Saturday, December 22, 2012

Getting Things Done

Yesterday was my last day in the office until after the New Year.  It was a very good feeling to walk out of there knowing I wouldn't be back for a while.  This had been a very long week.  I've been putting in a lot of extra hours.  Sunday evening I had to go in about 5pm and didn't get home until 3am Monday morning.  I thought I'd be able to sleep in, but someone from work called me at 8am and said I was needed back in the office.  Needless to say, I was very cranky that day.  But now everything that is required of me before the end of the year is done and I am home.  Life's good.

A winter storm kicked off my holiday at home.  The snow was a welcome sight.  I know I am in the minority, but I really like winter as long as there is snow.  Last year was just grey and miserable.  I think we had one snowfall that melted within a day.  This snowfall may be gone by Christmas, but there is another storm predicted to hit a day or two after Christmas.  To go along with the wintery theme, I lit a fire in the fireplace and made a huge pot of ham and bean soup.  A great way to celebrate the start of winter and surviving the uproar over the Mayan calendar.

Here is my first skein of homespun from my spinning wheel.  I'm not sure of the yardage.  It wrapped 58 times around my knitty-knotty.  I think the knitty-knotty is 42 inches around, but I honestly don't remember.  I'll have to measure it.  So this is at least 58 yards of worsted-ish weight yarn.  I washed it in shampoo and hung it in my shower to dry.  It is now soft and smooshy.  There is some roving left.  I'll spin the rest of that up after Christmas.  I'll hang on to this for a while until I decide what it will become.


 This pile is a bunch of scarves I was knitting  up as Christmas gifts for my sisters.  However, my daughters spied them and now I'm not sure who the future owners will be.  Since big infinity scarves are all the rage now, the girls want the entire pile.  The scarves are being knit out of Tahki Yarns Montana.  It comes in natural colors and is really a dream to work with.  I'm not really following any pattern.  It's pretty mindless and great for in front of the television. I just case on 89 or 90 stitches onto US 19 needles, join into a loop and then start knitting.  The one I'm doing now is 89 stitches and is just K1, P1 as I go.  The grey one is also this pattern.  The other cream scarf was  K2, P2 for two rounds and then K all for a third round.  The side you see is the reverse side showing the all purl rows.  The black one has a diagonal pattern.  I started with 89 stitches and then did K2, P3 after I joined the round.  I then knit K3, P3 until I had a width that I liked.  I just knit on all of these until I got a width that I thought was fashionable and gave me enough to bind off with.  I'm accumulating the leftovers.  I might make a remnant scarf out of them if there looks to be enough. 


This is a hat for Kristin's boyfriend.  It's another very easy project.  I am actually redoing it a bit.  After I finished it last night, I tossed it to Kristin.  She put it on and said it wouldn't fit Alex.  The circumference is fine but she felt it should be longer.

 
So this morning I ripped out the decrease rows and loaded it back onto the needles.


Then I started knitting in the pattern again.  I figure I'll add 2 inches before starting the decrease rows again.  That should be enough to cover his big head.  As you can see in the picture below, I used a Russian join to connect back to the ball of yarn.  I absolutely love Russian joins!  Very easy, strong and virtually invisible.



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