Christmas Wrap-Up.

Christmas was wonderful! Not only did I get to see my family & get some awesome presents myself (more on that in a minute), but my own handmade gifts went over extremely well. I've only given a few of them so far, actually. On Christmas morning I finished a necklace for my step-mom:


I was really nervous & unsure that she would like it, but she definitely loved it! She wore it for the rest of the day & showed it off to all our relatives. :)

My brother liked his hat, too, though it is a little shorter than I'd like. I didn't get a great picture of him in it, but here's a slightly blurry one of us together:


He wants one with ear flaps next.

Yesterday morning I gave my friend Nick his completed toy penguin. I meant to get a picture of him with it but I'll have to do that another time. I did have quite an extensive photo shoot with the presently unnamed penguin on my friend's bookshelf, though:


I'm so pleased with how it came out, guys!! It might be my favorite thing I've ever made, though that's partly due to Nick's reaction. I don't think he could've possibly loved it more or been more enthusiastic about it! All my friends really liked it, actually, and even my pal Jacob who usually teases me about knitting said, "That is awesome! I'm seriously proud that you made that -- I'm not even being sarcastic!" Haha.

Last of all, I gave my friend Sara the headband I made for her and she said it was just what she'd been needing. Perfect!

I still have some gifts left to give (...and finish), but I'm so happy that all of these went over so well! As for what I got...well, I was spoiled! My family is beyond good to me on Christmas, really. There were a few you might be interested in, too. My beloved Aunt Amy sent me a gift card to Knit A Round, my favorite LYS! It hasn't arrived yet, but when it does my Aunt Andrea & I will have to have a shopping spree, since she got one too. I also got Romantic Hand Knits by Annie Modesitt, which has some ridiculously beautiful patterns, and AlterNation. I only got one cookbook, but it's a huge and somewhat intimidating one: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. Reviews of all of those will follow when I've actually read more & made some things from them, but I'm terribly excited about all three!

I hope you all had a spectacular Christmas, and I should be back to post some more very soon.

Disaster!

So apparently in the hat pattern I'm using, "M" stands not for "medium," but for "really really small." Yeah, not a lot of logic to it, but that's the only conclusion I can really draw, because I just knit this hat again for my brother, going up a size, and, uh, it still seems way too small. It looked fine until I sewed up the seam just now and it became rapidly and horribly apparent that it was just going to be WAY too little. (Oh, look, yet another argument for knitting everything in the round!) AHHHH!!! It's definitely Christmas Eve, what on earth should I do?! I'm so undecided. I know I could make another in a night if I had to, but I kinda have lots else to do, too...

Wait, I just showed it to my mom and then my step-dad tried it on and it more or less fit him (though it looked terrible), so if it can stretch over his head maybe it will fit my brother too? I hope? Oh god. This is why I should be MUCH less of a horrible procrastinator. My sister did say that my brother has an abnormally small head, but I think she's just trying to make me feel better.

Alright, I'm just gonna give it to him & hope for the best. If he dislikes anything about it I'll just knit up a new one, no big deal. I'm going to make him a CD, too, I think, so that his only gift isn't a lame potentially-too-small hat...

See, this is why I have this blog, so I have somewhere to turn in times of crisis!

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone!!

Almost Christmas!

Oh look, again it's been a while! I can't say I've been knitting much, even with Christmas so close. The penguin is almost done, and my brother's hat was done but it seemed too small so I ripped back to before the decreases and haven't really don't anything on it since...

I'm not feeling too stressed, though. I realized that I won't be exchanging gifts with a number of my friends until a few days after the actual holiday, anyway. I'm not going to give my boyfriend his fingerless gloves until after the new year, since he's going away the day after Christmas and not getting back until then, so that gives me plenty of time to finish them. (This is really good because I haven't even started on the second one! Mainly it's because he's been around me lots of the time, and also because I was using those same needles on some secret presents for a few days there.)

So not a lot of knitting in this post, but I definitely have a recipe recommendation: Cream Cheese Chocolate Cupcakes! I made these last week and they were almost seemed too easy in light of how delicious they were. I gave most of them to my friend Jacob & his family and they were a big hit.

I don't know if I'll post again before (or on) the actual day, but in case I don't here's a big MERRY CHRISTMAS to those of you who celebrate it!!

Various & Sundry

Just a few little notes before I go to bed:

• I bought some yarn today! The Michaels near me was having a 2-for-$7 sale on Patons Shetland Chunky & Classic Merino. As much as I prefer supporting local business...I'm on a budget & trying to make Xmas gifts for lots of people, so I really cannot argue with that kind of a deal! With the Shetland Chunky Tweed I started on a hat for my brother:
  
  
  It's much more blue & less purple in real life!
  When I first asked 3 of my younger brothers whether they'd wear hats I made them, the response was lots of laughter & exclamations of "no way!" Then the oldest of them, Mac, saw the hat I made my boyfriend, and every time I've spoken (or exchanged emails or Facebook messages or whatever) with him since then it's been "how's my hat coming?!" He's really excited about it, but it took me until now to find a good yarn. He wanted blue, and all the blues I found were just too damn girly or otherwise unsuitable. I'm still not sure about this yarn...it looked good on the skein but I keep panicking and thinking he won't like it. Everyone I've showed it to has assured me otherwise, and I figure if he really hates it I can just keep it for myself (because I like it lots!) and take him yarn shopping so I can make another.


• I'm planning on these mittens for my friend for Xmas. I'll probably start them within the next couple of days & I'm pretty excited! I may make myself a pair, too, once I'm done with all this holiday stuff, because I really love the way they look.


• I'm eager to start on Dashing for my boyfriend's Xmas gift, but I kind of hate the yarn I bought for them (Reynolds Lite Lopi). I was completely seduced by the gorgeous, incredibly rich brown color + the nice price tag, but it's the itchiest stuff I've ever encountered and he hates itchy wool. I'm really not sure what to do, but I think I'm going to just buy something else. There's an LYS near school that I want to check out, anyway (Neighborhood Knits, to be exact), and this gives me the perfect excuse (not that I ever really need an excuse to drool over yarn, but it doesn't hurt)...


• I wore the vest to school today and do you know how hard it was not to brag to complete strangers that I made it all by myself? Really, really hard! In my head every conversation was going like this:

  Unsuspecting Friend: Hey, how are you?
  Me: Pretty good, what about you?
  UF: Oh, pr--
  Me: DO YOU LIKE MY VEST?! I MADE IT MYSELF! WITH YARN AND POINTY STICKS! Isn't that just the most exciting and impressive thing you've ever heard?!
  UF: *backs slowly away*
  Me: Isn't it?!?
  UF: *runs for shelter*

  I'm very proud to say I restrained myself.


• Knit Night was kind of a bummer tonight -- a very small group! I was by myself most of the time. Turns out there's a huge difference between knitting in a cafe all by your lonesome & knitting in a cafe with a group of fun & interesting people. One is lots of fun & one just kinda sucks. Some excellent people did show up eventually, but unfortunately for me I had to leave shortly after they all arrived! Oh well. It was my own fault for not being sure to bring enough money to pay for parking for longer than an hour (in fact, I only made it out of the structure because Kim was kind enough to loan me a quarter -- had she not, I guess I would've gotten a $30 ticket!). I suppose this is what I get for never using cash.


• Does it bother anyone else that there isn't an apostrophe in "Michaels"? Probably not, but it drives me nuts.

Oh, look, I'm up too late yet again... Have a great week, everyone!