Mixed Messages

On the one hand, I have my Christmas tree up and completely decorating. I even managed to go out and purchase a new tree topper.

On the other hand, I haven't purchased even one gift. I have a husband, parents, parents-in-law, aunts-in-law, sisters, brothers, sister-in-law, brothers-in-law, and many nieces and nephews to buy for. That is just the family.

I have addressed all but about 10 Christmas cards. (This is momentous.)

I haven't done a morsel of Christmas baking.

I have Christmas stockings hung by the china cabinet with care. (We are sans fireplace.)

I have 4 boxes of Christmas decorations sitting untouched on the floor in our dining room.

Apparently I can't decide whether or not to be spirited this year. I am so busy with everything else that it is hard to get in the groove. There is so much going on - though nothing extraordinary. Just your run of the mill chaos like work and family obligations, feeling poorly and just wanting to rest and work . . . . it goes on and on. There are times that I wish I had lived in a different time. I think I would have made an excellent 1950's housewife.

Before I give in to the mournful cries of the pattern-challenged Calmer hat, I do have a little (and I mean negligible) something to show you. It is a sunglasses cozy I knit for my niece's Christmas. It is just a small sort of side gift. It is made from two strands of Lamb's Pride Bulky (from the scrap pile) held together. It knit up super super quickly even for me (I couldn't sleep Friday night so I sat up watching tivo'ed Law & Orders and did this little tidbit.) Here it is prefelting:


And post felting (with the sunglasses).


As you can tell, sometime between early Saturday morning and late Sunday afternoon, I lost my grip on the digital camera.

Questions & Answers

Thank you all so much for your kindness and your encouraging words this week. It has been a long week and it means so much to know that there are people out there thinking of me and praying for me. Thank you, thank you!!!

The last few days have been slow on the knitting front. I am still working on that hat I started on Monday but other than that, no knitting. (This hat kick is strange, considering a. I live in a place where it is seldom cold enough for a hat and b. I personally do not ever wear hats. . .) So now I need some input on this hat. I am making this hat free hand. No pattern. A friend of mind described something she wanted in a hat and I am trying to make that. It is a basic K3, P2 rib, knit in the round. This is fine for the body of the hat (and it is actually working up nicely and very cozy in that Rowan Calmer I bought over Thanksgiving weekend) but when the time comes to decrease, how should I do the decreases? (Yes, I realize I probably should have figured this out before I cast on but alas, I did not. . . .) My thought is that when it comes time to start the decreases, I will:

1. *K2tog, K1, P2* repeat to then end of the round
2. *K2, P2* a round
3. *K2, P2tog a round
4. *K2, P1* a round
5. *K2tog, P1* a round
6. *K1, P1* a round
7. *K2tog* a round
8. *K* a round
Repeat rounds 7 and 8 until there are only a few stitches and then, you know, pull the tail through a bind off....a la a normal hat.

So does that make sense? Has anybody done a hat similar to this? Do you have any thoughts? I'd appreciate some input.

Super Secret Knitting (Related) Project

Some of you may remember my super secret knitting (related) project from back before Thanksgiving. They have all arrived at their new homes now so I thought I'd show them to you. I was happily surprised at how the idea came together.

I had:

-some nice lengths of scrap yarns that are too long to just toss and too short to really do anything with
-some dowel rods
-some styrofoam balls
-some large beads and notions
-some friends I wanted to send some nifty little treasures to

So these were born:

Yarn ball & homemade needles Christmas tree ornaments. Ann temporarily decorated her ficus with hers. I haven't seen pictures of the others in their 2 new homes but I know they made it there. Somehow, I neglected to make some for myself but I still plan to. You could make these pretty much any size your heart desires. I happened to have some golf ball sized styrofoam balls so I used those for bases and ended up with yarn balls about tennis ball sized, maybe a little smaller. The "needles" for those who care, ended up about a size 4 or 5.

And because I am a sucker for the photographic evidence, I'll leave you with a few more pictures.

Wallowing

"I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."

Do ya'll remember this book?












I love Judith Viorst. I have loved everything I have ever read from her. In addition to Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Viorst is also the author of Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday and the book of poems for children If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries (and a myriad of other children's books, too numerous to list). She has also written many books for adults including Grown-up Marriage: What We Know, Wish We Had Known, and Still Need to Know About Being Married and I'm Too Young to be Seventy. If you come across any of her books you should read them or read them to your children or encourage your children to read them.

I am having an Alexander-esque day/week. I haven't been sleeping well (which isn't really new but is getting ridiculous) and work has been inordinately hard and tedious and I really just want to stay at home and decorated my freaking Christmas tree and maybe knit a little. 10 days ago, I found out I was pregnant and today I found out that I am not anymore. Which is hard because I wasn't really sure we were even ready to have a baby and it wasn't planned but I had gotten my heart and mind into and was starting to be excited. It is painful and soul-sucking to find out that I can't even be pregnant right.

I am tired and I am grouchy. When I am tired, I lose my inner monologue. That filter that normally makes me socially adept and prevents all the thoughts that run through my head from coming out of my mouth. I just told a co-worker, who I don't really like but I normally manage to keep my disdain for at bay, to shut the hell up because no one really cares what he has to say anyway. I think I hurt his feelings.

To add insult to injure, yesterday I found out that I have a cavity. In nearly 29 years, I have never had a cavity. WTF?

I haven't purchased even one Christmas present yet and I have only signed and address 5 Christmas cards.

Oh, and I am in a knitting rut. I am knitting another hat. It is for a Christmas present. When did I get so slap-happy about hats?

Makeover

So there we go. A little kitsch for the Ok! What Next?? neighborhood. Thanks, Sister!

Yesterday we got out Christmas tree. We had to cut some of the boughs off the bottom so that it would fit in the tree stand so I used the branches to make a hanging for my front door. On the coffee table in the living room, it looked nice. On the front door, it looks kind of sparse. I think I may need to take it down and spice it up a little....












Floral arranging isn't really my gig.

Today's knitting: three rounds on the Rowan Calmer hat, about half a sleeve on my mother's Christmas sweater and I ripped out a baby blanket that was 3/4 finished because I've decided I don't like the colors after all. Call me indecisive.

Hats for Haji & A Christmas Tree for Me.

Ok. So I didn't get the new scenery up yet but I will. Soon. Maybe Monday. I'll have to ask the sister.

Blogland is such a quiet place on the weekends but I decided to take a break from vacuuming up the pine needles and cleaning the microwave and show you the pictures of the finished hats that I am sending along with the stuffed animals to Laurie's friend Haji in Afghanistan. Here is the lovely little purple wool guy and his goofy green variegated acrylic cousin, with the fringe. The green hat was knit on the recommended needles. The purple hat was knitted on size 7s. I would not do that again with that yarn. It was a little too tight and made my wrists ache.

As a sidenote, both a furry moose dog toy (which the Sally refuses to play with) and an empty wine glass work out nicely for posing hats.

My handsome prince is over at my parents' house helping my long-suffering father put up the four (yes, I said four) Christmas trees. Mama is known for going all out for Christmas but this will be her first year with four trees. Lucky for me, Daddy and the HP brought my tree to my house before setting off with the others. For the moment, the tree is in the middle of the living room. See?


I'll let you know if it gets to stay there. You see that lamp-table over there to the left? It normally lives where the tree is now. We'll see how this works out.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. (Did you notice? I've managed - at least temporarily - to procure the digital camera!!!)

Oh, and because I am camera happy, here is one more picture of the purple hat, from the top. I just think it looks nifty from the top. So here you go.

Misty Watercolored Memories

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Welcome to another exciting addition of Barely discernible Photographs.
First up, we have actually photographic proof that the weather has - at long last - taken a turn for the better. Well, in my opinion better and at the very least, it has turned seasonally appropriate. All that sunshine and mild to moderate temperatures were about to push me over the edge.

Also, here is the hat from that dreamy purple variegated wool that is destined for Afghanistan. It is going to be a lovely little hat. It is just a plain old K3,P3 ribbing at the bottom and then stockinette in the round. Boring but quick.

I worked on it a few minutes at lunch today but, then the phone rang and somebody came in to see me and "Kristy, I know you are on lunch but could you just look at this one thing?" so I gave up and decided to get back to the relentless pile of work strewn on my desk (see?). I am nearly ready to start the decreases on the hat so hopefully I can finish this one up tonight.

Tomorrow we here at Ok! What Next?? (home of me - the world's slowest knitter) will be rolling out a new look, courtesy of my very talented sister. I am so excited to see the finished design and hope ya'll will stop by and let me know what you think of it.

Seriously, I am going to have to either commandeer "our" digital camera as my own or I am going to have to have to sell a kidney (hey - I've got two!) and buy one for myself. I am weary of the milky pictures.