A note from Jake and other stuff

I got a cute facebook thank-you from Jake today:

"Thank you so much for my new favorite hat! As I am a baldie, this is not only a welcome fashion accessory, but an integral part of my survival. Thank you for saving my life and making me look cool."

My kid brother's friends are as smart and nice as he is. I only regret I didn't get pictures of the hats, because I really like them. I'm on a bit of a jag, two essentially identical hats done (and in charcoal and gray!) and I could still make more, and I may well do so.

The weekend with family was awesome and now I want to knit for everyone for Christmas. I feel like I have not been working ahead this year. Last year at this point I had socks for Dad and a hat for Kid Brother and had only a pair of socks left to knit. This year nothing is finished. I have four giant seams to sew in kid brother's afghan, a half a sock that could be for my mom, one sock for my mother-in-law, ideas for a hat for my father-in-law, and no clues for dad or my new step-people. (I think probably the fact that I want to knit for more people this year is really more of the trouble...)

The hats may be the answer. If I can keep up the pace I had, I can get four hats in two weeks, and we're still a touch more than four weeks out.

Stay tuned. Things might get interesting in the next month...

Weekend

Before I yammer about the knitting, everything came together as it should this weekend. Dad is out of the hospital and married, and I had a great weekend with family. I am now home and glad to be here and get to sleep in my own bed tonight, but I'm looking forward to returning for Christmas.

I took yarn for seven projects. Sweater, shawl, scarf, 3 socks, and a hat. I worked on one hat and one sock. I did show off the handspun, so the scarf wasn't a complete waste, but yeah, otherwise carried much more than was necessary. Kind of predictable, that.

Finished Jake's hat, and the second current work sock is well on its way to the toe. I will have new socks for work after Thanksgiving, so that's awesome.

I came home wanting to knit for everybody. I think I can be a bit controlled this Christmas, but next year may be insane.

Sigh...

Dad's doing better. Should be out of the hospital tomorrow and be able to attend his wedding on Saturday.

So somehow I made a packing list and didn't include my knitting. This is bad. Situation must be remedied ASAP. Need nighttime car knitting and probably "please don't let me kill anyone" knitting. Whether I have those kinds of projects at hand, I'm not sure...

A little nutty

This week was going to be crazy to begin with. I am going south to be in my dad's wedding on Saturday. Plus it's the last couple of days before the thanksgiving break, so much insanity exists at work.

Last night I got a call that Dad's ill. All should be well in due time, but it's kind of scary at the moment, in the hospital/antibiotics/IV fluids kind of way. I'm still going south, it's just all of a sudden I'm much more worried about what I'll find there.

My current coping mechanism is hat-knitting. The garter rib one I knit for my brother over the weekend is terribly happy, so I'm making a second (Jake wanted one, after all). It works okay, but I'm not getting as much done as I wanted to beyond the hat.

Now it's bedtime, so I'm going to take the hat with me. Class early tomorrow. Massive piles of grading to do. Night.

Timing is everything

Due to my late night last night and a paradoxically ridiculously productive day following, I was at knit night tonight and zooming along on my yummy handspun scarf. I had managed to forget the rest of the pink that's still displayed on my mantel (Yeah, pictures soon. Someday the sun will come out and I'll be home during daylight!), so I was about out of yarn for that, though, and all of a sudden my phone's ringing.

It's my kid brother. I'm going to see him in about a week - we're both going home for our Dad's wedding, and we took a few minutes to compare notes on how prepared we are for all this. I have two new dresses, and he's got a breaking car with 300,000 miles on it. So he'll be renting a car to get home next weekend. On top of that, he left his hat that I made him last year at friends' house overnight, and returned this morning to the news that the friends' dog had eaten the hat. So really, it turns out that this whole conversation was a way of asking for a new hat. Male, drab, I'm welcome to riff a little, doesn't have to be the same as the last time. Oh, and btw, his friend Jake would like a grey hat too.

And because I can't say no to the kid, I come home and cast on. For the kid. Jake with the wool-eating dog may or may not get a hat.

(I found a waffle rib hat pattern on ravelry, but I may make it garter rib. I've been wearing my blue fuzzy garter rib socks, and I'm feeling the love.)

busy but...

Spun up about 4oz of merino top from Creatively Dyed over the weekend. This week has been crazy, but I started a scarf...



Garter stitch on the bias, size 11 needles to deal with the thick-and-thin-ness of it. All shaping at the beginning of rows, so I don't forget it. It's simple, it's brainless, it's really fun and comforting right now.

Back to work with me. I'll eventually sleep tonight...

It's here!

So thursday afternoon, I got home to find this box in front of my garage:


I started opening it, but didn't stop for another picture till this:


I started with some old Romney that I'd been spindling - I got bored with it around here:


So I pulled out some merino from Creatively Dyed.


So far, so fun.