Phew!

I made it.

I survived the Christmas knitting. I might, just maybe, have finished the last present while parking in the driveway at my grandparents (husband drove too fast, darn him), but all the gifts I'd planned to give were put into their recipient's hands finished!

To recap, I finished:

Mountain Stream Scarf for my me-mere. Knit with one skein of Zephyr from a Touch of Twist





Boot socks for my Dad (garter rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks) in Dale Falk, grey and black



Two Chapeau Marnier, both in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport - one berry, one chocolate, for my mom and my sister.






Counterpoint for my music teacher brother. Knit with Cascade 220 Superwash.



Unoriginal Hat for my sister-in-law Kati. Knit in Plymouth Italia Fingerpaint that I had marinating in my stash.



Lastly, and sadly, picture-less, is the Ristra for my mom-in-law. In my hurry to get her stuff packaged up, I managed to forget to snap a picture of the darn thing. Trust me, it was cute!

My reward for all the holiday completion around here?

I finally got to knit up the yarn I spun for Ms. Widget when I was at yarn school. I've been dying to knit this up since I got back in September. It was everything I hoped it would be.

Hat:


Scarf:


She loves them and I'm just wishing I had enough of the yarn to make a set for myself!

Know that we're done with the insanity of the holiday knitting, and I've excavated my desk for more easy computer usage at home, I'm hoping I'll make it back to posting more frequently.

I'll leave you with a pic of my vote for funniest present of the holiday, for the shirt my one brother Nick, gave my other brother, James.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving here - we drove down to see my parents in CT. Miraculously, there was nearly no traffic either way (and if you're familiar with the Mass Pike to I-84 holiday route, you know that that really IS a miracle). Food was delicious, even if there were turnips on the table (Ick! Ptooooie!) and the company was delightful.

I had to work Wednesday and today, and even actually had stuff that I had to do, so there was little slacking in my week. There's less in next week, and then's it's the holiday season in earnest. Yikes!

One the thought of things to be thankful for, I want to make a shout-out to some good customer service from Simply Socks Yarn Company. I ordered some yarn from them - a couple of skeins for my Secret Pal, and then a couple of skeins for Christmas presents. Did a happy dance when my box came super quick, but then was completely puzzled when I opened the box to find that what I had was totally not at all what I'd ordered. hmmmmm.

I e-mailed them back Sunday night, and had a response back from them before noon on Monday - with an apology and a promise to have the right stuff in the mail that day - with a postage paid mailer to send the incorrect yarn back. I've already gotten my replacement yarn, and I am a happy customer. For me, the true test of customer service is how well a company reacts when there's a problem, and these folks definitely win on this one.

Woah!

I got my second and final box from my SP 11 Secret Pal over the weekend. (Thank goodness I had a friend coming over to feed the fish, and the box didn't have to live outside over the weekend.)

She's been ill, and had asked if I minded getting two boxes in one, instead of two smaller boxes. I did not care, so I got one big box full of all kinds of fantabulous goodies.

She wrapped things in green and in white to denote which "package" they were from, which I thought was a really cute touch. Now, I think I got things grouped in their right groups, but I have to admit, I opened ALL the packages before worrying about the picture taking, so I might have mixed them up.

First, we have the "green box"


Truffled Walnuts (amazingly, I've not torn into them yet), Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac and a copy of the Baby Surprise sweater pattern and three balls of KnitPicks Palette in white and two fabulous shades of green. I love the Baby Surprise, and had totally lost my copy of the pattern - this one is nicer by FAR, and it's already safely tucked in my pattern book, never to be lost. I've been dying to make one of the wee baby sweaters from the pattern in Almanac, and since there's at least 4 more babies coming into my life this spring, it's going to get put to very good use.

After that, we still had the "white box" to unwrap. (If I'd been smart, I'd have spaced them out for more presents over more days - wait, who am I KIDDING? There's no way I could have waited.)


We have two big skeins of lovely natural Brown Sheep - the type of yarn isn't labelled, but it's a single and it's soft and snuggly. It's lovely. A skein of Noro Cash Iroha in the most divine purple (there was no way I could get the color right in the pictures) and a printout of the Calorimetry pattern from Knitty, which WOULD be a great use of the Iroha, I agree.

The best treat of the whole box, though? Those needles. Handmade knitting needles. They are divine, and have such a great pointy tip on them. I can't wait to use them for some lace.

Overall, an excellent (two) packages, and a wonderful awesome pal.

Thanks, Frances!

Weekend

The husband and I drove down to DC this past weekend for a wedding. We drove after work on Thursday (a traffic avoidance strategy that worked rather well) and had most of Friday to goof off in the city.

We decided to go down and wander the Mall and visit the various monuments and memorials.

I mostly decided to get in Wiley's way.

See?



We visited the WWII, Korean and Vietnam Memorials. They were all amazing. There was no goofing off.

We visited Mr. Lincoln, which was awesome. I simply love that building.

After that, we visited Mr Einstein. He's an awesome statue tucked away in a little corner near the Mall. My sock decided it wanted to sit on his lap.

See?



After that, we wandered down towards the White House and found some really good lunch at this restaurant called Teaism. I had something called Ochazuke.

See?



It was delicious and perfect after walking around a very wind-blown DC.

After that, we headed for wedding rehearsal stuff, and then had the wedding on Saturday, and it was truly lovely.

A long drive home on Sunday, but I got almost all the peppers for the ristra knitted up. Sadly, I didn't take a picture of them.

See?

Sock needles and gauge

Quickie post tonight, since I'm trying to get packed up for traveling tomorrow night.

I mentioned using size 0 needles for my monkey socks a couple posts ago, and Ariel sounded kind of aghast at the idea. That seems to be my "standard" for socks - and I usually get anywhere between 8.5 and 10 stitches to the inch. Makes it tough to knit sock patterns, since I never get their gauge and I have wide feet and pudgy ankles, making me double cursed.

But it gives me the kind of sock fabric that I like, so it's what I do. WHat's your "standard"?

And a moment of ranting about that sock pattern thing, if I may? What the HECK is up with the million sock patterns that simply have you change needle sizes to increase size? That drives me INSANE.

Christmas knitting

After many years of refusing to do Christmas knitting, this year, I'm feeling inspired.

Don't ask me why, and I realize that it probably means I'm insane. I do have two round trips to the DC area coming up this month - since we're driving, that's more than 30 hours of knitting time in 4 days, so provided I can stay awake, I'm going to have lots more knitting time than usual.

Here's the current plan, and list.

Me-mere - Mountain Stream Scarf that I've already posted about. It's a little less than 20% done now.

Brother 1 - CounterPoint scarf He's a music teacher, so I think this'll be perfect. Totally unstarted, but I have the yarn.

Brother 2 - Totally stumped, but we may be joint gifting him with a laptop so he can keep in touch while out on the road (he's a newly-minted truck driver), so it may not matter. If not, anyone have any suggestions for a 25 year old Metallica-loving truck driver?

Dad - grey and black boot socks, my own design. Totally unstarted, but I have the yarn.

Mom and Sister - Chapeau Marnier, one in chocolate brown, the other in raspberry. They're getting the same, because they look a lot alike, and I think it'll be really flattering on both of them. Yarn is inbound, since I've decided I don't like the yarn I settled for at Webs last weekend.

Sister-in-Law - if I still have time, Odessa in a lovely charcoal silk alpaca I have marinating in my stash.

Mother-in-Law - I found a nifty knitted chile pepper ristra that I think she would just love. Not started, I have the yarn.

That's a totally achievable list, right?

Hey. Stop laughing!

I wanna be a Monkey!

Every time I think about these socks, that song (if you can call it a song) pops into my head.

Monkey, monkey monkey, I wanna be a monkey!

Ahem. Darned earworms.

Anyway, like everyone else in the entire knitting universe, I am knitting myself a pair of Monkeys. They're the companion to the fancy lace scarf, for when I need easy knitting that takes no braining. And I love 'em. Can't wait to get to wear 'em.

Wanna see?



It's not the best picture, but it'll do, right? The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill, colorway Sugar Maple, knitting on size 0 needles.

The picture is from last week, so imagine that I'm about a half repeat away from starting the toe decreases.

And one advantage of being a product knitter? I almost never get second sock syndrome, because I want the damn socks too much to delay.

Weekend

What a lovely and relaxing weekend we had here.

Dropped Ms. Widget off at my Dad's on Friday night, stayed down in CT for the overnight, then drove up to Northampton for the day on Saturday. Breakfast at Sylvester's (good, but not worth the absurd wait), then shopping at Webs for a bit (all buying for holiday presents, I was good) where Wiley very much appreciated the comfy chairs where he could read his book instead of being terribly bored.

After Webs we went to an open studios exhibit in Florence, where I pre-ordered the new Rhymes with Orange book and go postcards of my most favorite cartoons of hers, ever. Didn't really find much else to buy. After that we went to East Heaven hot tubs and soaked, and then indulged in massages at the new adjacent spa. Highly recommended as a relaxing afternoon diversion.

We met up with some friends who live out that away for a little while, then drove back to Boston and had a giant late night sushi dinner.

This morning was brunch at Suzanne's, which Wiley decided to tag along to with me.

By the time I got home, Widget had arrived home with my Dad, and we spent the evening hanging out together.

I've gotten another repeat knit on the scarf, so I'm back to where I was, so just use that picture to imagine it, without the mistake this time. Wooo! And with all the car knitting, I'm most of the way through my first Monkey sock. Double woo!

This week, must wind lots of yarn so I have all the yarn I'll need for the round trip to DC in the car this coming weekend.

A trip to the Frog Pond.

Now that I've finished the Knit-a-Thon squares, I'm heading straight into Christmas knitting. I've avoided holiday knitting in the past, but this year, I am somewhat inspired. Most of my immediate family is going to get a small-medium sized knitted gift paired with a donation to an appropriate charity, as long as I can stay on task.

(I get to go to Webs this weekend to get all the rest of the yarn I need for this task. I have to get my list written up, so that I don't go insane once I get inside, since that is far, far too easy to do once one gets there, I find.)

The first project, since I have everything for it, is a Mountain Stream scarf for my Me-mere.

This is what it looked like on Wednesday morning.


Do you see what's wrong with it?


Knitterly denial was in full force, until I held it up for Wiley Wednesday night, and before I could say "How bad does this really look?", he asked "Wow, what happened to that?"

Alrighty then. There it is.

Somehow I had double yarn-overed on the border, and I'd knitted about ten more rows before I realized it. I tried just knitting the extra stitch together with it's neighbor, but the extra stitch and the sudden decrease seemed to be making the border shaping weird. I'm not exactly sure why I thought that I could drop the stitch and have it work out better, but I did. I fiddled around for a bit, trying to get the surrounding stitches to absorb the extra yarn, but there was no saving it.

Of course, I'm all cocky about lace these days, and hadn't bothered with a lifeline or three (this is EASY lace! I won't mess it up! Yeah, right!), so I had to rip it with no lifeline.

Somehow, I managed it, got all the stitches picked back up properly. I'd had to rip out about a repeat and a half of the pattern, so I worked back up to the end of the repeat (my goal for this baby is one repeat a night until it's finished. If I can stay on pace, it'll be done around Thanksgiving.)

Last night got taken up by knitting a last minute gift for one of Widget's teachers who is departing, so I'm sadly still at negative progress on the scarf.

A lovely gift

First off, THANK YOU for the wonderful comments about my new hat. I can't even TELL you how happy and excited I am with it. I feel a little like a whole new world of knitting has opened up for me now - silly, in a way, but it is what it is.

I'm not going to talk about my own knitting today, but instead about a lovely gift I received for my birthday this past spring.

Suzanne made this for me. Isn't it gorgeous?


You can't really see from the picture, but it is also huuuuuge! Longer than I am tall, and incredibly cuddly warm. Now that the temperature is finally dropping, I actually got to wear it today, and it is perfect to keep me snug warm with a light jacket, and I bet it'll be even more delicious when it's cold enough to really need bundling.

The best part about it though, is that when I put it on, it feels like I'm wearing a big hug from Suzanne.

Awesome.

Conquering a fear

Generally, I like to think of myself as a fearless knitter. I knit, I try stuff, I rip it if it doesn't work. I don't generally decide to do stuff that's out there on the edges of wild, and I'm not really a designer like many of my knitting friends are, but I'm not afraid to just wing it and hope for the best.

The exception? Colorwork. Intarsia, fair isle, all of it, completely irrationally you-can't-make-me, horrified at the thought of it.

But the end results are so beautiful. And that makes me want want want. Yet, somehow, I've never gotten over myself to dive into it. Until now.

I present to you Knitwhits Siena hat in the Fiesta colorway.

Here's the whole hat.


This is my favorite part - the braided edge


And me, modeling my creation


I'm so freaking pleased with myself. Maybe now I can work up the nerve to tackle the Ladybug sweater.

Knit-a-thon

I'm very pleased to report that the Knit-a-Thon was a success.

On a personal level - I finished nearly all my squares. I did have 50, but largely only because Suzanne and Allison chipped in and knit a few squares for me. I might have finished all fifty, but the breathing room I gained from the squares they knit gave me the time to fully finish all of the, ends woven in and everything.

Here's a picture of the second batch of squares, all pinned out and blocking


This is all the squares, packed up and ready to travel to the seaming party


I also raised about half of my goal - $250 dollars, so far (note, though, that my giving page stays active until December 31st, so if you should have a stray few dollars, I'm happy to accept anything you're willing to give). It isn't as much as I wanted, but I'm still pleased.

On an event level, it was definitely a success.

I spent nearly the entire day at the seaming party - we finished 16 blankets on Sunday, and many of us brought home a blanket's worth of squares to finish over the next month or so. About 100 knitters contributed squares to the event, and 63 people came to help finish blankets.

There's a few pictures of the event on my flickr page if you want to take a peek.

The event raised nearly $16,000 for the Pine St. Inn, which is a pretty big sum for a first time event.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed and helped me with this project.

My insane cats

There is a plastic bag of roving on the floor near my spinning wheel.

Between one cat's obsession with wool (I'm looking at you, Pye) and the other's commitment to chewing holes in every plastic bag in my house (that would be Cosmo, of course), I've had to chase cats away from the damn bag every 10 minutes since I got up 2 hours ago.

I should just go spin the rest of it, and solve the problem.

A little less panicked

I'm feeling a little less panicked about the Knitathon this morning. Of course, Suzanne, that does NOT mean that you aren't right - I clearly was smoking the good crack the day I committed to this.

I re-counted, and I've got 21 squares so far.

A big part of my panic was my concern that my swatch had lied, and in fact, many of the squares I'd already knit would not wash and block out to the correct 9X9 size. So, this morning, I decided to wash and block the ones I have done, so I could hopefully relax a little bit.

In fact, my swatches had not lied, not even a little, and the squares that were a scant 8X8 unwashed bloomed up and were so large, that in fact, I was smooshing a few of them into a smaller size to be the 9X9 I needed.


Here they all are, laying out to dry.

I've figured out a way to get about another 6 blocks without too much knitting time (this requires cannibalizing a WIP that I was never ever actually going to finish. That'll leave me about 20 to do from scratch.

I think I've made peace with the thought that I might not manage 50 squares at this point. Allison, if you really don't mind adding 1 or 2 squares to the pile, I'll certainly be grateful!

Now I should go get to actual knitting, instead of talking about it, eh?

What in the heck was I thinking?

50 squares.

50 squares?!?!?!?!

I am insane. I've got 18 done. There's like, 15 days until the event. This is never ever going to happen, and I am insane for even thinking it would.

50 squares. Yeah, right.

Finally!

After having the temperature be in the 80s this weekend, we woke up this morning to cold damp downpours.

The best thing about that?

Getting to wear happy handknit socks for the first time all season!

Happy fall, everybody!

Knit-a-thon, and a contest to go with it

I have signed up to participate in a knit-a-thon to benefit the Pine Street Inn in Boston, which is one of Boston's largest agencies providing services and shelter to the homeless population of the city. You can find out more about the event and the organization here.

I have committed to knitting 50 9x9 squares for blankets by the date of the final event, when all the knitters will come together to piece the blankets together. The blankets will then be giving to the residents of the shelters and housing units run by the Inn.

Of course, this is both a chance to knit for others who could use the warnth of a blanket, and a fund raiser for the Pine Street Inn, and that's where you come in. I need sponsors for the Knit-a-thon. We're supposed to ask for per-square donations, but I don't think it really matters. If you'd like to donate, you can do it at my online donation page. If you'd rather send Paypal or a check or something like that instead, e-mail me at siercia AT gmail DOT com, and we'll cook up a way to do that.

And please remember, every little tiny bit helps. Even if you can only swing a few dollars, it'll be a HUGE help to the residents and clients served by Pine St. Many people, each doing a small piece can move mountains.

Now, for the contest part.

I have been wildly bless in the past few years (ever since I started knitting, actually) to have won many, many, contests and raffles and the like. Now, I have a chance to turn that around too, and I am excited! So, anyone who donates any amount of money to this attempt (seriously, even a dollar helps) gets entered into a raffle.

I've got three prizes so far, and may well add more as the month goes on, and inspirations strikes.

Prize the first:

A beautiful skein of Sunshine Yarns Sock yarn, colorway Indie


Prize the second:
Two skeins of gorgeous laceweight yarn from "A Touch of Twist" in colorway Admiral


Prize the third:
Winner's choice of a set of stitchmarkers from one of my favorite etsy shops. Her shop is closed at the moment, but if you check out her sold items page, you can see how astoundingly cute her work is.

And the Grand prize? (This is where you can see that I don't really think I'm going to make my goal.) If I make my fund raising goal of $500, one lucky person is going to win a pair of handknit socks, knit by me. Color of the winner's choosing, and delivery after the fund raiser and the holiday knitting is over (so, think mid-to-late-January).

To enter the contest, email me at siercia AT gmil DOT com and let me know that you've donated. When it's all over, I'll draw names randomly to determine the winners.

So, please, if you can spare a little (or a lot), help me meet my goal and help the Pine Street Inn keep people warm this winter. And please, post about this where ever you'd like to help get the word out!

Secret Pal package!

Hooray!

Yesterday was a terribly disappointing mail day - I pulled into the driveway to see three different packages on the porch, but when I went to get the mail, I discovered that two of them had been delivered to the entirely wrong address and were not mine. Boo! Hiss!

Today, on the other hand, was a wonderful mail day! Amazon delivered my copy of the Crazy Aunt Purl book, and MUCH more importantly, I got a delightful, lovely package from my Secret Pal.



Here's a picture of the lovely wrapping, albeit from AFTER we ripped everything open.
Beautiful colors, a treat to unwrap each little gift inside.




And here, a picture of what was inside - two skeins of yummy sock yarn, a beautiful mug with coffee, three handmade soaps and hand cream that feels divine on my hands (and I love the label - not tested on animals, only friends and family), a wee Italy travel guide, tex-mex trail mix that by some miracle isn't too spicy, and a card that is still making me laugh - the inside says "Swatches? We don't need no stinking swatches!" Not pictured are the two Halloween washcloths sent with the soap - when Widget saw those, she declared they had to go up to the bath RIGHT AWAY, and took them straight upstairs. I think I'll not tell her they were supposed to be for me!

Thank you, Secret Pal, for a lovely package full of wonderful presents!

sigh

I realized tonight just how much I miss my Saturday Night knitting circle. It's on hiatus as the shop owner regroups and pulls the shop together in a new space - but we've not met for quite a while at this point.

I was hoping that the Ravelry Saturday group was getting together, since Widget has an engagement that she's going to with her Dad, and my Saturday morning is totally free. But this is an off week, and there's nothing planned.

I think I've been spoiled by having such a great community of knitters in Boston, so I'm feeling all adrift with no knitting peeps to spend time with.

Home (yet again)

In Minneapolis earlier this week, at a customer site, helping to prepare them to go live on new software from my company. Was a good trip - the people at the paper were great, I got to see a couple of old friends I rarely see, and Minneapolis itself is a really lovely city.

Since I was travelling, I got a good amount of knitting done, despite having a really compelling book along for the ride as well. I started on a pair of Monkey socks, for me, in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock. I am totally and completely and utterly in love with these socks. I cannot wait to own them.

Have any of you Boston types seen this? I'm thinking I might sign up.