christmas gifts and food

I got an Apple Watch for Christmas. Those of you that know me know that I am a bit obsessive about reaching my 10k step goal daily. This past year I had a 9 month streak of hitting my goal! I got sick in September and that ended that. I have been less strict with myself about getting to my goal every day but I often try to go for an extra walk in the evening to get the steps. Well, now I have some new goals to try to hit too!

closed my rings!

I closed the rings yesterday but today I have only gotten the red (calories burned while moving) and blue (stand at least once per hour). Somehow I got 10k steps today without getting 30 “exercise minutes”. That one is going to be a challenge when a lot of my walking is done with the dog. He stops and breaks the “exercise minute” counting, or something.

I also got hand knit socks for Christmas, from my mom. Aren’t they pretty?

hand knit socks are the best socks

Finally, I was given a cookbook: Dinner in an Instant. Tonight I made a pasta dish from it, and it was delicious!

creamy chickpea pasta with cumin and mint

I didn’t have all the ingredients because my husband and younger son ate the hummus when I wasn’t looking, and it was still delicious. I think it will be even tastier when I make it again and do have hummus. (I blended the chickpeas instead which made it not super creamy but still made for a tasty dinner.)

So my holiday went well. I hope yours went as well as mine did!

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2012 FO Round-up

I only finished 15 17 knitted, crocheted or sewn objects this year, and none of them sweaters!

I’m noticing that only two of them are for me (the binary cable hat and the tapestry cowl) and I can’t find one of those two (the hat). Darn. I think that’s because I knit two shawl/scarf things that ended up being for other people (lintilla and annis) even though I thought they were going to be for me. Also, I have several sweaters on the needles for myself but none of them are getting finished.

The last two items pictured never got shown off here. I made bird ornaments for my children’s teachers.

And a cute (if I must say so myself) gingerbread house ornament for a friend.

I really like they way they all turned out. I wish I had set aside more time in December for sewing ornaments. Next year! (Maybe.)

I attempted to calculate the yardage of yarn currently in my stash but my spreadsheet program and Google docs both refused to read the file that Ravelry exports. I’m going to say that’s the universe telling me that I don’t need to know. I’m actually glad because 2012 was supposed to be my year of not buying yarn except at Stitches and I know I didn’t stick to that. Also, I didn’t finish many projects and no sweaters so that means not a lot of yarn leaving. Let’s just agree that I probably have too much yarn and leave it at that.

merry merry!

I just spent the last two hours or so building this.

How fun is that? It also opens up.

Really, it was Stefan’s Christmas present. Really.

Speaking of Stefan, here are he and Niels “modeling” their PJ pants. They are understandably distracted by their toys. Cute pants, though, huh? I just bought the T-shirts at Target to go with.

I also made them a pair of the felt bird ornaments, by request. Niels got the green with the red wing and Stefan red with green. Stefan said, “THANKS!” when I gave it to him. So, yay.

Last but not least is the gingerbread house that Erik helped them build. I buy the same kit from Trader Joe’s every year with the sugar people. The kids haven’t gotten bored of it yet.

I will have more finished objects ready for the world to see after we visit my parents and aunt today. I hope you’re enjoying your Christmas and/or final Saturday of 2010!

some christmas crafts

Here is one of the Christmas crafts I couldn’t show you before: some tiny felt birds.

And here they are in my hand to show how tiny they are.

I made them for Niels’ teacher. I hope she likes them. Niels and Stefan have each requested one for Christmas too. Now I need to remember who wanted green with red wings and vice-versa. Uh oh.

amigurumi ornaments galore

I gave the boys' teachers their gifts today, so now I can show them to you.

snowmen for the teachers

Aren't they too stinkin' cute for words? They came from one of my favorite amigurumi designers on etsy. She also designed the bear in the balloon and the robot I made earlier in the summer. They were ornaments and I took the photo before I put the yarn in their heads (aw) to finish them off. The kids wanted some too, so I made Niels another snowman.

niels snowman

Stefan got a Christmas tree.

amigurumi tree ornament

I didn't have the right sized eyes left, so we got those little jingle bells to make ornaments instead. Stefan was excited about it. As you can probably tell, we decorated our tree today. Niels insisted that the tree and snowman should be next to each other. Our little fake tree isn't very big but it was decorated with enthusiasm.

our tiny tree

Erik used the extra big tree lights to decorate the rest of the room a bit.

Erik decided to decorate more

I guess filling that top shelf will have to wait until after Christmas is over. I don't mind, though. I have lots of other things to do in the meanwhile!

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help, I can’t stop crocheting!

I accidentally bought myself a copy of One Skein, by Leigh Radford, in Borders this weekend. (Is that better or worse than accidentally buying yarn? I didn't swear off books, did I?) I snagged it because I wanted to do some small projects, and not just so I could enter the Stash and Burn contest. I also grabbed it because it has a very nifty looking crochet bath mat pattern. That is, of course, what I am working on. It's slightly misleading, though. I takes one 16-oz cone of Peaches n Creme. I have one 12-oz skein (a really big skein) of Sugar n Cream. I suppose mine will be slightly smaller, but no biggie.

With a bit of guidance from Anabel and Karen at BobaKnit yesterday, I've gotten into the groove and now I can't stop working on it! It's even bigger than the photo now. Maybe I will be able to make gifts for Christmas, if I crochet them.

beginning of my crocheted bath mat

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holiday knitting round-up

I managed to finish the linen hand towel for my grandmother yesterday with enough time to wash and dry it.

It is based on the pattern in Mason-Dixon Knitting using the "moss diamonds" stitch pattern from my Harmony Guide.

I think the Mason-Dixon ladies are right, the linen does drape up nicely when you wash and dry it. It also seems to shrink a bit which was a surprise, but a good one. I didn't measure it before and after washing, unfortunately. I bought a second hank of linen to make one for myself but this time I'll be knitting it on bamboo needles instead of the addis. They're too slippery!

So the end result is that I finished two of the four gifts I planned for this Christmas. My dad's socks are on their way but the first one is only about two thirds finished. Last weekend I wove in all the ends on the entrelac shawl for my mother. I was showing it to Kristi when we both noticed a strange little spot where there appears to be an extra square and a half. I think I had started a row of squares when I gave it to her and she started that row over, or something. Now I need to pick out the end I wove in and pick out that square and a half so I can graft it back together, or something. Luckily, my mother's birthday is at the end of next month so I can finish it for then. I bought her an electric tea kettle because I thought I broke her kettle when we stayed there at Thanksgiving, so she did get a gift.

Whew.

Next year: purchase gifts! That or actually start as early as I start my planning. Last year I did much better than this year. Ah well.

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boring holiday knitting update

I know these knitting posts are just no fun without pictues. I ordered my new mac mini and it should arrive in about five days. Yes, I'm counting. In any case, here's what I'm up to, holiday knitting-wise.

1. Blue socks for my aunt are finished and wrapped even.

2. Linen hand towel for my grandmother is about 1/4 of the way finished.

3. Fixation socks for my dad have become fair isle/mosaic fixation socks because I am a masochist. I'm about halfway through the foot of the first.I'm hoping to get faster at the stranded knitting but I'm not going to count on it. He might get one sock as his gift and an IOU for the second.

Less blogging, more knitting!

Happy Hannukah everyone!

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a frenzy of holiday knitting

I know I haven't been posting much, it's because I've been knitting fiendishly! I finished the items with the first deadline: those illusion bags for Erik's brother's kids. The frog was done a while ago and now the pig is done as well. I have pictures but I can't get them off of my camera until my personal tech support fixes my computer.

I am now working on a pair of socks in Katia Mississippi 3 print using the Widdershins pattern. I am on the leg of the first one so I expect to be finished with them fairly soon. I am also working on a linen hand towel based on the ones in the Mason-Dixon Knitting book but with a different stitch pattern. That is for my grandmother. After I started it, though, I saw the Menorah pillow in Handknit Holidays and now I want to make that. I got an email from Commuknity that they are having a 20% off of everything sale so I'm tempted to go there to get the cashcotton to make the pillow instead of making her this towel.

I also need to make another pair of socks for my dad (perhaps mosaic socks, if I have time) and weave in the ends and make the trim of the shawl for my mom.

I wonder if I'll make it.

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