Kitties

I had a post all written about how I spent today worried about Vinnie and Dolly, because they both seemed a little under the weather, but then I decided you might not really want to hear about it -- especially since Laurie wrote a similar, and much better, post today.

So let me just say that everyone is fine this evening, and wondering why I was worried.

Dolly says, "It was just a little hairball - and I'm always grouchy in the morning.

Harley says, "I spent the day licking Dolly's head. I'm sure that's what made her well."

Vinnie says, "I don't know about head licking, but that mineral oil stuff you gave me yesterday seems to have done the trick! Also, I just licked the powdered sugar off the cookie you left laying on the coffee table."

Stuff That Makes Me Happy

• That Christmas is 50% off at Hobby Lobby.
  
• That, despite that fact, I still only spent $8.56 at Hobby Lobby!
• That my neighbor shoveled the 3 foot high pile of snow off the curb in front of my car, and shoveled a completely clear path to the driver's side door. He likes to shovel, plus he's a nice guy.
  
• The new Knitty! (especially this)
• That I may actually finish all my Christmas knitting!
• That this year's Illinois basketball team seems to be much better than the football team.
• That the simple act of wearing fingerless gloves and a cowl makes my chilly living room more comfortable. (I know - why did it take me so long to figure this out?)
• That although the high temperature tomorrow is predicted to be 10ºF (-12ºC), it's supposed to be 30ºF (-1ºC) by Thursday.
• That the US still uses Fahrenheit, because those Celsius temps look so much colder! ;-)
• That two of my kitties love each other, and the third loves me!

3 CPs Down, 2 To Go

I've got three Christmas projects done (for my niece, my mother, and my brother-in-law) and two to go. Those two have both been started. My brother's will be from this yarn:

Not the best picture -- the green is a little more subdued, as is the red. And there's only a small amount of red in this project.

My sister's gift has been started, too, but I'm definitely not showing it here!

My grey Red Scarf is about half finished, but Norma has given us a deadline extension. I think it will be done by Christmas, but I'm now concentrating on the stuff that really needs to get done by then!

I've been pretty good over the last several months when it comes to unnecessary stash enhancement, but last weekend I was in Champaign, Illinois, and forced Helen to visit Needleworks with me. (Although she was the one who told me they were having a 15% off sale....) My favorite thing about Needleworks is that it carries Lorna's Laces. I have three great LYSes here, but none carries Lorna's.

I came home with two skeins of LL Shepherd's Sock in Manzanita

as well as a pair of skein of Ella Rae Lace Merino (which is really more fingering weight) in the evocatively-named colorway 119.

In addition to visiting with Helen, I also attended a football game on Saturday. If you follow Big Ten football, you know that my alma mater, the University of Illinois, wasn't so great this year. I have a friend who has season tickets and, frankly, couldn't find anyone who wanted to go to the last game of the year, on December 5, against non-conference Fresno State (and that's saying something, since his father actually lives in Champaign!).

I hadn't been to a game for probably 20 years, and the stadium was renovated last year, so I was happy to use that ticket.

This is halftime.

Those ROTC guys hugging each other are actually doing the traditional sway to the Alma Mater.

Looks beautiful, doesn't it? It was about 28 degrees and we were in the shade for most of the game. It was COLD, but we didn't leave -- Illinois ended up losing 53-52 at the last second. We just couldn't leave - and it was the highest scoring game ever played in Memorial Stadium!

Even my handknit orange-and-blue socks and my Illini earrings couldn't help them win the game.

Of course, it wasn't as cold as it is in Iowa City today!

Knitting Progress

A five-day weekend gave me some time to make progress on my Christmas knitting - but also to decide I really needed to make a Red Scarf. I've made one the last three years, but had decided to take this year off -- except Norma says they really need more scarves, so.....

This year's scarf is grey, not red (any unisex color is accepted), and is sort of based on this scarf - but done in worsted weight (Lion Brand Wool-Ease, which, I have to say, for a big-box store, mostly-acrylic yarn, isn't half bad) with some ribbing added.

Over the weekend, I also finished another dishcloth for Mom

and almost finished a Christmas gift (which you'll see later).

I will show you this: Mitten #1 for my niece -- it's Jared Flood's Grove mitten. The color is quite pink (this picture really doesn't do it justice).

The other major accomplishment over the weekend was, of course, eating lots with about 25 relatives. I guess you can tell what was important - I managed to take pictures of all the food, but the only relatives pictured are the ones that were standing around the food.

You'll notice that the first assortment of food right after the plates and plastic-ware is the desserts!

Also - there was an abundance of noodles and mashed potatoes! Yum!

Cutest Kitten Video (this week, at least)

Thanks to the Huffington Post for finding this!

One CP Down....

Edited to add: Did you know there are two sizes of size 6 needles? I have 2 sets of size 6 DPNs, and one set is marked 4.0 mm (which is what the pattern calls for) and the other set is marked 4.25 mm. I knew about the two size 1s (well, 1 and 1 1/2), of course, but I didn't realize other sizes had variations, too. And I'm really glad my needles AND the pattern all indicated the metric size!

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That would be one "Christmas Project" and actually, it still needs blocking.

And that's all you're getting until after it's gifted!

Christmas Project 2 is on the needles.

It's kind of funny how my camera focused on the keyboard, not on the knitting...

Be assured that not all the Christmas knitting is pink!

Actually, Christmas Project 3 has been started, but I put it aside, because I'll need something to work on over Thanksgiving that's NOT a gift for the people I'm seeing then.

Christmas Project 4 needs some designing on my part - I should get to that soon, too. Luckily Christmas Project 5 will be a fast one, but I don't have the yarn yet.

Probably because I've got lots of Christmas knitting to do, I suddenly really want to finish some of my WIPs, particularly the Bougainvillea socks. sigh....

This might be because my handknit sock supply is suddenly looking pretty bad. I probably need to learn to darn, too.

Long time, no blog....

I'm constantly thinking about blogging, but nothing seems really bloggable.

For example: today was a gorgeous day - temperature in the low 70s and sunny. But around 4:30, you could tell it was already starting to get dark. I swear it's getting dark earlier this year.

Also: Christmas knitting has commenced, but I'm always worried about blogging about it. So far, it's all from stash, but I think I will have to break down and buy yarn for one project.

I really should have blogged about Halloween:

I made apple cider donuts to take to work on Halloween. They were really yummy, although I didn't think they were all that apple-y.

We were well-protected at work on Halloween by librarian superheroes Squirrel Girl, Clark Kent/Superman, and Thor,

and by a Plague Doctor.

No picture of me - my costume was "librarian on Friday" -- jeans and clogs!

And look -- Harley and Dolly are best buds now! It's really cute how they cuddle and groom each other, especially since Dolly is an extra-small kitty and Harley is an extra-large. Harley really is about 3 times bigger than Dolly!

So - that pretty much catches you up on my life. Well, except for the four new tires on my car. You'd think I'd have a picture of something that cost $600, but I don't....