knitorious

Crafty corner

I finished with the lights yesterday and unpacked boxes with ornaments and decorations.  I placed a few very special items on the tree myself, then Katie came along and did hers and a whole bunch more while I watched (and dozed) from a chair.  Ali and Maddy have yet to hang their ornaments.

St. Nick brought the girls S'more ornaments a few years ago and I was thrilled to find a knitter for myself this year!  The cross-stitch ornament was an unexpected gift from my SIL.  I always remember her giving it to me and telling me that she just couldn't resist because it was so perfect.

The inscription from Grandpa & Grandma is on the bottom of a ceramic "holiday" igloo.  It has cut-out windows and colored plastic pegs that look like lights on trees when illuminated -- some of the pegs are broken, damaged or missing altogether.  There's been a big crack from the bottom edge to nearly the top and I handle it with extreme care every year, wondering if it'll be the last.  I imagine that when it does eventually break, I'll have not choice but to glue it together.

Katie broke (beyond repair) her 1988 ornament from Grandma & Grandpa last night.  It wasn't one of her favorites, but it's still very sad.  I told her that I broke mine from 1977 a long time ago, too.  I still remember.  It was a cardinal.

'Tis the season

Unfortunately, even by the end of the day the tree wasn't much more improved than in this earlier-in-the-day photo, except that I did put the tippy-top of the tree in place... after ripping all the friggin' lights off of it because half of them weren't working.  Yes, I know all about pre-lit Christmas trees.  Let me tell ya... if you think my tree looks pathetic, you should have seen my mom's yesterday.  It is a pre-lit tree that she's used for enough years that much of it now needs to be re-lit.  She's threatening to use the table-top tree instead, or even the feather tree!

Ho ho ho.  We listened to Christmas music, but I sure wish someone could find our Hanson Snowed In CD -- if that doesn't get me a little pumped about the Christmas hullaballoo, nothing will.

Quite a many several years ago, I came home to find the oval window on our front door positively aglow with lights.  I'm not sure from whence the inspiration came, but DH had made this thing resembling a fish skeleton out of lumber scraps and wire, cleverly fashioning loops so it could be secured to the door both top and bottom, stapled 200 lights to it employing the willy-nilly method, and called it done.  This year, it was time to replace the lights and we used cute little clear button lights purchased on clearance last year (or maybe even the year before).  He was a little more orderly with the new arrangement, thinking stars and space, galaxies and orbits.

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I had Breakfast With the Boys on my way to work this morning and those boys made me cry!  It's only by chance that I catch the show on Thursday mornings, and I've enjoyed it every single time.  I'm really going to have to make a note -- Mark Tauscher is hilarious.  It was co-host John Maino who brought the tears this morning, though.  He was on the phone from Washington where he was to deliver gifts to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center this afternoon.  There are plenty of Packer items in that Santa sack, of course, including 100 jerseys signed by Brett Favre earlier this week.  Maino was embedded with local troops in Iraq for a week last summer and this morning he talked about what the Packers mean to our local troops -- it's something to think about, talk about, concentrate on, fight for...

It just made me think, you know.  I'm not going to complain about my Christmas tree lights any more.  I'm going to hope that the Packers win at least one more game before Christmas -- for the troops -- but even if they don't, I don't know, just play and do their best.  Pray that our guys will come home soon.  Lots of stuff like that...

The jolly guy in red

"St. Nicholas" filled the stockings tied to the stairway last night.  In a very practical mood, she left slippers for the girls and insoles for DH -- he's been complaining of sore feet.  ; )  The girls each get an ornament from St. Nick every year and this year it's the angels above, which are reminiscent of just like our horn-playing tree-top angel, except that it wasn't discovered 'til the very last minute that only one of these ornaments actually has a horn -- the others have cymbals or harp!

Is it pathetic that I fill my own stocking?  I don't give myself a gift because, well, I've actually been quite wild and free of late with the "add to cart" buttons -- nothing huge, but a pamphlet here, a booklet there, a magazine, a book... now I've got to find that Noro book with the Blossom vest pattern that I mentioned yesterday.  It's not yarn that makes my finger twitch, it's the patterns!  So, let's pretend there's a back issue or two of Wool Gathering sticking out the top there.

Coup d'Etat is off the needles!  I short-rowed and did a three-needle bind off at the shoulders and there's just no other way... totally love that technique.  I also did full-fashion decreases and increases throughout and I'm anxious to seam.  My blocking board is already in use at the moment, but perhaps later today I can give all the pieces a bath and pin them out.  It's going to be button time soon!

I saw Katie for the first time yesterday when I came home last night and she noticed that I was wearing Williamsro.  Not only did she notice, she told me how wonderful it looked, that it was her favorite of all the sweaters I've made, why don't I wear it more.  I proceeded to tell her/consult regarding that bottom Blossom part and she confirmed the conclusion I'd come to after wearing it for the whole day.  Yes, there's the whole horizontal stripes can make anyone's anything look big, but I don't think the horizontal-ness is the problem here.  Can't get much more horizontal than Fib, which is also one of my favorite sweaters, so I obviously have no issues with the horizontal.  The biggest thing with Williamsro is that there are too many stitches picked up for that bottom part -- so many that it is actually distorted -- and there's no elasticity to the Cash Iroha so no resistance and it just let's itself be pulled.  There's a bit of a flare, a swing -- even bulbous quality -- to that Blossom section that maybe isn't so evident in the photos, but it'll make a huge overall difference if I can find the magic number.

I think that the rest of my December knitting is going to be devoted to The Fix & Finish.  I've got Shirley Shrugs and Williamsro in need of attention, there's Coup d'Etat seaming in the wings, along with a button band and many buttons to be sewn... there are buttons to be sewn on sweaters that haven't seen the light of day in so long, I'm sure you've forgotten.

Let's get crack-a-lackin'

Imagine John Travolta, a la Grease: "It's petrifying!"  Really, it is electrifying -- I can't leave the Petrified Socks alone.  There's been precious little time, but what there is has been split between the sock and the Wee Weasley.  Mack is leaving tomorrow morning and my sister said she's taking the sweater whether I've finished with it or not!  It fits him perfectly with a little room to grow and he just couldn't be more adorable.

I've turned the heel on the sock and, as of sleepy-time last night, the gusset is finished, too, so now it's just foot for a while.  We'll just have to see if there's any pooling or flashing as that progresses, but I'm very pleased with how the leg turned out -- very even color distribution on both sides.

Turns out that last Friday -- an extra day off of work/school due to icy conditions -- the ice quickly melted, the sun came out and the temperature was nearly 40 in the afternoon.  Made for good last-minute shopping weather, and I also filled in at the antique mall for a couple of hours.  It was nice to share some of my bonus day helping someone who needed it.

My sister and her family arrived from the northland quite late Friday night -- or was that quite early Saturday morning?  We had a nice day on Saturday with last-minute bustle and then headed over to Mom's.  An aunt that I haven't seen in a long time brought Grandma to the festivities, along with birthday cake to celebrate Gram's 93rd birthday!  DH celebrated his birthday on the day after, but no cake.  Ugh.  Can't even think about cake or sweets.  Maybe I'll surprise him with a belated cake just before Katie leaves for England.  Or maybe defrosted brownies!  (Haha -- thanks for the brownie advice; I've never before had to deal with too many brownies.)

More later...  it's back to work for the first time in a week and I've got some catching up to do!

The next step

I finished the wallpapering yesterday and I had a feline supervisor.  The tile that you see behind Duncan is a problem.  They're nice tiles -- handpainted trillium and mushrooms stuck randomly throughout -- in good condition.  They don't "go," but they're not coming off -- that's too big a can of worms, too many unknowns.  I'm happy to ignore it, but it's a thorn in Ali's side.  Do we dare paint it?  Can I fashion some kind of cover-up?

I had plenty of wallpaper and only had to use a few of the pieces that had registration problems -- and those I placed mostly above doors and windows.  DH stained the crown moulding yesterday and might put it up today (it's pickled, same as the ceiling).  He'll work his way down, building the cap and applying the strips to the paneling, and then he'll bow out and let the painting/decorating team take over.

Here's a closer view of the paper.  The background is off-white, but with a hint of pink -- the wood on the ceiling has a bit of pink, too, and they really look nice together.  There's kind of a dusky, antique coloring to the paper, which I really like.  The yellow pansies have an almost parchment look, very similar to those in a favorite, vintage Paul de Longpre pansy print* I have in the living room.  I'm no professional, but I don't think I did too badly matching at the seams.  (I did get paid to paper once; DH worked for a firm that designed trade show displays and one of their customers was Kohler.  They had a few displays that needed papering and I was tapped.  It was very cool, but scary -- limited quantities of expensive, handmade wallpaper made me kinda nervous.)

I had an email last week from Shelli in Canada.  She'd been searching for paint in a terra cotta color and was having a hard time finding one that wasn't too orange or too brown or too red.  She perused the While You Were Out album and asked for details about the color we used.  I copied and sent all the information from the sticker on the paint can.  She wrote yesterday to say that she'd taken my email with her to the store, had a can mixed to specs and it's perfect!  Yay!!

*I meant to tell this story at Christmas, but now's as good a time as any.  Quite a few years ago, I was at an auction with Mom and my sister Sharon.  I must have been distracted because by the time I realized that a beautiful, half-yard-long pansy print was on the block, Sharon was already bidding on it.  And she won it.  And I pouted and drooled.  Even though it wasn't mine, I think it's the item that made me a bonafide pansy collector.

A few years later, downsizing and preparing for a move from Wisconsin to New Mexico, Sharon decided that she didn't want to take the print with her, but neither did she want to give it up, so she gave it to me for safe-keeping.  Eventually, she landed in Ohio and had room for it, but knowing how much I loved it, she let me keep it a while longer -- with the understanding that I'd (happily/sadly) give it back at any time.  During a trip to the Outer Banks one fall, we planned to stay overnight at her house.  Knowing we were coming, she asked if I'd bring the print.  Oh, I was very sad to give it up, but it was time; we had a few good years together.

All my siblings were home for Christmas (festivities at my house!) and another sister, Karen, had my name that year.  When I opened her gift, I immediately turned, in complete and utter disbelief, to Sharon and said, "Thank you," then, rather confused, to Karen.  On my lap was the pansy print I'd just delivered to Ohio.  Karen had bought it from Sharon to give to me.  It was one of the best gifts I ever received -- so completely from the heart -- and like a gift from both of them!  Sharon says that that's the best gift you can give anybody -- something that you have that you know would make someone else happy.  I think she's angling to have it re-gifted one of these years...

If you've stuck in there this long, then run right over to see Celia.  She is a funny, funny lady and sure makes me look forward (even more) to International Pajama Day II.

He sees you when you're sleeping

I'm smitten with a mitten, and I'm not the only one. Katie loves it. Maddy loves it. Ali hasn't been around much, but I'm sure she'd love it, too. Maddy wants it/them -- even more than the pink thrummed mittens. I think the thrums will win her over on her first walk with Mickey on Christmas Day when it will be 20 below with wind chill. After the photo op, I picked up the stitches for the thumb (peeking out at left) and knit about half. Woo.

Katie's home! My heart's been warmed this week, reading about holiday prep and homecomings. I couldn't help but remember this time last year when Katie came home after her first semester away at college. We hadn't seen her in four months, and the whole family went for a late-night greet at the airport. I spotted her before she saw us and busted my buttons -- I was speechless. DH stood right next to me and asked, "Where's Kate?" Expecting to see the high school kid we'd sent to college, he didn't recognize the sophisticated, confident collegiate that returned. "Did you know she was going to look* like that?!"

As the Christmas ornament parade draws to a close... Hey, there's Peanut! This is probably the dumbest ornament on the tree, but we've all grown quite fond. It was one of many gifts/ornaments I received at the cross-stitch retreat where I got my tree skirt project. It's a regular old peanut in the shell, painted to look like a snowman -- he has a painted carrot nose and a HUGE charcoal smile. Next to Peanut is one of a pair of small nutcracker ornaments that has a working lever in the back. In the rear is a bunch of gold plastic grapes that Mom gave me; they'd belonged to her mother. I found that there is significance to grapes on a Christmas tree, as well as pickles and many other things!

As at the end of every Christmas parade, Santa Claus brings up the rear. You better watch out! Even with only one remaining googly eye, this Santa can see you when you're sleeping and he most certainly knows when you're awake! This is Katie's second grade handiwork. Our one-eyed Santa joins many, many other ornaments made by the kids -- among other things, there are be-glittered pinecones, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, clay, paper, plastic lids, puzzle pieces and old cards.

In yesterday's comments, Cara wrote, "Every Xmas I send my best friend ornaments for her tree. Every year she says when they set up the tree, it's like I'm there! I love that." That just couldn't be more true. It's been so much fun to share some of my ornaments and their stories and memories with you -- and to hear about yours in the comments you've left and to see and read about them in other blogs! I have plenty of plain jane ornaments, but even many of those have memories attached... the shiny blue and clear green ornaments in the Santa picture were Grandma K's... the crocheted stars made by my aunt... lots of ceramic ornaments made by Grandma B... the glitter-covered, pock-marked, styrofoam balls that hung on the trees of my childhood. ;There's one ornament that I swear I won in a first grade spelling bee, but Mom recalls that I made it -- we "argue" about that every year -- it looks like shit (it's been a WAY lotta years) but it gets a place of honor every year. Katie put her ornaments on the tree yesterday and later told me that she moved that one, briefly wondering why such an ugly thing was on the tree, and then she remembered... That's what it's all about.

*She did get a tattoo while she was away, but that wasn't the big difference. DH was not privy to our chatty, girl-talk emails where I'd learned that she was styling her hair differently and shaping her eyebrows and wearing make-up -- those things were part of it, but even more, I think, was the confident and sophisticated air about her -- there was truly Something About Katie...