Prepping

Holiday preparations are well under way! Today is the start of Christmas week festivities with our annual "Christmas Eve" celebration. We moved it this year from Christmas Eve to the weekend before Christmas to accommodate more people. Personally I'm a little relieved. I've been working like crazy this week to get some internship hours in before I leave for the holidays. That means that nothing besides Christmas shopping has been accomplished. Case in point: I still need to finish packing for my trip to Romania which happens in 4 days.

The only thing that's been packed are supplies for the kids. Too bad I also need clothes to wear. However, having the Christmas Eve celebration today means more time before Christmas to get packing and wrapping done.

In my defense I have finished some laundry and made brownies for this afternoon. I still have some work stuff to finish before I can actually leave the country but I've been working on it slowly and steadily...for the most part.

Through this doorway lies the workspace of doom. Enter if you dare...

Last night I did a little paperwork and then started one of the few Christmas presents I decided to make this year. I almost didn't make any gifts at all but then my grandmother requested some dishcloths and I thought that might be kind of nice. And then I thought my other grandmother might like some slippers so I'll be making those later this weekend.

Still life: Cat with Dishcloth in Early Morning Sun

The big question is: can I finish this dishcloth before 12:30 p.m. when we leave for the party? Does it matter that it is now 11:15 and I'm not dressed or have any gifts wrapped? What if I throw in the fact that I need to fold laundry? How about adding in the fact that I'm blogging instead of knitting?

Tis the Season

This weekend has been full of seasonal happenings.

Friday I ran hither and yon while prepping for a Christmas party given by the agency that I intern with. I was out early in the morning to visit clients, then to the office, then out for the party, back to the office, and, finally, back out for several hours to visit clients again.

I thought about wearing my newly finished Christmas socks and my clear clogs to the party but the dress was semi-professional so I decided against it.

Saturday I went shopping for Christmas presents. I hadn't done any shopping until then. I managed to get all but 3 presents (and 2 are small and easy to obtain). I had planned to finish some paperwork for work/internship but I took a nap instead. Much better choice.

Sunday we went out to dinner at Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta for my aunt's birthday.

The food was good but I spent the night having one of those moments where I thought my dinner might be trying to kill me. I don't know if it was the shear volume of food (though I've done worse in recent memory), the richness of it, or if there was something that didn't agree with me. Whatever it was it caused me to go to bed at 9:45 and sleep until 8:15 this morning. Nearly 11 hours of sleep. Except for the hour between 2:30 and 3:30 when I woke from a dream concerned that I had to be at work at 8:15 in the morning (I don't) and that I'd double booked clients (I didn't). I then stayed awake trying to find a position where my stomach didn't feel like it was being wrung out and contemplating whether I should all the CDC and report a possible food poisoning or not. I'm feeling a bit better this morning but still not 100%.

This week I've got to get paperwork for tax-exempt status submitted to the IRS for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project and also finish that paperwork for my internship that I keep putting off. Oh, yeah, and finish getting/making Christmas gifts.

Post Holiday Mash Up

I hope that your holiday season went off with a bang this year. Or maybe I don't, bangs might be bad things like a blown circuit or the tree catching on fire. Whether it went off with a bang or not I hope it was spectacular nonetheless!

I was rather glad to see Christmas day. That meant I had survived the holiday stress. I got a lot of really nice Christmas presents: new pots and pan set (since my old ones were flaking their non-stick coating into all my food, yay for chemical aftertaste!), clothes, Amazon gift cards, a skein of yarn I forgot I'd picked out for myself 2 months earlier (my mom gifted it to me), and plenty more. Festivities with the family were wonderful as always and I didn't come in last place in the Christmas Day game-a-thon.

The day after Christmas I boarded a plane and spent the next 2 weeks in Romania. I had an awesome time. The best part was getting to connect more deeply with some of the kids I met during the summer (I was also in Romania in July, remember?) and making new connections with some of the kids. I think there's something in their hearts that draws them to people who they have seen before, even if their brains don't remember you. One of the things we got to do was deliver Christmas presents. There were some handmade items from EEROP in there :)

New Years was a crazy celebration where the whole city shut down and everyone sets off fireworks. Nothing says, "Let's start the year off right!" like lighting questionable explosives in the middle of a street! This is one of the biggest events of the year for Romanians so it was really cool to get to experience that.

After arriving home I have been slowly recovering from jet lag (my sleeping and eating schedule is completely erratic) and trying to get motivated to do more than just sit on my couch in my pajamas all day. I do have grad school work that needs to be done but this does not require clothes or (much) movement so that doesn't really help things. The only thing I have been really motivated to do it knit. There's something about this time of year that's really inspiring: the holiday knitting is done so there's no deadlines to meet, the air is cold (and there might be snow), the slate is wiped clean from last year, and there's the feeling of hope for a better year than last. Anyways, all that sappy stuff to say that I've cast on at at least 3 projects in the last few days.

Item 1:
Scrunchable Scarf

This was actually started in the Atlanta airport the day that I left for Romania. I knit on it some while I was there and finished it up shortly after getting home. I used a bulky wool (Cascade 128, one of my favorite bulky wools) and a size 10.5 needle. I cast on less stitches (somewhere in the range of 25 or 28, can't remember). The pattern was easy to memorize and this was a great take along project (it's also part of EEROP's year of KALs). I used two full skeins and the finished (washed and blocked) scarf ended up about 6 feet long.

Item B:
Antonia's Fighter Bomber Helmet (a.k.a. the Thorpe Hat)

I started this Tuesday evening and finished it by Wednesday afternoon. Used a little over 1 ball of Revolution from Bollicine for the actual hat and some hand-dyed for the contrasting crochet trim and braids. US size 9 needles and crochet hook as recommended. Just a word of caution, this is the small size and it almost fits my huge noggin; the sizing runs big. To me this looks a little like a helmet and I immediately thought of a little girl who I met in Romania who would look perfect in this. She's a beautiful little girl of about four but there's a strength in her eyes that says, "I can conquer the world!" So this is named after her. Also an EEROP Year of the KAL pattern.

Item the third:
SIL's Christmas Socks (Show off Stranded Socks)

Hazel Knits sock yarn in Camo Chic. US size 1 needles. Two at a time using magic loop. Cuff down. Finally started these the other day. I read a good review of the pattern and it was one I was considering so I decided to go for it.

Item Lastly:
Mossy Ridge (Not So) Toddler Socks

Yet another EEROP Year of the KAL pattern (if I'm hosting can I still win something?). I'm really into this charity knitting thing...Making these in a not so toddler size by doubling the worsted weight yarn (Paton's classic wool, another good go-to yarn) and knitting on size 10 needles (or maybe they're 10.5, I didn't really check). Everything else is just as the pattern notes. I like how these are turning out but they do require me to read my knitting pretty closely which means I can't space out and read blog posts or watch new movies and tv shows that require me to actually follow the dialogue. Should be a quick knit though.

Also still on the needles is the wedding blanket that will never end. I did finish the fourth square and started the fifth so that's positive.

Totals for the year:
Charity: 2 completed, 1 OTN (on the needles)
Self: 0 and 0
Family and Friends: 2 OTN

Horrible

I'm the worst sort of person. Here's what I gave my non-knitting sister-in-law for Christmas:

If you wish hard enough they'll become those socks you wanted!

My brother got a card. There was an apology inside for not having finished his tie. There was no yarn because I haven't found some yet (anyone know of a good variegated black/grey sock yarn?). There was no pattern because my printer has decided it's done playing nicely with the ink cartridges. This is the first year that I haven't finished my Christmas knitting on time. Of course I had a lot more to do this year but still...it tastes a little like failure.

In other crazy pants news: Last night when I came home (late) from my parent's house I noticed my downstairs neighbors had a candle burning on their patio. I was a little concerned because it was pretty close to the vinyl siding wall but they had Christmas lights on so I figured that they would come out and blow out the candle in a little bit. I came inside and did some stuff around the apartment and I kept thinking about the candle. I don't want my stuff burning down because some idiot left a Christmas decoration burning on their porch all night. So, I went downstairs to see if they had blown it out (P.S. It was after midnight at this point). They had not. Then I realized I was going to have to take action. So I go and get a cup of water, sneak down to the front of their porch, lean over as far as I can, then chuck the water in the direction of the candle. Success! Candle goes out, no siding was melted, the complex was saved. Now I just have monitor their porch to make sure they don't do it again.

Almost a Scrooge

This year I was almost a Scrooge. I almost didn't decorate for Christmas or put up any sort of tree. A few weeks ago I decorated my porch with lights (through the aid of a glass of wine). Today I put up a Christmas tree. Sort of.

It's 2 feet tall with fiber optic lights. But I did decorate it. If you consider Charlie Brown's pitiful branch to be a tree then mine is ballin'!

I have some little retro Christmas ornaments that were just perfect for decorating my tree with. There's all the holiday classics:

A gingerbread bear addressed to Nancy from Bobbie from Christmas of '87 (whoever those people are, not anyone in my family that's for sure).

The Christmas wishing well (what?).

This psydo Russian chap on a sled with only one arm.

The Noel...um, light post? street sign? water tower? next to the Christmas tree.

The slightly creepy clown/snowman/elf riding a cork rocking horse.

And everybody's favorite: Frosty the Janitor Snowman!
Please note that I also decorated the tree with some festive old school cranberry type garland. It really adds to the nostalgia.

The tree is on top of the t.v. stand/chest. I did find my Peruvian nativity set which I put out beside my Cabbage Patch kids Christmas set.

The Hispanic Jesus and '80s consumerism together at last!

The whole Christmas set up looks like this:

Tree, tree-smelling candle for that authentic "I Just Cut This Baby Down Myself" tree smell, lighter (for lighting candle), dragon shaped incense burner, Peruvian nativity, and Cabbage Patch kids (P.S. If they ever start putting those things in Happy Meals again I'm going to tear it up.).

Merry Christmas everyone! Only 8 more knitting days until Christmas! Oh crap....

Pressure Cooker

First, let me offer a belated Happy Thanksgiving! to everyone. I have seriously been neglectful of the blog this month. Which means I have to catch you up rather quickly:

1. Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law at sunny Universal Studios in Florida.

I rode the hugely popular Forbidden World of Harry Potter twice

rode all the roller coasters and saw several shows. It was nice to see some of the Christmas decorations going up. Which reminds me...I need to get out my Christmas decorations here at the apartment.

We had a great time despite the fact that I may have sprained my ankle. Apparently walking on hard concrete for three days in a row and standing in lines for hours at a time isn't so great for you. My left ankle is swollen pretty bad so tomorrow I'm headed to the doctor's early in the morning to see what's up.

2. The Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project "headquarters" (a.k.a. my office) has been overrun with blanket donations. Just as I had sent 40 off there were at least that many to replace them. It's really a wonderful problem to have. Thankfully my mom came and helped me organize said office/headquarters and now things are looking much better in here. Once I get the latest batch of donations sorted, tagged, photographed, and stored I will try and take some pictures of the new office space.

I did finish seaming together some patchwork squares but alas, no picture of the finished blanket yet. Also, if you're the knitting or crocheting type stop by our Ravelry group. We're getting ready to do a huge year long knit along/crochet along with tons of options for participating.

On another crafty charity note...the crafting group at my church was featured in the local paper the other day. Pretty cool!

3. Christmas knitting. Oh dear. The title of this post says it all. I'm in a real pressure situation here, folks. I didn't realize how much I still have to do!

There are washcloths, and lots of them, that need doing.

There is a wine cozy to finish. Er...start.

A tie, a pair of socks, and a knitted toy that also haven't been started yet.

And then there is a vest that is two shoulder seams away from being finished but for some reason I lost steam right at the very end.

Gah! Enough typing, must go finish some knitting. Only 26 days of holiday knitting left!

The Incredible Journey

This incredible journey doesn't involve Chance, Sassy, and Shadow. It involves yarn, needles, and a deadline. This is the story of my mom's Christmas sweater.

December 23 (Christmas Eve Eve)
11:20 a.m.: Start working on remainder of sweater (below is a picture of where I was when I started this epic adventure).

12:20 p.m.: Interrupted for pet break with cat.

Also, do the dishes, start laundry, and change from pajamas to sweats.
12:35 p.m.: Begin again.
12:58 p.m.: Fold laundry.
1:20 p.m.: Put in the third installment of The Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King).
3:45 p.m.: First sleeve is finished! Celebrate with lunch.

4:19 p.m.: Start second part of the Return of the King. Pick up stitches for the second sleeve. Cat sleeps.

6:27 p.m.: Take a break for a progress photo. Also eat brownie with ice cream for "dinner".

6:42 p.m.: Back to work on sweater.
7:01 p.m.: Scheduled break to wrap all Christmas presents (this picture was taken the next day but shows the amount of wrapping I had to do).

8:50 p.m.: Back to work, though later than expected.
9:35 p.m.: Break for a bowl of chili.
9:40 p.m.: Back to the sweater...

December 24 (Christmas Eve)
12:17 a.m.: Second sleeve sans cuff is finished!
12:18 a.m.: Take shower.
1:14 a.m.: Start cuff, fatigue setting in, not sure I can knit 21 more rounds...
1:38 a.m.: Knit 10 rows on cuff. Call it a night.

11:00-ish a.m.: Start last 11 rows of second cuff (not totally sure on time, forgot to write it down).
11:34 a.m.: Cuff is finished! Pick up stitches for neckline.
1:00 p.m.: Finished for good!

The sweater was wrapped and then packed into the car before I left for the Christmas party at my aunt and uncle's at 2:30. And I also managed to bring all the supplies for wassail and a fully cooked mac and cheese (the cheese, beef, and crackers plate got forgotten, oops...). The sweater still needs to be blocked but I can do that at my parent's house sometime this week. Just have to get over there and do it...

Holidays

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and will continue the good times into the new year. I had a wonderful Christmas filled with family, food, fun, and a lot of laughter. All my secret Christmas knitting got finished in time. I'll share those projects with you tomorrow. There is one that is especially epic in nature that ended up being finished just in the nick of time.

I got a lot of wonderful gifts this year: a trashcan, some new slippers, a beautiful sweater, new shoes, several cozy blankets (including one that was made by my very talented sister-in-law), some home decorating items, a good book, and...

a photo box! This will really help in photographing finished objects and items for my store. I plan to begin taking pictures of the yarn that I have in stock tomorrow so that I can begin updates before the end of the week. I tested it on some socks that I (finally) finished.

The Ron Weasley Banana Holder socks (a.k.a. the Skew socks). I had to rip back to the heel on the right sock twice before I figured out where I was going wrong (the beginning of the round started on the back side instead of the front). Thankfully it no longer has the weird, sharp turn like they used to. I also took a picture of the mittens in progress.

The color is finally right in this picture! Almost ready to start the thumb gussets. These should be clipping along now even though I'm already wanting to start another pair of socks since I finished the Skew socks.

Redneck Christmas

I'm about to admit something to you all, I did a terrible job with my outdoor illuminations.

When I first hung them up it was really cold out so I just kind of threw them up. Plus, I was lazy and didn't want to pull out a whole other pack of lights. So yeah, it looks like I should be out there with a PBR in hand spying on my neighbors.

I was successful in making mac and cheese for our family get together on Sunday.

Just like grandma used to make (until she commissioned me to make it instead). Our family get together was lots of fun. And my dad got a little exercise in.

It's very important to make exercising part of your Christmas wellness routine.

I have finished objects that I can't show you yet because they still need to be given as gifts but I started those crazy coral colored mittens.

Still can't get the color right in these pictures but they are bright! Looking forward to working on these after the holidays.

Naughty List

I'm trying to not to get myself on the naughty list but...

I know I should be knitting on Christmas stuff but I have an overwhelming desire to make a bunch of little mittens out of this:

I realize it's Red Heart.
I realize it's acrylic.
I realize it's bright (brighter in real life if you can believe it).

I don't care.

For now, though, I'm staying on the nice list...

Flurries Don't Count

Flurries don't count as real snowfall unless they stick. 11 days ago we were having tornadoes and now we have the first snow-type activity of the year. But it's not sticking. It's just making everything wet. And now it's even colder than it was when I woke up this morning. Maybe we'll have a white Christmas! It makes me want to start vacation today. Only one more week of work though! 40 hours....5 days...3 tests...1 winter party....1 pajama day....and a partridge in a pear tree. Then I'm free for two weeks! And my grad school classes will finish for the quarter this Friday as well and won't start for another few weeks either so I will truly have a break. Then I can catch up on all the things that need doing. Hopefully I will get the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project webpage updated. I've tried 3 times now without success. No idea what's going wrong but I will conquer it yet! One of our group members just took over 250 items of clothing to Romania to hand out to orphans and Gypsies. She should be arriving back in the U.S. shortly and, hopefully, she will have pictures to share (which I would love to post on the website if it will cooperate). What a wonderful out pouring of generosity from our group members to help make this possible! I did finally send out the last of the prizes for the EEROP/Project Hope Christmas clothing drive that we held over the summer. I custom dyed some yarn for the "winner" of the contest who knit a ridiculous amount of stuff (42 items) for the drive (for which we are all extremely thankful). This is a picture of her custom yarn:

Also been working on Christmas knitting but I can't show you that. I did finish one project that I'm incredibly stoked about and really want to show you but can't. I feel so clever having finished it. It's down to crunch time though so knitting has become an Olympic sport around here with a motto of "Go all the way or get tendonitis trying."

December: Day 1

One of students proclaimed today, "It's the first day of Christmas!" It certainly feels like that. Winter arrived last night with a bang, literally. Yesterday we had a tornado touch down less than 2 miles from my apartment. Luckily I was in Atlanta with my brother and sister-in-law and even more luckily no damage was done to my apartment complex. The cat was really glad to see me though. Speaking of which... I got her shaved the other week when I was off work.

I guess I should have done this a month ago because she's kind of chilly now. She spends every night trying to get as close as possible to me while I sleep. I wake up every morning contorted because she's wedged herself between my legs or between my stomach and my body pillow. Or she's sitting right beside my pillow sniffing my head. Yes, my cat is beyond weird. When I'm awake it's not much better. Whenever I sit on the couch she has to sit in my lap. This includes while I try to knit or use the computer. It adds a level of difficulty to every activity. And speaking of knitting...Christmas knitting is coming along. But you can't see it. It's all secret stuff. With the arrival of the "winter tornado" we also got near freezing temperatures. This morning it was 34 F/1 C with a wind chill of 26 F/-3 C. I'm constantly fighting off the desire to cast on for a cowl and ear flap hat for myself. Must finish Christmas presents first. Speaking of Christmas... I put up my tree on Sunday.

It's not decorated yet. I thought I would get to that today but I have an 8-10 page case study paper due on Sunday and I really need to crack down on it. So, the tree might get decorated tomorrow. We'll see. It could have happened today if I didn't take a nap but I'm running on fumes right now so I needed to rest. Speaking of resting...here's a picture of my parent's dog.

This really doesn't have anything to do with this blog post. Except that he's resting. On the couch. Where he shouldn't be.

Vacation

After much anticipation, my week of Thanksgiving vacation has arrived! I'm looking forward to relaxing and spending time with my family. And eating. I'm really looking forward to that. To kick off my vacation I spent this weekend with my family at Stone Mountain Park.

They were having their annual winter festivities so my parents took two of my younger cousins out for the evening. I came along to help with crowd control and to get my first taste of the holiday season. There was a snow angel (who does a presentation at the end of the night complete with a snowfall).

And I had my first Santa sighting.

Seeing Santa was pretty cool (even for a grown up).

Having the whole week off has put me more in the holiday mood than in previous years. In the past I've felt like Thanksgiving just sneaks up on you and then, once that's over, it's pretty much Christmas. This year I feel like I'm actually prepared for turkey day and Christmas parades and carols and all that jazz. And I've been itching to make some warm winter wear (even though the temps are back up in the 70s (Fahrenheit)/ 20s (Celsius) this week). Something cozy and thick and wool. What am I knitting with though? Cotton. At least it's red and green... (pictures of works in progress to come later).

Sometimes I Over Do It

I wish that statement applied to making cakes or exercising or even online gaming but it does, in fact, refer to my tendency to try and juggle as many balls at once as I possibly can. You can imagine the outcome. At some point along the way my body will just throws up it's hands and says "Enough! You won't slow down? I will make you slow down!" and then I get grossly sick. Like strep for the 4th time this year sick. Like tossing and turning all night because I felt feverish sick. Like waking up with body aches sick. Yeah, something like that. Oh, and did I mention I was supposed to be baby-sitting all weekend? Um, yeah...Not happening. At least not until tonight when my antibiotics have had a chance to fully kick in and make me feel less like a zombie. Let's focus on happier things shall we?

When I was at SAFF I started making some fingerless gloves for myself. It was freezing there and fingerless gloves seemed like something that would be good for the cold. And I had a little sample yarn left over from dyeing to try.

Well, this is the almost finished product but you get the idea (they have been completed since this picture was taken). This is in my Olive: I Love colorway and I've really fallen in love with this color and dye job.

Still working on grad school stuff which pretty much takes up the majority of my free time. There's a ton of reading to do and then 4 one page long discussion postings I have to make a week. I'm enjoying it but that does mean my other activities are severely limited and mostly relegated to eating and sleeping.

I did manage to start my Christmas knitting last week. I've got quite a few things I'm ambitiously thinking I can finish in just 6 (or less) short weeks. Won't show you the projects here because there are quite a few gift recipients who read this blog but I will show you the nice project bag I got from Joann's Fabric and Craft store for buying a butt load of yarn.