Knitting (and other) miscellany

Did anyone else notice that they started piping out the Christmas music at the mall already? Yeah, like on November 1st! Two things happened: (1) I started getting excited about Christmas, and (2) I started freaking out about Christmas! You see, I bought this pattern for a knit nativity a zillion years ago and had planned to knit a character per month so that come Christmas this year, I'd have an astonishing knit nativity to lay out under our Christmas tree. I was also going to knit the advent calendar ornaments too...there are 24 of them! It was a glorious plan except they are already piping the Christmas music at the mall and all I have knit so far for my fabulous nativity display is this:

That would be the gown, right arm, collar, partially stuffed head, and scarf of Mary. Oh and there's a partially completed baby Jesus somewhere too who, well, let's just say needs to be reworked ;0) Oh, and this is how far I got before halloween...I've been procrastinating since because I'm too afraid of the face embroidery (it's what ultimately felled my first baby Jesus attempt...he ended up looking like he had fetal alcohol syndrome. Not good! Definately not divinely inspired!)

Speaking of halloween though (no I'm not changing the subject just to avoid setting forth a timetable or revised plan for my nativity, why would you even think that?), here's a photo of our little lion blowing his nose! Ain't he cute?

We didn't take him out because it was cold and damp, but we let him give out the candy and he had a blast (and his very first sugar high!). So much fun. I can't wait until next year when we can take him out trick or treating. I think he's really going to love that!

And now, to justify the title of this post, are some completely unrelated knitting items that I wanted to share with y'all...

1. Did you see grumperina's cable twist socks (the pattern is from hello yarn)? I think they're so cool that I've actually cast on a pair of my own in some delicious Fleece Artist sock yarn that I won in froggie meanie's blogiversary contest. Did I even tell you about that yet? I'll have to take some decent photos and tell you more about it. I'm loving the yarn and the colours are sooo pretty ;0) Thank you thank you thank you Froggie Meanie! For being a fabulous blog pal, an inspiring knitter, kitty costume sewer (how cool is that kitty costume she made for Claire...seriously, Renee, you rock!), and for possibly becoming Julian and Logan's future mother-in-law. What? She's got the girls and I've got the boys? Think about the potential knitting progeny (is that a word and does it mean what I think it means?)!
   
2. Have you seen this celtic alphabet chart generator yet? Is it ever neat! I'm so going to have to use it on something. It just so pretty ;0)
   
3. What about this? Did everyone hear of the Tsarina of Tsocks yet? I have to get me some of these Imbas socks! Seriously, if I ever manage to knit those, I'll never take them off my feet. I think I'd even bath in Eucalan so there really would never be a reason to pry them off.
   
4. If you are lucky enough to have a little girl to knit for this holiday season, check out this simple but really special flapper hat from Sara + h. Too cute and perfect for holiday knitting too since you could probably hash one out in an evening if you had too...and you just might ;0)
   
5. I joined a new knitalong, knitty bloggy baby bumpers, which is for anyone who is expecting and knitting for baby or for anyone who is knitting baby garments period. It's a really cool place. Check it out if you're into making baby things...
   
6. I finished my Soctovember socks last weekend! I'll have to take proper picks and show you next time.
   
7. Stephen and I were lucky enough to get to see Bob Dylan live in concert last night! Too bad I fell asleep during the intermission and really had a hard time staying awake when he finally got on stage...my bedtime is 8:30 these days y'know? I think I'm too old for rock concerts ;0)
   
8. Oh, and YARN HARLOT IS COMING TO MONTREAL TOMORROW NIGHT and I am so there bay-bee! I called the bookstore to ask if we should reserve spots...they told me it was a knitting book signing and figured there'd be lots of room. Boy are they going to be surprised! Check out the deets here if you're in town and want to check it out too.

Ciao for now...

Socktober delusion

So I'm on the train on Thursday talking to me new knitting buddy (salut Marie-Michele!) about the beautiful broadripples she's making and thinking I should find some yarn and join Soctoberfest.

She looked at me like I was crazy and said: "It's October 26!"



Okay, that was a crazy thought I had. Though in my typical delusion I actually found some stash sock yarn (which admitedly wasn't very hard...I've got enough sock yarn to make a dozen pairs!) and cast on.

Well knit as I might, I don't think I can humanly knit a sock tomorrow night but you know, it's not "Sockstober"... it's very clearly a singular affair and the loophole is built right into the name ;0)

And I think I can finish a sock for socktober...

PS - did you notice how my purple needles match my sockyarn? I can't tell you how much pleasure I derive from this. Must. Get. More. Colours.

And the baby is...

I had my first ultrasound on Friday afternoon and was very eager to find out if we are expecting a pink or a blue. Let me put this in the proper context for you...

I didn't really have a preference for either a boy or a girl because Stephen and I know there will be more kids in our clan no matter what (aka, more opportunites to give Julian a little sister or a brother to round out the family ;0) Though I really wanted to know because you see, my mother is a fortune-teller. She doesn't do it for a living or for anyone outside the family for that matter, but every once in a while she'll predict something that just happens to come true. Now that doesn't sound like much, in fact I don't really believe in that stuff either, but something got me wondering about two years ago...

Stephen and I had been married for about 6 months and decided to start a family (we just couldn't wait ;0) We tried for a few months to no avail and each time, we were both crushed. It was just so disappointing that it wasn't happening and I was already starting to worry that it just might not happen for us and my mother told me not to worry, that I was going to get pregnant on October 17th. I thought she was bonkers as usual because come on! What a weird, and precise, thing to say! Well guess what happened? I got pregnant with Julian on October 17!!! And that totally freaked me out. You mean my mom could be right about some of this stuff she predicts? Really freaky!

Especially since she predicted Stephen and I would have 6 children: five little boys followed at last by a little girl! Now we want a large family but let's be realistic, when we say that in this day and age, we mean 3 or 4...not 6! And 5 boys? Talk about scary! So when Julian turned out to be a boy, we were still laughing about it but deep down we were both thinking OMG, what if she's right about it all? Well she hasn't been wrong yet...

We're expecting another blue!

He really doesn't like to paint!

No you're not losing it. This post is dated October 17 because that's when the story happened. I actually posted it on October 30. Sneaky, eh?

When we moved into our house, we thought we could paint the whole thing in just 4 days! Okay, now we know that sounds crazy, but we were young and green then. We did give it an honest try though...painting through the nights, sniffing paint fumes, and listening to The Ventures CD on repeat f-o-r-e-v-e-r !

Sure they're lovely memories but we still can't listen to The Ventures! And anytime I mention we should paint something, my husband gets that look in his eye. So when I mentioned that I thought our living room was too dark and that we should consider either repainting in a lighter colour or buying a new sofa in a lighter colour, daddy didn't even hesistate! Okay he did but for like 5 minutes and then we were all in the car on our way to the sofa showroom ;0)

Our old living room furniture...

Our new daddy-really-really-really-doesn't-want-to-paint-again-sofa...

Good to know ;0)

Oh, and Julian approves too...

Thank you daddy!!!