Happy New Year!

I won!

Second toe stitched up at 1am Christmas eve just as Jimmy Stewart heard that bell ring.
Photo-documentation severely lack-luster.

Pattern: "Argyle Socks" from an 80's Patons "sock and gloves" booklet
Yarn: Miscellaneous thrift store finds; some Poppletons, some Patons Kroy
Needles: 2mm
Notes/Mods: As much as I really adore argyle, I adore myself more. I will never again put myself through the torture of knitting such a fiddly pattern on 2mm needles!

Were they well received? Well, considering my Dad is a hard sell on just about any gift (and that he really wanted a flat screen t.v. - yeah, right!), I think they went over as well as could be expected.

Mum on the other hand, is an easy-pleaser:

Mum got the Praire boots I knit for myself in the summer. They had turned out too large, and I held onto them until I needed a gift for someone with larger feet than mine. I couldn't have found a recipient more deserving! But just in case you think Mum got the shaft, I also gifted her with a knit scarf kit. She had admired Nicky Epstein's flower scarf from the Vogue Knitting magazine I brought home last Christmas, so I thought I'd knit it for her this year. Given the time-suckage that those argyles became, I had to cut some corners. In the end, I offered to knit it for her after-the-fact, and she accepted.


As much as I desperately wanted to cast on something for myself post-x-mas, I'm really enjoying knitting this scarf! It's just the right of balance between simple and complex. Wee garter stitch flowers! In silk! Fun! You don't know what your missin', Ma!

On a completely unrelated note, allow me to introduce you to my new 'do':


Yup, I took the plunge! 2009 will see me using a lot less shampoo.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, KNITTERS!

Holiday Romance

Wrapping things up for the holiday season here at casa de Knitteroo. Is the gift knitting complete? Is it the 25th yet? Well then of course it's not finished! I'm fairly certain the (godforsaken) argyle socks will be done in time for Santa day and my excuse list will remain just a back-up plan. Heck, the way the weather is faring these days I might even get an extra "snow day" to stay home and knit. Have you not heard? Toronto has been hit by the first wave of what the meteorologists are dubbing "snowmaggedon".

Oh, hello! What's this lying in the snowdrift that was once my summer patio oasis? The "Pat hat"! This is a little number I've been working on as both a Christmas gift for my brother (Pat) and as a pattern that can get a nice hat out of a skimpy amount of yarn. I plan on writing up the pattern for sale on Ravelry, though I'll wait to see how well it actually fits. Then there's test knitting and photos and layout and yadda-yadda-yadda.

Oh my, and what's this over here?


Have you ever developed a crush on a ball of yarn? (You know you have issues when...) This Rowan Romance is a discontinued yarn that was living in the Romni bargain basement (hence the unsightly sale price scrawled on the label). I'm not normally a fan of the sparkly yarns, but there is something about this one that appeals to me. In fact, I frequently visited it's basement home, checking how many were left, admiring it's bulky fuzz. It wasn't until the threat of it's extinction closed in, (ie: the impending boxing day sale) that I actually took a ball home. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it (this is the last ball of this colour!) but I feel better now that it's moved in with me. Sigh. Thank goodness I'm preaching to the choir because this sort of behavior really does make me feel like a lunatic. Happy holidays!

Checking it twice

How did this happen? I promised myself I would NOT get in a Christmas knitting crunch this year and here I am. I decided to knit gifts for my immediate family and immediate family only. This consists of three people. Three. A completely reasonable and attainable goal...maybe. I'm beginning to collect excuses in case this goal is not met.

1. I had to knit hats for a boutique!

I don't care how easy they were, that there is a pile 'o hats people!

2. Holiday parties!

The b.f's office party - MadMen themed. Note to self: next time you spend hours teasing your hair into a beehive and gluing on false eyelashes be sure to get better photo documentation.

3. God-forsaken argyles! (I won't bore you with photos. I'm on the second sock. It looks just like the first)

4. I'm designing one gift myself!

The soon-to-be "Pat Hat".
It's cashmere, it's unisex, it's a present for my brother and therefore totally secret.
I'll write up the pattern after x-mas!

5. I knit for Lairecuts!

The toque I knit for my friend and "hair genius" Laire.
Yarn: Classic Elite Superfine Alpaca
Pattern: my own

6. Life is hard.

"Life is hard" has become my latest, favourite, catch-all catch phrase. It works especially well when you really have nothing to complain about. Par example: "Holt Renfrew sold out of the wallet that matches my Louis Vuitton handbag. What am I supposed to do? Life is hard!"

Good luck to all of you with your holiday knitting!

Wavering

I have a theory that if you give set yourself an unrealistic goal, the pressure to attain said goal will eventually become so great you will inevitably collapse like a house of cards. Let's say, for instance, you decide to give up sugar. Not just cookies and candy, but ALL sugar. Slowly you begin to notice that sugar is everywhere. Sugar is in ketchup. Sugar is in salad dressing. Sugar is in just about every packaged food available. After a few weeks of chewing dried fruit and making your own BBQ sauce, you may just explode and eat an entire cheeescake.

Not convinced? My theory is proven again and again in the fibre community. On a yarn diet? How long can you hold out before you see a "sale" sign and take home a sweater's worth of cashmere? Attempting project monogamy? How long until the first snowfall and you need a pair of mittens? Deadline knitting? Deadline knitting for x-mas? Deadline knitting for x-mas and therefore shan't be casting on projects for personal consumption until the new year?

Oops.

Wavy from Knitty in Manos del Uruguay "jungle"

Excuses:

1. My other hand-knit scarves match most of my jackets but NOT all of my hats.
2. This yarn is recycled from an old project.


3. I had no "mindless" knitting to work on during S'n'B nights or whilst watching movies with subtitles.
4. I'm only human.
5. The god-foresaken argyle socks will be the death of me.


A sidenote on the argyles: I really have to suck it up, stop complaining and keep knitting. If I had knit a row for every time I whined about how totally no-fun these socks are to knit; I'd be done by now. Everyone knows I'm knitting these (godforsaken) argyle socks; my boyfriend, all of my friends, my co-workers and just about every second customer at work. If I fail to complete these (godforsaken) arygle socks, I'll have a lot of people to answer to. I know what must be done. I'd rather just give up sugar.