Sick Day.

Poor Walker. He started throwing up at 4:00am. Poor Katherine-mama too. And Nephi-papa, a little bit. Here he is in what passes for a bathtub in our single-bathroom shower-only house: a large Rubbermade container and some soapsuds, his mohawk a bit askew. He had to miss his school Solstice party today, which was deeply disappointing (he attends a school which sidesteps the whole religious holiday issue deftly and completely). But he's feeling better now, some 15 hours later, excited for Christmas and an uncle coming from New York to visit. Katherine-mama is excited for Christmas too, since she bought her own presents this year (thanks to a new soon-to-be tradition: Right of First Refusal. Props to Susan), and there are many a knitting goody underneath the ol' tree. 

A Tale of Two Hats.

Two hats finished. Walker is modeling the light pink fuzz ball. It's way too big for its intended, Dear Little Niece Emma and her four-year-old head. So now there is a great gift for a certain cafe-owning, pink-loving, girly girlfriend who lives in one of the Arctic Lower 48. The second hat, modeled by Little Dinosaur Who Is Now Blue Horsey, is a darker, dare I say hotter, pink, and it will fit, we pray, the head of Dear Little Niece. Her sister, Bigger Niece Lillian, got a furry pink hat last year, and now it's Dear Emma's turn. I used Susan's grrrrrreat top-down Be Brave, Don't Swatch hat pattern and it was so fun to knit. It went crazy-fast too. I used a half-linen stitch on the sides (holding the Fun Fur on knit rows and two strands of Moda Dea on pattern rows) and though you can't see it in the photo, the top is not furry but is knit two stranded with Moda Dea something or other. Hope the kid likes it. How can she not? 

The Ballad of Nico and Skye.

Tokyo Joanna came over on Monday and brought the charming Nico with her. Skye is exactly one month older than Nico, but Nico already has a couple of teeth so broken in that they've practically lost their shine (although not quite). Skye only got his two front (bottom) teeth this week (I guess his Christmas present is all taken care of). The kids batted at each other and laughed a lot but pretty much didn't notice each other too much. Walker was at school, but Camille was enchanted by Nico, mostly due to Nico finding her so damn funny. She neighed like a Blue Horsey a lot and shrieked at the babies and knocked Tokyo Joanna's latte over. She also tried to eat all of the biscotti and take Nico's playthings away, but we tried to mostly prevent that.

Margene brought her ballwinder and swift to Stitch'n'Bitch last night and really bailed this girl out. I bought yarn for Christmas knitting but forgot to wind it before leaving the yarn shop. So I sent out a general plea and Margene came to the rescue. Since Margene was bringing the whole enchilada anyway, I brought a Whole Ton of yarn to wind and got lots of skeins taken care of that have been wanting to be knit up but haven't been due to their skein status. So a big fat thank you to Margene (who is known as M.A.C.K. during December only).

Snowy Day.

This is a photo of the Sleeping Skye and Piano. I don't have a photo to illustrate anything that I was going to blog about, and I took this photo last Thursday, and since we all know that blogs without photos are boring, here it is.
Stitch'n'Bitch was really great tonight. We're having our first big snow dump of the year and the roads are assassin roads tonight, so there were only five knitters at the Jitterbug tonight, including myself. Also including the lovely Joanne! Who, get this, sat next to my older brother's best friend Philip on a flight from Tokyo to Salt Lake City back in July! It was a chance encounter, to be sure, but there is no doubt. Small world, my friends, it's a small world. I still can hardly believe it. Joanne is in town to visit family and decided to pop in, and I'm so glad she did.
Right now I'm working on fancy hats for Christmas, and fighting off some sort of repetitive stress thingy in my left wrist. What can I do about that? Any ideas?
I made Jammy Cake Shortbread cookies last night, and brought some to Stitch'n'Bitch tonight, and they are SO good. So all ya'll who didn't come missed out. But maybe I'll make more and bring some next week. Nothing cheers me up like sticky yarn! 

Big Fat Fingerless Mittens.

I'm knitting these babies up in Brown Sheep's Burley Spun, in the Strawberry Fields colorway. I kind of made up my own pattern after gauging and knitting up a glove or two and ripping them out again. I took this photo yesterday, and I'm already almost done with the second mitten. I was intending to sell them at the Women's Art Center boutique (www.womensartcenter.org) but I realized today that I made them to fit me and my big-ish hands. They're huge! So I doubt if anyone would want to buy them. Too big for most women, too pink and red for (most) men. But maybe someone will like them. Now how do I figure out a price?

That Which Pulls Me Now.

Here are the things by which I am being pulled right now. What will eventually be Ryan's Hat is in the background. I frogged yet again yesterday morning, but hopefully I'm on the road to Completed Hatville now. My gauge is 5 SPI on size 6 needles. I've got 108 stitches on that bad boy--big enough? Too big? At this point, who cares? If Ryan's Hat is too small for him, Ryan's DW Sheryl can wear it.
In the foreground lie two pretty little balls of varigated blue that I found in the half-off bin at my LYS, and they send forth their siren call everytime I pass them on the yarn table. I think they want to be mittens. Of course, I have all sorts of Christmas knitting to do, and Aki's hat has been waiting for a long time too. So many things to knit, yada yada yada. 

Niece A in Little Blue Hat.

Here she is, little Niece A in her beautiful hat. Doesn't she look like a little gnome? She's trying to grab Skye's ear. They're 6 weeks apart, so naturally they'll be best friends forever.

This Hat is Killing Me.

Ryan's birthday hat. This is what consumes all of my knitting time right now. I got Baby A's Little Blue Hat finished (Aima even crocheted a pretty little fuschia-colored flower for it). And now Ryan's birthday bash is this Saturday. He wants a hat that is knit small, so I'm using size 6 needles, which is as small as I'm willing to go on a short notice project. Also, Ryan's head is big. But I don't know how big. Around 23 inches, I think, based on a very unprecise measuring. I think the hat will turn out the right size, but it also might turn out too big. I've already ripped out a couple inches of progress twice because it was first too small and second too big. Third time is the charm? Stay tuned to find out.

Ninety-six bottles of beer on the porch...

...and three bottles of wine.I took a trip to Twin Falls, Idaho over the weekend with my mom (and Baby S) to sit in the fabulous hot springs (Miracle Hot Springs in Hagerman, if you're ever close by) and to do some shopping at Sheep to Shawl (yarn store), King's (weird-ass Woolworth's-like store), Winco (grocery store with great bulk and beer departments), and to get a deep tissue massage from the lovely Debbie. The whole weekend was amazing. We also went to the Snake River Pottery, which sits right on the Snake River and is mind-blowingly beautiful, inside and out. Anyway, here's the beer lined up on the porch:















Yeah, the porch needs to be painted. But who cares, when one has that much beer! Don't worry, we won't drink it all. Some of it will be handed out disguised as Christmas presents. 

Aima's Wristwarmers: Finito!

Wristwarmers done. Here they are, the damn things. Aima is modeling them in front of one of her paintings, the second in a tryptich, titled "Canyon Fire". It hangs in my entry. A coincidence, Aima points out, that the wristwarmers are meant to help with her carpal tunnal, and the paintings are what caused the problem. I also finished A's little blue baby hat, but I don't know if I really like it. It has a pointed top, and I just can't decide what I think about it. I have to get it all wrapped up by tomorrow though, because I'm going down to Provo to take Brother J and M out to dinner for M's birthday, and I need to give them the hat for Baby A.

WIPs in Rotation: Self-Striping Wristwarmers

I'm working on three things in tight rotation right now, and the one I pick up at any given moment depends on mood and guilt-level. These are the bigger guilt inducers. Aima has bad wrists and is really excited about receiving these because she's been told to keep her wrists warm, so the pressure is on to hurry up and finish already. (Incidentally, at the dinner table, these are being referred to as The Cock Cozies. Our kids are going to end up so weird.) The pattern is pretty basic, close to Voodoo on good ol' Knitty.com but worked on size 4 double points instead of size 5. So these I need to race through--how long can they take? Only thing is, I keep stopping to work on A's hat and my scarf (see below) because I, personally, am more excited about those. 

WIPs in Rotation: Little Blue Hat

This hat is almost done--hopefully sister-in-law M will like it and put it on A's cold little head. Hopefully the blue will match A's eyes. And hopefully I'll figure out a flower pattern to knit to go with it, making it a littler girlier for little girly baby. 

WIPs in Rotation: Green Scarf

The green scarf is for me. I haven't knit a scarf for myself since the very first thing I knit (a long hippy Lamb's Pride bulky thing in red, yellow, and orange stripes worked on size 15 needles which the lady at Black Sheep handed me). I'm excited about this silly scarf. Hopefully it will look smashing with my new dusty orange coat. I'm using size 10.75 needles and yarn by Coates (I can't remember the name right now). 

More Halloweeners

Little Dinosaur is a chicken. W is Frodo. Bigger C, our eleven year old friend visiting from Indiana, is a dead cheerleader. It is hard, as a parent, not to apply adult analytical skills to increase the candy intake of my children's Trick-or-Treating process. We hit the motherload of neighborhoods and are now paying the price. How long before I throw it all out with the trash? Only time will tell, but know this: it's gonna be soon. 

Halloweenie

Skye was supposed to be a pumpkin on this, his first Halloween, but I couldn't find the green leaf hat that I knit for the costume. Instead he wore the clown costume I got on sale at JoAnn's. I got it the day before Halloween for him to wear next year, but it probably wouldn't fit next year anyway. I knit the blue hat back in February for Little Dinosaur, and it worked a lot better than the hat that came with the costume. The whole thing was probably pointless because S slept in N's arms for most of Halloween night anyway. But he was cute for the camera, and that's what counts, right?

I'm Here

W is going to be late for school, Little Dinosaur isn't wearing any pants, and is that S waking up from his nap?