Armed with Pointy Sticks

Twas two days After Christmas...

And Ericka is having a hard time formulating a full and heady post.  I've got lots to post.  You know it.  How long has it been since I gave you guys a post of substance?  Sure, lots of pretty pictures... which leads me to apologize for all the things I've said about people who rely on pretty pictures to replace any substance in their blogs.  Let me tell you, this is sooo much easier.  I'll just put a picture like this up

and all of a sudden the necessary content bar drops like three notches.  Go ahead, click.  He's got food on his chubby little cheeks.  Not sure what it is... I'd probably have a better shot of making a complete list of all the stuff he didn't eat that night.  *long and thoughtful pause* Yeah... that's a pretty short list.  Um... he got the chips, crackers, little smokies, taco dip, cheese, veggies, stuffing, I think he may have had a bite of sandwich, so he's covered there.  Someone fed him some of the bonbons going around, he hit the peppermint softies pretty hard.  Peanut brittle.  He didn't have any peanut brittle.  By the time he found that his mother had regained control and kept him away.  Of course, someone could have slipped him some.  Maybe I did.  It's hard to recall.

I bought him a Little People fire truck for Christmas, and he had a great time with that for about an hour; making noise, pushing it around.  The he started walking around looking for things to get into and he found... my notions case.  It's a Clover case shaped like a koala (my Kwala) and it's very enticing to a child.  My sister told me to take it away from him, but I know him.  I knew that would just make him want it more.  Yep.  I know him.  I AM him.  So I let him unzip it (getting very good at using those opposable thumbs) and then held out my hand to collect anything that bored him.  He piled on stitch markers, scrap yarn, a clover yarn cutter, a chibi, and then... came to my tape measure.

He pulled the first three inches out and it made that loud "clickclickclick" noise that anyone with cats will tell you is like a magnet for short attention spans.  He lit up brighter that the tree.  So I showed him how to push the button.  Ooooh!! Auntie, this is the coolest damned secret!!  I am king!  "clickclickclickclickclickclick" to about a foot, ziiiiiiip closed.  And then he giggled himself silly.  And this went on a few more times and he took the tape, handed it to me, and then ran the 5 feet that the tape extended.  I let go and he hit the button.  This went on for at least 40 minutes.

Next year's Christmas present has been selected.

I had my Kwala there because I was actually knitting.  I finished my last present at about 9 on Christmas Eve.  Mittens for my gram.  Mittens are nice.  Warm.  Quick.  I think I knit on them for 6 hours, solid.  I don't think she was as impressed with them as she was the socks.  I guess she shouldn't walk outside in socks I make her.  We all learn such tough lessons as life goes on.  I digress.

But do you know what I think really makes this pair of mittens (there is a pair.  There wasn't at time of picture, but there is now.  My gram has two warm hands) worthy of my gram?

I spun the yarn.  I'm still in the new stage of actually knitting with what I spin.  In fact, that's project number two, after the clown puke hat.  I need to Ravel the clown puke hat.  Anyway, I am not entirely certain that my gram caught on when I told her that I made the yarn.  Not the first time. or the fifth.  Fine, Gram, I'll darn those gaddamned socks you walked through.  With purple yarn. 

I kid.  Maybe. 

The roving I used was a Secret Pal gift from my last wonderful SP, Ms. Peaknit, who professed innocence of the spinning ways, but now spins the wheel herself.  The Sirens' call is just too much once you've handled the goods :D

I also finished my Kureopatora's snake scarf, which was going to be a gift, but thanks to a very abrupt and incongruous angle (still can't figure out how it happened) coupled with the twisted sense of humor Mother Nature likes to share with use poor, unfortunate bastards up North, I kept it.  I've been wearing it, and some day, I'll block it and take pictures.  How does May sound?  Is May good for you?  I feel absolutely restrained in that I wove in the ends and didn't pull a Jackie.  I don't think she's ever blogged about it, but if you ever see her wearing a knit hat, steal it from her and flip it inside out.  Tell her Ericka said it was cool.  She'll understand.  Well, she'll roll her eyes, and that will give you just long enough to escape.

Earlier, I banged out a hat for Gina, and me (the knitting was nice) and my knitting cousin Hana (end recipient).  Gina made her Amanda hat out of Malabrigo yarn, and wanted to know if she could get two out of one skein.  And the answer is...

Almost.  I skipped two rows and then did the decrease like I was being chased by the yarn tail... 'cause I was.  I skipped the knit straight rows and just got right to decreasing.  I think the merits of the hat still stand strong, and I would like to thank Gina for the design and the yarn, and Sonya for giving Gina the inspiration.  Malabrigo... soft...

And that's all for tonight.  I have more to blog (yes, I live a full life) but I can tell that you're all tired.  And I have no smooth way to piece it all together.  No, no, you go to bed.  Don't let me keep you up.  I've got stuff to do too.  My sister wore her sweater when I saw her, so I finally have a picture for Ravelry.  Dude, adding stuff to Ravelry is like... what... collecting shotglasses.  I've got a great collection and I want more.  But with Ravelry, I don't have to wonder where I'm going to put them all.

Oh well, here I leave you with me and my girls.  I'll link to this picture before Spa, so people know who to look for.  I won't have the cats, though.  Cat hair, maybe.

My Holiday Card to You

I love the 12 days of Christmas, it's a great carol.  And do you know my favorite rendition?  I'll give you a moment to guess.  Think on it.

When I was leaving the Navy I had to do a bunch of stuff that necessitated waiting in waiting rooms.  One of those waiting rooms had an unusual assortment of magazines.  Instead of the usual assortment of Time and Family Circles in ages varying between 1 and 4 months old, someone had emptied a trove of magazines that were decades old.  It was a treat sitting there, going through magazines that in some cases, were older than me.

The real gem though, was finding the Saturday Evening Post from the week I was born.  The people at whatever office I was waiting to get into at the time told me to take it home, and I didn't have to be told twice.  I'm going to have to find it and scan it, but if you're lucky, you've seen it already.  John Denver and the Muppets.  I've loved the Muppets since being introduced to them, and at that point, I knew why.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

And for those of you lucky enough to be waiting out this Nor'easter

Sleep Deprived Zombie Spotted by Yarn Hutch

Real quick, I've got no pictures.  And I'm too tired to find pictures.  I've got a good one of a snowman that Chris and I made today. 

Yeah, great story, that.  It warmed up a bit today, and rained a little, and the air has that humid, melting-snow smell.  I love that smell.  It's definitely snowman weather.

Chris and I take care of a friend's dog while he's away for work.  He's away for work more than not, so we spend a lot of time with the dog.  He's a good dog, so we don't mind. 

It snowed last week, and our friend didn't plow.  He's got a truck, so the medium amount of snow didn't bother him.  We drive a Golf.  Yeah.  Much more exciting in a Golf.  But anyway...  The snow is clear and perfect, and nearly undisturbed, except for two lines of tire tracks, and the tracks denoting the meandering of several free animals.  This was a perfect canvas for a snowman.  So Chris and I clumped up some snowballs and started rolling.

The finished snowman was perfect.  Tall, but not too tall, nicely round, with a big smile and perfect branch arms.  I'm sure our friend will appreciate him when he comes home.  He's certain to see him.  He's right in the yard, well, next to the yard, in the drive, actually, right in front of his garage.  I'll have to put the picture here when I get it off of my phone.

As Chris and I drove away Chris said "we just spent a half hour making a snowman."  And I replied yes, and if more people would follow their bliss from time to time, the world would be a happier place.  "Oh," I added, "I need mittens."

So, I got the job.  It's a wonderful job.  This is my second week and I'm so pleased I can hardly stand myself.  Neither can some of the chicks I knit with.  Yeah, it's that good.   I now work for a yarn distributer, which I won't name, because if I'm linked to the company in a Google search I might have to go back into my archive and delete some stuff.  I'm far too lazy.

All right, I need sleep in the worst possible way.  I'll put up a post with some pictures soon.  Maybe of the tree.  It's been up a whole week and I've only had to chase the cats away from it (as in out of the branches) a few times.  Yay, me!