The Pride of Accomplishment

I swear that a finished cabled sweater would not make me happier than this does:

From the mess I showed you yesterday, I now have two marginally ugly washcloths, and that makes me super happy. (Sorry, Ni Hao Kai Lan is rather popular in our house right now.) There is nothing cooler than taking a mess of crap someone else would have thrown away, and making something useful. I will be honest and confess that I threw out a hand full of scraps that were about 6 inches long. What with tying on and off, that would make about 4 stitches. I may be crazy, but I'm not that crazy. I don't even have a pic of the first one I finished because my sister was visiting and stated some interest in it, so I bound off and threw it to her. "Sew in the ends and it's yours." Heck yeah, that's how we do it around here. Give it away as fast as we can. Frankly I think all that wonderful yarn my husband bought me for Christmas was a bribe to get me to keep some of the things I knit. There's something wrong with me that I just can't hold on to the stuff, and hubby cannot believe I put so much time into my knitting and then hand it out like penny candy. All I can say is there's just something great about people using and appreciating items you made yourself. (I don't think he minds me giving away ugly washcloths however.) So, all that remains of the mess is this:


Three colors that do not remotely go together, and might not make a whole washcloth between them anyway. So (I will repeat this until it is burned into my brain.) it is totally nuts to go buy yarn to complete a project that was conceived to use up yarn. Completely batty. I'm not that wacko. Really. I'm not.

Really.

Cleaning Up

First, an update: the turkey is disposed of, the kitchen is marginally clean, and the dining room, well the dining room could have used another sweater mistake. The sweater is completely frogged and the yarn returned to the stash, to fight again another day.

Today I am cleaning up the stash. You see several months ago, I unwisely accepted some yarn from a patron, sight unseen. No yarn is bad right? Right? Well, not to offend anyone, but wrong. Some yarn is bad bad bad. And yet, I can't quite give it away or throw it out. The result, I am trying to use it up as fast as I can so as to be able to deny all knowledge of its existence. My mission, turn this:

Into this:


What do ya think? My theory is that it is a washcloth. I don't even fold my washcloths,so why should I care if the colors even remotely match? Yeah, I don't care. The only problem that remains is that while several peaches and cream ball bands were found in the bag of scraps, I'm not at all certain that everything in there is cotton. Wish me luck.

How it's done

In honor of this season of giving, I decided to share with you my secret for accomplishing hideous and unloved household chores. You can thank me later.

Scenario: For the past week, I've been cleaning my house. By that I mean doing all the basic cleaning that most normal people do weekly, but that I avoid until sheer mortification and the coming of my mother forces my hand. Then, for Christmas, we had 15 people, including my mom in the house. To give my family credit, most of the dishes were washed before they went home that night, but the rest of the mess created by 15 people in a small place remained. There was also the remains of a 21 lb. turkey to pick.

My reaction: (with great feeling and appropriate whining tones) I don't wanna!

Solution: *Cast on a sweater, knit for five rounds. Discover resulting sweater would fit a rhino. Go clean kitchen to avoid frogging sweater. Wash dishes until frogging becomes more attractive that cleaning. Frog sweater and cast on again. Knit until it becomes clear that there is not enough yarn to complete this sweater. Yarn is discontinued. Go and clean up dining room to avoid the realization that sweater is croaking again. Clean up new Christmas toys and attempt to find places for them while three year old acts as though you are throwing out her new treasures instead of rescuing them from the jaws of the dog. Continue until you realize that frogging sweater is preferable to one more discussion about whether or not Mommy is trying to impersonate the Grinch and ruin the little who's Christmas. Repeat from * until house is clean, sweater is finished or you give up and go knit washcloths, or a quick santy clause hat and a coat. He he he.

'tis the season

Christmas is tomorrow and my daughter is nearly desperate for presents. I have tried my best to remind her that Christmas is about giving, not getting presents, to the extent that she helped me buy and wrap nearly all the gifts for others that we purchased this year. The little trooper even survived a trip through Toys 'r us without begging or crying when nothing went into the cart for her. Pretty good for an almost four year old. So, in that same vein, I present ways to give this Christmas season:

Neck Warmers for Solders:

Information and pattern here.

Red Scarf Project:

Information here.

Knit for Kids:

Information and pattern here.

Knit for good. Knit for all. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.

A prince among men

I came home from work yesterday expecting to deal with a messy house, and grumpy spouse (he's got the flue, you can't blame him) and a precocious three year old. And, indeed I did have to deal with all of these, and yet it was all OK. Here's why...

My prince of a guy bought me a selection of knit picks finest for Christmas, and he didn't even make me wait until the 25th to get my hands on it. I'm so pleased I can't quit hugging him. And to top it all off, I finished this...

I finished a scarf for The Red Scarf Project. So, in one day, I dispensed with 3 skeins of acrylic from the stash and replaced it with a load of quality wool blend. Definitely moving in the right direction.

By George, I think they've got it!

I'm the one who always says that we don't need presents. Until three years ago, I was usually the youngest one at family gatherings, and it started to be downright silly that we still bought Christmas and Birthday presents. Seriously, I'm a grownup and I don't need all this stuff. Really. And now there's a little girl who is more than happy to benefit from presents. She so much fun to watch tearing into gifts, what more do we need. So this year, when my parents came back from their yearly Canadian vacation, I expected only this:













And maybe one of these:













Cause they are the best Canada has to offer in the way of souvenirs right? But mom came home with this:




How could I forget about Patons?
And then my lovely aunt was at a craft show and I became the proud owner of this:

Alpaca Yarn Co. Classic Alpaca. Dude yarn can be a present? I take it all back. I'm never too old for presents. Bring on the presents. Do you have a present for me?