Wait- Christmas is how freaking close?!

Less than a week away. Then, you know what that means right?! The year will be over. Kristie already has me thinking about resolutions, which makes me spazzy because I need to focus on one thing at a time. Instead, I’ll just think about a million things at a time and not get any of them done- sound like a deal?

As far as knitting resolutions though, next year will be a stash buster year. I have a bunch of yarn just sitting around wanting to be knit. I really need to do that. So I’m not going to buy any yarn, especially for big projects for a while. I might buy sock yarn but only if I need a special kind for that class and not others because I have a lot of that starting to pile up too. It’s not a lot compared to some people but it’s a lot to me! I guess that’s kind of a scattered sounding resolution. Most people fly in here (here being the internet) with lists and bullets or maybe even a chart or graph. What else?

Oh yeah! My other resolution is to read The Tale of Genji next year. Whew, now that the heavy lifting is done, we can get to the real fluff.

The nutcrackers are back! Along with my snowglobes. I guess the windchimes detract from the Holidayness of it but they add to the zaniness and that’s just as good.

Isn’t he a cutie? This is our first ornament. I liked that they turned the bow around for John’s side. So tricky, you never would know there was a bow there! When I first got it I was all tormented thinking about how it said “the first” instead of “our first” because that’s a lie when you think about it, it’s not THE FIRST. But it was the first in an epic saga of Christmas ornaments.  Or will be eventually. If I ever get around to, you know making things in my life as epic as they are in my head. ::air guitar solor::

Here’s this years! Isn’t it amazing? My buddy Crystal made it, you remember her right? I love the little fuzzy ball on the hat.

Oh yeah and since it isn’t the new year yet, I checked out a store called WonderKnit the other day. They had some really nice luxury yarn there. Plus they gave me a fancy bag!

I got the pot holder at Wholly Craft! and I plan on giving it to my mom. Speaking of my mom- she’s going to get some amazingly kick ass Christmas gifts this year. I don’t want to toot my own horn here, I’m just saying: damn.

Are you tired of me yet?

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: