Knitting Goddess #9: December 2004

The knitting, sewing and finishing is done.

The gifts are wrapped, with appropriate gift receipts attached.

I have an extra two hours to clean and decorate the tree.

Bring on the nog, baby!

Beware the felt!

So, I've been making a bunch of felted poppies for Christmas present garnishes. So, all 24 petals and four bobbles finished, I threw them in a garment bag, in the washing machine with a pair of jeans, and after 12 minutes of agitation I got this.

What? What's that you say? You say that all of the tails will get hopelessly snarled and take two hours and some ripping to detangle? Really? Huh.

Five hours later, I have four lovely poppies.

The pink and yellow are Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool, which felts like a dream. The orange is some wool that I spun when I was first learning and was leftover from my candy bag.

My last knitting challenge?

Finish that sock by Christmas Eve. Luckily, I'm on vacation, so it can be done!

And to the Pagan Knitters...

Happy Winter Solstice!

Pic from Ravena Crow

Grrr...

So, this afternoon I went and saw Ocean's 12 with my mom and brother (eh) and then ran to go get bag handles, ribbon and a set of snaps for bags at a Joann's outlet.

There were almost no bag handles left in the store, but I found two sets that would work, happily noticed the '50% off purse handles' sign, grabbed the snaps, found a good shade of blue ribbon and got my yard cut.

(I already have snaps, the exact same size I bought. I have 3 sets of snaps. But they're in Washington and I'm now home for the holidays in California.)

The sales lady rang me up and the total was close to $20. I thought that was a little high, but I paid it. The cashier threw the receipt in the bag, which I hate that sales people always do- when I worked retail, I always handed the receipt to people with their change. After I fished it out, I looked over the totals. The bag handles were full price. "Oh," I said. "I thought the purse handles were half off."

The cashier gave me a shrug and a ~~shit eating~~ fake half smile.

"Well, then you should take down the sign that says they are." I replied and walked out of the store.

It's a small thing to get in a fuss about ($7), and it's not like I can take my business elsewhere - most LYSes don't carry bag handles, and I don't know any in the area that do. I just hate it when the cashiers can't be bothered to be helpful. I know it's the holidaze and therefore, hell on earth, but... grrr! I feel justified in being annoyed about this.

Knit in the City

So, yes, ~~two weekends ago, such a bad blogger~~ recently, I went up to New York and despite spending the weekend with non-knitters, I still managed quick stop into Knit New York on Sunday while we wandered the wilds of the East Village.

Even at 6 o'clock on a Sunday night, there were still a whole bunch of people sitting and knitting and generally talking. I loved the set up, with the yarn mainly hanging from hooks on the walls.

OK, yes, it's blurry, but my flash decided not to go off and I didn't want to seem like even more of a knitting tourist than I was. I was briefly tempted by a bag of buttons labeled $1.90 until I realized that it was $1.90 per button (I ALWAYS DO THAT!), but my budget has kept me far too thrifty lately, so I left with only a copy of the Winter Vogue (blech).

No more pictures of Christmas knitting until after Christmas. I hate to spoil the surprise. =P (Not that my parents read this, but you never know!)

One package begets another, it seems, since I got my complimentary copy of the book in the mail the other day.

Why do I get a complimentary copy of the book? If you own it, turn to page 25 and read an informative essay on how to add waist shaping to a garment. Because, you know, I don't know anyone who obsesses about such things.

This is what happens when a knit blogger goes to a Debbie Stoller reading. This is me, not complaining in the slightest.

I can't actually tell you how the book is, because I haven't read it yet.

I go to the New York for the weekend tomorrow afternoon. And while finding Knit New York would be great, I have to see what happens. Cheers!

PRESENTS!

I suppose this is good time to mention that I have been trying to spoil Susan of Kawaii K-nitting and the author of Muffy in this winter's knitty.

I got a package from my Secret Pal yesterday! She revealed herself to be ~~Maisy (no blog link, sadly)~~ Maryse of bag 'n' trash and gave me a wonderful box of stuff.

Included in there is:
-A copy of the new 'Knit 1' magazine (WHO did the layout? Oh, it's terrible!)
-A big skein of Lionbrand Fishermans Wool
-Koolaid dyeing instructions
-A skein of some really beautiful purple alpaca
-Beaded Crochet by Bethany Barry
-A doll sweater
-A very cute card

Also in the box was a carton of Christmas tree peeps. Why aren't they in the picture? Um... Fred ate them?

Keyhole, bowtie, same difference, right?

So, I finished the mini keyhole scarf for my mother.

I used a cute little triangle pattern that I found on knitting.about.com a few years ago.

Then the Keyboard Biologist posted her little bow knot scarf. Sigh.

You know what they say. Monkey see, monkey do!

The pattern can be found here, the yarn may be Schoeller Stahl Merino Stretch, but don't quote me, and the color is definitely Strawberry. I modified the pattern a little bit to factor in the bulky v. worsted weight yarns, but it was mainly cutting stitches. Awesome pattern, very easy and down in about 3 hours.