Panic Time

Christmas is coming,
The goose is getting fat.
Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got a penny then a ha’ penny will do…

(Well, you know the rest…)

This is the time of year when I just get crazy. So much to do! So little time! Christmas comes on the same freakin’ day every year, and yet, I can’t ever avoid the last minute hectic feeling. It’s like I’m singing in rounds all the time, except the song’s never over, and I can’t catch my breath. For instance, just this week alone:

My little boy is sick. Not just a little bit sick. He got sent home from school on Thursday morning, and we took him to the doctor right away, and though he looked awful he didn’t even have a fever and so they just sent us home and said, oh well.. wait it out. So we’re waiting. And waiting. It’s Day 5 now and really? We’d really just like him to be well already. We’re going back to the doctor tomorrow because the fevers that were nonexistent on Thursday? They won’t go away now. Not to mention the whoopsie tummy incident on my den carpet (right behind me, at the computer) that somehow made a red Slurpee live forever in monument on the rug. Ok so the carpet doesn’t owe us a thing, but I had been hoping to replace it sometime after my elderly cats weren’t around to leave their own monuments on a new carpet. Oh well, just my luck. Anyway, I’m really hoping BoyZilla gets well soon… I truly hate seeing him so miserable.

Second, the Christmas Cards. The cards are here, but still in boxes. The newsletter that I had been skipping the last four years suddenly got done this year (my daughter volunteered) but now it means an extra trip to Kinkos at some point for copying. Sigh. And is there anybody out there who can run to the post office for me? I need about a hundred stamps, quick. Thanks!

Third, the office potluck, scheduled for Wednesday, at a time when I already had a meeting on the top floor (a big deal where I work). I struggled all weekend to find something I could make in the crockpot for ease of carrying. Except the group couldn’t decide whether it was going to be breakfast or lunch. If it was breakfast then there are others who are the queens of breakfast casseroles and quiche, so I needed a sort of side dish, that was festive, and good for either situation. Not as easy as you’d think.

I settled on Potatoes Au Gratin with Asiago and Gorgonzola and cream cheese with turkey kielbasa. (Did I mention that people in my office don’t eat pork?) So I send the poor husband on a cheese hunt in the market (We’re simple cheese slice people and typically can’t even spell Gorgonzola) and after much searching he was successful. Yay! Gourmet cheesy potatoes! Except you know what? The boss tells me today that our potluck has been postponed. So has my meeting on the top floor, by the way, so I’m feeling all cheesed up and nowhere to go. Harumph.

My wedding ring has been broken since before Thanksgiving and it has been repaired and is waiting for me at the jeweler, except I can’t seem to get there, what with the sick kid and cheese quest and all. I guess it’s ok, though because my nephew already has the book I bought him for Christmas so I have to go get something else this weekend. One last trip to the mall. I guess I’ll pick up my ring this weekend.

So, as you can imagine, I’m a little stressed out. So much, in fact, that I got all teary-eyed at one of those Folger coffee commercials, you know, where the missing family member gets home for Christmas, and starts a pot of coffee for his sleeping mom and dad? Yeah that one. Totally bawled. I think I need a cuppa and a hug.

But, it’s not all bad… today the mailman brought this:

That’s right, Trish. Go pet the cashmere. It’ll all be over soon.

Christmas is Coming… It’s Time to Knit a Hat…

What? You mean that’s not how the song goes?

Well, I’ve been singing it to myself like crazy as I’ve been knitting away on my stripey elf hat:

It now has twice as many stripes as it did last week and I am beginning to have hope that it might actually be wearable by Christmas morning. I’m liking it better than I did last week, too. It always looks nicer as the spirals become obvious. I love this pattern by Brian Kohler. I wish he would re-publish it. It’s so fun to make! The original pattern was designed for two colors, a main color and a color for the ribbing and tassel.) By adding stripes I actually made the stripes a touch wider. The reason is that each row is a combination of knit and purl stitches forming a wide rib, and I wanted to make sure that the color transitions were not made icky by showing the interlocking nature of the purl side… so I added a row of plain stockinette at the beginning and end of each stripe. So, the stripes blend perfectly! Because of the spiraling nature of the pattern the color change jog is very minimal as well, so I think overall this has worked out well.

Christmas, here I come!

And now, I have a confession to make. I bought… cashmere.

Webs has some Gedifra cashmere on closeout, and for once I could find a color I can live with. So, I jumped.

I’ve been eying the cashmere wraps at Nordstrom for weeks, and I almost bought one, except John was with me, and well, you know… my relationship with the credit card is a little strained when the husband is around, so I didn’t. But, I figure I can make my own wrap. Now, to choose a pattern… any ideas?

I need some ideas on something else as well. Next week we’re having a holiday brunch/luncheon at work. My boss is the queen of breakfast casserole, and another coworker is famous for her quiche. So, I’d like to make some sort of breakfasty/lunchy side dish in my crockpot, so that it’s easy to do overnight and can be lugged to the office and plugged in. No pork. (Drat!) Any ideas? Please let me know…

Anyway, I’ve got a sick kid so I’m headed to bed early so I’ll have energy for him tomorrow. That, and I’m crazy behind on some projects at work so I’ll be juggling lots of stuff over the next couple days. Wish me luck!

The 12 Days of Blogging

Hi There!

Sorry I’ve been away so long. Do I have an excuse? Not really. I’ve been knitting, as you’ll see in a moment, but for the last couple weeks I thought it was sort of boring to look at so I didn’t blog about it. Which doesn’t mean I didn’t at least think about blogging. I thought about it, a lot. The thing is, I’ve been having trouble turning the thinking into doing. I didn’t even do the knitting group meeting report from two weeks ago yet. Maybe I’ll try that tomorrow. Or sometime before the next meetup on Saturday! Wish me luck on that.

In fact, I’m setting a goal for this month. In honor of the Holiday Season, I am going to try to blog at least 12 times this month. 12 times. It won’t be easy, given that the dark days of winter suck the motivation right out of me, but I am going to try. Hang in there with me!

So anyway, on to the knitting:

I’m finishing up the third stripe of my long stocking cap. I like it, I think. But, the design has a lot going on and some of it is getting lost. The original pattern was two colors (a main color and a contrast color for the ribbing and tassel). I decided to incorporate stripes. But there’s also these cables in the pattern, that creep up the hat and shift around in a spiral as you do each repeat. Well, the stripes are sort of eliminating the effect of the spiral. So I could have left the spiral out, I think, but oh well. It will be interesting to see how this hat comes out.

I’m hoping to have it done for Christmas (it’s not a gift), but right now it’s feeling doubtful.

Hey, guess what? My Christmas shopping is almost done! Next… the dreaded Christmas card. I ordered custom ones again this year with our photos on them. I like making the card but I hate the whole mailing part. It’ll take me from now til Christmas to get them all done.

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a video of the cutest little kitten I have ever seen (today, anyway). If you watch the Ellen Degeneres Show, you probably saw this today, but it’s worth sharing:

Until next time!