month of insanity

Now, I realize I don't have to make Christmas presents and baby shower gifts and office birthday cakes and 14 zillion Christmas cookies. That said, I'm going to go ahead and do all those things I don't have to do because I love doing them and they make people happy. Unfortunately, it puts me in a stressful situation this month because it's all happening. I guess I can't say I'm bored. It'll be nice Christmas weekend when I can go home and relax. I'll still have some knitting to do, but I'll have a week and some time off by then so I can chill on that.

The yarn for the baby blanket came yesterday and I started the blanket last night. I've gotten maybe around 13 rows of seed stitch done out of the 20 for the border. I have a love/hate relationship with seed stitch. I love how it looks, but I hate actually doing it. The yarn itself is a little darker than in the picture in the previous post, and looks a little like a tie-dye shirt. It's knitting up less hippie than that, luckily. Bright pretty colors make for a lovely baby blanket.

I think for Christmas this year I'm going to limit the number of types of cookies I make to 4. Mint sugar cookie drops (possibly two batches), oatmeal raisin, peanut butter chocolate chip, and sugar cookies. I'll use half the sugar cookie dough for rolling out and cutting shapes, and the other half for rolling into balls and making snickerdoodles. Easy way to sneak 5 types of cookies into the work of 4. I'll spend next wednesday and thursday making dough (maybe saturday night too, depending on when we get back from the shower) and then taking it to my mom's house that Sunday to bake in her far superior oven. I'll probably bake all day (and decorate the tree with them while things are in the oven) and maybe spend the night there. Then some cookies go to work with me, some go in the freezer for Christmas, and some--maybe--go in the freezer for after Christmas. I may have to make another batch Christmas weekend so they stretch. Great. Now I really want a frozen chocolate chip cookie. So good. Also can't forget the December birthday cake. I think it's going to be chocolate. I should do something with fruit since the holidays usually bring so many other sweet and delicious things.

Eventually I'm going to make my clapotis and learn how to use my drop-spindle so I can spin this roving I got at the Sheep and Wool Festival back in May. Maybe I'll even get it spun before the next festival. I'm excited to see what I can do with a ball of roving and my little spindle.

there is hope yet

I love when I find nice things.

Not too much luck at the yarn shop last night. It's an amazing store, and I'll definitely be going back, but I didn't find what I was looking for. So I ordered it. Wanna see?

I believe it's called Happy Valley. Something like that. It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. What I felt in the store was so unbelieveably soft and wonderful (and 100% wool) that I couldn't resist. Not cheap stuff, but I would love this to be an heirloom piece. I also ordered some for myself in the Black Purl colorway (dark purples and grays) for the clapotis. Spent lots of money, but I'm ok with it. I'm ok spending money when I know it's for quality. If the yarn had sucked, i wouldn't have done it. I will post pictures of the finished blanket when I'm done.

So a little stress still, but not too bad. I'm going to work on socks and other stuff until the yarn comes in and then work on the blanket. My roommate and I are also putting up our Christmas tree this weekend and seeing Happy Feet. Lots to do, little bit of time left.