You'd never know Christmas was coming

...Because I've been doing almost zero Christmas knitting. Seriously. How stupid is this of me? I mean, I got a great head start earlier in the year, but now there are fewer than two months to go and there's still a pile of work to do. Here's my list:

Family, STOP READING NOW, DAMMIT.

• DH: maybe some socks. Status: Not even on the radar yet, but I think I know which yarn to use.
• DD2: also maybe some socks. Status: I at least know which yarn I want to use.
• MIL: Lliclla wrap. Status: Still have to block it.
• Mom: two pairs of socks. Status: pair #1 has one sock down but the second one barely started; pair #2 I've still got about a third of the way to go before I finish the first sock.
• Dad: Probably socks (geez, do you sense a theme?), maybe two pairs. Status: I need to buy the yarn.
• Brother: Ragna sweater. (Thank heavens; something which isn't socks.) Status: Haven't even finished one side of the damn thing yet; I'm probably totally screwed.

On the upside, though, I'm doing well with the baby gifts. However, I would like to warn everyone I know who's of procreating age that if anybody else announces any babies which are due before December, you're getting store-bought stuff from me, and that's final.

Log Cabin for baby Miller

Finito!



I really like it. I'm thrilled that I finally figured out how to do the spirals thing with the log cabin technique; I'm thrilled that I found more of the yarn in the basement just as I hoped I would; I'm thrilled that I managed to find a really good edging motif that struck exactly the right balance between the need for baby frills and the geometric square-ish nature of the blanket itself (#278 from Lesley Stanfield's "The New Knitting Stitch Library", in case you're curious); and I'm thrilled that it took me less than two weeks to do (let's hear it for bulky yarn and thick needles).

What I also found thrilling about this project - but not thrilling in a good way - was how little of the yarn I had left when I finished. Here is all that's remaining of the three different colours I used, with my hand included for scale:



Yeah. Cutting it damn fine, I was, particularly with the solid purple. I don't mind telling you that when I rounded the corner right before the final long edge (with another corner and a teeny bit of edge to go after that long edge was done) and looked at how much purple was left, I got really, really scared. You know that thing in knitting where you start getting really nervous about whether you've got enough to finish your project, and as you keep going, you vascillate wildly between "yes! I think there's enough!" and "no! I'm totally doomed!"? That was me all over for the final stretch, baby. Fortunately, it all worked out in the end.

I'm going to have to ask my mom whether I should send it off to my cousin myself, or - if it turns out that my parents are also sending along a gift, which I certainly expect is the case - whether I should give it to my mom so she can mail both gifts in a single package.

P.S. to Glyn, if you're reading this? Yes, it's for your sister - please keep it secret!

Turquoise socks for DD1

I'm still working here and there on the first sock. It's very tall...but still not tall enough. DD1 likes her socks extremely long, like up to her knees, so it's taking me a while. I'm doing the leg in 1x1 ribbing to boot, so you can imagine how scintillating I find it. (The plunking sound you just heard is the drip-drip-dripping of my sarcasm.)

Log Cabin

This also got a bit of time since my last blog entry - nothing spectactular, nothing to merit a new photo - but still, progress is progress.

Ragna

As I'm now starting to feel the first faint stirrings of panic about Christmas, I figured I should stop procrastinating on this one. Alas, I think I've so far managed to do only about one more row. Sad. Also, I can't find the book with the pattern.

No big deal, you might say, with almost two months to go? Like hell. The boy is not tiny and it's cables...all over the sweater.

I'm so screwed.

Idea for baby garment

Usually my design ideas come from wanting to do specific designish stuff. But this design idea comes from a very specific yarn (On Your Toes Bamboo), in two very specific colours (which I'm not going to reveal here just yet). From there, the motif (which you'll also have to wait for) just suggested itself to me, and now I'm trying to think of what kind of baby garment I should apply it to. Ideally, I'd like a blanket, but for that I'd need to buy a lot more of the yarn than I really have the budget for. Maybe a sleep sack. I'm not sure. Stay tuned, I'm hoping it will turn out to be excruciatingly precious.

Idea for something cabled

I got hit by an idea for a cable motif this week, charted it up and swatched it out in some acrylic sportweight. It's not looking too bad, I think I can make it work. I'm thinking about using it on a baby jacket.

And finally, two more neat things before I sign off for another week or so. Firstly, I wanted to give a nod to Carrie K, who left an awesomely quotable sentence in her comments for my last blog entry. Here it is: "Sometimes the Knitting Goddesses just want us to swatch fruitlessly."

Doncha love it?

The second thing has to do with the piece I wrote for the Cast On podcast, which I mentioned a few months ago. My revision was accepted, and tonight I sent my recording off to Brenda. If she deems it to be up to snuff, you'll hear my voice doing the piece. If not, you'll hear somebody else doing it. Either way, I'm not quite sure when it's going to air, but hopefully sometime soon. I'm pretty darn nervous about the whole thing and I hope you like it...assuming you listen to Cast On...which you totally should, because Brenda puts out a great show.