We are ready for the family Christmas party 🙂

P.S. I cannot express how happy I am that the scarves were wanted. I’ve not had much luck in the past with my knitted and crocheted gifts. They always seems to end up as pet blankets, or couch covers or stuffed somewhere in a closet never to be seen again. This year, though I’ve given 4 scarves and they seem to have been well received. Before the party started, I gave my MIL the HP 3 scarf that I hand knit and she actually laughed and danced when she opened it. At the party the family has in the past done this white elephant type thing in which you can pick a gift or steal something that someone already picked. I was a bit down-hearted this year when I heard that they were doing things a bit differently and presents would be passed to the left or the right a number of times and what you ended up with at the end of the game was yours. My goal since last year had been to offer something that would be get stolen and now I wasn’t going to know. David’s grandparents, however, warmed my heart and made themselves forever knitworthy in my heart. When they each in turn ended up with a scarf they scooted themselves out of the game and hid the scarves. Yes, it was cheating, but I figure people in their 80’s who gave birth to this fabulous and funky family I married into were allowed. And they warmed this knitter’s heart forever.

The only Black Friday shopping that I did was to brave the crowds at JoAnn’s and add a bit of yarn to my stash. I also added a bit more to my stash during the Cyber Monday sales. I’m collecting some colors of  Bamboo Ewe that will eventually turn into a log cabin type blanket of many colors. There aren’t many colors available but they seem to change every once in awhile so I figure eventually I will have a nice amount of several different colors to make something like this:

This really neat blanket comes from one of my favorite books, Mason Dixon Knitting. The only afghans I have created so far have been made out of acrylic yarn. I don’t mind acrylic yarn but I want something out of a nicer yarn, one that wasn’t so expensive that I would have a complete meltdown if the afghan got damaged somehow.

JoAnn’s had these colors in stock and I ordered two more colors off their website:

There are three more colors out there somewhere and I’m hoping I can find them in a store, otherwise, I have to order them online and that gets pricey. I struck out at Michael’s and they were my last hope, so I guess it’s online ordering for me :/

I just need Stitch Nation to release more colors 🙂

You know how everyone keeps saying “Holy Cow, it’s (insert month here) already?”? I’m going to try really hard not to say that. While everyone around me is commenting on the passage of time, I seem to be just floating along and not really noticing. I’m happily enjoying the Christmas season. We have our lights up and plans to attend a Handel’s Messiah Sing-In on Friday. We need snow to make things really wintery.

I do know that I have little time left to finish any knitted gifts that I currently have on the needles and on the machine. I’m pretty sure I can finish these things without too much stress and swearing. I’m also pretty sure the Knitting Goddess is just about to launch a little Universe Balancing grenade so maybe I should knock on wood or sacrifice a fern. I need to finish one machine scarf and then seam all four of them up and add fringe. Those will be going to a family party. I need to finish two hand knitted scarves and a few dishcloths. This seems doable to me.

I might be deluding myself.I might be deluding myself to the point where I think I can add a few hats to the knitting list. And some fingerless mitts.

I was going to add a few words to non-knitters that love a knitter but the Yarn Harlot always says it so much better. Suffice it say that we knitters have lots of knitting stuff because we like knitting stuff and enjoy getting more knitting stuff 🙂

Speaking of knitterly gifts, on our anniversary a week ago, hubby and I had a lovely day that consisted of a small bit of Black Friday shopping where I added a small bit of yarn to my stash. We got pedicures after which I felt like a new woman. David bought a handy yarn project bag for me. I am currently making a blanket from Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn that I had originally intended for a Doctor Who scarf. Since I didn’t want to make that scarf again with acrylic I thought the yarn would make an interesting blanket in Doctor Who scarf colors. The handy yarn bag is this little cutie in periwinkle:

If I hadn’t wound one of the skeins of yarn into a ball it would have held all seven large skeins perfectly, if a bit snugly. That will work itself out as I get more of the blanket done. Apparently getting the yarn to fit in the bag is more of an incentive to work on the blanket than having a finished blanket. I’ll have to ponder that sometime.

The next knitting bags on my wish list (other than the Yarn Drum in raspberry) are these:

You can never have too many knitting bags, right?