*squee*

I bought a membership in the WEBS Skein of the Month club. Every month they send a skein and a pattern.

January's yarn is pretty! It's Sheep Number Three from The Sheep Shop Yarn Company. The skein I have is colorway g109, which has more green in it than the picture shows. The pattern is Silky Leaves Scarf, which will be my first time knitting from a chart (you do have to start somewhere, after all).

Once I finish my clapotis - yes, I'm making one for myself out of Schaefer Miss Priss in the Jane Addams colorway - I'll start on this scarf. I think it's going to be pretty!

Work has been very busy lately, so I haven't had as much knitting time. I do need to make myself a new scarf, since I bought a new coat, but I haven't had a chance to peruse the stash to find the right yarn.

Pictures

Oh, what the heck.

Father-in-law in earflap hat -


Made with Lion Brand Wool-ease thick & quick, took less than 24 hours to finish. Based on the Camo Earflap Cap.



The trio of Clapotis:



First one is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, the other two are Cherry Tree Hill Supersock DK. The pattern is here.

The armwarmers:



First pair is Lime & Violet Sasquatch Sock, second is Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock. Pattern is Elegant Gauntlets from
The Knitting Experience: Book 2: The Purl Stitch

Nephew's hat:


Yarn is Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool and Brooks Farm Acero held together. Pattern is Brother-in-law basket weave hat.


Dad's scarf:


Yarn is Lion Brand Wool-ease Chunky. Pattern is Under Water.

Niece's scarf:


Yarn is Jo-Ann Sensations Spectrum. Pattern is Drop Stitch Scarf.


That was all the gifts. I was finishing up Dad's scarf on Christmas Eve, but everything was done on time. One of my resolutions is to start holiday knitting by February ;-)

Christmas knitting

Yeah, I'm not posting pictures, I've had daily headaches for a good week now, and between that and catching the norovirus it's been a week.

Anyway, the total knitting accomplished for Christmas was 3 clapotis (clapoti?), an earflap hat, 2 pairs of armwarmers, a scarf, and a hat. Not bad for a beginner knitter! If you're on Ravelry, I've posted pictures of all of them there.

I was about going out of my mind with nothing on the needles, so I cast on a scarf for me. It's somewhat lacy, so I'm getting a feel for lace knitting without making something HUGE.

I also got a new toy tool - a Daylight lamp (that's a brand, not a type). I realized when I was trying to fix a problem with the very dark armwarmers that there just wasn't enough light of the right type for crafting.

Either that or I'm just getting old...

I HATE Flickr!!!

Don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I hate that site! And it's one that I have to use for Ravelry, and I did something wrong on Flickr which caused all my pictures on Ravelry to magically disappear.

Apparently there is a beta group who can post things from their own web space - I'm there. Sent the email, just waiting for the response.

Grrrrr.

Down to the wire

Finally finished the armwarmers for the nieces. I'm not totally happy with them, but they're damn good for a first effort with something like that on small needles. And if the girls want better I can make more for next year ;-)

Still need to tuck some ends on the clapotis (clapoti?) I made for Mom, MiL, and Dan's aunt. Given that it's all of maybe 2-3 per, that's not going to be a big problem. I want to do some blocking of them, but not full-on pinned down.

Have things for other niece and Dan's dad, too. Still need to finish the thing for my dad. Debating making a scarf to match what I made for the nephew.

I'm debating what to make after this. I do know one thing, it will be something just for me.

Gift knitting

We went to my parents' for an early Thanksgiving celebration the weekend before. I'm glad I decided to go ahead and try one of the in-process arm warmers on the nieces, because while it fit the younger one just fine, it didn't even come close on the older one. She's in competitive gymnastics, and, wow, that girl has some muscles.

I also decided to switch yarn for the older one's set. I had been working on her pair, and she didn't seem to like the yarn much. And after I thought about it, it's really not her. So I dug into my stash and came up with some jewel toned sock yarn that will be perfect for her. I'm on the first set of decreases already, which is pretty good since I didn't start it until Thursday.

I screwed up on the decrease section of the younger one's armwarmer, so I'm tinking back. I can't quite figure out where it is, but going back to the last decrease should help. I've been a little too mindless in my knitting on these, I screwed up on the older's one, too, but decided that a well placed-decrease would fix the extra stitch that creaped in there. And given how long it took me to find the increase, it won't be an obvious thing.

Still haven't made a final decision on the nephew's present, other than a funky hat of some sort. He's 15, almost 6 ft tall, and occasionally needs to be taken down a peg. I took the Wii with us, and he was being way over competitive until his dad took him down in a big way playing cow racing. Heh.

I had started a clapotis for Dan's aunt, but while working on it discovered that I seem to be allergic to alpaca. I had the whole itchy, watery eyes and itchy hands going. So I have some other yarn to use for it, now. And I think I'll make one for my SiL out of some Brooks Farm yarn I have in my stash.

Still not sure what to make for Dad. He's always a gift giving challenge.

I am feeling better, slowly getting back to decent energy levels. Had a sleep study awhile back and I will be getting a CPAP on Tuesday. I hope that helps the levels, too.

Still kicking

And I've actually been knitting up a storm - I'm almost done with the second Clapotis. Knitting's about all I've had the energy to do, to be honest. I did bake 2 pumpkin pies yesterday, and that was more than I should have done, so today is back to watching documentaries and knitting.

Surgery was a week ago. Other than some serious breathing issues when I first woke up after surgery, I've been OK. I guess the anesthesiologist missed the fact that I'm asthmatic - d'oh! There's nothing like swimming up to consciousness feeling like you're choking and can't breathe and having someone yelling at you to take deep breaths. Then having to have the nurse hold the nebulizer do-hicky because I was too weak to do it myself.

But I'm OK now. Some pain, of course, and 4 holes in various places with stitches. I forgot to take out my belly button ring, oops. They did it for me, without breaking the bead, even. Put it in a hazmat bag with my name on it :-D

Mom came up for a few days to help us out - Dan had to go to school on Friday and I wasn't supposed to be alone yet. She did a lot around the house, which I was most appreciative of. Dan and I have muddled through this week given that I do most of the cooking. He's managed to feed us most evenings, and I'm doing a bit, too.

Hopefully I'll be up to taking and posting some knitting-related pictures soon.

Wheeeeeeeeeee

Saw the surgeon yesterday - surgery is on Thursday. He gave me stronger hydrocodone to last me till then, and yeah, I can tell it's stronger, just look at all the pretty colors!!

I finally finished something (other than I need to tuck the ends). The first clapotis is done, and I love it! I've started the second one for my SiL, and the colors are just gorgeous. I'm using some DK weight from Cherry Tree Hill that Dan helped me pick out.

I'm glad the pattern is easy to memorize and do the repeats - I'm so whacked out I'm not sure I could do anything more complicated.

This week is so fired

It's not been a good week, to put it mildly. I spent a few hours in the ER Wednesday night, with some serious pain. ER doc thought it was my gall bladder, called surgeon, told me to get an ultrasound today (they don't have a tech on at night, how weird is that?!).

Got the ultrasound done, talked to the surgeon tonight. Ultrasound is normal, of course. *headdesk*

I've had issues with right side pain for well over 20 years, on and off. The pain that started Wednesday night, however, is the worst it's ever been, as well as the longest time it's hung around. The morphine they gave me last night helped a lot, the hydrocodone I'm taking now isn't helping nearly as much.

So anyway, we talked to the surgeon about the history, and we all decided that removing my gall bladder is a good idea at this point. But we need to make sure we give the insurance company whatever information they'll need to cover it (as in do we need to do further tests, etc). I'm supposed to call the surgeon's office tomorrow to make an appointment for Monday and to start the ball rolling on the insurance stuff. The hard part will be that Dan has to go to school on Monday, so I have to schedule my appointment around that, since I'm not going to be in any shape to drive.

More than likely surgery will be Tuesday or Wednesday.

Of course, this is sucking for work. Yes, I work from home, but I need to be in better mental shape and not in pain to work. I don't know how much PTO I have, and since I'm hourly if I don't work and I don't have PTO I don't get paid. *sigh*

We were just finishing digging out from the unemployment period. Figures.

So anyway, I'm trying to figure out if I can actually knit while impaired. I'm working on the clapotis right now, since that's a fairly simple repeat pattern. I'm not going to seam more of the hoodie, since I want those seams to look good, and it's the first time I've seamed something up in a long time.

And all this is on top of some other health news I got yesterday that I'm not ready to talk about yet.

Sheesh!!

I'm almost done

Have I mentioned that I've never actually completed a knitting project yet?

*waits for the laughter to die down*

No, really, I haven't. Until I started on the projects I've documented here, all I've done were scarves that bored me to death to the point I frogged them or hid them in the closet.

All I have left on the hoodie is some seaming and 3 rows of knitting I can't do till I seam the hood. Given that I woke up at 4am for no good reason and I'm a bit fuzzy, I've put it aside for tomorrow or Saturday to finish.

While working on the clapotis, Dan asked if I would make one for his mom, too. So I just ordered that yarn. The one I'm working on is over half done.

I've been flipping through the projects on Ravelry to see what else I want to make for holiday gifts. I want to use some of my stash yarn, so the fact that I can search based on type of project and weight of yarn really rocks.

And tonight I have a sleep study, so to entertain myself after I get there I'm taking my knitting. Given that, I probably will be brain dead tomorrow (and might take tomorrow afternoon off work) I'm thinking the seaming will be on Saturday.

Yesterday men in trucks came and cleaned up our front beds. They were a complete and utter mess, weedy, unkempt. Dan and I hate yardwork, and it showed. Since we're going to sell the house in the spring, we decided to get it landscaped now to give the plants time to establish themselves. I think they did a great job. We'll have them back in the spring for touchups.