Third Time is the Charm

Over the weekend, I dug into the stash, and started the Teacher gift, some fingerless mitts.

I did about an inch, then I decided that they were way too big.

I started again and did about an inch, then realized that there was an error, 4 knits in one of my two by two ribs.

I started again, and have almost finished an inch.  Hopefully, the third time is the charm.  .

I don't have time to waste two days knitting the same inch over and over again.

30 days til Christmas.  (26 days until school ends and the mitts have to be done.)

This is starting to look grim.  I need whoever does the Yarn Harlot's Christmas gift knitting scheduling.

Today, it is all about the wasted time.    

Do I Need to Add to the Christmas knitting?

No unsurprisingly, Christmas gift knitting was the hot topic of conversation at Knittervention this week.  I was happily zooming along one of my scarves.  Then someone mentioned that now that her kids have five teachers and that was a lot of Christmas presents to knit.

My ears perked up.  My youngest just started kindergarten.  I hadn't even thought about a gift for his teacher!

Thirty four days until Christmas. Thirty days until school ends.  2 1/2 feet to go on one scarf.  4 feet to go on the other.  Mitts!  DO I have time to throw some mitts in there too?  I already knot her favorite color.  I think I may have some yarn that will work.  Oh, why didn't I think of this sooner?

Today, it is all about the growing holiday list of things to knit.  

And the Race is On

My two Christmas gifts scarves are racing each other to Christmas.

My Mother-in-law's scarf had a head start.  I finished the first three feet in the summer, then took a hiatus when I ran out of yarn.  Now I have more yarn, and 42 inches completed.  I just plan on knitting until I run out of yarn.  Or six feet, whichever comes first.

Mom's scarf was just started a couple weeks ago, so it definitely has some catching up to do.    19 inches completed.  Same plan: knit until I run out of yarn, or approximately six feet.

I don't want a repeat of the Aurora Borealis 9 foot shawl incident, so I am trying to remember to measure once in a while.

39 days til Christmas. 84 inches of scarf to knit.  Oh, when I put it like that, it doesn't sound as realstitically doable.    Excuse me while I knit a bit before bed.

Today, it is all about the holiday.

For Want of a Babysitter

No Knittervention this past week.  I assume that everyone else was there, but I wasn't.  My babysitter had to cancel.  The transmission blew out on her car.  Knit Night this coming Monday doesn't look good either.

Apparently, transmissions don't understand the concept of Christmas gift knitting.  I have two scarves to finish before Christmas.  Roughly twelve feet of knitting. Four feet down. Eight to go.  Six weeks remaining.

Totally doable.

If I can make it to Knit Night or Knittervention once in a while, I would probably finish early.  Any volunteers to watch two rough and tumble little boys for a couple hours?

Today, it is all about the holiday deadline.

Bye week

I participate in two different knitting groups, both on Monday nights.  Knittervention is every other Monday night.  Knit Night is always the second Monday of the month.  Sometimes they are on the same night, depending on how the Mondays fall.  There is always a "bye" week, sometimes two, each month.

Yesterday was the bye Monday.  No knitting.  Just the usual evening home with the kids.

I was still able to fit some knitting in.  7 inches down on Mom's Christmas scarf.  55 inches to go.   (Sorry, no pics, still can't find the camera.)

In other news, no, my yarn still hasn't arrived from Poland yet.  Mom talked to my brother the weekend, so I asked her if he had mailed my yarn to me yet.  At first she hedged, then mentioned that he had showed her the yarn via webcam.  Um, if you saw the yarn on Sunday, then he hadn't mailed it yet.  

He really doesn't understand the concept of a yarn emergency, does he?  What part of my instructions were so hard to understand?  I even gave him my address, though he did ask for clarification: "what country?"  And he suggested that maybe it would be faster to scan and email.  Ah, sarcasm, the grumpy man's wit.

I responded in kind.  I explained that Indiana had seceded, and was now part of Canada.  And that it was very difficult to knit with yarn than had been scanned, and the colors were never correct.  Two can play the sarcasm game.

Then he asked about the story behind the yarn.  If you don't read the blog, then you don't deserve to know.  (How bad is it that my brother and mother and husband don't read my blog?  Just strangers from Russia and Indonesia, this week anyway.)

Today, it is all about the sarcasm.
  

May I present my stitches?

'Tis the season for Christmas knitting.  The weather turns cold, and knitters everywhere suddenly realize that Christmas is looming, and gifts need to be finished.  And started.

My mother-in-law's Christmas gift scarf, Spring Haven, has been in progress for a while.  I needed another skein of yarn, which I bought last week.  While I was there, I bought the yarn for Mom's Christmas scarf.

Last night, I feel like I wasted the whole two hours of Knitter-vention, because all I did was swatch.  Two pattern and two needles sizes were the contenders, and just when I thought I had it narrowed down. . .I decided to leave the final decision to my Sweetie.

For a straight white man with no knitting interest whatsoever, he has surprisingly good insight in the craft.

The winning pattern had one of the strangest line of directions I have ever seen in my twenty years as a knitter:  "All wrong size rows: work stitches as they present themselves."

As they present themselves?!?!  Are you kidding me?  I mean, I knew what they meant, knit the knits and purl the purls, but it still sounded like the stupidest way to say that.  

Do the stitches walk up, extend a hand, and make introductions?  "Good evening, I am knit, and may I present my dear friend purl."  

Or even better:  "Hi, I'm Knit, this is my sister Purl, this is my other sister Purl."

Who writes these things?

Today, it is all about the salutations.

The Weakest Link

It is fortuitous to find the yarn you desperately need on Ravelry.  It is even serendipitous to convince the owner of the yarn remnants to mail you the yarn you need free of charge.  It is apparently beyond all expectation for your baby brother to check his e-mail or mailbox to discover the story behind the incoming yarn or notice it in his mailbox.

Really?  How does a person not check his mailbox in a week?

My baby brother was obviously the weak link in the Yarn Emergency Rescue Plan.

Meanwhile, I am working on my Christmas knitting.  A scarf for my mother, and another for my mother-in-law.  Details to come. . .

Today, it is all about the mail.