Knitting Kleptomania

I didn't realize it, but I'm a knitting kleptomaniac. I stole this project from my daughter.

Truth be known, I think she is somewhat happy and relieved that I ran off with it. But there was no way to know that when I did it. It was agreed that I would simply connect the round on a circular needle without twisting and give it back to her. This yarn is impossible to read. There's no way to know whether it's twisted or not. So I did the best I could and just connected and started knitting and praying. Things seemed to be going well. So I kept going. And going. Next thing I knew it was almost finished. So, yeah, basically I stole my daughter's knitting. Like I needed another project!

I decided to block Lady Eleanor after all.

The knitting "purist" in me just couldn't let it go unblocked. I hope I don't live to regret this decision. I have lots of yarn left over. I see a felted purse in my future. I can't wait to wear this thing. I'm going to work on the fringe tonight.

And, lastly, a pair of toddler socks. (sans kitchener) These are not for Mr. C. but for another cute little buddy of mine I'll see on Saturday in NYC. I hope they fit him. They are worsted weight so they may be more "house" socks than shoe socks.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

We're celebrating our Thanksgiving tomorrow so yesterday was a knitting and soapmaking day for me. Very enjoyable. Until I ripped out an hours worth of work on Lady Eleanor because I thought I ended on the wrong row to finish it..... turns out I was correct after all and ripped for nothing. So tonight, I'll try once again to finish it. I'm almost there.

Here are a few soap photos. I've had lots of requests for my soap to use as stocking stuffers and teacher's gifts. So I'm finally getting that organized. If anyone is interested, email me and I'll give you the details. It's pretty awesome stuff if I do say so myself. If it helps my dry skin, you know it's good. I don't have as much of it this year as in previous years, but I should have a good bit leftover.

My mother couldn't wait to give Mr. C. one of his Christmas gifts. He LOVES Elmo... or "Melmo" as he calls him. Check out the sweater... remember that one? It's just now fitting him.

I'm Knitting!

Not a lot.. but I am knitting. Two out of three charity items are complete:

I still have the mittens yet to finish.

Lady Eleanor is still growing.... yet another photo:

I was studying this piece last evening and I just love the look of the un-blocked fabric. It's very 3 dimensional. I remember reading a post in the Scarf-Style Knit A -Long blog where a girl did this pattern and decided not to block it. I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. But the more I look at it, the more I understand not wanting to squash what makes it so interesting to the eye. The last one I made was a solid color and it didn't seem to make that much difference. I guess in the end, I may block it very lightly. This pattern is like Clapotis. You just keep wanting to make more.

For those of you who like to cook, I found an amazing lasagna recipe. It's labor intensive, but worth every minute. Enjoy.

World's Best Lasagna - Allrecipes

Nothin exciting goin on....

I had a great time at Nemacolin. We were kept so busy that no knitting was accomplished. I took it, but I didn't do it. I went to a gourmet cooking demonstration (too much work) and a wine tasting seminar which was great. Our meetings were also excellent. They had a "knock your socks off" motivational speaker whom I think was the best I ever heard. (Kevin Freiberg in case anyone is interested.)

I'm still plugging away at the charity knitting. The scarf is finished and the hat is half finished. Except for some socks that were finished a long time ago, there will be no knitted gifts this year. That bums me out. I had lots of great ideas, but no time to follow through.

Tonight is our holiday party at work. As usual, my boss decided to do it early before everything gets crazy. At least we're having snow. That might get everyone in the mood. (More likely it will be the open bar that does the trick.)

Back in the saddle...

with Lady Eleanor

My replacement yarn arrived yesterday. Same dye lot and everything. I was very lucky. Because I let this yarn sit for a long time before using it, I was afraid everyone would be out of it. But I got what I needed. And Knitch, in Atlanta, Georgia, wrapped every skein individually in tissue paper. That's a first for me. Cute!

This is the charity knitting. I have a scarf, hat, and mittens to do. The scarf is going quickly. I need to get this finished fast so I can concentrate on the wrap and Colin's sweater. I need some FO's!! I feel like it's been a while.

Mr. C's been sick with the flu. Poor kid. Then he gave it to his mom. So far, Grandma has escaped.

I'm holding my breath. Next week is three days at Nemacolin. And I refuse to be sick for that!

Still alive...

I've been a bad blogger. Actually, I've been a bad knitter as well. We had a yarn disaster of major proportions and that really threw me off my game. Last Thursday evening, I settled in to work on the Lady Eleanor and realized I was at the end of my skein. I went to the spare room to get another one out of the box and the box was gone. No problem I thought. DH cleaned and straightened up the room (which tends to get very out of control) and I thought I just needed to look a little harder for it's new resting place. Nope. Gone. The box was gone. I'm going to say roughly $70.00 or a little more worth of yarn... gone. It was in a priority mail postal box. Gone. He thought it was empty. He threw it out. And, to add insult to injury, it sat outside for 5 days and if I had sat down to knit one night earlier, I'd have been able to rescue it. As it was, the trash man got it about 7 hours before I missed it. That will teach me not to knit. I missed it by only 7 hours out of the 5 days it sat outside with the trash. Thoughts of rumaging the land fill ran through my mind. Nah... I got on knit list and found the yarn. I have it now. But it cost him. Big time. I think we can safely say that he will never do that again. So how angry and upset was I over the whole situation? Well, I got these the next day:

That should sum it up.