Simple….. November 27, 2007

How about a simple Christmas idea?

We have this picture hanging on our wall, and while it is fantastic, it is not very full of Christmas cheer.

This is the simple solution…. just wrap it and hang it back up 🙂

Back to work….. November 26, 2007

Sigh.  Four days can be an AWFUL long time 🙂 I was truly getting into the sleep-in mentality.

Thanksgiving was nice, of course it is always nice…. my sister was a first time hostess this year, and she did wonderfully 🙂 Of course the biggest requirement for Thanksgiving in a big family is to make sure there is a separate room for the kids to hang out in, so the grownups can gossip……. All in all it was uneventful….

I have been knitting away at the giant afghan, with most definite progress… I like it so far, but question whether it will block out as I hope it will…. it may not, but it will be nice under any circumstances.  As it is I am halfway done in two weeks of knitting, so with ultra devotion, I should be able to finish it in two more weeks…leaving two full weeks of misc. knitting left.  Yes, that is the psycho in me talking.  Hubby actually asked last night if I had a back up plan 🙂 OF COURSE I have a back up plan…..I just don’t intend on using it!

DD is most assuredly reaching the illogical age.  This is where no matter what she is right and I am evil.  I took a shower this morning, only to hear a knock on the door about halfway through, DD wanted to know if I was done yet so she could take a shower and get ready for school.  Um, no I am not ready, I am not even dressed!  She stomped off in a huff…. Now IF we only had one bathroom, and IF I was depriving her of bathroom use due to my selfish need to clean up to go to work, or IF it took me three hours to get ready…..BUT we have TWO bathrooms, both with similar amenities, my regular routine includes deodorant, a hair brushing and a tooth brushing, I don’t even use a blow dryer, my hair air dries! I can get ready in 15 minutes INCLUDING the shower.  I am sure I ruined her day.  I think she must have gone back to bed because I escaped the house before I heard her in the shower which means I will soon hear about it.

We did put the Christmas trees up, and the trappings are out, which is like an instant hyper pill for boy.  We finally gave in and bought him the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer DVD, I fear it will get worn out.  We have an action figure set of all the main characters, that in years past served as a nice decoration, this year, it is all action and no decoration, and his new favorite toy.   Right now there is a single present under the tree, and it too has become a toy, DD and DS played hide the package for quite some time last night, and at this point, all I can say is that the time between now and the actual day is going to be very interesting indeed.

IT and the ongoing struggle with IT…… November 20, 2007

IT is that feeling that if you needed to you could, with a few simple craft supplies located throughout the house, make the most unbelievable gifts for everyone on your list, not just an unbelievable gift, but a perfect one.  IT is a lie.  You know this, you know you must pick two or three and make special things for those two or three. But some little part of your brain REFUSES to believe this.  THAT part of your brain believes it can make and afghan in an hour.  Yeah, the STUPID part.  Well in an effort to trump the stupid part, I am posting a …. GAASP Christmas present.  Mostly cause I think the person who will receive it is UNLIKELY to visit the blog.  So I trump the stupid part with the post as now I have to be accountable and finish, other people have actually seen said project, and I also get to bring out the unusually cruel part of my brain…. see looky what I am making and it is NOT for you……..

So in response to said cruelty, the proper response is to frequently ask me how the afghan is going, to shake you head dismally and let me know there is NO way I will finish by Christmas and to basically make me think of this thing constantly until it is done. 

Anyhoo, I am 5 days into the actual knitting and it is 1/4 of the way done, so I am cautiously optimistic this could work, barring any cases of startitis.  If it doesn’t work, the deal is OFF, I have until a birthday to finish it, and you are SO not allowed to say anything at all about it.  

 

BTW on my monitor the color is pretty true to life, it is a rose color that is really a coral pink color, that is well….. it will be nice and feminine when it is done. 

Oh and how do you all feel about fringed afghans?? Is fringe passe?? Does it add something to the afghan?? I just cannot decide.

One unoriginal hat and one plain scarf……. November 19, 2007

So I happened to find a rather decent yarn on sale for .99 cents a skein.  2 skeins makes a decent scarf, 1 skein makes a decent hat….

Yarn Bee Mosaic Twist, check the Hobby Lobby ad as apparently it is on sale again this week 🙂

Nothing special, really, just a plain scarf knit in the diagonal.  Cast on three. Knit every row.  Increase in the first stitch of each row, keep going until it is about scarf width.  Increase 1 at the beginning of the next row, and decrease 1 at the end.  Does not matter what increase or decrease you use, just be consistent, I did the easiest knit front and back and k2tog. Next knit a straight row.  Keep doing increase/decrease rows alternating with plain knit rows until scarf is appropriate length. Close off the rectangle by doing a decrease at the beginning of each row.  until you are back to three and cast off. 

See I told you Easy.  Since I wanted a hat to match, the Unoriginal hat by the Yarn Harlot made its debut and it seemed PERFECT. Well, it was. 

I actually had the joy of hearing teenagers squeal over this set, and how Ccuuuuttteee it is, so I am satisfied it will sell at the craft sale at DS’s school, but really worried that plain and unoriginal is what it took to get responses from the teen girl sector. 

Been Awhile……. November 18, 2007

Well y’all since last time I was here There have been a multitude of birthdays.  I have reached the glorious age of 35. I know that I am 35 because I have my entire family to remind me of how old I am.  Age is so….meaningless.. to me that often I have no idea how old I am.  It used to be a problem, (like when I was 27 for some odd three years) but now I have an instant mnemonic device.  I had my son JUST before I turned 30, so when he turned one, I turned 31 and so on… anyway, he just turned five, which I guess made 35 inevitable for me.

I finally got my hands on Mason Dixon Knitting, but you would think I tortured my dear hubby, making him buy a SPECIFIC knitting book.  Actually it was no big deal till he paid for it, then he was like $xx.xx for a book?????? Sigh.  That’s why I saved it for a birthday present.  But no spirit dampening… I love this book it is beautiful and simple and country charming not country kitschy or tacky.

Also as proof the world is a bit nuts, I made my mom get me new trash cans 🙂 Our old outdoor big trash cans had exceeded the limits of several applications of duct tape, so after dragging a can to the curb, and seeing a line of trash behind me, I decided it was time for new ones.  I was only deterred by the fact that the cans would not fit in either of our cars.  The dilemma was easily solved by making this my birthday request.  So nice to have cans with lids that stay on delivered to the door, and hubby and I are both happier….now really how often can you make two people happy with one wacky present.

There has been some knitting… just no pictures.  One project is a Christmas present… since people occasionally wind their way to the blog, I have to not post Christmas presents, which might make for a boring season, but I promise I will try to keep up a "little" Oh and there is Ravelry, I can post there, so if you are a fiber fanatic, you may have to just keep up with my knitting on Ravelry.  Public is still away and I presume the waiting list at this point will last further than Christmas 🙂

I did make a cute diagonal garter stitch scarf, and a matching hat, these are for DS’s school, like all schools always on the quest for funding 🙂 They do a craft sale with items donated from parents every year.  I made stuff for last years but missed the sale, I made less for this years, but plan on making the sale…. hopefully….Pictures soon though, plus these babies were a serious bargain….. and I must take proper room to gloat 🙂

Anyhoo,  the biggest conundrum of all, work is swamped.  I support two teams of engineers, one has been busy all year, one …not so much… now though both are jumping and I am well…busy.  Very busy.  I have brought work home, fielded calls from frantic engineers on Saturdays, planned travel for a bazillion people over the Thanksgiving weekend (I really think not much would suck like business travel over thanksgiving weekend) anyway, all will be home for the holiday only if air travel goddesses smile happily upon them.  For my sake, as the travel planner, I really hope the air travel goddesses are VERY happy… and Bush’s stupid express lane idea works… (is it just me or will there still be a limited number of gates at airports and other things of finite resources, of which was air space ever one?) Was airspace really the hold up??? Might be, but I am skeptical of all fantastic government ideas these days….kind of like how I am skeptical of ghosts or aliens, lets face it good ideas from the government are probably just as rare 🙂

Somewhere in all the muddle we also hosted the quarterly or semi quarterly b-day party for hubby’s side of the family.  I suppose I could find things to whine about (hey it’s family..when is there not something you could whine about 🙂 but considering how many people that means these days things went remarkably well.  The kids did not fight, in fact they entertained themselves VERY well (maybe because there were video games involved) even the little ones 🙂 With so many space was at a premium, but oddly enough our house always seems to hold everyone.  Strangely enough for a while I was having moving thoughts.  1. that pretty much makes me certifiably insane. 2. DH, DD, and DS would not even consider it. but I got over it, it is only really a short time of the year that the drive is this bad, and after all, I do love my 1960 house 🙂

This week is Thanksgiving, so I get two days off of work (YAY) and we will be decorating for the Christmas season 🙂 Anyway, I expect I will have time somewhere in there to force someone to model my scarf and hat and get pictures up 🙂

Wow, long winded AND no pictures………sorry y’all…..