There is was, and there it goes…

Does anyone else feel the let down after Christmas like I do? All that prep, the shopping, the decisions, all that work, and then at the speed of light, it comes and it’s gone. Just like that.

It’s not that I don’t think that my gifts were well received, or that the thought and effort put into them wasn’t appreciated – I think actually they were very well received this year, and I loved each and every one of mine for sure! It’s just that it is such a blur that I hardly have time to truly savour the event. People coming and going, rushing around to be places for specifically timed events. I never really feel I get enough time to spend with the people I love, just hanging out, talking, and enjoying the rare opportunity to be in the same space at the same time. It is an especially prevalent feeling the older my children get and with the distance between family homes and the challenge for some of getting together even annually increases.

Still, I am grateful to have received the opportunity to spend even a few precious minutes in the comfort and warmth of my family. I do know that truly in the eyes of some, I am blessed to have those small moments, the most precious of gifts.

And speaking of gifts, will you look-y here. I have some new books to add to my ever-growing library, and I can hardly restrain myself from rushing out to the yarn shops and casting on yet another project. I can tell I’m going to have a hard time sticking to my post-Christmas commitment to finish up some of the long-languishing UFO’s I have in my basket. However, I find that inspiration is a powerful motivator for getting things done, so read on!

First we have this book that I have coveted for so long, and extracted a promise from DD2 that I would get it for Christmas, and she delivered, god bless her! I just love this book, and it smacks of inspiration and experimentation and un-expected knitting ideas:

http://www.amazon.ca/Nicky-Epsteins-Knitted-Flowers-Epstein/dp/1931543887/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198762615&sr=1-1

And then a total surprise was this little beauty from DD1 – just the most adorable little book! Big tea drinkers we are, and the cover was the exact replica of a sturdy little tea cosy we had for years and years from a church bazaar long ago:

http//www.amazon.co.uk/Tea-Cozies-Cozy-GMC-editors/dp/1861085001
Strangely I could not find a US or Canadian link for this, so where DD1 found it I haven’t a clue, but it is as cute as can be. I think more than a few tea cosies are in the making for sure. Perfect to use up those half skeins and leftover bits! Great for presents to for my tea-drinking pals! I have already determined which one I will make up first! Accompanying this charming read was two balls of Sirdar Snuggle babybamboo in colorway 135 Sleepy Blue! So soft and smooth, I will just be fondling it for a while until I decide what to make with it. Still look at the color, icy and very New Year!

http://www.yarnfwd.com/ca/babybamboo.html

And this beauty, from one of my Tuesdays Are For Knitting and long time dearest friends, a beaPost Optionsutiful book that shall be very, very useful during stash reduction or moments of weakness when we must have a skein of something new and wonderful, this inspiring book by Cheryl Potter, which I had not seen before:

Special Little Knits from Just One Skein http://www.amazon.com/Special-Little-Knits-Just-Skein/dp/1564777197

As well, a birthday present ordered way back in the fall finally arrived from being on back-order forever, Elizabeth Zimmerman’s The Opinionated Knitter, which I have been reading at night, saving the deliciously written reprinted newsletters as a bedtime treat. It is every bit the must-have book I was told it would be, and I am eager to start a Baby Surprise Jacket or infant’s Tomten Jacket as we have a imminent arrival in the circle of friends on it’s way. It is hopefully the only caveat I will be making to the afore-mentioned commitment to finishing my UFO’s:

http://www.amazon.com/Opinionated-Knitter-Elizabeth-Zimmermann/dp/0942018265

Now in case you think I’ve been virtuous over the holidays and sticking to my plan to finish the WIP’s I have languishing about that I promised I would finish, you will no doubt not be surprised to know that I did indeed cast on, or rather hook up one new project. I couldn’t help myself.

This Tunisian Crocheted purse is just for me:

http://www.interweavecrochet.com/issue/materials_win07.asp#lockhart

I’m almost done – one more round of the second side and then piecing together and inserting the lining and adding the button. Fast and easy – the perfect knitting bag, don’t you think?

Now with all these wonders surrounding me, I can begin to feel the post Christmas blahs slowly seeping away as my mind turns to the promise of new projects to knit, new yarns to try, and new techniques to challenge the brain!

New Year’s must be right around the corner, and I’ll be damned if I don’t feel better already!

Knit on!

All done! Oh, and Merry Christmas!!

Yup. I'm done. The hat brim re-do is complete (would someone please explain why I can't just ravel back from the bottom as I see everyone else do. Is is because it was knit in the round??). The sock toe re-do is also complete ( and although not perfect, I'm calling it quits on that one - the recipient won't notice.). The Alpaca scarf is as done as it will ever get. It was too wide and too short, but definitely warm which was the requirement. I'm counting on Alpaca tendency to stretch to get me by.

Special thanks goes out to my boss who let us loose a full 2.5 hours early today, which is coincidently, and magically all the time I needed to finish!

Pictures to follow after Christmas as I will get some modeling action then!

I leave you with this little beauty who visited for a few days in the neighborhood:



Merry Christmas to all!!

Counting down………

Last night I realized that I’m on the verge of sliding down the slippery slope of Christmas gift knitting denial. I have reviewed my time line, revised my plan, and factored in the additional Christmas events that have been entered in my schedule, and made the necessary revisions and justifications.

Last night I sat on the couch surrounded by the last of the in-completed gift projects. As I sat and sewed in the ends of dishcloths, socks, and scarves, I said to DD2, “I think I can do it. Really. This pile is all I have to do. This pile, and your never-ending Alpaca scarf in my tote bag downstairs. And rip out and re-knit with smaller needles the ribbing of that beret. And block those two scarves. And look if I only give the recipient s of the dishcloths half the number that I was going to, two people are off my list.” Now fortunately we are only talking about dishcloths here, and there are no plans to scrap any real projects.

And there it was. The inevitable rationalization of short gifting. I mean really, how many dishcloths does a person need, for crying out loud? And I still have one more on the needles. If all gets done and I have time on my hands, I could finish that one. Seriously – it doesn’t get more desperate than that!

I realize that I’m on the edge, and teetering madly. It will take considered focus and attention to ensure the revised plan is executed in a manner that maximizes all available knitting time. For example, today friends and family are baking cookies for a few hours over a pot of tea. Now I’m not much of a baker, but my limited skills tell me there is time while the cookies are actually baking in the oven that I could knit, right? This is exactly the type of bonus knitting opportunity that I need to be on high alert for!

And we will not speak of the ridiculous idea that I had a few weeks ago about leg warmers – I mean I never promised them for Christmas really. It was just a passing fancy that the Knitting Gods have promptly slapped me up side of the head for, with a well deserved “What the he!! were you thinking?”

Indeed. Every year I ask myself right about now, what was I thinking?

Knit on….

Sanna has been keeping secrets!

Now I can keep a secret, especially around Christmas, but I see now that so can my KTS4 pal Sanna!! Look what I found in my mailbox today – why it’s a Christmas present from Sanna!! Total surprise – that girl’s been keeping secrets! Girl, you are just too much!

I am completely blown away by her thoughtful-ness, especially considering the difficulties we had getting my parcel to her! I completely under-estimated her, thinking she would be less than enthusiastic about future knitting exchanges after all our difficulties. However, un-deterred by the lousy postal system here and the possibility of complete delivery failure to her, in the midst of the crisis and having not yet received anything for herself, she still thought of me, and I am deeply touched by her generosity.

Her lovely Christmas card (covered in prints of little Finnish mittens) tells me that she picked this up during her recent roadtrip with her knitting girlfriends to the Tampere handicraft
festival, thinking of me when she saw it! And she was absolutely right – it is very me! That she would even think of me, let alone purchase such an amazing gift, while surrounded by all the wonderful yarn-y goodness that I’m sure she must have coveted for herself, is truly testament to her giving spirit! I had noticed that her blog was light on the details of her purchases from Tampere, and now I know why!! (On a side note, Sanna has been double blogging her entries in both Finnish and English – again her consideration for my inadequacies with the Finnish language translations is amazingly thoughtful!)

So what is it, you ask? Well, in addition to the lovely box of yummy Christmas Jellies (which she admonished me to share with my family!) it’s 100% Estonian Heavy Lace Weight Wool and a truly amazing variegated shawl pattern. That means that Sanna has been reading my blog, possibly even delving into some of the back-dated ones from before we were hooked up by KTS4. She must have seen that some of my goals in the New Year are to stretch my knitting skills and a) knit lace, and b) learn to read a chart! This amazing gift contains both the yarn and the charts to make those goals a reality!

Sanna – you are so very sweet to have surprised me with this wonderful present, and I am profoundly grateful that KTS4 introduced us, and that I now have such a wonderful pal to call my friend!

For everyone else reading - all I wish for Christmas is that you all get to experience the fun and profound sense of joy at connecting and getting to know a new friend who is as much fun as Sanna is! I am one lucky girl this Christmas!

Merry Christmas and thank you Sanna – for everything!

Knit on….

Kate

Eating my words….

I just said to someone yesterday, if you don’t have something to write about once a week in your blog, you have bigger issues with your life than not being able to find something to write about! I may have been more on the mark than I realized! And I might need to eat my own words. as I have nothing new or exciting on Planet Knit to tell you. I’m at the same point I was last week in my Christmas knitting, and am filling the time with dishcloths for stocking stuffers and give-aways. My annual holiday party has come and gone with great success, and Christmas is still two weeks away. I’ve absolutely nothing new to tell you.

So in keeping with my “always-have-one-in-your-back-pocket” advise from last week, here is another FO from earlier this year: The Parisian Oh-La-La Ruflle Scarf! (the accompanying beret pattern is by Taos Yarn, available here: )

I was really pleased with how my scarf turned out, and suffered DD2 to put on the cashmere/ alpaca winter set in the heat of the summer for photographing against the dark green cedar hedge. Too cute and super girl-y, if I do say so myself! I didn’t ask her opinion at the time as I could tell she was screaming on the inside “It’s 39*C and I’m melting! Get this stuff off of me!”.

It was submitted to the Pattern-A-Day calendar and reviewed very positively, but did not make the final publication cuts (sniffle, sniffle!) and so I will offer it up to you for your knitting enjoyment shortly!! If you do like the free pattern and you use it later, would you please think about making a donation to Knitters Without Borders. Of course this is purely voluntary, but I assure you, the people at MSF do great work and every penny makes a huge difference in this amazing organization. Follow the Yarn Harlots instructions, and be sure to leave me a note in my blog commentary as well so I know who to give props to!

Knit on…..

kate

Rolling right along on the Christmas train….

I’m on a roll here. Another gift done over the weekend, and another finished last night. And yet another that has been stewing away in the back of my brain due to a yarn shortage may now have a solution. It does however require a trip to Wool-Tyme.

Dare I say I’ll have time for extras?? It can’t be! Granted that I kept my Christmas knitting to simple, small and practical items, but I’m always caught scrambling to finish right up until Christmas Eve. There is no way I could possibly be caught on my Christmas knitting. That would actually mean some part of my Christmas Knitting schedule worked! It would defy all precedence, but Knitting Gods above it would be true!

I wonder if I would be tempting the afore mentioned Knitting Gods to have some fun with me (fun like our cat does with his "I-know-it’s-a-toy-but-I’m-gonna-beat-the-crap-put-of-it-anyway' mouse) if I tried to get those I’m-not-promising-them-for-Christmas-no-way leg warmers burned off the needles before the big day arrives! Still I won’t tempt fate until I have all of the above done, and wrapped, and I have nothing in the way of planned gifts left to do. This should ensure the pleasure of the Knitting Gods and show them that I can make a commitment and see it through.

In the mean time I haven’t got any travel knitting, so I’ll get some dishcloths dashed off, as they are always great gifts in a pinch, and I’ve had request for a couple from a colleague for his mum’s stocking. I think I’ll practice my new mitring skills on one for sure. Then I’ll I pick a few more stitch patterns to play with for the others. And the crochet hook will get a workout, as I really like to crochet the edges for a sturdy but decorative finish that doesn’t stretch out of shape when the cloth is immersed in the water.

There. That is all. That is enough to tempt the Knitting Gods to foil my lovely blissful state.

Knit on..

Seems to be going around.....

Susan talks about it. And so does Peg. And even Lene has spoken of it in the past. Happens to everyone I think at some point in time. Seems to be going around a lot right now.

Blog fatigue or blog fade. Like when you have nothing to write about. Or at least you feel you have nothing you want to write about. Or you are just plain sick of writing about everything. Or you are sick of everybody else’s writing! Gets a bit routine after a while, and you have to wait around for something different to happen to write about. Why it feels like making bag lunches everyday!!

So what’s a blogger to do about it? I don’t know. I don’t think it has hit me yet, but I am sure it will at some point. I think though it is important not to get out of the habit of blogging regularly, so that when lightening hits again I’m ready and already in the groove. For me blogging is still about finding the time to get what I want to say out into blog-dom in a timely manner. Therefore I’m always behind and, not yet anyways, out of things to write about (now take note here: we are not actually discussing if you are interested in what I am writing, merely whether I am writing or not!).

But Susan is right. There is little in the way of fodder out in blog land at the moment. But if I take my own life and surmise the same time constraints and the necessity of keeping little secrets in the bag at this time of year on other bloggers with certainly less time on their hands than I do, I can see clearly how it has become increasingly challenging to come up with tantalizing subjects to write about. And my lack of pictures doesn’t help either! I’m still learning to carry and use my camera at all times!

So, taking my own advise to DD1 who writes monthly articles for a major newspaper chain and regularly experiences writer fatigue or fade, I hold a few ideas or F.O.’s in reserve just so I can pull them when the pickings are slim. And since the pickings are slim today due to all my knitting being about Christmas presents for recipients that read this blog, I’ll show you two of the household items I knitted earlier this year. It may or may not interest you, but either way I will have fulfilled my blogging obligations for the week.

My kitchen is painted a warm, Bermuda sand yellow (selected by professional decorator/writer DD1), and all my kitchen linens are a cheerful pumpkin orange. In keeping with the theme, I knitted 6 almost standard size placemats from two strands held together, one each of Bernat natural colored cotton and a pumpkin orange 100% acrylic from Red Heart Super Saver. Nothing expensive, and certainly falls into the quick, cheap and cheerful category!

At the time I knitted these I was quite fascinated buy the random variegations in color and texture I could get when holding two different colors and textures of yarn together allowing them to twist and wind, or just lie side by side as they were inclined to randomly do as the yarn pulled through my fingers in endless garter stitch. The rugged but even textural quality of the finished pleases me to no end and I can be found frequently enjoying the tactile quality of these placemats by smoothing them out as I sit at the table.


With lots of leftover cotton hanging about, I was reading a Suss Cousins book from the library and was inspired to make these co-ordinating napkin rings with non-matching buttons from my brown button jar. They are very functional, but naïvely charming at the same time, and again I enjoy the feel and look of them every time I use them.

So there you go. No blog fatigue here yet. Always keep one in ‘yer back pocket, I say!

Knit on….

p.s. and Susan – thanks for the blogging subject idea!! I was really wondering what to write about this week!