christmas!

Due to a hectic work schedule and then a cold bug that I'm still dealing with, I've been unable to post the tree. So here it is in all it's glory and the phases of decoration:
As it sat "resting", all 9.5 feet of it (it was bigger before we had to cut more off to get it to fit!) Maddie did her inspection and approved it.
The first bit of lights.
Ellie decided that "action" photos would be a good idea.
You can see here what I thought about that idea. Thumbs down!
Lights done.
I was too short to get the star on, so I enlisted the help of Ellie. She had her own idea of where the start should go.
Pre-ornaments.
The infamous pine cone ornament. Just try not putting that one on the tree sometime!
And all finished! Merry Christmas! Here's hoping everyone has a safe and loving holiday!

Nothing to Show

Things have stalled out a bit. I managed to move most of my tape into the new training room on Monday. Convinced the higher ups to change the lock on the hallway door leading to my training room (so that I could actually have the ability to unlock it) yesterday. And then was unable to get into the building to move anything else. Or grab my med kit for the 2 basketball games that were taking place in the field house. Or anything. All because of the Christmas party that's not until Saturday night. Today, I will find a way into the building though, the first game in Monday night and the training room needs to be ready to go. Break starts when school ends on Friday, so no one will be around to open the building early on Monday, so it can't be put off until then. Maybe if I promise not to mess up any of the rest of the building they'll let me in.

Been spending lots of time crafting, but can't show you any of it. I started another Christmas knitting project, but it's just garter stitch in a strip - not exactly exciting stuff. I have one more Christmas knit to start and finish (if I could just find the motivation to get on with it) and then I can cast on something big and happy. I just have to decide what.

Supposed to go get the Christmas tree, so I should go call my sister to see if she's still coming with me and dad.

Drumroll Please

Ta da! New training room photos!
The view from the door.
A closer inspection of the hydro area, and entrance to the "private" bathroom!
The wall of cabinetry (that you will note does not have locks, I'll have to do something about that, or they might as well take them away).
Do you see what that one is??!! A storage closet! That locks! And the walls go all the way up to the ceiling! So no one can climb up and over and steal boxes of tape! Oh rapture!
My office. Very nice, almost too nice, I won't know what to do with all that space and storage.
The view from the bathroom (it's at the other end of the room is all). Maybe from that vantage point you'll see my dilemma. Where do I put the tables? Hmmm. They might end up being free standing in the middle - which is weird. That's not how training rooms are set up. I'm not really complaining - I mean, look at it. It's gorgeous and wonderful, just wish they had maybe asked me what I wanted.

You'll also see that they have a fondness for glass in the new building. I'll try to work on getting more photos of the rest of the new building when it's more done, just so you see how much work they have added to the poor janitors line-up. Glass is E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E. The kids are still enjoying the gym, but antsy to play an actual game in it. Or anywhere. The boys first game isn't until tomorrow - that's the first game that they play at all. And it's away. The girls play tomorrow too (away) and then not again until Christmas or something like that.

Alright, enough of the boring stuff. I went out to visit Liz on Wednesday night. Coldstone therapy was needed (I highly recommend the Cookie Mintster - it's fantastic). And I got to meet her new roommates:
Mork (left) and Mindy (right). Don't roll your eyes at me for the names - she did that all by herself, even though I rolled my eyes at her. Aren't they cute? Very playful, they remind me of Bailey. But here's the cutest thing:
See that? Mindy has mittens for paws! I couldn't get over how cute they were. They really look like little paw mittens. I would have enjoyed them even more had they not had claws embedded in them, but whatevs.

In knitting news, I finished a Christmas project yesterday. So as a treat, I let myself cast on something quick and easy for me, with handspun.
Yay squishy! This is the "Brave Woodsman" BFL I spun up in my new wheel excitement last year. Which is now on it's way to becoming a cowl. Using the Stonehenge pattern, from a blog I read.
I'm liking it. It's at the halfway point now, see what I mean about quick? A close up on the pattern detail.
Easy, but I have to think just enough to keep me focused. I should be able to finish it this weekend. And hopefully get a bunch of other crafty things done too. I'm hoping we get the tree this weekend as well. That's always good for a blog post.

A Slight Hitch

So, I've lost a little steam on the Smoking Hot Socks. I had ripped back to try to have enough yarn, and I ended up still not having enough. Grr.
See, just about done with the leg. All I had left was the ribbing.... and bam!
Just a few rows short of finishing the last square. The Knitting Fates are punishing me for working on a non-Christmas gift project. sigh. Now I have to decide what to do. Do I go out and hope that I can find another ball of this yarn (no, I don't want to buy another whole ball knowing that I'll have a bunch leftover with nothing to do with it) or do I use up some of the precious Trekking 100 I have that is very similar in colorway, but not yarn base?

Here's the issue with that plan, I have one sock done out of the Trekking, waiting for a mate. I don't usually run into second sock syndrome, but with the Cat Bordhi patterns I do (no more New Pathways socks for me!). I had planned on getting around to working up just a basic vanilla sock to go with the finished Trekking sock, but now I'm worried that if I use some of it to finish these socks, I'll run out on the vanilla sock, and then what will I do? You can stop laughing at me any time now Knitting Fates!

On to a happier project, I started this one Friday night after work, as I needed a no-brainer project.
Can you guess what it is? A Gingerbread House, out of crochet! I know, really hard to figure that one out. Is it sad that I'm moving into the realm of knitted/crocheted items for the home? Like the stereotypical grandma who crochets toilet paper covers? No? Good, I didn't think so (don't ruin the delusion for me).
See the sparkle for the snow drifts on the roof? Yeah, I thought it was a good idea too. So did Ellie - but that's not really surprising. When it's a question of sparkle or no, she will always vote for the bling. To keep this a happy project, we're not going to think about the number of ends there are to sew in. Nope, we're just gonna keep on working. We'll deal with the ends later.

So, update on the new gym, practices took place in there yesterday. Training room remains unavailable to me. I'm hoping that someone will let me in today, maybe. The kids were highly annoying with the "firsts" in the new gym. Every other second they were saying something about "first time anyone's picked their nose" or "first time anyone's picked a wedgie" I had to leave at one point. Maybe today they'll actually be able to practice without distraction. I did get to be the first person to knit in the new gym - woohoo!