Every year, it's the same thing...

I promise myself that I'm just going to *buy* Christmas presents. And then the requests start rolling in. After seeing Mister Munchkin's battle bonnet, Miss E started asking for a "bluuooo hat" for herself. How could I resist? So I took her into the stash room (shuddup), and let her pick out a yarn. Voila, here's the resulting hat.



Apparently, she does know the difference between blue and pink...but insists that this is a bluuuooo hat. I dunno. The inner workings of a toddler's brain are a mystery at the best of times. The pattern is the Iceland Earflap Hat, and it's knit in Pupillo, a bulky yarn from the discount area of WEBS. Why yes, I am a sucker for a bargain. Just don't ask how many balls of this stuff I have now - it's a touch embarrassing.

I've been working on another Odessa in silk for me Mum, and it's tearing up my hands something awful. *sad panda moment* Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it SOON, 'cause I still have a hat to knit for my Dad before November. Yikes. And one final hat request from the Mister...he wants a Jayne hat. So, what's that bring my hat total up to for the holidays? Eight? I think? Time to bust out the gift certificates, methinks...

And then there were four.

The orange and brown hat. Iz complete.



Brown, orange and grey Mal in the Snowflake Hat pattern. In retrospect, I probably should have knit the brown section a little more before starting the decreases. It barely fits me, let alone someone with a larger noggin. Oh well, we'll see if the magic of blocking does the trick. But my hopes are not high...I suck at intarsia.

And now what to do with the better part of an orange skein? Anyone?

Also, it looks as if the knitlist has swelled slightly. I'm now aiming for six hats and one (more) scarf. 'Tis the season for Christmas requests...

Ok, I got a little distracted...

I was supposed to be working on my four and final hat, yeah? Uhm. That didn't quite happen. But I have my reasons!

1. Maladies galore. Everyone here's been sick. First the kids, now me and the Mr. I have a sinking feeling that I'm going to have to see the doctor again to make sure that I don't have pneumonia again.

2. The fourth hat was requested in orange and brown. Oy. So, not only did I have to find a pattern that wouldn't make me nauseous to work on in the given colours, (I think I'm going to go with the Snowflake Hat), but I had to dye the yarn, as I just don't have any orange kicking around the stash. Here's the result.



Pretty, eh?

3. Since I had to wait for the yarn to dry, I got bored and started a very quick knit of a Super-Fast, Ultra-Cozy Scarf. One night, one marathon session of Firefly, and poof, one scarf later.



I'm working on a matching hat now, will let you know when it's done (I've frogged it already three times, having a devil of time with this one).

4. Also working on another swap - in this one, I send a kit out to my partner including pattern, yarn, project bag and anything else deemed necessary to finish the project. I'm not posting the final package until later, but I did make the project bag yesterday. (Yes, the orange yarn was dry at this point...but I was on a roll.)



Also for the swap, I tried spinning some merino/bamboo into a bulky yarn. This one is three ply, and it's REALLY heavy and dense. I'm not entirely pleased with it, but it does the trick.



5. I finished a big quilt. This is huge for me - it's a total mess, but I love it. However, I think I need to take a quilting class before I attempt another one.



My machine died half-way through the quilting, so I took it in to be serviced...and once I got my machine back (great service at Marlene's Sewing Bee, fyi), I didn't feel like doing anything than free-motion quilting. So I finished it all up, screwed up the binding, and declared it done 'cause I was sick wrestling with bunches of fabric.

So.

I guess it's on to the orange and brown. But right after I finish this other thing up...

*snicker*

See, this is why I've been giggling and knitting for the past little bit...



...


Bwahahahahahaha!



As you can see, he's well pleased with it. Guess what he's going as for Hallowe'en? Pattern is the Dwarven Battle Bonnet. Knit in leftover grey Malabrigo, and the hair/beard is knit from Malabrigo that I tossed into the dye pot with some chestnut dye. Just one more hat to go!

Mother Maiden Crone...

Y'know, I could get used to knitting with bulky yarn. Since I posted last, I've had time to make two out of the four hats that I was aiming for. (Please excuse the blurry mirror pic...)



Simple Slouchy Hat pattern, bulky merino/cashmere yarn. Gorgeous stuff, ordered from WEBS. (Otherwise known as Mecca.)



Gnomey Childs Hat, in the same merino/cashmere...but since I didn't have it in the requested colour, I dyed it purple. And tossed in some skeins of Malabrigo silky merino while I had the dyepot out.



The middle skein is the original colour of the bulky (how on earth could I resist cashmere/merino for $3 a ball, I ask you) and the skeins in the foreground are the silky merino.

At the moment, I'm plugging away on Mr. Munchkin's Hallowe'en costume. Will post pics when I can, but it's taking awhile 'cause I keep laughing myself stupid while working on it. Also, I finished off some handspun - I took it to KOL, and just got into a groove. Is pretty, yes?



It's spun from the lovely roving that I was given in the Gods/Goddesses swap - named Mother Maiden Crone. I lurves it. Muchly.

Life isn't exciting enough...

so I decided to commit myself to something out of my ordinary. I'm going to be participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time! I have a story, characters and location all ready. Now I'm just waiting for November to roll around so that I can get started. Needless to say, you probably won't hear too much from me during that time...and Christmas knitting is going to progress at a glacial pace. I'm going to be making a minimum of four hats, and hoping to get seven done in time for gifting.

So, I'm preparing. Tea and chocolate stocked, check. Fingerless mittens to keep my hands warm late into the night, check. Writing buddies, check. (But I would always love to have more - my page is here. Feel free to add me!) I'm rushing to finish up many of the projects that I have on the needles NOW so that I'll have time to get everything I have planned done. One of those projects was an Elliot sweater.



(Yes, I need to find a new background for my photos.) Seriously modded. I was weak and couldn't face doing all the necessary stockinette. So I started a spiraling YO, K2tog pattern. And the sleeves are short...because that's all the yarn I had left after finishing the body. The sweater took two skeins of 100purewool worsted.

Oh!

I nearly forgot! I received my packages from the Zombie/Apocalypse Swap! Check it out:





I LOVE this bag.



And the mittens? To DIE for. (Ha, get it? Zombie swap? Die? Meh, I need to get out more...)

Why I will never block with an iron again...

See this?



It's a Saroyan - gorgeous pattern, quick knit. I made it extra long so that I could use it as a scarf when Winter hits. Knit out of the same Malabrigo as the Treads mittens and the Star Crossed Beret...I was *this* close to having a real, grown-up matching set of accessories.

Then I pulled a dumb-ass move.

I don't have blocking wires of my own yet, so I thought (always a bad idea) to myself: "Hey! I can just steam iron this sucker flat!"

...

And here you see the consequences of my dumb-assery. I BURNED THE WOOL.



*sob*

So, now...I'm thinking of colours to dye the scarf, hat and mittens, so that the scorch marks are hidden. Black? Maybe?

*sigh*

I'm going to go and order a set of blocking wires from Knitpicks now...anyone else want in on the order?