I’ll likely have no internet the next few days as the world closes to celebrate Christmas. So here’s an early happy Christmas wish for all.

To those still waiting for their contest winnings, they are going in the mail today.

the snowflake sweater is nearly done. just need to finish up the neck ribbing, sew up the armpits, weave in the ends and figure out how to do the crochet edging. and while at this point it should probably be considered a gift, it’s not. we’re still going ahead with mittens for all.

which has resumed. I met up with Kelly at the gallery for some knitting (I also met both her dogs who attempted to help me knit on occasion.) She lured me with temptations like Scouts Swag and some Pirate yarn. Pretty colors. If I’d had money with me I would have bought some. That means I’ll have to go back. but back to the mitten knitting. since the sweater was to the point of needing a shorter needle, I pulled out mittens. I almost finished the first of Amelia’s mittens (it still needs a thumb), and then I started the ribbing for the BIL’s pair. since the sweater is nearly finished, I foresee much more mitten knitting in my future. and I’m feeling confident that they’ll all be done by the New Year (which is when we do the holiday visiting).

in other news, I’ve joined Socktopia - a sock KAL. one of my goals for next year is to turn the sock yarn stash into wearable socks. for me (and dh). hmmm. I should start thinking about the rest of my ‘knit year’ resolutions for 2007. (and what I’ll do for gifts next year, since almost everyone has a hat/scarf/mitten set now. and I don’t want to save kid sweaters for the holiday, due to fears of outgrowing.) hmmm…. much to think about while mitten knitting.

apparently I didn’t realize that my sister put up pics of Eli wearing the sweater I knit. She also put some pics of the kids modeling their hats last winter. Sorry!

and since I’m never home (or feels that way lately), I still haven’t gotten most of my pics sorted out to get them up on here. so you get to see her pics before my flat model-free pics. maybe that’s a good thing.

the snowflake sweater got stalled the last few days - no bus means less knitting. I did get over to Amazing Threads and found some amazing Alpaca (I want to keep it) that is destined to be sent to my Mitt Kit Swap pal, unless I find something else before the mailing date. I really need to figure out what I’m going to do for the bag for this. I found a felted bag that I’d love to send, but I still have 4 pairs of gift mittens to knit after I finish the sweater, so I may need to find a plan b (which would involve sewing).

the not-being-home thing also means that I still haven’t gotten the stitch markers finished. (I don’t think twisting beaded wire on the bus is the best of ideas.) I haven’t forgotten them, don’t worry!

I have been home long enough to pick up the mail though. The other night I got another package from my Winter Cheer pal (vegasknitter). She sent me some Karaoke yarn in a dark reddish sort of color and lots of other goodies. I also got a new monitor (thank you employer for the gift cards) - 19″ flatscreen. The best part is, the colors are pretty darn accurate! (The old monitor gave everything a greenish cast. Made it very hard to adjust pictures if they needed it.)

ok, so here’s one of the pics from my sister:

The other pics are in the gallery.

but dh is thouroughly amused and laughed quite a bit when I told him.

I got the snowflake sweater sleeves done last Friday and was all ready to attach them to the body on the morning bus ride. so I go and do my three needle bind off. only to realize that the sleeve is now on the inside of the sweater. so I tried unpicking it, which didn’t go so well with someone sitting practically on top of me (don’t these people realize I need elbow room? isn’t there a different seat you could have chosen?). I dropped one of the needles more often than I wanted to, causing a (fixable) run of dropped stitches. so I said to heck with it and put the knitting away for the rest of the ride, and didn’t bother to pull it out on the ride home either. (which was the first instance of dh laughing at said mistake.)

once home, we got things sorted out. the armpit stitches are currently on safety pins and will be sorted out when the knitting is finished. the weekend’s knitting consisted of 2 seemingly endless inches going around the body with sleeves attached. (which is a right pain in the arse, the stitches keep bunching up. which results in pausing the knitting so I can shove things around into place.)

anywho, I finished (well, I haven’t measured yet, but I did as many rows as it should take to make 2″) that on this morning’s bus ride and am ready to tackle the chart - which hopefully will go quick since there’s the occasional decrease as we approach the neck.

and then I can resume knitting the gift mittens. (and maybe finish my Fetchings and the snowman. and start a hat for myself. I’ve decided the headband just isn’t enough on the really cold days. oh, and I’m thinking a ‘neck warmer’ too. I’m remembering my dislike of scarves in super cold weather.)

and maybe when all that’s finished, I’ll go take a better look at the new Knitty patterns. (I’m thinking I really need to make a Sheldon at some point.)

I had grand plans for this weekend - finish the sleeves of the sweater so I could have them joined to the body, maybe get some gift mittens done, make some stitch markers, clean up my craft room. you know, nothing much.

so I popped in a few DVDs to watch while knitting. both Saturday & Sunday. and what did I manage to accomplish this weekend? I made a pumpkin bread/cake thing from a mix and I got the cuffs of both sleeves done. that’s it.

now granted, I had issues interpreting the pattern at some point (cast on 30 sts, do a few YOs where the chart says and I’m up to 36. and yet, by the end of the chart there should be 42 sts. the only thing I can figure is that something got lost in the photocopying or the pattern is worded odd and I just couldn’t make sense of it. ah, there’s corrections -PDF-. go me, I did it the way they say to without having seen it first.) . so I had to go ahead and start the second cuff earlier than I wanted so I could make sure to duplicate my mods in the right place and all. but I really would have thought I’d have accomplished more knitting than that. I’m blaming my movie selections (I tried to watch some newer ones. they distracted me too much. back to the movies I can watch without looking, I guess.)