Après nous, le déluge

So I finished all the Christmas knitting well ahead of time. Here is the last of it - DD3's 'Secret Garden' cardigan:

front:




back:




DD3 liked it:




because she can play peek-a-boo with it:

I did indeed run out of the Stroll sock yarn that I was using doubled up for the vast majority of it, and then continued work with the Swish worsted. You absolutely cannot tell. I also bought a very snazzy ceramic button from Lettuce Knit, which got the stamp of approval at the holiday party from several other knitters who weighed in when I asked for button opinions.

So, you know when you've been really good and responsible at something for a while (e.g. food diet, yarn diet, keeping on top of the housework, sticking exclusively to Christmas knitting, etc.) and then you suddenly let yourself go completely (e.g. binging, massive yarn purchases, letting the house get disgusting, coming down with a massive case of Startitis)?

Yes. This is what has been happening to me. I finished my Nennir cowl - I decided to do only two repeats of the cable charts instead of three, because at two repeats it was already as wide as I wanted it. No pictures yet, but it's gorgeous and I love it and I wore it home from work yesterday after finishing it in the afternoon.

I also got started on a shawl that I have loved ever since it came out in Knitty First Fall 2012 - Bauble. I'm using some of the 24 balls of 'barn red' Stroll sock yarn in my possession, and it looks great so far:

I got some sock yarn from DD2 for Christmas, in her favourite colour:

So I'm using it to try and solve her perpetual sock shortage problem:

I think I'm actually going to be able to get three pairs out of it when all is said and done.

And lastly, DD2 came home yesterday complaining that her gloves weren't warm enough. Okay:

Just one more to do. She should have new mittens by Monday. The incredibly adorable pattern is Piggy Mittens by SpillyJane. I am enchanted.

Next time, I'll talk more about what I got for Christmas, and cover more reactions to the knitting gifts I gave!

Presents!

In good news, there have been progress and FOs.

I finished the pinafore dress for my aunt's niece's new baby:

Front:




Back:

It's really adorable and I love it. I think the best way to hand it off will be to do it in a way that sounds completely convoluted but which is actually really simple. You see, the baby's grandparents are coming to my aunt's house for a Christmas dinner (my aunt being the sister-in-law of the baby's grandfather), and my parents are also invited to this dinner. Therefore, I will give the gift to my mom to hand off to the grandparents, and it will thus be able to find its way to the parents, and therefore, the baby.

(I and my family would have been invited to this dinner, but my aunt knew we would be entertaining my husband's brothers on Christmas day, and so did not present us with an invitation we would have had to decline. Isn't holiday scheduling fun?)

As well, thirteen of fourteen holiday gifts are now complete, as I finished DD2's legwarmers:

Even better, they're now wrapped! DD2 mentioned to me today that she had noticed the new parcel underneath the tree, and I told her it was for her from me. Her eyes lit up with excitement and she thanked me for giving her a gift! It was so sweet. I hope the reaction when she actually opens the present is also that good.

All that's left to do in the way of holiday knitting is DD3's cardigan. (I have decided, after all, to axe DH's Durrow sweater project and do it again - hopefully next year - with a less vibrantly-coloured yarn.)

This past week also saw the arrival of some yarn support. With the holiday knitting almost done, I couldn't resist casting on for the pattern. It's going really well and I love it and can't wait to share. (Although I strongly suspect I will have to rip the whole thing out eventually and do the borders with a smaller needle size. But we shall see.)

And finally, the new Knitty came out. It's got some very nice things in there, but the one I couldn't resist was the Nennir cowl. It's getting colder, and a cowl would be great to have, and I just bought some gorgeous dark turquoise sparkly fingering weight yarn from Knit Picks, and the cables on this cowl were really beautiful, and I'm sure I could do up some mittens to match, and...and...and...

(This is what it looked like this morning. It has grown 20 rows since then.)

I am very weak.

But in the interest of not being stupid about the deadline knitting, I have given myself a twenty-row-a-day goal: no more, no less. So far, so good, and I'm 100 rows in. That should give me a new cowl by Christmas Eve. Merry ho-ho to me!