Merry Christmas

WIP Update

Late, I know; my excuse is that I was camping last weekend. Which turned out to be a bit of a bust as it was cold and showering so we mostly stayed inside the trailer with the heat on. There was some socializing and a trip to Pasu Farm so it was not a complete loss. I got a wool filled comforter for Christmas but I'm allowed to start using it now.

Knitting

With the Winter Blue Hoodie now complete I have been able to focus on a few other things. First, the Checkers Blanket has gotten longer.

And I split Celestial to begin the back of the yoke.

The gauge swatches keep lying to me about the Red T-Shirt, so far I've knit three with different sized needles because the fabric wasn't right once I knit a few centimeters of the actual project and none of them gave me the right numbers in the first place. I have now cast on one final (fourth) time (I sincerely hope) and I think I've finally have the numbers right. I didn't take a picture as it actually looks like a step, or possibly many steps, backwards.

Progress was also made on the Bunny Blanket but not enough to justify another picture yet.

No sock progress at all. I've lost my sock mojo. It's always been temporary in the past so I have hope for it to return. I guess I have too much sweater mojo right now.

Current Weather

24C and mostly cloudy. Of course it's nice the day after the long weekend.

Ugly Christmas Vest

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's January; but, for some unknown reason, I truly do not understand my own thinking here, I started an Ugly Christmas Vest on Dec. 25, 2018 for Christmas 2019. I didn't really expect to finish it before the end of January. Well, it still needs a trip through the washing machine and buttons but the knitting is finished. And the buttons may have to wait since I suspect I won't find appropriately ugly Christmas buttons until November or December but I'll try to remember to check throughout the year to see if something strikes my fancy.

It's possible I may duplicate stitch a reindeer or a Santa or a tree or something onto it to make it even uglier. Will depend on how ambitious I am.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Holidays Stripes in Red Green White
Needle: 4.5mm & 5.0mm
Gauge: pending washing

Appropriately Ugly

Other Knitting
I'm selfish knitting for the most part at the moment, currently working on another vest for myself in addition to the Ugly Christmas Vest, this one's a sport weight with a nice pattern in it making it a TV watching project not a reading project (yes, I can read and knit at the same time but only stockinette or garter stitch). And a cotton blend fingering weight sweater with no pattern in it so I can knit and read while working on this one. I also have a pair of socks for my Niece on the go for her birthday in March. My sock frenzy seems to have slowed quite a lot after Christmas, from Oct. to Dec. I finished 8 pairs of adult sized socks. I hope I'm not burnt out. Things have also picked up a work so I'm limited to knitting at lunch only.

Oh, I almost forgot about the two baby blankets I'm (mostly not) working on. Maybe they're on a break?

Other News
The first Scent Hurdle race of the year was held yesterday and our team did great. I ran Tonka for a friend for the most part but also ran Snickers for her once in the last race when she wanted to switch dogs, both are super fun to play with. I think we might even have placed first over all in the tournament since I think we won every race we were in. Kinda cool. But more importantly there were a number of new dogs racing on other teams who earned the first points of their Scent Hurdle careers. Our two new dogs were not quite ready for this tournament but will likely be ready before the end of the year.

In one really cool race a dog called Honor earned her 4500th point earning her her SHDGMPCh title, the highest title possible in Scent Hurdle, and a new dog called Vivee earned her fist 5 points. I was the timer for this race and it was wonderful to see and celebrate this victory with both owners. It's possible there were tears but I'll never tell.

Current Weather
4C and partly cloudy. Feels more like March than January.

Merry Christmas!

Advent

I'm going to make an Advent Calendar for my Wee Niece. It may seem odd to be thinking of this in February but these things take lead time and I need to finish in time to send it to Scotland for December 1. I like Frankie Brown's designs so I'll probably use them for the most part, if not all of them; we'll see. And I'll use her Advent Garland for hanging the ornaments on, simplicity at it's best there.

Today I finished a candle, I could find the yarn for it easiest so I started with it. I didn't have any orange to hand for the inside of the flame so I'll embroider that part when I do. If I never get that far it still looks fine.

Pattern: Advent Garland 2, Candle
Yarn: stash odds and ends
Needle: 2.75mm
Gauge: not critical

Current Weather
-22C and partly cloudy. It snowed most of the day so tomorrow there will be shoveling.

Christmas Gifts

I don't make a lot of Christmas gifts as I don't like being stressed out during the holidays, I mean; where's the fun in that? This year I managed two, rather ambitious, scarfs.

First was a Star Wars Scarf for my Nephew. I wasn't quite sure what he'd like but I figured Star Wars was a pretty safe bet for an almost 12 year old boy. Come to think of it, Star Wars is probably a pretty safe bet for any human male under 110 years old. And boy was I not wrong about that, my Brother-in-Law was already plotting to steal it before all the wrapping paper was cleared away.

I'm not quite sure what went sideways on me but I did not have enough yarn to complete all the motifs in the pattern. Either the balls were under weight, or it just ate a lot of yarn, or my gauge was way off; I don't know. Although, having checked some of the other completed projects I now think the recommended yardage is low and you need 300-350 grams of each colour to complete this scarf. In any event I eliminated a few of the motifs, it still looks OK to me and I doubt my Nephew will notice. It's certainly long enough to keep him warm.

Experimented with a Russian Join to join the balls of yarn together and it worked really well, it does create a slightly fatter piece of yarn for several stitches but you don't notice it at all. I can't even find the joins and I know roughly where they all are. Whether this would be true for a single knit piece I don't know as this is the first time I've used this join but I will say it works really well for double knitting.

Yarn: Knit Picks City Tweed DK in Kitten and Obsidion
Pattern: Star Wars Double Knit Scarf by Jessica Goddard
Needle: 4.0mm
Gauge: 17 stitches and 24 rows = 10 cm

May the force be with you

Second was a Horse Scarf for my Canadian Niece. She's into horses, as any not-quite-ten-year-old girl would be. This was also a complete hit with the recipient and her Grandma kept threatening to steal it. Not my Mom, her other Grandma who joined us for a wonderful Christmas dinner.

I modified an existing pattern to make this scarf. The original pattern is here. Once I'd decided on that pattern I made some modifications:

• Worked only one horse on each end.
• Added a horseshoe border, I did this in DK weight yarn not Worsted so it needed a border in order to be wide enough.
• Added the small horseshoes running up the center between the two horses to make sure the fabric was locked together.

Yarn: Knit Picks City Tweed DK in Morning Glory and Plush

Pattern: Modified the Dual Sided Horse Scarf by Miranda Stanbery

Needle: 4.0mm
Gauge: 17 stitches and 24 rows = 10 cm

Current Weather

-26C and partly cloudy. It has been absolutely freezing cold for a week now.

Finished a Christmas Gift

Got the first Christmas gift off the needles today. It still needs to be blocked but at least it's off the needles. I'm not going to post a picture or the usual information about the project here right now; although I seriously doubt my Nephew is trolling the internet looking for knitting blogs it is within the realm of possibility that he can, will, or has googled the names of his family members which could get him this site. So no pictures yet, I'll post everything after the gifts have been exchanged.

The Christmas gift for my Calgary Niece continues and I haven't even cast on for my Scottish Niece yet. That one may be late since she's a bit young yet to be disappointed if her hand-knits from her Aunt don't arrive by Christmas day. (I laughed after typing that since I doubt anyone would get that upset if a hand-made gift was late.) Also, I'm not particularly consistent about Christmas gifts so no one is expecting anything. It's possible that is deliberate on my part.

Also started some socks for my Dad. I'm taking some courses and needed something to take on the train with me.

Soccer
Poor, poor Soccer landed at the vet yesterday with another ear infection. He's had one in the Fall or early Winter for the past three or more years. I really wish he'd break this habit. I will have to say though, that the worst one was in 2015 when we had to go to the vet three days after I had my gall bladder removed. They were kind enough to provide a chair since I could hardly stand. 10 weeks later he was finally infection free. I really, Really, REALLY hope that doesn't happen again.

Pain meds are starting to kick in

He's got antibiotics again and the pain meds seem to be helping.

Current Weather
-12C and partly cloudy. It's COLD and supposed to stay that way for quite a while according to the long-term forecast; apparently we skipped the rest of Fall and went straight to Winter. Typical.

Stop the presses

OK, so there's this slight issue with the Hudson Bay Inspired Wonderful Wallaby.

It's far too big for my Wee Niece.

It sure is cute though

Now, this isn't to say it won't fit her someday, that's kinda the beauty of small children..... they grow. However, I'd like her to be able to wear something from me a smidgen sooner.

So, I have decided to knit a smaller Wallaby for her. The catch is that the other one is already the smallest size written. I'm improvising with a DK weight yarn. It'll be fine.

I plan to hold on to the bigger Wallaby and give it to her later. Either this summer when they come to visit or maybe next Christmas.

I'm now in an even greater frenzy of knitting to get the second Wallaby done before Mom and Dad leave for their Christmas visit. Otherwise I'd have to pay for shipping. No pressure.

Wee sleeves

Red Alert!!!!

A sweater is urgently needed to be sent to Scotland for Christmas!

I think My Mom thinks a Hudson Bay inspired Wonderful Wallaby is in order for my Wee Niece. This means I'm dropping everything else and power knitting a sweater. Fortunately it's a small sweater. Pictures once I have some.

Finishing

Finishing anything is proving elusive lately. The cotton hoodie just isn't going to work, I give up. At last, I stuck with this far, far too long.

Mom's birthday socks just won't finish themselves. Probably because I haven't been knitting them lately. I'm sure there's no correlation.

My blue sweater got frogged and restarted. Again. Urgh, I really hope this time it works.

I have managed a couple Christmas things. So far that's the only bright spot.

Other Stuff

I purchased a sheep skin for the critters. So far Soccer likes it best. In fact he growled at Squish for walking too close to it. No pictures of that unfortunately.

Here's Squish enjoying it before Soccer took over:

Mouse wasn't quite sure she trusted it yet:

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 3C.

Sunday Spinning

I have decided to make Sunday mornings A Time For Spinning. This week it happened on Monday. Oh, well; it was a day off work and it would appear I'm not setting this in stone.

Spinning evidence, complete with Spin-Off magazine in the background.

I'd really like to get more practice in with spinning so I can feel more comfortable with my wheel and maybe take the Master Spinner Level 1 course during Fibre Week at Olds College in June.

Speaking of my wheel, here she is:

Wheel

I bought this wheel second hand  about three years ago and it didn't occur to me to ask the lady I bought it from exactly what kind of wheel it is. Of course, it's possible she told me and just I didn't retain the information. I was just a wee touch excited at finding such a good wheel in working condition for an extremely reasonable price. It was a rare case where the lady knew what she was selling; she had two wheels and didn't need one of them any longer, and wanted it to go to someone who would use it. I swear I'm trying.

However, after a bit of research on the internet I believe she is an Ashford Traditional Single Drive built sometime in the 1970s. Although I'm pretty sure she's a "she", she doesn't have a name but I'm open to suggestions.

Knitting News

I would be finished a pair of socks for my Dad if I had realized the two skeins were completely different before I finished the first sock. I had to rip back and do the heel and toes in the second skein. Hopefully I can finish these in the next day or so. Then I need to start a pair for my Nephew but to do that I need to find some green yarn. I don't seem to have any green sock yarn right now. Well, there is some 15% silk blend but frankly that's not going to kids socks.

My blue sweater is soooo close to being ready to have the arms attached that I might even get to that today.

Gotta love how much knitting gets done when you have some time off work.

In Post Christmas News

Christmas went well. Much feasting was done. It is nice to get back to normal again though.

I think the kids liked their hats, they put them on right away and wore them home. Gift opening was done at Gran and Grandpa's place which necessitated the wearing of hats to go home as it was about -20C Christmas day.

Also my Niece told me she really likes my socks for snowshoeing and skiing. Thus ensuring herself a perpetual supply. Not that she realizes this of course, she's only 7 after all.

Weather Update

Current Temperature: -7C
Overcast and snowing lightly

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

And so this is Christmas.....

Christmas isn't really my favourite time of year. Actually, that's not exactly right, I quite like Christmas; I dislike the commercialization of Christmas.

Moving on.

I don't knit many Christmas gifts, I decided years ago that I'd knit for birthdays instead. Otherwise you end up with far, far too many things all coming due at the same time. I want to be able to relax and spend time with family at this time of year, I don't want to be stressing myself out over finishing knitting gifts. Besides, my family hasn't really exchanged Christmas gifts for years, most of us get something for the kids but that's about it. We made this change years ago as it was starting to seem sort of pointless to buy gifts for each other, if any of us want or need something we go and buy it. And none of us like the whole idea of searching for the perfect gift for everyone. Much less stressful this way.

I do usually knit something for my Niece and Nephew here in Canada though.

My Nephew is getting a hat.

When I asked he said his favourite colour is now green. So I made him a Sockhead hat in bright green, I just hope he didn't mean that his favourite colour is dark green. I modified this one to make it non-slouchy. I wasn't sure how he'd like slouchy so I went more head fitting.

Pattern: Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClure
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Macaw
Needle: 2.5mm

Green hat.

My Niece is also getting a hat.

This is a Wurm. It certainly looks like a warm Wurm. No modifications to this pattern at all, just made a small size for her. He favourite colour is still pink, I went with a dark pink.

Pattern: wurm by Katharina Nopp
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport in Rouge
Needle: 3.25mm & 3.75mm

Pink hat.

My Wee Niece will be getting a tonne of things when she comes to visit next summer as I object to the cost of international shipping. At least, I do while she' still too young to notice; we'll see as she gets older.

Unrelated to Christmas knitting, I finished a pair of socks for myself.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: ONline Supersocke 100
Needle: 2.0mm

Having finished those I started a pair for my Dad for his birthday in January. I fished the first one in no time. Unfortunately the second ball of yarn, although it's labeled the same dye lot, looks completely different. I'm going to have to improvise something here. Toes knit with the second ball of yarn are the most likely. I'll just have to see how far I get with the second sock and go from there.

In other Christmas news

My office Christmas party was held at the Banff Springs Hotel. And everyone got to spend the night. Cross that off my Bucket List. "Wow" is all I can say about that place; it's amazing.

There were trees everywhere. Here's just one hallway.

A hallway of trees.

And two Father Christmases were guarding the entrance to the breakfast room.

And the party was wonderful too. Kudos to all those in the office who planned it.

In other completely unrelated news

Soccer has been fighting an antibiotic resistant ear infection for about two months now. Yesterday we made (yet another) trip to the vet and it looks like it's finally cleared up. I'm keeping him on a preventative treatment plan for a few weeks to make sure it doesn't come back.

He seems to have figured out that the phrase "poor Soccer's ears" means he's going to get something unpleasant put in his ears. Yesterday when I said it he immediately lay down and put his head down. If his shoulder joints worked in such a way that would allow him to do so I suspect he'd have put his paws over his ears.

Here he is at the vet; this is also about what he looked like last night after hearing "poor Soccer's ears". At least he didn't run away and hide. Poor pup.

Soccer at the vet.

He also has a growth in his eye. Not sure how well you can see it below but his right eye is swollen and a bit red. The growth has been there for years, apparently it's not uncommon in dogs although he is the first one I've had that developed it, and it didn't really seem to bother him until this whole ear infection fiasco. I suspect he initially irritated it when trying to scratch his ear. Now it's weeping constantly which is causing a rash to grow there, the vet says it's a bit like diaper rash on a baby, and it won't go away because the area is constantly damp. He's now getting eye drops to control the infection as the vet and I are both reluctant to put him under anesthetic to remove the lump due to his age. He's 11 years old now and that's pretty old for a dog which could make anesthetic fatal. Unless there's no other choice I'd rather he didn't have to have surgery.

Soccer still at the vet.

Oh, and if you think there's something odd about his left eye you're right. It's partly blue. Not uncommon in Catahoula Leopard Dogs.

He also lost weight during this whole fiasco. This is actually a much bigger concern for me than anything else as he's been so consistent in his weight for the past 10 years. Plus, he's always been a rather lean dog, he just doesn't have a lot of weight to loose in the first place. I really, really hope it was just because he was on such powerful antibiotics for his ears and he'll regain weight over the next few weeks. I'm giving him a lot of high calorie foods to help with that. I'll take him back to be weighed in a few weeks and if he's still down then I'll have to see about blood work to see if we can isolate what's wrong.

Progress

Feels like a silly post really since there's only so many ways to say "things are progressing".

Still.

Here we go.

First up, the Ugly Christmas Sweater. I keep having visions of running out of yarn. No idea why but there you go. I think that's why I keep putting off working on it; fear of disappointment. Maybe its the weather too, we haven't had a killing frost yet. Unusual for this part of the world. I'm sure snow would inspire work on Christmas stuff.

Horribly blurry phone picture. Urgh.

Next we have Grey the grey vest. I think I'll make this a square neck since the last one was a v-neck. I do like how the waste shaping came out on Mossy so I'll probably do that again. Hope I have enough yarn, I should but, well..... one never knows.

Grey

Followed by a plain old blue sweater. Probably going to have a hood and I'm thinking of trying something to use a shoe lace or something to lace up an open neck. I said that badly, if it works the pictures at the end will explain it all.

Just Plain Blue.

And finally a co-worker has announced he will have a baby arriving early in the new year. Made an excellent excuse to do another Pepita. Will likely do booties and a hat to go with as that makes for a really cute set. This is made from Georga Baby Luv yarn, I think it's the softest acrylic I have ever worked with. It is just a smidge splitty so you have to watch your stitches carefully if you're using sharply pointed needles but other than that it's pretty nice as acrylics go.

Any excuse for another Pepita.

Coming up soon, once something is finished. I have too much on the needles as it is so nothing is getting cast on until something is finished, will be some Monster Pants at the request of my sister in Scotland. I'm sure my Wee Niece will look adorable in them. She sure makes her Pepita look cuter..... I was actually worried she might never fit the red/gray Pepita since she was born at over 9lbs (and my sister is tiny so I have no idea how she managed to cook up a kid that big) however, I did get some photographic evidence that she wore it a couple times. Thrilling to see hand knits being worn.

Come to think of it that rule about finishing something before starting something might get thrown out in order to do some Christmas hats or slippers or something for my Niece and Nephew. And Wee Niece too come to that.