Can't blog and knit all at once... but driving...

I feel bad that I haven't had any time to blog. I've had a very busy week. I'm trying to get all my Christmas knitting done and I just started working six days a week. I'm designing a showroom for a home decorating company and this is the period that they are in their major rush to prepare for a big open house they have in January. On top of it, I have to drive down to Ontario next thursday for 6 days to visit Andreas' family for Christmas and then rush back for the 27th to prepare a christmas dinner that night with my family. I'm supposed to go to work the next day, but who knows if I'll be able to make it. I'll probably be reading all my knitting books! That's right, I've been keeping an Amazon Wishlist for the past year and I sent it out to my sister and my boyfriend last week. All I know is that they've been asking me about knitting books recently and I feel like I can expect at least a couple of them in my lap under a pile of wrapping paper. So maybe I might be a bit too busy to go into work the next day. Those are the advantages and disadvantages of being my own boss.

I've got a few things that I'm rushing to finish before we leave. I was trying to get all of Andreas' sister's gifts done in a rush to send to Scotland in time, but she's decided to come home for Christmas instead so it does buy me a bit of time. I'm actually thinking about paying much more to take the train, instead of driving, so that I can complete all my gifts. It is a 10 hour drive and everyone knows that you can't knit and drive... Actually, I found out this week that you kinda can. I was stuck in traffic after work and I guess that when I sit around not doing anything with my hands, I automatically dig my hands into my purse and pull out my needles and yarn. Well, I started doing it while I was driving, and it worked! But I stopped once the traffic started moving faster. Is that legal? Honestly, it was more dangerous to drive and take this photograph at the same time.

Anyway, here are some updates on my Christmas knitting. Since I had knit 5 "Fuzzy Feet"slippers (that's only two pairs and 1 extra that was the wrong size), I was pretty tired of doing so.
So when I found these slippers in CRAFT magazine, I thought that it would be easier to just knit garter stitch squares, sew them together and felt them. But this is proving to take longer than lots of other complicated things that I've knit. How is this possible? The only conclusion that I could come to is that I only knit 19 stitches and the time that it takes me to turn it around is really adding up! I don't know what else it could be, but they're taking way too long to knit up. I guess that my knitting time is very limited these days. I've knit 6 out of 8 squares from the second slipper. Almost done!


I finished one handle from the " Everlasting Bagstopper". I found the pattern for the handle on the Purl Bee website. That is a beautiful site. Anyway, I knit mine a bit too long based on Andreas' advice, but when I filled it up with stuff, they really stretched out. So be careful if you knit these up, follow the pattern advice.

I still have a pair of mits to cast on and knit, a sock and a half for my grandma, the second handle on the bag and a giant felting spree of slippers! Good thing that my family is only celebrating on the 27th. It bought me some time. I'm already dreaming about what I'm gonna knit for myself after Christmas. Please feel free to leave me comments about how all your christmas knitting is going too!

More christmas gifts are being added to my list!

I went to my grandmother's house for lunch a couple days ago and she asked me if I could knit her some warm socks for the winter. They needed to be thin enough to wear with slippers and have cuffs that begin at the ankle instead of her calf.

I was pretty nervous about the request for a few reasons. The first being that my grandmother is very picky when it comes to gifts. We always end up returning a majority of what has been bought for her at christmas or birthdays. Secondly, I have a lot of christmas knitting that I'm trying to finish off. And third of all, the last pair of socks that I knit took me six months to do. So I wasn't all that confident about making these for christmas. The thing is though, that my grandmother rarely asks for anything other than blue eyeshadow, so when she does you kind of feel like it's something that she really wants. So I ran to the yarn shop yesterday and the woman who works there recomended a worsted weight wool yarn that is very soft, made in Italy (like my grandma), and can be knit up with US size 4 dpns! She sold me a simple pattern and I was off! Last night, I cast on and knit for a couple of hours between my work and sleep. I was surprised that I got as far as I did.


So I phoned her this morning to ask her what size shoe she wears and she told me to forget about the socks. Supposedly she found a pair of slippers that she forgot she had and it would be too warm to wear both around the house. She only wears dresses (she's never owned one pair of pants) and stockings. She never wears socks to go out or anything. So I think that I might just send them over to Andreas' sister in Scotland with the bagstopper for Christmas, because I can't find it in myself to knit her up another pair of fuzzy feet slippers this year.

Where did all these UFOs come from?

I started knitting my christmas presents early this year, end of October, I think. I bought lots of yarn at the same time and picked out all my patterns. The thing is that as I would begin getting bored with something, I would start another project, then something would go wrong and I would rip that one back, put it aside and start something else. Now what I am stuck with is a pile of UFOs (unfinished objects in the knitting slang). Here are some photos to show where I'm at.

It all began with my first sweater back in April. I saw the greatest pattern in Erica Knight's "Classsic Knits". I didn't realize that it would take me so long to knit with a fingering weight mohair. Well, I guess that I knew that it would take me a long time, but I did think that I'd have it by christmas. My major problem is that I don't have a ball winder and the cotton that I've doubled with the mohair came unwound. Not knowing any better, I've been trying to do it myself and it takes so long for me to wind myself up a ball once I've run out. All that's left is for me to knit the two sleeves,sew it all together, finish the collar ribbing and then add some snaps and maybe some ribbons on the edges. It might go to January.

Then came this blanket in June. I just wanted something easy to knit when i go to the movies and the theatre. I thought that I could make baby blankets to give to a charity in South Africa. I guess that I haven't seen too many movies lately.


Next are the Christmas presents. I knit my sister a mitten, but when I was almost done the first, I got a few people to try it on and it seems to be too small, so I ripped back. I've got to start those over. I'm also making some fuzzy feet slippers for Andreas' dad and I just put them down to make a bagstopper for Andreas' sister, possibly instead of knitting another pair of fuzzy feet slippers for her, because I'm kinda getting tired of knitting them.




While I'm on the subject, have I mentioned the Holiday Cal-Kal I joined this year to motivate myself to make all these presents? Check it out at: http://holidaykalcal.blogspot.com/ . Anyway, I'll finish it all very soon! Except, I realized today that I'm knitting for everyone except for my sweet boyfriend! Oh well, I'll make him something nice for his birthday in February. His mom's knitting him socks for Christmas anyway!