Christmas Knitting Fiend

They're finished!!! Yes, in time for the company bowling event on Friday, the Bowling Socks!! No everyone in the company will know exactly how weird I am. Aren't they fabulous???

I started my Christmas knitting. I figured it was time and I had time off for Thanksgiving. So I knit the baby cap from the summer interweave for my boss's daughter, Carliegh. I did it in some Stork from Dale of Norway that I got at Stitches this summer.

And I couldn't leave out Carliegh's brother Jack, so below is the adorable snowman hat that I am almost finished with. I need to go get the head stuffing and put on eyes and a mouth, but the knitting on it is done. Doesn't it look cute??

I started a gift for a family member tonight, but since they read the blog, this will remain a mystery until after x-mas. I also need to get going on the scarf for my boss to go with the hats for her kids.

Thanksgiving Mischief

What happens when you leave 3 adult children in a room together with a pile of board games, an ample supply of soda (in deference for the pregnant lady) and, Gee what's that, is that Aunt Susie's digital camera? Why yes it is. While Susie lay snoring, the three of of decided she didn't have enough pictures to truly capture the day as it should have been. Below is this bendable magnetic thing that my brother brought back from his honeymoon for my father. You can put him in a ton of poses. We tried them all and recorded it.

My new shirt from Old Navy. Isn't it pretty??

Kelly's big Belly. Say Hi to Lindsay Madison. Ignore the gravy stain. Kelly was practicing feeding Lindsay.

You might wonder how these came into my possession, well, my aunt was good enough to mail them to me and my sister. I wonder how she new who to send them to???

I was one of the crazy people who got up at 6am to go shopping today. I think the gods might have been smiling on us. We lucked into front parking spots everywhere we stopped. It was amazing. You all will be very proud of me, I only bought 3 presents for myself and I bought 6 presents for other people. So far, I'm abiding to the 2 presents for others, one present for me. I've still got a ways to go, so praying for willpower.

After shopping, I came home and set up Christmas. See my tree. Isn't it pretty??

Xmas Tree

Thanksgiving

In honor of the holiday...

This year, I am thankful for:

My family, who has always supported me, even when they think that I'm slightly off my rocker.

For my new niece, yet unborn, I can't wait to welcomer her to the world.

My friends, who like me just as I am. Not thinner, not taller, not more normal, because each and everyone is just as a little left of normal as well. (Of course, we could be the normal ones, isn't that a scary thought???) Who let me vicariously enjoy their fun babies/toddlers and then take them home with them when they get cranky, crabby, hungry or dirty. You're great parents, god bless you.

The Wednesday night knitters (enablers?) for advising, teaching, sympathizing, oohing, aahing, encouraging and for being there every wednesday night (except holidays of course).

For my great new job (does it stop being new after a year?) that even though it may at times be frustrating pays me more money (Hurrah), is different every day and has offered me many challenges and they have continued to trust me with more responsibility (Yeah!).

To the brave women who operate independent yarn stores, especially those that provide comfy couches and biscotti.

Beth - for teaching me to knit.

To the person who invented the Twix bar, by far, the most perfect of candy bars. Chocolate, carmel, cookie crunch. Yum!

Cashmere!!! Need I say more?

BNL - who made Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young into a Christmas Song.

The plethura of "Perfect" convertible days this year in the often-times changeable St. Louis weather (beware, I define a "perfect" converitble day as between 55 and 90 degrees celcius and sprinkling - They put a heater and air conditioner in it and if you drive fast enough, you can't feel the sprinkling...)

A season for Charity

The STL knitting guild's holiday luncheon is coming up, so I've starting knitting for the St. Louis Crisis Nursery. I'm into scarves at the moment, so I dipped into my stash and made this garter rib scarf in a Turqoise from some Lion brand yarn.


I have a few more weeks before the lunch, so I decided I would make a second scarf in pink for a girl. This one is done out of some ancient acrylic yarn that is surprisingly soft from my great aunt's yarn that I've inherited.

Other than that, I've finished the first skein of yarn on my Ruffle scarf. I'll get a picture soon of that. It's looking better since I switched to bigger needles (Thanks Beth!).

It was so hard to be at work today. Everyone has that pre-holiday "I don't want to work" attitude. Unfortunately, there is a ton to do. The morning was great. I listened to BNL's Barenaked for Christmas on the way to work this morning. It was a great day. Everyone was in a good mood and then, yes, at 2:30 pm, all hell broke loose. UGGHHHH!!!! Just one decent day. Thankfully, I only have to work tomorrow and then I'm off for the rest of the holiday. I'm going to catch up on all my knitting projects that I've been neglecting, most importantly, the striped socks that I have decided would be great to debut at the company bowling outing!

Early flu sighting...

Yes, I fell victim to a 24 hour stomach flu. That to me is the worst. I can take a cold, even the ones where your head feels like it's as big as the room and every sound is magnified 100 times and you feel as if every breath is your last. I'm okay with that, the sneezing, wheezing and coughing. I can do all that. Being sick to my stomach turns me into the biggest baby in the world. I woke up not feeling well. I thought I would feel better after I took a shower. I should have known the end was near when I had to rest after putting my pants on, after putting a shirt on and had to lay back down after bending over to put on socks. I made in an hour at work before I had to come home. Took my temperature and I was running a fever, so now in addition to feeling as if last nights dinner was going to make a reappearance, was huddled under a blanket and can't get warm. Being the wonderful employee I am, decided to dial in on a conference call, which I fell asleep on. Woke up for the end of the call and prayed I hadn't been snoring or something else undignified. Needless to say, spent the rest of the day in bed. When I was finally feeling better in the evening, I started this...

a scarf for the St. Louis Knitting Guild's Holiday party to give away to the Crisis care nursury. Not a good picture, but it's this dark turquoise color. I have some pink yarn and I might make another for a girl since I have time.

Today was a good day. I was still feeling a little fragile this morning. But, wait for it, I got a bonus. Yes, my hard work has been rewarded, and even better news, it should be enough to pay the personal property taxes on my car so I don't have to use my savings or cut into my x-mas budget. Hurrah!!!

Finished Baby Einstein

FHere it is, the finished Baby Albert for my friend Jenny's baby shower tomorrow. I just love the Beatrix Potter Buttons and they match so well with the color. I used the Cotton Tots yarn, and although had a lot of problems with breaks that had been knotted together in the skein, I love that it is machine washable and dryable and it fluffed up very nicely after being in the dryer. I feel comfortable giving it as a gift to a good friend. I also got an adorable Fluffy Tigger who rattles for her and a Carter body suit. Still don't know if it's a boy or girl.

Well, bough more yarn to finish the Ruffle scarf and bought some Queensland Mohair to make the Airy Scarf from the Last-Minute Knitted Gifts book for my boss. I have a feeling I'll be going back to buy the pink to make the mohair scarf from Scarf Style for myself. Of course, I have to finish the other two scarves first...

Ruffle Scarf Day #2

Well, here it is on day 2. It's a bit more curled than I want. i'm looking for something closer to the picture in the book and less like a piece of corkscrew pasta. So, I have been embarking on trying to knit looser. We'll see how that goes. I do love it though and the pattern is easier and goes faster than I thought it would.

I didn't get much done because I went shopping with my mom. I went looking for a dress for the company holiday ToDo. It's amazing how you sometimes walk into a store. Try on a dress and it's absolutely perfect. Perfect length. Perfect fit everywhere. Not too tight or to loose. Just perfect. It was, of course, the first thing I tried on. Even bettern news, it was on sale. I ended up paying less than a third of the original price!!!! Which is, of course, the best news of all. And, I did find some black pants that I've been looking for on sale as well. My pair that I wear to work all the time is starting to wear out, so that was a bonus. So, sore feet and all, it was a good trip.

Ruffle Scarf Day #1

Yes, above we have the beginning of a great thing. It is the famous Ruffle Scarf from the new Scarf Style book. Does the yarn look familiar you ask?? Why yes, it was the Lama Seta yarn I bought with the fuzzy Amelie yarn thinking I would use them together on a scarf. It has become a scarf of it's own. Of course, I'm going to have to buy more of it. I would be a lot further along, but I had to frog the thing after I had about two inches done when I discovered that I had ignored the K1 after the Knit the wrap and stitch together. Which left some rather funny looking holes in the middle and I kept looking at the picture and looking at the scarf and looking at the picture and then looking at the scarf. Finally I reread the directions and realized I had missed that little K1. Makes a big difference. It looks a lot better.

I also stitched up the Blue Baby Einstein sweater tonight and bought some buttons. More Beatrix Potter buttons. This time a goose with a scarf around it's neck the same color as the turquoise yarn. I'll show pictures after I put the buttons on. I washed and it's in the process of drying now.

Punishment

Take one afternoon off to go to the dentist because your tooth is killing you and what happens??? The world comes to an end. Now, I work for an employer that gives you laptops, so like a good little girl, I went home from the dentist, called my voicemail (no messages) and logged on. I had 15 e-mails, but nothing serious. I worked on a report that I needed to get done, periodically refreshing the e-mail. Still nothing. Around 5pm, I decided it was time to close up shop and make some dinner. Checked e-mail one last time. Checked voicemail one last time and put it out of my mind so I could knit the baby Einstein. Go to work this morning, it's going to be a great day. There's a management retreat out of town, so I should get a lot of work done. Nope...all hell broke loose at 5:05pm. I had 13 voicemails and 36 e-mails about the same thing when I came in this morning. Did someone die you ask? Did a plane fall out of the sky with the executives?? No. I needed to find someone to fly to IA on the 6:30 flight to spend one day in IA. Killing small children you ask??? No, but something a 10 year old could do. You would think I was asking people to cut off their left arm!!! UGHHHH!!! Major headache!!! As if the toothache wasn't enough of a punishment.

I do owe an apology to my dentist. I thought he was pulling one over on me with the bruised membrane on my tooth, but was talking to one of my co-workers who had the same thing happen last year. She did say rather than the 2-3 weeks to heal, it could take months. Even better new, I know.

Big Hoorah for me...

Look what's finished!!! Well, the knitting anyway. Yes, it is the Baby Einstein sweater for the baby shower this weekend and it's only monday. Did I mention that I took a walking tour of The Hill (Italian neighborhood in St. Louis for the non-natives), and spent Sunday driving back and forth to Columbia, MO???? Yes, great things can be achieved. I used that Bernat Cotton Tots yarn. I won't be using that again. What a pain. It was cut off and joined by a knot in 6 different places in one skein. Ugghhh.

So, more about my walking tour. What fun. It was the perfect day. It was in the 60s. We started out at a Tapas restaurant (not italian) for drinks and appetizers. Mmm... Then we went walking. We went into the catholic church, which was very beautiful and looked more like a church in Europe with the Saints and the stained glass and the plaques from people who donated the saints, etc. We went into the italian grocers. Definitely going back there. We learned to placy bocce ball at Milos. Again more drinks. Are we seeing a theme?? We ended the evening with dessert at Zia's. It had to be the biggest and best tiramisu I have ever had. We, of course, had to have dinner on the hill, because we'd been walking by the restaurants all day and smelling the wonderful smells, so we ended up a Favazza's. Which was okay, but I still prefer my favorite Cunetto's.

So, the mystery of my sore tooth has been solved. I have "bruised the membrane" on my tooth and it will take several weeks to heal. In the meantime, I will be very sensitive to cold and experience mild soreness. What a pain. All because I bit too hard on a carrot. Who would have thought.

FO!!!

Yes, there it is in all it's glory. The finished 5 day or shall I say renamed 1 month baby blanket. Ready 2 days early. Pretty good, if I do say so myself, now I can concentrate on the next baby sweater starting tomorrow.

I'm sitting here on November 4th, listening to christmas music. Yes, it finally came in, Barenaked for the Holidays! I must say, I'm getting in the mood. 2 gifts I ordered for family members also came in the mail today. I must say, it's been a good day.

We had 15 people at knit-night last night. I think that might be a record. A good time was had by all. Some nights it seems that everyone is kind of tired and we're all quiet, but last night, it seemed as if everyone was very talkative. Of course, we had to talk about the sad election results. Ah, sometimes I wish I lived on the other side of the river where they vote democratic instead of living on this ultra-conservative side. Maybe I could move to Canada for the next 4 years. Then I would have a reason to knit the cool thrummed mittens.

Election Day Headache

Day 2 of the migraine that won't go away. Ugghhh! At least it's been bearable today. The light isn't killing me. Thank god this doesn't happen very often.

I voted this morning. Stood in line for 45 minutes in the dark misty morning. I've been watching election coverage this evening as I've been working on the 5+ day baby blanket. It's addicting. I'm sitting here watching election results. With 5% of the precincts reports so-and-so has been declared the winner. I don't understand how with such a low percentage of votes counted they can call it. Especially when these races are 52% to 48%??? I got a minor in polictical science and I still don't understand this. They called Missouri a Bush state with only 38% of the precincts reporting and him winning by 52%. Does that mean votes from only 38% of the citizens in Missouri count?? In Florida, they're counting all the votes even though it appears Bush is winning by a wider margin. I'm not getting this. It was making my headache come back again. I had to turn it off. I'm going to go to bed blissfully ignorant of who is the next president and who's the next Govenor of Missouri. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen at this point, so there's no point in watching them agonize over each second. Although, what I'd really like to happen is some of these states that they've already called the elections in with less than 50% of precincts to turn it around and then the media would look stupid again. Whatever happened to the media was going to "take is slower this year?" This is the end of my political rant for the year.

I hate daylight savings...

You know in the spring, when daylight savings starts, it such a drag to lose an hour. It takes me weeks to recover. Now that daylight savings has ended, sure, we got back the hour, but at what cost. When I left for work, it was dark. When I left work this evening, it was dark! It's that period of the year when all you feel like you do is work because you don't have any daylight hours at home. It felt like bedtime at 6:30 when I got home this evening. This impression was, of course, helped along by the fact that I have a massive headache. Ugghhh!


Here lies the infamous 5 day baby blanket that I naively thought I could knit in 5 days along with planning and executing a baby shower for my sister. No, the blanket wasn't for her, but a friend who was going to be at the shower. Needless to say, it didn't get done. So, I'm driving to Columbia, MO this weekend, where said friend lives on Sunday. 5 days away. Are we going to lay bets on whether or not I can finish the blanket by Sunday??? Keep in mind that on Sunday, the 14th, I have to have a baby sweater done for a shower. I'm going to be a knitting fool in the next two weeks I tell you. All these babies are seriously putting me behind in my x-mas presents....