the Christmas Grind part 2

Justine, Hannah,
take a moment and listen. Listen to what?
Do you hear the rustling of tissue paper? Frantic phonecalls from sisters? The smoke detector going off, screaming of burnt food? The hysterical clacking of knitting needles as Christmas draws closer by each malicious move of the clock?
Do you?

No. Because we made it. Christmas is OVER. Not to mention, the Solstice has passed and the days will now get longer. I'm tempted to make a chart of what time the sun goes down, to track each extra minute of sunlight we get.

I repeat: Christmas is over, and I finished everything. Each last stitch, blocked, sewn, wrapped and placed under the christmas tree; no sweat. ( Just give me a few weeks to recover).

This was truely a year of wonderful gifts. Everyone, myself included, got exactly what they didn't even know they wanted and needed. (Like a big box of brown merino yarn. But let me add a news flash of a not so wonderful gift - Andrew has mono. Talk about a damper on holiday fun. Get better FAST Andrew.

But now back to Christmas past -
Dad loved his sweater, just like we knew he would. But it wasn't until he put it on that the magic happened. A few days later he was showing it off. Lets hope (wait...maybe not) that it gets cold enough for him to wear it.

This was my first real attempt at any sort of colorwork, and I must say, I love it. I'd done smaller pieces, lots of fair isle stripes, intarsia wristbands, and am comfortable working with many colors, but this was my first sweater, pattern, and overall finished piece I am proud of . And for a man who is always cold, a lopi sweater is just the thing.

You know, I am just not technologically gifted. Let's start a scoreboard. Right now, as i anguish over sore fingers and cats stuck in christmas paper, i'd say the score is Blogger: 5, Catherine: 0.

From Evanston to HELL and then home

So after being very well off at Cat's house at 6 am in the morning on the 21st, by 6 pm not only was I frazzled at the fact I just spent an entire day on a train/bus, but now I am working, and not on the gloves for mother. Shit. SO... my entry... I hate AMTRAK, and you know why? because their stupid train didn't have proper brakes, and made me almost late to work... like 5 hours later! AHHH! we got to the first station outside of Chicago, and sat there for 2 hours, and then got toated back to Chicago (yea!) and sat in Union station for an hour, and then got put on busses for the 3 hour bus trip to Kalamazoo. And in the middle of all that, I made a second left hand glove. Damn it all to hell. So I had to rip it all out to the wrist. That really sucked. But I am almost done now with the glove.

On another note, I went to the hair dresser, and everyone there is addicted to knitting I guess, and so I was waiting for my turn and everyone's liek are you making a scarf? when it is clearly a glove by that time with out the thumb. Anyways, I am boycotting Amtrack, and will pay for gas to drive or fly next time. More later :)

misadventures in evanston

Yesterday my step-brother-in-law-what-have-you dropped off my nephew, Owen, at Catherine's house so we could take him around to the Exploratorium in Skokie. Unfortunately, we got there and they were like, "yeah, we're closed." So we were like, "shit." Hannah, Catherine, and I ended up taking him to pancakes, figuring food will appease the four-year-old within each of us (literally in Owen's case). That part of the morning was really just for him. So to appease the eighteen-and-nineteen-year-olds in the gang, we ended up traipsing over to Close Knit in Evanston to buy some shit. And when I say "shit", I mean that I told Owen to look for anything pink and pretty so I could make some gloves.

Gloves are the DEVIL. I pretty much started the whole idea of making gloves, um, halfway through October. I've ripped them out about five times, because THERE ARE JUST ALWAYS STUPID THINGS WRONG WITH THEM. I've put them away and gone back to them over and over again. Maybe I'd be more dedicated to the idea if I didn't already have nice brown leather gloves. However, I decided that maybe I'd have some better luck if I used a thicker yarn, and had Owen pull out some Manos del Uruguay. So, um, we'll see how that goes, I guess. But somehow during the glove project, end of October, I'd say, the following conversation, loosely transcribed, occurred.

Catherine: "Make hobo gloves."
Justine: "I hate hobo gloves!"
C: "You're such a snot. You won't even wear hobo gloves if they're pink and orange and pretty and made out of $15 yarn!"
J: "You're..... STUPID!"

And then one day, way in the beginning of Winter break, I had a dream that I had hobo gloves. They were sweet. And then I woke up, signed onto AIM, and told Catherine I was casting on for hobo gloves. She was ecstatic. Needless to say, I ended up ripping them out, since I am so prone to the stupid mistakes. But we'll see. On the same note, while Catherine and I were walking around Old Orchard, I ended up whining to her about how I needed a belt for these really loose jeans I have.

J: "hey, you know that yoga bag I knit you for Christmas? I have some leftover stuff. I'm going to knit myself a belt."
C: "You're going to make yourself a loose, stretchy belt."
J: "Yes. I'll tie it around my waist or something."
C: "You're going to make yourself a loose, stretchy, GREEN belt that you're going to tie around your waist."
J: "Whatever."
C: "You're so... bohemian now!"

And to that I say- WHATEVER! You're STUPID! Just because I pop my collar and have previously been known to knit only with pink and was formerly opposed to the idea of hobo gloves..... I say WHATEVER X 2! And now she has the nerve to blame it on being a student at K College! Absolute CRAZINESS!

I will say, however, that maybe I do owe K for giving me people like Catherine; people who will sit in Starbucks looking like this; knitting a sweater sleeve and letting her friend's nephew take pictures of her with the sleeve on top of their head. Because that's how we killed time, in a very bohemian-displaced-K-students-without-Ravenwood-and-things-to-knit kind of way. Hannah and I played with the little porkchop while Catherine knitted (knat?) like a CRAZY FIEND. That's how we like her.

the Christmas Grind part 1

This morning, at 7:00, we got in the car to drive Hannah to Union Station. SEVEN A.M. Seven. In the MORNING. Normally this wouldn't be too bad; evil, but not unbearable. But last night was my annual Christmas party. Over the years, they've become more casual, more laid back, and more fun. Almost all my friends from highschool stopped by in one form or another, and we cleaned up in RECORD time.

This, I am ashamed to say, made me feel like I was losing out on valuable knitting time. Must. Keep. Knitting. Christmas is only 4 days away! I'm still young and foolish - I started a sweater maybe last week! And the foolish mistakes keep on coming. I have two right hand hobo gloves, half finished gloves for my mom, and a Lopi sweater in need of a yoke. The next two days should be fun.

But speaking of Lopi, this is my new passion (besides the newly learned brioche stitch). This sweater is for my dad.
the 200 stitch yoke is damn near killing me right now, but the pattern is wonderful and fun to knit. Camilla Valley Farms was very prompt, and their prices are reasonable. But i screwed myself over (see above. Christmas stupidity) and had to pay $27 for shipping. So much for bargain shopping.

Thats my problem - bargain shopping never really works out. I'll never find EXACTLY what i'm looking for at the cheapest price, or, if I do, I need it shipped from Canada that day, and end up paying an arm and a leg (although on my mother's credit card). As much as i'd like to be a bargain yarn shopper, i'm drawn into expensive yarn stores filled with Lorna's Laces and Manos de Uraguay like a moth to flame.

It makes Christmas expensive.

and then there was a blog...

Once upon a time I started a knitting blog. Everyone else had one, and I was knitting the same things as everyone else, so why not have a blog?

Of course, this was also the end of senior year. I was working four days a week, going to school for five, embroiled in a sort of long distance relationship, and barely had time to knit, let alone blog about the scarves and socks I was working on.

But don't get me wrong; I kept knitting. I have a closetful of scarves, sweaters, and shawls, and am working on more socks than any girl needs (except that i DO need them. Kalamazoo is cold!) As summer rolled around, all I did was knit. Afghans, gloves, mittens, more socks, anything you could think of flew off my needles. When September rolled around I packed up a few bags of yarn, all my needles, and took I94 from Chicago to Kalamazoo, Michigan.

For those of you who know of K College, a group of knitters will not appear out of the ordinary. It is most definitely a liberal arts school. It wasn't long until I found, only three floors under me, a group of girls equally, although not as obsessed, with knitting as I was. From then on, Justine and I have gone to the yarn store more times than is healthy. Hannah soon jumped on the "bandwagon" as soon as she expanded her crochet horizons and began to knit.

Here we are ready for winter quarter, freezing on our tiny campus. We're embarking on starting a knitting group that will not only be campus wide, but be both artful and help "build community bonds". (kalamazoo is big on that.) A spinning wheel will take up residence in Crissey 8, as will many more knitting circles.

And here is a blog to document it all. Hannah, Justine and myself decided what better way to stay in touch over breaks than document our knitting, as well as our knitting group.