Thursday, December 21, 2006

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, let's review this for a second.
a. I live in New Mexico, have for most of my life. Was born here, now live here by choice, mostly for the sun-shiney skies and warm temps. Did I mention the sun shine? It's my favorite.
b. Along with "Land of Enchantment" we are known for our 345-350 days a year of sun shine, and low moisture levels. Less than 18" of rain per year is our average, I think. Humidity is usually in the single-digits. And when humidity is 100%, it's raining. When it hits 25%, we all melt.
c. That 18" of rain include approximately 3 feet of snow. It all falls in one place on one mountain, at one certain time of the year.
So.
You can understand my skepticism when all the weather people started foaming at the mouth and screaming "It's coming! Batten down the hatches! The snow! The snow!"
Yeah, right. I've lived here for 40-something years, the last 20 in Santa Fe, and the most snow we've ever gotten in one storm was 8" - that was about 4-5 years ago, and the only way to get around town was on cross-country skis. Since I don't ski, you can imagine where this left me.
Anyway - it started snowing Monday afternoon/evening. I got up Tuesday and came to work, and watched it snow all day. About 2 in the afternoon, they shut us down and sent us home. It took me almost 2 hours to make my normal 50 min drive home. Yesterday, there was no school, no work (shut down the office cause the roads were too bad) and SNOW! It snowed most of yesterday, off and on. We normally get pretty dry snow - not a lot of moisture in it (horrible for making snow balls or snow men, won't pack together), this was sort of wet and sort of dry. The wind howled like a banshee at the beginning of the storm, blowing most of the snow God-knows-where. But, when it quit, the snow kept coming. They estimate that we got 6 inches in SF. It was probably closer to 12 - but easily half blew away. The ski area got 27 inches of snow. I don't know if that's a record or not, but I know the skiers are going to be very happy for Christmas.
And I bet you'll never guess what I did yesterday?
I knitted. DUH!!!

Monday, December 18, 2006

We have Socks!!

Another weekend of endless knitting has produced this:

The cutest, tiniest baby socks I think I've ever knitted! Again, from "Not Just Socks" the baby socks pattern in the back. I LOVE self-striping yarn! After you make one sock, just count the stripes, and you have a matching pair. Of course, in this case, I counted rounds, 'cause it was just so tiny and cute. Each sock took almost exactly 4 hours - first one was finished while I watched "Its a Wonderful Life" Sat night. That movie will forever be in my head as "sock knitting".

Here's the whole family:



Daddy, Mommy & baby, all laying on the fan to dry. I'm still positive that nephew's socks are WAY too big, but his mom still says no, so we'll see next week.
I completely freaked out Friday when I realized that Christmas was NEXT FREAKIN WEEK!!!!!!!
I have the MYSTERY GIFT for my sister, and my daughter ever-so-gently reminded me that she wanted fingerless gloves for her favorite teacher, so I have EXTRA, ADDED PRESSURE - cause there just wasn't enough!!!!!!!
It's ok, I'll make it - I've got one more weekend to work on the MYSTERY GIFT, and I can get teacher's gloves done by Thursday - I KNOW I CAN!!!!
I'm going to my corner now, to knit and pull out more hair.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Drats!

Of course, now that I look at the picture of the self-designed socks, I can see all the mistakes. I'm NOT re-doing them, I'm finishing them in the delusional hope that the intended recipient will not notice where I messed up the pattern.
ON TO THE FINISH!!!

The Weekend of Ceaseless Knitting

The weekend of ceaseless knitting resulted in this:

and this:


I'm feeling MUCH better about Christmas! The words "Christmas" and "Knitting" are once again allowed to be spoken together in my presence. I have to finish the second pair of socks (my own design, thank you very much!), a pair of baby socks, and a-hem - unmentioned Christmas goodness for my sister (who does occasionally read this). Of course, I still have to shop for those who are not getting knitted stuff this year, but I know what I want, all I lack are the funds, and I get paid next week, so it's all good!
Christmas, I'm ready!
Or delusional.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

One sock down!!

Well, the first sock from hell is done, and I'm working on the foot of the second one. And it's only 17 days til Christmas! And I only have one more adult pair of socks, one pair for baby socks, and one secret gift to do. Yeah, I'll make it - when I GET SNOWED IN SOMEPLACE!!!! This is it, people, the annual Christmas freak out! The socks from hell might have tipped me over the edge early this year, but I'm telling you - those socks are too big for King Kong to wear!!! My dearest sister (mother to intended recipient) assures me that he has HUGE feet. I keep thinking "Nobody but Shaq has feet that big!" I sent her the pic I posted here - and she asked me if that was a "normal" sized stapler. I guess it is - I mean, it's not one of those staplers that you can use to staple a ream of paper together, nor is it one of those mini staplers that are cute, and you can carry them in your pocket. I tried to think of something to use for scale that had meaning to everyone - my glass of water? No, it's pretty big. Same for the coffee cup. There's not a standard size for office calculators, and money is just not going to cut it. So, what to do? I'm going to knit the second sock so it matches the first - if one's big, they'll both be big (at least they'll match - I hope!)
This weekend the kidlet starts her first job. She is (of course) taking the car, so I'll be stranded at home. The house is (relatively) clean (Mom was just here, remember?) so I won't have that hanging over my head - I'm thinking massive knitting. I might get the next pair of socks started! Not done, but started - I'm delusional, but not THAT delusional! I'll have at least all day Saturday, and probably most of Sunday, although there will be laundry to do. So, maybe if I'm a good little knitter, and work really hard in the evenings and this weekend, I'll get all my knitting done.
CRAP! This has disaster written all over it!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Clowns and Cannibals

Today must have been harder than I thought, cause this is just about the funniest thing I've ever seen/heard/whatever:

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "This taste funny to you?"

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

We have a Christmas Present!!!!

Or at least part of one - I thought this would never happen, given the inauspicious beginning. Here's the first sock:


The stapler is included for scale - because I'm freaking out about the size. Michael wears a size 13 shoe, apparently - which his mother assures me is really, really, really, really big - that's good, cause this sock is freakin' HUGE!!!! The other sock has as far as the gusset decreases done. Once I finish the toe on this one, then I'll do the other one. Then, I have to do GF's socks, baby's socks & sis's present. Oh, yeah - just freakin LOVE Christmas!!!!!!

Saturday, December 02, 2006

I won't be defeated!!!!!

The Christmas present from hell is coming along nicely, thank you! I've managed to get almost half-way through the first pair of Christmas socks. Turns out I'm not capable of concentrating enough to knit them both on the same needles at the same time, but with 2 sets of double-pointed needles, and knitting a bit of each, I've managed to complete all the way to the heel on one sock, and am partially finished with the heel on the second sock. Depending on the evening's festivities (meaning what time I go to bed) I might actually have a completed pair before the weekend's over. And these are the BIG ones! Apparently my nephew wears size 13 shoes, so I'm doing his socks first - and I think I'm on target with the size. These are quite possibly the largest socks I've ever knit. I'm doing them on size 3's, using this wonderful yarn that's been treated with jojoba & aloe - very nice on the hands! Contrasting heel & toe. The yarn for the sock is turquoise & shades of grey, and the heel and toe are black. For his girlfriend, I'll used the same yarns, but I'm adding some colorwork to the top, sort of like Harlot did. I've already charted the pattern, but I'm thinking of turning it on it's side. It's a contrasting diamond pattern that's wider than it is tall, and I think doing it long-ways might look better on the sock. I've got to go back to my chart and count how many stitches in the pattern - it might not work with the number of stitches in the sock. Hopefully, I'll get to that tomorrow! I'm starting to get excited about Christmas - but the decorating is just not happening! The kidlet insisted we buy a new tree this year - it's all of a foot tall, has battery-operated lights, and nothing under it. I need wrapping paper, I need presents, I need somebody to do me something else for Christmas!!!!
Oh, well - it'll all come together, it always does, even if I am up til 2:30 finishing somebody's present - it wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't!