Not another Upside-down daisy hat

Pattern: Upside Down Daisy from KnitIt! Spring 2007

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto in ivory and baby pink

Needles: Addi turbo and S.B. dpns size7

Cast on: Dec25 Cast off: Dec 26

Oh, man, I swear: "This is the last one I am making!" at least until next time...

Unoriginal Hat 2

Pattern: An Unoriginal Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Yarn: Aslan Trends Del Sur in a golden color

Needles: Size 7mm US10.75 Colonial Rosewood

Cast on: Dec 15 Cast off: Dec 23

Christmas knitting done

too bad all my Christmas knitting was for myself!

Pattern: Grinchy Grouchy Sock kit from Blue Moon Fiber Arts

Yarn: Socks that Rock in "Grinchy" and "Pond Scum". Whisper in "Pond Scum"

Needles: Size 1 & 2 & 3 dpns

Cast on: December 1

Cast off: December 22

I modified the pattern (by situation, not by choice) so I did the normal toe that I always do, not the short row as in the pattern {that got left at home}. The sock on the left of the picture, is considerably larger than the sock on the right, by about 1/2 inch. My wonderful sock model, FB, has a man's size 6 (women's 4?) so it is viewed a bit loose for my size 8 1/2 foot. I inadvertantly added another row of whisper to the sock on the left, and purled those instead of knitting them. I will be wearing them with pants tomorrow (and every Christmas after) so I am not at all concerned with the differences.

As we were taking all of our pictures downstairs by the tree, my sock model mentioned that he would love to have a pair of my homemade socks, "cause they are really soft and comfortable". I think he just likes the one-on-one Mom time and posing (not that MrK isn't always trying to get in the way). So, it looks like I have a project to make for someone else. We'll have to go to Inua and have him pick out a yarn for himself. I assume it will be something green. FrogBoy likes everything froggy, and he loved the name Pond Scum from my Grinchy socks.

Shortest day of the year

Happy Solstice! Party last night was good.

Here is how much daylight we actually see. There is a hill to the south (to my back as I am taking this picture) and this hill obstructs the sunlight to the property. The picture is true to the amount of daylight that I actually receive in the winter. We plan to build on a south facing slope soon, so I might actually be able to grow houseplants with natural light. The building in the picture is my summer office and maintenance shed. The cut-out on the far hill is a buried segment of the Alaska Gas Pipeline which runs both above ground and under ground along our property line. Man, I miss the sunshine! That's why we vacation so much. I need UV rays! I need to produce natural vitamin D! I need the sun!

Check out the new weather pixie...

... she loves to inform me that right now it is -36F and there is only 3 hours and 44 minutes of daylight. Friday is Solstice and the rebirth of our sun. So in celebration we are having a get-together here. Initially I was thinking, cocktail party for the adults and a small bonfire and sledding on the little hill for the kids, but with the temperature being as it is, the bonfire will have to be cancelled. Unfortuneately. I know it saddens the kids; having five boys, each with a friend or two coming over, it could get a little hectic. Just a couple more cups of rum in the eggnog and no one will notice the sugar-hyped teenagers running around, right? And speaking of eggnog, this year will be a special treat. I hand picked vanilla beans when I was over in Tahiti in October, so the nog will have fresh Tahitian vanilla. Humm, so fattening, so delicious. So, if you are in the neighborhood, stop on in for some fresh Tahitian vanilla eggnog, homemade gingerbread cheesecake, grilled reindeer sausage (this is what Santa does with the slow ones, tee hee), and toast to the fertility of your family and friends with some spiced cider!

and on a knitting note: over the course of being shut out for two weeks, I finished an Unoriginal Hat and one of my Grinchy Grouchy socks.

Shut out of Blogspot!!!

Wow, I was shut off of Blogspot for almost 2 weeks now. I received in my gmail account a notice accusing me of spamming and was informed that my blog would be shut down until they verified that I was not a spammer. {Note: The Knitty entry had several targets to the same site which usually indicates SPAM.} I was told in an email that I would be contacted from the Gmail Anti-spam tactical team and released within several days if the accusation was incorrect. No notice, no forewarning, no nothin'. Just kicked out onto the non-blog street. Thankfully my Ravelry invitation was received or I would be in a knitting-community coma. Looks like I'm back. I missed this...

More mini-socks

Mini socks pattern here

Where my stitches at?

Yeah, I'm on! Come to find out, my Ravelry invite was sitting in my SPAM folder. Oops! Glad I checked before cleaning it out! As if you couldn't guess, I am AfternoonMoon! And there are some great Alaskan groups out there! They are having a Qivuit sale up at the university tomorrow. I will post what I snuck in and bought, if they have anything left.

Winter Knitty is out!

Too bad MrParker is too old for laughing carrots! It is so cute!!! I wish my friends were having boys instead of all girls. I will just have to make it in pink. Oh, so adorable. It is stardust, halycon and chevrolace for me. And maybe even Sally the Eco Fairy for Layla and Sarah. So many great patterns this season. Even more great patterns in Winter Knitty than Interweave Knits Winter 2007. Although, I do have to say that I am waiting for Sandi's knit-up of the Gathered Pullover. I am curious to see what the sweater looks like with women with curves.

Grinchy Grouchy Sock Kit arrived!

My December socks arrived after an extended wait. And here they are: The Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Grinchy Grouchy Socks Kit". One skein STR Grinchy, One skein STR Pond Scum, and a mini-skein of Whisper in Pond Scum. The pattern is {very} similar to the Chevron scarf in my winter queue. I was thinking about not doing the whisper, but instead have decided to not only knit up the whisper, but to add it to the toes. How can one be Grinchy this Christmas if one does not have hairy toes?

Good news for the day, my chickadees came back! My squirrel guard on my birdfeeder (dont ask why the squirrel guard is even on, it came with the feeder, our ground squirrel hibernate) engaged while I was on vacation and the chickadees went elsewhere for their food. Today, 3 weeks after I came back and fixed it, they came back! Whoo hoo!

Within the hour

Within an hour of the Uptown Boot Sock being completed, so was my mini-sock in the Cherry Tree Hill "Slate". I abhor scant piles of left over sock yarn, so I i-cord on size2 until I have enough to make a trivet. Superglue the i-cord to a ceramic tile (or in my case, a bar coaster from the latest bar with ugly coasters {side note: strange but true, my husband collects cool bar coasters; I take the ugly ones and superglue i-corded reminants of sock yarn to them}).

I received my Grinchy Grouchy Sock kit on Saturday, and today I received my Leticia. Both from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I will post on this tomorrow. I have to share, if you haven't seen already... "Here Hold My Sock". I found it while surfing for the Yarn Harlots Unoriginal Hat that I am knitting for my sister for Christmas. LOL!

Uptown Boot Socks

Pattern: Uptown Boot Sock by Jennifer Appleby in Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave and the Winter 2003 issue of Interweave Knits

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill supersock, 100% merino in "Slate"

Needles: S.B. dpns size2

Cast on first sock: Nov9

Cast off second sock: Nov30

Wow, a cable all over sock. That was much more work than I thought it was going to be. The second sock took me three days to knit. I took a hiatis between socks to whip up half a dozen mini-socks. Surprisingly, I learned a lot from those mini-socks. I realized that I was doing the SSK wrong. Yes, fundamental error. I was being lazy and just "k2tog-through back loop". So the ssk is finally right, now comes the lesson of the "kitchener stitch". I was seriously overtightening the stitches AND on the purl-through stitch, I was purling through the back loop and not the front loop. After these two realizations, I now have a kitchener stitch that you can't see. Just look at the beautiful job in the photo below. So exciting! Whoo-hoo for me!