In order to avoid another situation like the Great Graduation Socks Debacle, I am not allowed to start another project until Michael’s Granny’s Christmas Socks are finished. So you’ll be seeing them a lot. A LOT a lot.

Only four inches, a toe and a whole entire other sock to go!

Mom won’t send me a picture of her First Sweater. She has this fancy, new camera (that she bought to take pictures of her cat) but she doesn’t seem to want to use it. She’s been telling me for the longest time that she wants to rip out because her sweater is bumpy on the back. I ask if it looks good on the front. She says, “Oh, yes.” I say, “Stockinette is supposed to be bumpy on the back. And nobody sees the back anyway. It’s inside the sweater.” Now she says she has an Actual Mistake and wants to rip back. I say, “It’s in stockinette in Big Fat Yarn. How much of a mistake could it be?” Have I mentioned that my Mom is a little bit of a perfectionist?

Great Gran (scarf fever) is waiting for a delivery of ribbon yarn from JoAnn.com. A package for her was delivered to my house¹ on Firday. But that turned out to be a box of Fun Fur for a lady in Michigan. They reshipped Great Gran’s yarn on Monday (I assume they reshippe the Michigan Lady’s yarn too). This has forced her to work on her Gatsby Cardigan. Except she isn’t working on it because she is reading instead. I keep telling her to hurry up with the cardi so that I can seam it² and she can take it with her when everyone goes skiing³ after Christmas. It looks like she would rather read.

I did manage to take a non-blurry picture of the Christmas Tree.

Twinkly!

And I also got a slightly crooked⁴ shot of the house at night. This trees make me think of the Corona comercial where the one palm tree is lit up. Those pines are WAY too tall for me to get lights up in them. Maybe I could make friends with somebody who owns a helicopter by next Chrismas…and buy a freakishy long extension cord.

¹Our UPS guy brings Great Gran’s orders to my house because I live in town. She lives out of town (it’s about an eight minute drive). I think it’s funny.

²Great Gran doesn’t seam anymore. She says that’s the real reason she taught me to knit: so someone else could seam her sweaters and graft her toes. It’s not that she can’t seam (she did up all of my Great Gran-mother’s things for her), she just doesn’t like to.

³Everyone but us. We get to stay home and babysit the critters (Gracie and Dinah are coming to visit. Betty loves it when her cousins come over). The best vacation for us is staying home. WooHOO! Nowhere to go!

⁴Better slightly crooked than slightly blurry.

Yarn Miracle: Special Sunday Edition

It’s the kind of day that makes you wish it weren’t Sunday so you could go back to bed instead of to Sunday School. But you leap out of bed in spite of the rain because you get to wear your new Vintage Sweater!

You can also get a good look at the Swamp we call Our Yard. Welcome to Winter in the South.

I’ve also got a closer picture where you can see the mock cables on the sleeves a little better. The pattern doesn’t have buttons, but I opted to place a clasp at the neck. I question whether I should have sewn it on with the same yarn…but I can always change it later.

In Christmas Knitting:
I had just turned the heel on the Waving Lace Socks when it occurred to me to try them on. They fit me perfectly. Which meant there was No Way Granny Tomlin could ever get them on. At first I thought, “Well, she’s not gonna wear them anyway, so what difference does it make?” But that made me feel guilty so I     frogged     the     entire     leg. Arugh. I’ve started over on needles that are one size larger. If this doesn’t work, well, the socks can always live in the box with the afghan.

They were prettier on turquoise needles.

Coming Soon:
Woman catches Scarf Fever. Great Gran vows, “I WILL be finished with these by Christmas.”

Ooh! Ooh! Look what Cindy sent me!

Mmmmm, Imported Buttons.

I can’t thank you enough, Cindy! You made my whole day. Here is what they look like on the Everyday Cardigan:

Want to see the whole thing?

I love this sweater, I have worn it twice since I put the buttons on. In fact, I’ve got it on right now. It’s so good and snug and I really like how Peace Fleece wears – a real work horse of a yarn. Oddly, no one has asked me if I made this one. I wonder if that’s a good thing or a bad thing? Does it look obviously homemade? Maybe it’s the buttons. Everyone around here knows they are way too cool to have come from Wal-Mart so the sweater must be store-bought. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

After stalling for several days, I finally mustered the courage to unravel the too-big cuffs on the vintage sweater. One at a time, mind you. Holding my breath.

Huh. It works. Go figure.

I knit the cuffs back on with a needle two sizes smaller and they came out OK. I can’t even believe that worked. But since it did, I am tempted to undo the bottom band on that orange sweater vest and shrink it, too. I finished up the front bands and was in the middle of blocking when I decided that the sweater was the wrong size. Apparently, when the pattern gave the measurements, they gave the size of the person who was supposed to wear the sweater, not the finished size of the sweater.* Hmph. So I took a chance and threw the dripping cardigan in the dryer on high. I don’t know what made me do that. I guess I was feeling invincible after the sucess of the cuffedectomy. In twenty minutes, it was thicker, softer and just the right size. It’s blocking the rest of the way right now. Henceforth, I will refer to the Vintage Sweater as the One I Couldn’t Ruin.

Did I mention that I am not allowed to buy anymore yarn until mid-January? Stupid Christmas. Gotta buy stuff for other people. The Season of Giving. Blech. Speaking of other people, I have started working on the One And Only Knitted Christmas Gift. What do you get for Michael’s Granny who “doesn’t want anything for Christmas”?

And she better wear them. Not like the afghan I made for her birthday that she keeps in a box under the bed. She says she doesn’t want it to get messed up.

*This means that I can make one of the boy sweaters in the book for M without monkey business.