Needle Give-Away

The folks over at favecrafts.com are having a give away of this lovely knitting needles set! Check it out here.

Phew!

Well, the end of a four-day holiday weekend is drawing near. Apparently it was a bit much for some.......

Merry Christmas!

From snowy Iowa....where the winter weather warnings are piling up! Have a wonderful holiday and stay warm and safe wherever you are!

Ok, Now I Get It!

Sometimes it's hard for me to accept what seems like "hype" or "PR" of products.

Growing up, I began to be responsible for my own clothing purchases in 8th grade when I babysat regularly and then got a summer job at the Dairy Queen. I learned pretty quickly that I could either buy 1 pair of "designer" jeans, or 3 pairs of "plain" jeans. To me, jeans were jeans . . . especially when you compared the fabric and construction. Levis seemed just as good, if not better in quality, than the Calvin Kleins advertised by Brooke Shields.

In knitting I learned pretty early on that I really do prefer natural fibers to acrylic. And even among acrylic yarns, some are better (softer, easier on the hands to work with, etc.) than others.

So when I heard everyone swooning over Malabrigo, I figured it was just another form of hype--a fad which would fade and everyone would look at the Malabrigo in their stash a year or two later and wonder why they had spent money on it.

Boy, was I wrong! One sitting with the luscious fibery treat and I have to say....I get it! I think it's the sort of thing you don't really understand until you do knit with it for yourself. It is the softest wool I've knit with! It's smooshy and dreamy and delightful. I'm making my daughter a scarf from it.



I figured with everything going on in our little corner of the world, and not knowing what's up with hubby's job....I just needed a little extra comfort and a dash of joy....if only for the few minutes I steal off and on throughout the day to knit on this scarf!

(Still no official word when/if job changes are coming. The governor did sign the executive order today and we are still awaiting word as to its specific impact. I do appreciate all the thoughts, prayers and well wishes though....keep them coming!)

In other knitting news....

I finished an Elizabeth Zimmerman hat for DD. It's the "Very Warm" hat from Opinionated Knitter. I used up the left-over alpaca from her thrummed mittens and another color of alpaca for the inner lining. Should be very warm crossing campus.



Progress on DH's socks is slow....and hasn't happened much the past few days what with the malabrigo on the other needles. I'm using Dreams In Color Smooshy in the Cocoa Kissed colorway for them.



All the hand-knit Christmas gifts (and the ones we bought too!) have been put into the mail yesterday afternoon. Hopefully they will reach their destinations before the end of day next Thursday.

Happy Knitting! (8 more days until Christmas!)

Blue Christmas

Looks like the Christmas season might be a bit blue at our house. My hubby is anything but in the spirit after more news reports about the governor's impending action. (Mr. Culver says he's going to sign an executive order next week which will eliminate severl IT jobs in the state under the guise of "consolidating" government. Doug's job will likely be elimanated. Ho. Ho. Ho.)

Nothing says, "Merry Christmas" like standing in line at the unemployment office.

I know he's uber stressed and beginning to be depressed as well. If we didn't have kids who need medical insurance it might be a bit easier to swallow. I am quite worried about him.

So, it appears that I will be frantically looking for a full-time job with benefits. As will he should the ax fall.

Here's my resume if anyone knows of anything!

Ready, Set, Snow!

I'm all prepared to get snowed in. I made my Target run where I procured:



and



I have pulled together all my Christmas card writing supplies including: the cards, address labels, stationery, stamps, and written letter for 2009.

I have my stash and a variety of knitting projects to work on.

School is letting out at 12:30.

I have gifts to wrap, wrapping paper and tape so I can begin working on the gifts that need to be boxed and shipped by Saturday.

There's food/drink aplenty on the premises.

I think I'm all set for the blizzard to hit!

Happy knitting/crafting/riding out the storm!

Impending Storm

I'd just like to say that the big winter storm which is forecast to dump 8"-12" of snow on my area had better hold off long enough for me to get to Target at 8 a.m. tomorrow! I plan to pick up Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince which I may watch 2 or 3 times if the storm is lengthy.

Yes, I'm a huge HP fan!

And this afternoon I found a bootleg trailer for the final two films.



Dh Preview One - The best bloopers are a click away

Enjoy!

Weekend Projects

I worked on a couple of really quick knitting projects over the weekend. The first is a totally self-indulgent luxury item.



Quite a while ago I won a lovely prize from the wonderful ladies at Romancing The Yarn.

It was two balls of periwinkle baby cashmere from Elan.com. The label says it is 60% baby alpaca, 30% merino and 10% cashmere. I can tell you it feels FABULOUS! I finally settled on making myself a pair of fingerless mittens because we keep our computer room much cooler than the rest of the house (and that's saying something considering the thermostat is set at 64*!!)

I found the pattern, Swirling Gauntlets on Ravelry. It's written by Susanna IC and is available as a free download.

The results are amazing! Warm, lightweight, functional and quite fetching if I do say so myself. I love them!!

I also finally heeded the siren's call and pulled the leftover bits out of my basket from the hat I knit my niece. There was just the right amount to make her a scarf.



I used a US #8, 24" circular needle (love my KnitPicks Options!!) and cast on 160 stitches. Then I just knit back and forth in garter stitch, changing yarns at the end of each row. (Thusly it makes its own fringe at each end!) Easy peasy!

Now.....what can I accomplish today....???

Happy knitting!

Love's Limits

If you look back to May 6 you'll see my initial post regarding the Elizabeth Zimmerman blanket I intended to knit.

It started out swell! I was so full of enthusiasm and love for all things EZ, after all Elizabeth is one of the knitting elites....a pioneer, an inspiration, a revered oracle of all things knitted.

Well, I can tell you, row upon row of nothing but garter stitch is d@mn boring!

Over the summer my love for the project waned.

The blanket languished at the bottom of my WIP(works in progress) pile.

Until one day in November I realized that there really were a limited number of days left until Christmas and if I truly intended to give the #$@^& thing as a gift, I'd better pull it out and get busy.

So here it is, finished at long last!




I'm afraid only a knitter is going to look at it and realize how much time went into the thing. But I do hope when my nephew cuddles up with it he might one day realize his Aunt Kim's love for him has no limits, not even endless rounds of boring garter stitch and more finishing work than she's ever put into any other project!

I decided I can't leave my niece hanging when it comes to hand knits for the holidays, so I started a quick pair of socks for her as well. Fortunately six year old feet aren't all that big and this pair will take me about 4 evenings of knitting while watching t.v.



Do you suppose I should've been making something for my own kids??