The Knitter's Lament

Alas and alack, The Knitter finds herself without knitting. She was sure that three projects would be enough, but neglected to realize that she would run out of beads for Daedelus. The Knitter sighs....

Yeah, that would be me. On vacation with no knitting. It's not like I haven't knitted -- I finished two projected between last Saturday and yesterday, but when I picked up Daedelus, I realized that I only had enough beads left for one more row. I need, oh, probably a couple hundred more! When I get back to Iowa City Sunday afternoon, I'll stop by the bead store, I guess.

Like I said, I have finished two projects. I finished the Golightly Gloves (Ravelry) that coordinate with the Toto (Rav) for my sister. When my sister and I lived together, she wouldn't even look at a sink full of dishes without rubber gloves, so I thought these rubber-gloves-with-cuffs were perfect for her!

As you can probably guess, I made these from Sugar'n Cream, on size 7 DPNs. If I were to knit these again, I'd go down a needle size, but really -- these are basically disposable, so perfection isn't necessary, although cuteness is!

I also frogged and reknit my Dolores Park Cowl, using the same yummy yarn (which Dream in Color has renamed Softy -- apparently, they thought that people were turned off by the name Fatty. Whatever you call it, it's lovely yarn!) but with 60 stitches in size 11 needles. It's much cozier now. It's also less drapey, and somewhat less attractive, I think, but it will be better at keeping the wind from wooshing down my collar!

Perhaps I can stop by Michael's tomorrow morning to buy some cheap needles. I've got yarn left over from the gloves that I could use for a matching warshrag....

Home Alone

No, not me -- Harley!

Saturday morning, I attempted to "pack up" the cats to bring them to Mom's for the week. With Harley, I have one chance to get her into the carrier, and then she's uncatchable for the rest of the day. She's a BIG, round cat, which makes it more difficult. Lately, she's been more cooperative, but Saturday morning, she slipped out of my hands and under the bed. If I really needed to, I could have chased her, and terrorized her, and eventually caught her, but it's really not worth it. She's such a scaredy cat, and I hate to make it worse. She also doesn't really mind being alone. A friend was coming by a couple times to pick up my mail anyway, so she's stopping in to check on Harley (who she won't actually see, of course). Dolly and I will return this weekend and we'll see if Harley even realized we were gone!


And I like Christmas!

Your Christmas Sprit Level: 75%

Your Christmas spirit is almost as big as Christmas itself. Christmas is definitely your thing. You celebrate Christmas with enthusiasm. You love every minute of the holidays. Your Christmas spirit is inspiring to everyone who runs into you during the holidays. You make everyone's day just a little bit brighter. And that's what the holidays are all about!

Do You Have the Christmas Spirit?

Toto IV

Apparently, I cannot stop knitting these! There are only 21 of these shown in Ravelry and 4 of them are mine. Why aren't you all knitting Toto, too?

This is (probably) the last one before Christmas.

Today was a non-typical day. We had our Holiday Luncheon at work, so I got up at 6:00 a.m. to start the Crockpot Creamed Corn. (Combine 2 lb. frozen corn, 8 oz cream cheese, 1/2 stick butter, 1/4 c. heavy cream or half-and-half, 3 T. sugar, and a little salt and pepper in your crockpot, and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours, stirring it every hour or so.) Then I watched a little news, where I heard that the parents of a co-worker were involved in an accident which totaled the 2008 Saturn Vue (the same car I drive, except 4 years newer) they've had for about 2 weeks. They're fine, but it was odd to hear about it on TV. And, finally, while washing my face, I managed to stab my upper lip, right there at the top of the bow, with a finger nail, and it bled like crazy! I now have a really stupid looking scab there -- it's so stupid looking that I tried to take a picture of it, but it really doesn't look like much in the photos.

All of this before 7:30 a.m.! And how was your day?

Drive-by Post

I promise a better post, with pictures and everything, soon. In the last 10 days I've:

• knit a third Toto
• knit most of a second Mitered Hanging Towel
• put up and decorated my Christmas tree
• decided to send store-bought cards instead of hand-made ones
• done about half my Christmas shopping
• loaded a whole bunch of Christmas songs onto my iPod
• convinced my cats that they could both sleep in the bed with me
• survived our first real snowfall and minor ice storm of the season -- although I did fall down twice on the way to bus the morning after the ice storm
• replaced my worn-out YakTrax (this was directly related to the previous point)
  
• slept through the "you're truly old" medical procedure (in other words, I had a colonoscopy. I slept through it -- yay for Demerol! -- and my colon's good to go for the next 10 years.)
• been thrilled that the jerk governor -- I'd call him worse, but this is a G rated blog -- of my home state was arrested. According to the latest poll, his approval rating is at 8%. Even before this, about a month ago, it was 13%. He's been despised for quite some time, and I doubt many people are surprised that he was this corrupt. I think lots are amazed that he actually got caught though. And they've named a drink after him!
• oh -- and I went to work practically every day!
  

Recap

There was family (and eating).



There was knitting.

I finished the second Toto....


and began a matching Mitered Hanging Towel.

• Both are from Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines and use Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton yarn. It's softer than Peaches'n Cream or Sugar'n Cream -- nice for baby clothes, I think, but possibly too soft for the towel.

There was new yarn.

Noro Silk Garden Lite in 2014 (left) and 2032 (right). Purchased at KnitWit in Springfield, IL. I think I might want to make one of those two-row scarves.

There was, and still is, snow. I guess it wasn't a fluke after all....