Tree

Over the weekend, the Mr. and I dug our holiday tree out of storage, and to Kally’s delight, put it up.

Many years ago, the Mr. and I decided to get all crafty and make our own ornaments, ornaments that better suited our Southwestern style. We made the short journey to one of the many local craft stores, narrowly escaped the crazed scrapbooking crowds, picked up a block of terra cotta clay, some raffia, and a few wood stars to use as guides, then hurried home. Using a self-healing mat, tons of wax paper, and an old xacto knife, we rolled out the clay and traced the wood stars.

No glue guns allowed in this house!

Those first few trees turned out so nicely. Then we adopted the lovely Ms. Kally Kins aka Shittykitty. Soon, it came to our attention that Kally was addicted to raffia. Turns out, raffia is far more potent than catnip and much more enticing than alpaca - and we all know how she feels about alpaca. Clever kitty that she is, she always manages to find, attack, and eat any and all raffia.

Shittykitty’s too smart for her own good…

So this year, and the previous two years, our tree looks only half decorated…

and Kally is in kitty-heaven.

All that tree pouncing wears a shittykitty out

But! Wait! There’s More!
What holiday tree would be complete without a holiday gift?! BIL is off the needles and ready for wrapping while the second mitten just needs a flap and a thumb!

BIL Socks are finished!

Almost there…

I may finish my holiday knitting before I finish taking my finals!

More for the Holiday…

I’m slowly making my way towards finishing the BIL(2) sock. As of this typing, I have ten rounds until the toe shaping and then…

I’m wrapping up the BIL socks and doing a little happy dance.

I am guilty of committing one major knitting faux pas. I only purchased one ball of yarn when I started this project. The ball ran our shortly after finishing the gusset decreases (330 yards per 100 gram ball combined with big man sized socks - yeah, not surprising) and the original ball band is nowhere to be found… The new dyelot is much darker than the old. I find it to be blatantly obvious, but it didn’t photograph, so we’ll see. Maybe BIL will not notice. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Moving on to greener pastures:

Knit Picks Decadance. Tan and Tide. Candy Cane Hat from Handknit Holidays. Third attempt. The pattern is written for worsted weight yarn, I used bulky. First try - way to big. Second try - too small and funny looking. Third try’s a charm. I’m calling him Jeffrey. I’m not sure I want to give him up; he was a lot of work but a lot of fun to work on. I hope his new owner loves him.

And the final holiday knit for today:

My two day felted tote. Originally, I was thinking of the Booga Bag for this project. I even cast on, picked up the sides and knit up several inches - until I realized that this bag was going to be pretty small if I wanted yarn left over for good sized handles. I used the pattern for Hello Yarn’s Fulled Lopi Tote as a guide and then played with the numbers to make it a little bigger. The colors photographed horribly and my Photoshop abilities are lacking real skill. The yarn is Knit Picks Sierra in Wild Rose, Cinnamon, and Lettuce.

I caught Kally eyeing the Spumoni inspired tote after I set it out to dry.

That’s a look that says, “Ooooooooh! I want to rub my head in that wet alpaca. Seriously, it smells sooooooooo delicious! Can I please have some? Come on, just a nibble! Pleeeeeeeease?”

Shetland Triangle & BIL Socks

From Wrap Style
Handpaintedyarn.com lace weight in lettuce

I really am enjoying working with this yarn. The color is fabulous and I’m already trying to come up with a pattern stash to justify buying loads more in all my favorite colors. Yummy!

On a not-so-yummy note, I’m working on a pair of holiday socks for the BIL. He specifically asked for black and red and I let the Mr. pick out the specific yarn I would use… unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of the magic stripes.

Perhaps it is because of the Fleece Artists Merino? I have one done and keep picking up other projects when I should be working on the sock.