I hope you hate your eyes…

Because this hat is ORANGE!

This is the third hat in my Christmas Hat Fest Extravaganza. It’s the beautiful Devra Hat by the lady behind pieKnits. So you might be wondering, where’s the brim?  Heh. Well, in the perfect plane of existence, there’s a brim on that hat.

Watch out!

I never thought I’d get any of these projects I’ve been working on done… they seriously just felt like they were never going to get done. However, even though I was pushing it right up to the last possible minute before last nights mystery sock class, I did manage to get mom’s socks done. (The socks I’m giving her for Christmas. So suck it Christmas monster!)

I think they came out pretty great! Although the tension in the second sock is way wonky, it almost looks like there’s no pink. Which is funny because the whole time I was freaking out about not having enough purple. Ha ha ha. I had a whole baby fist of purple left.

My favorite part is definitely the striped heels and mismatched heel flaps. Because I came up with those all on my own! I think it makes the socks look a lot louder than they probably should be, which might not have been a great idea for socks for my mom… but she’s pretty crazy, so her socks should reflect that- don’t you think?

Hey everybody it’s the yin-yang twins! Oooooooooooh, pretty cheesy, right?

But the only real problem, besides all the tension wonkyness is that mom’s socks, mysteriously, fit me perfectly:

Watch out mom, I’m coming for them.

Beast!

I feel like a beast!

I mean, lets be honest, my recent posts have been exemplary in “let down”. Because I’ve been feeling down about knitting lately. It’s kind of like something that sort of sits in every room, on every clear surface and laughs at me. Ha ha ha, you can’t finish a project to save your cats.

Knitting and me have a real schizophrenic relationship. One second I’m like, how freaking awesome is knitting guys??!! Then the next second I’m like, psht, knitting, whatevs. Because it starts to feel like an obligation. Or I start to feel pressured. Down with the man!

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about Christmas. Because it’s a-coming, ho ho ho.

So, I went into my LYS and I said, guys, I’m real low but I need to get on this Christmas knitting thing like ASAP. After they felt some pity for my shabby state, they threw a pattern and some yarn my way. I didn’t have to do any of the work, it was amazing. Because they rock!

This is what came of that:

The Scary Man Hat, for Rob. In good ole Scarlet and Gray.

I knit the first row of each color change to prevent those funky lines. I did my own thing with the colors and I thought this looked more ‘professional’ and less ‘knit by a crazy sister in law’. But people will see right through that in a second. Robby got into ARC so hopefully this snazzy hat will let people know that he’s high up on the totem pole. I’m so excited for him and I’m so excited to have a Christmas present done.:D

It’s crazy though, something this satisfying really spurred me on. They said that I’d have enough yarn to do another one of those hats in contrasting colors… but Ryan isn’t like Rob really at all. Actually Ryan is a totally sort of seperate part of the family, like a satelite floating out in space… all spacey.

So he gets:

Swell, for Ryan. Modeled reluctantly by John.

I saw this hat a while ago and thought it would be a good hat for Ryan but I felt intimidated by it. I don’t know why but I honestly think it was the earflaps that were freaking me out. Then I remembered- wait, I don’t take crap from knitting, it takes crap from me!

Because one day I woke up and decided that I could do anything in knitting. I just could. If there was something I didn’t understand I would ask someone or watch something online but the only thing standing in my way of true and total knitting domination is myself. Well, not anymore.

So I cast this hat on during some SNL presidential recap thing. Didn’t knit any on it last night since I forgot my pattern when I went over to Elaine’s. (D’oh!) But still managed to finish it today because it demanded to be done. Plus I’m all over colors lately. Colors are so nice and exciting to knit; when they’re different.

So now I’m wondering… why don’t I knit hats every day? I saw Kim’s Felicity and I’m thinking I might make one for my friend. Maybe. I dunno:

Gratuitious Knit Shots

So yeah, I probably shouldn’t post pictures since they’re all “half done” and that’s what really ruins the full done effect since it’s like… yeah so? We’ve already seen a million pictures of that torturous lace. But I feel like I’ve been running dry around here lately. Maybe it’s because it’s been a year since I started this thing and I only have a year in me per blog. If that. o__O

Or maybe it’s because I’m l-a-z-y. Either way, here are my half done shots:

I’m loving the pattern… about two repeats back though I realized, you know what would have made this better? If I’d held the yarn double. Also, it would have made lace better for me in general if I didn’t have the attention span of a goldfish. Er, whoops. There are some big mistakes… but I’m thinking this scarf/stole thing is big enough that in the end it seriously doesn’t matter.

Okay, so this sock is kind of funny. It’s another mystery sock from Temptations. Called “Fade Away”. Well, I decided I’d finally really knit something for my mom. I always start out knitting stuff for her and then something big and dramatic happens and then next thing you know, the project doesn’t get finished… or it does and goes in the projects I hate but won’t get rid of pile. (Which resides under the bed with about two pounds of cat hair.)

Well socks are a different story. With socks they’re such a labor, even if they’re fun and you love them that you have to give them to that person… because they’re that persons size and it’s weird to hang onto socks that don’t fit you. So I’m playing fast and loose with the yarn because I’m like, she has a small foot, what’s the big deal? The picture isn’t representative but the foot, although when measured it’s an inch smaller than my foot, which is her size… actually fits me perfectly and looks like a monster foot compared to what my moms foot looks like.

At least it’s wool, it’ll shrink. I’m still just like WTF? That could be yarn that I could have saved! Because now I’m cutting it real real real close on this second sock. Real close.

Oh yeah… I had delusions of grandeur that I’d knit John a sweater for Christmas. Then his mom gave me a whole list of things that everyone would like to have and I’m like… well, I need an after Christmas project… right? Plus it doesn’t get super freaking cold until January anyways, amiright?

Anyways, it was my friend Heather’s last day at work last week and it made us all really sad because she rocks. Luckily we made a sweet ass friendship that should hopefully survive. (*knock on wood*) Anyways, since we’re obsessed with Sonic tots, we made our boss an honorary tot member:

He looks super freaking stoked, right? MonsterTot and FrankenTot.