In the Pink

My mom has gotten spoiled to getting hand knit or hand woven gifts for Christmas. I really had no plans to knitting anything for anyone this year, but the woman is a genius when it comes to dropping the most gigantic hints. "I really want something fuschia." "I don't have any fuschia scarves." The woman gave me life! How can I refuse her a simple scarf?

Behold, the Opera Scarf knit from two hanks of Rowan Summer Tweed.



Two hanks of this yarn resulted in a scarf that is 5 1/2 inches wide and 68 inches long. I used a US size 11 needle.

Here's a detail shot to show you the stitches.


I love the pattern, the yarn, not so much. It is 70% silk and 30% cotton. I found it a bit unforgiving to work with -- no elasticity which I think is to be expected given the fiber content. Mom should be pleased with this scarf, and that is the ultimate goal anyway.

I recently purchased a wonderful book--The Knitter's Book of Yarn: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Using, and Enjoying Yarn by Clara Parkes of Knitter's Review fame. I love the book. It's very informative about different fiber types and yarns, and it has some great patterns. In fact, I made the kitties some toys from patterns in this book--a knit octopus for Mocha and a knit fish for Socks. I'll get pictures of those later; these are Christmas gifts for the kitties.

Wildlife Wednesday

Do you see what I see?


I'm hiding. Go away.


Maybe if I ignore her, she'll leave.


I don't see you!


That's it. I'M leaving!

Like the RoadRunner

That blur you see passing before your eyes is me! Work is absolutely INSANE this week, more so than usual. We're having a lot of "change" at work, and it's causing a major upheaval for about 500 people. Oh, boy is it fun to be a manager when this kind of thing is going on.

So here's the scoop on my "real" life (not work!).

The Christmas presents are all purchased with the exception of something husband has to order and a gift card I have to pick up at Belk's for my grandmother. Not one darned thing is wrapped.

The Fakemas tree is up (that would be the artificial tree) and thank goodness it has built in lights. Nothing else is decorating the plastic delight, and if it's up to me, that's the way it will stay. I hate artificial trees with a passion, and I'm even less motivated to have it up and decorated when the temperature is in the 80s and the AC is running.

I haven't written a single card and likely will not. I mailed out between 20 and 30 Christmas cards last year, and we didn't get any back. So far this year, we've gotten two--one from the paper carrier and one from the realtor who sold us this house two years ago.

I finished off the Koolhaas hat last night and it looks good. I do, however, think that perhaps there was something a bit off with the decrease section. It looks a little different than the pictures I've seen, but not in a bad way.

We are expecting a hatching of chicks this weekend. The little hen is setting half a dozen, and we have another half dozen in an incubator. A box of eggs appeared in the mail yesterday, so looks like we're going to have us a chicken ranch around here. Yee haw.

Judy: I owe you an answer about Klaralund. My sleeves came out longer than I would like. I *think* I followed the length information in the pattern update, but don't really remember. If you have normal length arms, I'd suggest going with whichever length is shorter.

Bev: Maybe let's try a weekend between now and the first of the year at Starbucks for teen knitting?

My Day

This day hasn't really gone as planned, but I'm not complaining. I woke up bright and early at 7:30 (that's early for Sunday morning) with every intention of sitting and knitting all day long. Well, you know they say the highway to hell is paved with good intentions, right? Look out, Satan, I'm on my way! Maybe the things I have accomplished will delay that trip a little.

I was out of town on business last week, so the sour dough starter got neglected until last night when it got fed. I mixed up a batch of dough first thing this morning, and the loaves will be formed and left to rise overnight tonight. Hopefully huband will be willing to bake them when he gets up in the morning.

After indulging in two cups of coffee and toast for breakfast, I peeled way too many apples and put them in the crock pot to cook into apple butter. Mmm. The house smells great. Too bad it's so warm today and not really and apple buttery kind of day. Maybe the temperatures will be more seasonally accurate later in the week.

While this domestic goddess spirit was still upon me, I whipped up a chicken pot pie using the less artery clogging version of Paula Deen's Lady and Sons Restaurant recipe. Yummy! I've been working on this recipe bit by bit, omitting the puff pastry, switching from heavy whipping cream to half-and-half, now down to whole milk. Next step--2% milk and possibly even down to skim milk. The pie is still tasting great and a big hit with my family.

Finally, after lunch today I've managed to vegetate in my recliner and work on the Koolhaas Hat that I started during my trip last week. The hat pattern is very easy, but it looks complicated. It's featured in the Holiday edition of Interweave Knits (which is sold out, so shame on you if you didn't buy it!). I'm working the hat in KP Wool of the Andes in Evergreen.

This weekend has also been a movie weekend. Daughter and I picked up the Pirates of the Carribean third movie last night. It was pretty good--how can you go wrong with Johnny Depp? This afternoon, I watched Dirty Dancing (again!) on cable. I love that movie--such a classic. And how can you go wrong with Patrick Swayze??

Friday!

I've been in VA on business since Sunday evening, and boy, is it good to be home now. I was fortunate enough to see VA's first snowfall of the year, and that was exciting. There was barely a dusting of snow, and it didn't stick, but it was still fun for me to see it. We don't get much snow here in SC!

Very little knitting was accomplished on this trip. I have a "problem" of falling asleep on airplanes the minute I'm seated, so there's usually not a lot of knitting going on in the air. Our days were totally filled with training, and lunch breaks meant time to check work e-mails and voice mails and deal with whatever was going on back in the office. By night time, I was too beat to do much!

I am the very happy owner of the much coveted Alan Dart Noah's Ark pattern book now. This seems to be the next big thing in the online world. I didn't battle it out on e-bay for a copy; I merely placed an order for the back issue of Simply Knitting that included the Noah's Ark patterns. I love Alan Dart's work, and he certainly did a wonderful job on these patterns. I may knit an ark and animals for my grand child to be--who probably won't be on the scene for another 20 years or so! (That's fine by me!)

This weekend, I'll try to get completed photos of my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I really love that pattern and highly recommend it. (See Knitty.com for the pattern) Also, I want to go to Michael's to stock up on more Paton's Merino which is on sale again! I need to knit myself another sweater.