Before the confetti stopped falling on Times Square (and an hour before Alabama New Year), I finished the last six squares of my goal of 52 for 2007.

I can’t be bothered to straighten them out.

I’m actually halfway through the Overall Total of CounterPain Squares with 70 more to go. Then there is the edging of course…I figure there is at least three more years to this project. My attention has now shifted to my next knitting dilemma: Is it possible to knit three quarters of a pair of socks in just four days? I guess we’ll find out on Friday.

Since the New Year is only an hour away (15 minutes by the time I click the “publish” button), it’s time to total the final points in my War on Christmas. I get a point for a successful Christmas Dinner the Third (the one that was my responsibility). Christmas gets a point because there were four Christmas Dinners to begin with. Seriously, I thought this holiday would never end – and I can’t tell if Great Gran is kidding when she says we’re going to have another Christmas Dinner when Uncle Bruce and Aunt Patti get back in town (they missed the other four). I also get a point for finding the Perfect Christmas Gift for Great Gran (and then coercing Mom, Dad, my Darling Sister and her Honey into helping with it). The Jitterbug is made of awesome. If I had designed a cell phone just for Great Gran, it wouldn’t be nearly as brilliant as this one. I don’t say that very often. The best part is that she loves it. She has called everyone – including me from the next room.

The final point tally:

William Henry – 2 Emily – 10 Christmas – 8

Do you know what that means? I won Christmas! I can’t even believe it. I knew 2007 would be a good year. I’ll let you know how 2008 goes – a lot depends on my ability to knit three quarters of a pair of socks by Friday.

Happy New Year!

I’ve made four more!

It is pouring down rain.

That means only six to go – that’s two squares a day for what’s left of December. Totally doable right? I’ve got a few more hours this morning, Michael is up the river and out in the woods with Dad and Uncle Allen (Dad’s big brother). Michael’s got cell coverage out there and we’ve been texting. Last I heard, they were on the way back to the camp* because of the pouring down rain. I’m going to go and see what TiVo has recorded for me the past couple days and work on a square. Aunt Anne arrived last night and I have to be social this afternoon. I’ll be taking the Apres Sock – it’s got a deadline attached to it too.

*It’s really more of a camp house – biggest tank for a generator I’ve ever seen. You go there when you are finished with Woodsy Activities (or are getting soaked in the rain) but aren’t ready to come home yet.

Remember those French Breakfast Puffs I was making Christmas morning? I had them all wrapped up in a basket and ready to go. I turned around to wash out the mixing bowl and stick it in the dishwasher to keep the cats out of it while we were gone, and when I turned back around, Lucy was sitting on the Puffs!

I said some very bad words to Christmas. Which I will not repeat here.

Luckily, they were wrapped up very well, so no part of Lucy actually touched any part of the muffins and only half were smashed. I had also made a whole pan of minis with the batter that didn’t fit in regular size tin so I was able to salvage enough for breakfast. Christmas got a point for that.

If this holiday ever ends (Michael’s family is leaving today, but my Aunt Anne may be coming tomorrow), I will do a final point count and we’ll see who carried the day.

William Henry – 2 Emily – 8 Christmas – 7

I kind of feel like I should add that everyone who attended Christmas breakfast has their own cats (none of their cats approach ours as far as Paths of Destruction are concerned – but they are still basically understanding of the situation). And the puffs were wrapped up really really well – if she had actually touched them in any way, I wouldn’t have taken them. Just in case you were thinking that I would serve cat mouth things to people.

The mailed goodies arrived in time – a point for me! I also think that I deserve a point for doing everything on my lists for yesterday (there is a second list for today) including the timely completion of baking and wrapping without any help from the cats.

Here is a better bump shot for those of you that are interested.

A point goes to Christmas (really tbs) for the 24-hour A Christmas Story marathon. I’ve got to run make French Breakfast Puffs*, my contribution to this morning’s breakfast.

A very Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate the day – a very Happy Tuesday to those of you who don’t!

William Henry – 2 Emily – 8 Christmas – 6

*These are highly endorsed by Carole (where I found out about them), Michael and Great Gran.

I got all the ornaments and baked stuff together to mail to Michael’s family (the ones who aren’t coming on Christmas Day), wrapped it in wrapping paper, double checked the address and stuck it in the Jeep to mail when I went out on Wednesday. This would have given the presents four days and a Sunday to get there by Christmas Eve. Instead, I forgot all about it until Thursday afternoon. Christmas gets a point for the nail-biting suspense – I’ll get a point if the presents make it in time.

Speaking of Christmas (don’t you love my segue?), Great Gran and I received our Alabama Ornament Swap packages last week!

Taken with the iPhone. In low light. It gets dark so early this time of year.

Great Gran’s contained some very thoughtful sugar-free candy (she has Diabetes*), ornament candles, a little notepad and the cutest itty bitty sweater ornament from Wendy! She really loves the sweater and its itty bitty hanger. Great Gran says that she hopes her swap recipient enjoyed opening her package half as much.

As for me, I couldn’t be more tickled with my package from Suzanne!

Candles and notepads and candy OH MY!

Let me draw your attention to the nest in the lower portion of the picture – I can’t be the only person who has never heard of this. There is a German legend that says that all the birds in the world started singing at one time on Christmas night when Jesus was born. Because of this, finding a bird’s nest in your Christmas tree is considered lucky (although probably not for the bird). The nest signifies health, wealth and happiness for your household in the new year! Since very few people actually go into the woods and cut down their own trees any more, nests in Christmas trees are few and far between. Suzanne has thoughtfully provided me with a felty nest complete with eggs and feathers! How cool is that? I hope I’ve got it high enough up so that William Henry won’t notice it.

Speaking of William Henry (I am getting good at this segue stuff), his love of the Christmas Tree has led to an Unfortunate Situation. One of the branches is now bent at a decidedly downward angle. Betty is appalled.

I have fabric that I am using as a tree skirt, but it has a disturbing tendency to travel around the room. I wonder what causes that.

Michael says he can fix it with pliers – it’s bent far beyond what bare hands can unbend. What a pain.

Speaking of Pain (I am SO good at this!) I figured out a few days ago that if I make one CounterPain Square a day until New Year’s Eve, I will complete my 2007 CounterPain Goal of 52 Squares sans Insane Deadline Knitting. I missed yesterday’s Square. Or maybe I made yesterday’s this morning and I haven’t made today’s yet. Either way, there are only 10 more to go in 2007!

William Henry – 2 Emily – 6 Christmas – 5

*Michael insists that I add this link.

A couple of the (many) things that I haven’t mentioned the past few weeks are the swaps. The Alabama Knit Bloggers Ornament Swap was put organized by Darlene. She has done a fantastic job and I have had a lot of fun! I made up my mind what ornament I was making long before I knew the identity of my swap pal.

Itty Bitty things make me so happy.

I used this pattern to make larger single mittens as Christmas Ornaments (I can’t remember what year). It is super cute in sock yarn and with a little crocheted string so one can’t be lost. These are all boxed up and ready for the post office with a couple of other treats for one of my Alabama neighbors.

For the Apres Christmas Sock Swap, I’ve given quite a bit of thought to the delicate matter of yarn selection. My gut reaction to all sock swaps is to order more yarn. However, I have been a member of two sock yarn clubs this year I have a large quantity unique yarn that I have been saving for something “special.” What’s more special than a sock swap? I’ve got my selection narrowed down to two yarns:

On the left, Ruby Sapphire’s Treadsoft in “Galileo” and on the right, STR Silkie in “Walk on the Wild Side.”

Huh. They kinda match. I’ll use whichever one looks best in the pattern I pick (when I get around to picking a pattern).

In between CounterPain Squares (only 14 more to go), I finished three kitty sweaters and the Bunny Hat.

If it doesn’t fit, I will add a face and make a puppet.

As I finished up our Christmas stockings,

Santa comes to see cats too! Their stockings mimic the big stockings. I just need to add the hanging loopy things.

I realized that they are much too “rustic” for the living room* and will look out of place. In addition to that, the fireplaces in the front room are all blocked up**. Blocked chimneys cause logistical problems for Santa. Not that Santa will be here this year, but I owe it to the guy to think ahead about things like that. Which is why I developed the Two Tree Plan.

I’ve got to have a tree in the living room, it’s on the front of the house, and looks pretty (decorations are just about the only thing Christmas has in its favor). I’ve also got to have a tree in the den with the real fireplace*** to facilitate present delivery. This year, we won’t have a live tree. Instead, we have a pre-lit artificial one for the living room that I spent an hour decorating with $20 worth of gold ornaments (to match the gold stuff stuck in the garlands on the mantles). William Henry spent 20 minutes decorating the floor around the tree with the ornaments from the lower limbs.

If it were real, he would climb right to the top.

Next year, the artificial tree will still be with us AND I can get a live tree for the den! That is two trees! This also means that there is no longer a time constraint on the Tree Skirt. I am awarding myself a point for forward thinking (next year I get two points because I will have two trees). William Henry gets a point for his mad floor decorating skills. Christmas still earns a point because I bought an artificial tree (and artificial wreaths for the front doors but that was totally due to frugality).

I get another point because I don’t have to travel anywhere for Christmas! Christmas has to come to me because I am big and fat****. HOHOHO. This does mean that a large chunk of the baking has to be finished early for the mail and Christmas has a great opportunity to screw me during Christmas Dinner Preparation but I’m going to think about that tomorrow. Today I am going to focus my energy on my Knitting Goal for 2007: 52 CounterPain Squares. I’ve only got 17 more to go! Even with fighting the good fight against Christmas and Michael’s family coming on Christmas Day, I feel like this is totally doable.

Especially since I have scrapped the Mommy Snug. My reasons for this are three-fold: 1) It fits closely and that means that I will probably hate wearing it. 2) I hate the sleeves and by the time I figure out how to fix them, it’ll be Too Late to get much good out of the sweater. 3) I think the yarn will look much better as a Hemlock Ring Blanket.

William Henry – 1 Emily – 6 Christmas – 4

*Despite my best efforts to make the front rooms of the house non-froo-froo it seems that a little froo is in my genes. It’s a quandary for nature vs. nurture.
**Six of the seven fireplaces in the house are fixed up for gas. None of these are actually connected to the gas line or to gas heating appliances.
***The one fireplace that might actually function as a fireplace is in the den. I haven’t called the inspector to see if it’s safe. As long as he doesn’t come and take a look, there is still the possibility of a fire.
****It’s the MiniMiracle’s fault. It has nothing to do with all the pie. More on that next post.

The votes are in, surveymonkey has analyzed the results, and we are now prepared to announce the winners of the Dish Rag Tag 2007 Individual Merit Awards! We’ve actually been prepared to announce the winners for a couple of days, but without the Internets for a large portion of those couple days, blogging was a little difficult.

Drum roll please:

The Award for Best DRT KIP Picture goes to Cindy and her ability to knit anywhere! Cindy will receive a skein of Trekking sock yarn (color 76) provided by Kathy!

The award for Most Complex Dish Rag Tag Dish Rag goes to Susan and her dramatic dish rag! A set of stitch markers made by Ebinla will be on their way to you soon!

The award for the most compelling Dish Rag Tag Hard Luck Story and stitch markers (of course) from Carrie go to Debbie and her Medical Emergency! Let none of us forget the Inherent Dangers of Knitting this Holiday Season. Pick up your needles At Your Own Risk.

The original idea for Fastest Turn-Around was that it could be determined by when tags were made in the Dish Rag Tag Application. Unfortunately, there were a couple problems with this – not the least of which was that you could mark the box received and then turn right around and tag the next person before making your dishrag (not that anyone did this maliciously or anything – this is just to illustrate the lack of accuracy in the time stamps). This was particularly frustrating to me because I know that some of you managed to make spectacular 2-or-3-hour-get-it-back-in-the-mail-on-the-same-day-turn-arounds that just weren’t accurately reflected in the application. Since I lack a Dish Rag Tag Investigative Committee to examine all the tags, I ended up taking everyone who marked the box as received and sent in the same day (approximately 20 participants) and putting all the names in a bowl. Then William Henry picked one.

Just one, William Henry.

It was harder to get it away from him than I thought it would be.

The winner is Anita! I’ve got a set of Becky’s hand-made sock blockers just on the way to you.

The winner of Emily’s Surprise Award was easier to determine! This award is given to the “Chattiest” Participant in the Dish Rag Tag forums – with a whopping 69 forum posts, Nichole of Team Lucky 13 has this all sewn up! I’ve got a little box of goodies for you.

The 2007 award for Miss Congeniality, determined by the “nominations” of her peers, goes to Katrina who captained Team XDR with exceptional grace to a nail-bighting 2nd place finish! The perfect trophy, a Nifty Notions Keeper hand-made by Kristin, will make it’s way to you.

I now pronounce Dish Rag Tag 2007 to be officially finished! Thank you to to every one who participated, my thanks to the folks who helped provide the prizes for the race and the Awards, and my heartiest congratulations the winners and to all the teams that completed the race. I also want to extend a special thanks to those of you who provided moral support during the Course of This Event – you made me feel much less alone with my insanity. Dish Rag Tag 2008 (with some modifications – this has certainly been a Learning Experience) is officially on my calendar for next summer (or it will be as soon as I get a calendar that goes past December).

The final race tally:
Dish Rag Tag Round-Up
1…..Hip-Knit-Tised…9/4/2007
2…..Team XDR…9/6/2007
3…..Rag Racin’…9/6/2007
4…..Lucky 13…9/6/2007
5…..Going the Dish-Tance…9/7/2007
6…..Rapid Rag Relayers…9/7/2007
7…..POST knITS…9/8/2007
8…..Cotton Commandoes…9/10/2007
9…..Happy Yarn Hags…9/10/2007
10…Skanks w/Hanks…9/12/2007
11…Ragtag Knitsters…9/13/2007
12…Rockin’ Rag Taggers…9/15/2007
13…Sweet Sixteen…9/15/2007
14…Dish Rag Divas…9/17/2007
15…Rags to Dishes…9/17/2007
16…Disparate Knitters…9/17/2007
17..Wannabe Racin’…9/20/2007
18..Dirty Dishy Dozen…9/24/2007
19..Rag Tag Band of Knitters…10/1/2007
20..Running Ragged…10/3/2007
21..Team Canada…10/5/2007
22..Downunder Dishies…10/7/2007

Just as a reminder, the finalists in the categories that required voting had to let me know by email (with pictures or links) that they were interested in entering to win an Individual Merit Award. As I mentioned earlier, there were 231 knitters participating in The Race for Dish Rag Tag Glory 2007, making it Unrealistic for me to keep up with things by myself. Email submissions also gave Blogless participants the opportunity to submit themselves, their creations and their horror stories on equal footing.