The lilies are blooming.

My Christmas flowers are so beautiful! They arrived on Christmas Eve and here it is Wednesday and they are still perfect. The lilies are opening now and I could smell them last night while I was sitting in my chaise. Very nice. I love the smell of Stargazer lilies.

It is a nasty, cold and blustery day. My sister went back to California yesterday after arriving Saturday night with my nephew. He's still here. I wish the weather was a little better, but at least it's not freezing cold. I've got the rest of the week off. Don't have to be back to work until Tuesday. I plan on doing a little more reading. And knitting. I started a new project. Oh! And I got speakers for my iPod for Christmas so I can now listen to all of my good music through awesome speakers!

Hoorah!

Finally! All my gifts are done. I am celebrating with an entire evening reading and listening to music, a glass of wine and no ch no ch

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Insomnia

I am a total zombie this morning. I went to bed about 10 or 10:30 last night - normal. But I woke up at 2:30 and I couldn't get back to sleep! That is so totally NOT normal. I tossed and turned until 3:30 and finally gave it up and turned on the light and read for a while. That got Tink awake and she wanted to eat and go outside. She must have figured it was morning. At about 4:30 I put the book down and gave sleep another try but no go. Couldn't shut off my brain ... there's just too much stuff going on right now. I have so much to do. The last time I looked at the clock it was 6 and I dozed for about 30 minutes until the alarm went off. I feel awful. I have to give an exam here at 9 am, then as soon as she's done I'm going to go shopping ONE LAST TIME - I swear!! - and then go home and take a nap. I hope.

What is that I hear??

It's the sound of panic is what it is. Because I was sick for so long I am way behind in all my holiday preparations. But .... but did I work on any projects this weekend? Hmmm?? Did I do any knitting? A bit of crochet on that scarf that needs to be done in a couple days? Nooooooooo, I did not. I guess I'm waiting for the panic to really get a grip on me. Then I'll be working like a crazy person.

It was a busy weekend in some ways ... I did get the tree after work on Friday and got it decorated. Minimalist. I like it. Then Saturday I got a manicure and ummm ... took a nap. Well, I was tired!! You can see it in this picture of Tinkerbell and me in front of the tree as I was getting ready for the party Saturday night. I still don't look 100% -- plus which the hair hanging in front of my face make me look cross eyed.

I had every intention of working on my projects Sunday. However, I had to take my nephew .... one of the grown-up (kinda) ones Christmas shopping. I was up early, picked him up by 10 am. He was rather hung over and needed to eat so we didn't get to the real business of shopping until nearly noon. I didn't get back home until 3:30. Nearly as exhausted as I was when I took PJ shopping. And I still had laundry to do, so I watched football and did laundry and assured myself that I would have plenty of time to finish things up.

The Seahawks won again. The Colts lost!! Colts 13-1, Seahawks 12-2 and still people don't take them as a serious threat. Ah well. It's just football. (joke)

It is really cold!!

I cannot believe how cold it still is! And with the inversion the air quality is very bad and I can't have fires in my fireplace until it gets better. I see that it is supposed to be clouding up, getting warmer and should be raining for Christmas week. Just in time for all the visitors.

Today I decided I would walk into work. I turned off my alarm at 5:30 this morning. It was just so cold in the house and Tinkerbell was all snuggly with me and I realized I didn't have anything pressing to attend to at work, so I slept in. I awoke at 7:45 and the sun was almost all the way up and I decided to walk. I just couldn't bear to get into my car again, having driven in every day so far this week. And, frankly, I didn't think it was safe to get on my bike. Now ... wait a minute ... those of you who know me, quit looking out of the window for those telltale flying pigs! I can be sensible sometimes!! After that bike accident this summer, I just didn't think it was prudent to risk it again, riding on the ice. Especially since I am still a bit congested and coughing. It was only about 28 degrees. I put all my stuff into my backpack, made myself a yummy eggnog latte, bundled up, plugged into my iPod and off I went. It was so nice!! I love to walk anyway, but there it was all sparkly with ice, nice music playing (don't you just LOVE the iPod whole collection shuffle??), cold and crisp. It was really really wonderful. My little Seattle winter wonderland.

Christmas shopping with a 10 year old

What was I thinking?!? Oh, I know ... I thought it would be lovely and fun and a little bit of Christmas magic to take my nephew downtown, take in the scene, look at the lights, do a little shopping and really get into the season. Okay, when you get done laughing .... I can wait .....

First he didn't want to go downtown after all but please could we go to the mall because there is a Toys 'R Us there and he needed to buy a present for his little friend. No, I explained, we were going to buy presents for his mom. Period. And he didn't want to look at the lights and okay he'd buy his mom something then with the rest of the money we'd go toy shopping. Pretty soon I just quit responding and parked the car and off we went in search of Christmas spirit. But not before a quick trip to the bathroom where, he tells me, there are televisions mounted above the urinals!! And we should go to the ladies room so that I can look and see if there are televisions for the ladies as well. Okay. I had to go anyway so we trooped upstairs in Macy's to visit the ladies room and no, there were no televisions.

Out we went into the cold night air, me looking for a little bit of that old Christmas magic and he looking for a jewelry store to buy something for his mother. But first ... let's eat. Key decision. Never shop on an empty stomach, especially if you're dragging a 10 year old behind you. He was a little more reasonable after eating even though we had to go one more round on why we weren't going to shop for toys. Somewhere lately I had read or seen something on TV about active listening so I gave it a go and it worked! Got him calmed down and reassured that he would indeed have time to get a present for his friend. Off we went then to Nordstrom to buy a few things, then back to Macy's for another, a bit of gift wrapping and I dropped him off by 7:30.

By the time I arrived at my house it was not yet 8 pm and I was so completely and utterly exhausted that I seriously considered going to bed. Tinkerbell had somehow managed to grab two skeins of yarn off the coffee table and got their labels off but didn't seem to have mangled the yarn much. I was sure that I had pushed them back far enough but she had been alone since noon - eight whole hours - and I guess the urge to make mischief was great. I had to stay up if there was going to be any chance of her sleeping through the night so I changed into jammies and just read. No knitting. No music. Just reading. What a luxury!! Before I started knitting I read all the time. Now I have 3 months worth of magazines sitting untouched, new books waiting to be read. I made myself a promise this morning that when I finish up these last three (or 4?) gifts I am going to do nothing but read for days and days. It was just so nice and peaceful there reading that I stayed up past 10. My exhaustion giving way to relaxed contentment.

Finally a good night's sleep!

Wow! I had a great sleep last night, finally. Which means I guess that I'm 100% at last. I did have some dreams, but not strange ones like I have been having, or very complicated ones. I only dreamed that I was running. In my dream I wanted to work out, to go for a run. That's obviously because I haven't been able to run or work out for nearly two weeks. So I just kept running everywhere I was going, in whatever shoes or clothes I was wearing. It was fun.

I spent my morning taking my Dad to the doctor. Got to work about 12:30 and I'll be leaving here in a few more hours to pick up PJ and head downtown to go Christmas shopping for his mother. It's very pretty downtown with all the lights. Since I essentially skipped Christmas last year it's going to be a real treat for me as well. Maybe I'll try to snap a picture with my camera phone.

A few pictures

I finally stopped being so lazy and took a few pictures with my camera. First here is a picture of the Peter Pan & Captain Hook Sericel I bought at the auction on the 2nd. Isn't it cool? I tried not to get too much glare on it, that's why it's taken a little to the side rather than straight on. I hung it over the fireplace downstairs. I just love it. Of course, it would have been better if Tinkerbell were in there as well, but I imagine those are very rare indeed.

This is a picture of a felted hat I made for one of my nephews for Christmas. I crocheted it and it went very quickly. I am very pleased with the way it turned out, although I wouldn't have chosen those colors. He specifically said he wanted red if I were going to make him a hat, so that's what we ended up with. I have some pretty teal colors to make another one for one of the other children and I think it'll be nicer.

And finally, I finished up the hat and scarf set I was making for the exchange here at work today. These things go very quickly. I just made up the pattern for the hat. It didn't turn out exactly as I wanted - it more beret-ish than cloche-like but it looks okay on. And then I added a little ruffle flower to tie it in with the scarf.

I have to finish Ruth's little sweater first and then a couple more little things to make before Christmas and then I can start on some fun things for myself. I got the yarn for that complicated cabled shrug from Autumn IK and I am just itching to start on that but don't dare until I get a few things finished up. Plus I've still got to rip out that bottom of that UGLY peplum sweater and try to remake that into something I can wear. It would be a shame to waste all that lovely alpaca.

It lives!!

Wow! I can't believe a whole week went by. Here it is the 12th and I'm finally finally feeling normal! I guess I had the flu, huh? After I quit trying to come to work and just gave up and admitted that I was indeed sick I just rested. No knitting. No reading. No watching TV. Just sleeping. I can't believe how much I slept! I got out of the house on Saturday because I needed to get my sister's birthday present. I got up and got going early be cause I knew the traffic was going to be awful and it was, but I was home by 1 having purchased, wrapped and sent her gift! I didn't do much of anything else that day but work on a ruffled scarf and hat for the gift exchange at work for tomorrow. I had to finally give up on finishing that blankie for work. I may pick it up again or I may just chuck the whole thing. I also managed to make the cutest felted ear flap hat for one of my little nephews! I crocheted it up when I was getting sick - must have been last Tuesday or Wednesday. It went quickly and it looks awesome! I should take pictures. Maybe tonight if I'm not too exhausted from a real day at work. Nope - I wasn't that crazy - I didn't ride my bike. I'm still coughing.

I hate to rub it in to my Eagles fan .... especially after that butt kicking last Monday night - but I went to the Seahawks game on Sunday and they totally dominated the 49ers. In fact the 49ers only ONCE in the whole game got past the 50 yard line. One time. It was incredible. I am SO looking forward to the play offs. Maybe this year the Seahawks will actually win one!

I got a last gift from the BEST Secret Pal in the whole world! And now I know her name since it's the end of Secret Pal six. So thank you for being just the very very nicest secret pal, Shannon! She blogs at alittleloopy.blogspot.com as 'Nonnahs'. I am very happy to have gotten to know such an awesome knitter/football lover/ AND greeting card designer. They are very cute - I've gotten a few.

That's it for today. I must remember to take a picture of the Peter Pan Sericel that I bought at the auction last Friday as well as my few FOs of late. My digital camera is such a dinosaur. I bought it right before I moved to Paris - so that was December of 1999!! And it was THE thing then. Now it's just a huge, clunky piece of junk that it a hassle to download picture from. Oh well -- it works and that's the important thing. Plus of course, there is always the trusty picture phone.

Will it ever end?

Oh now, I don't want to sound like a whiney baby but here it is Wednesday and I had to make myself come to work. I stayed home yesterday after bailing early on Monday. Man, this thing is kicking my behind!! I guess it's been so long since I've had a proper cold that I've forgotten how debilitating they can be. I didn't do much of anything yesterday but sleep and read. I did a bit of perfuctory knitting - these deadlines are looming, I know. Had a lovely telephone conversation which perked up my spirits, even though I was told that I "sound awful!!". Ah well ... that's the way it goes sometimes. As long as I am not awful, I can stand sounding awful.

I thought right

I did get a cold. A bad one. And here it is Monday and I'm still sniffly but I'm up and about anyway. Friday evening I had a social commitment - one that I look forward to annually. I stayed in bed all day Friday and got up a few hours before I was due to go out and got myself cleaned up and ready. Took a stiff dose of cold medicine, called a cab and headed out. All in all it was a successful evening. I liberally dosed myself with Manhattans throughout the evening to keep that "I'm not really sick" feeling alive. I managed to acquire a wonderful piece of art at the auction - a "sericel" from the Disney animated Peter Pan of Peter and Captain Hook fighting. It's very cool.

But I paid a price for going out Friday - I was just down for the count on Saturday. Fever and all. I couldn't even knit or read - I just wallowed in my misery. Thankfully I had a great chef come over to cook curry for me. That was marvelous. Yesterday again I was very low energy but made myself work on that darned blanket. I only have a week and a few days to get it done. I also started a little bit of lace scarf with the pink yarn my Secret Pal sent. I'm not 100% committed to it yet - I think it will be pretty but the thing about knitting a pattern is that there is a right side and a wrong side which I don't like with a scarf. I don't know .... it's not that big of a deal but anyway ... I'll figure it out.

Well well

It snows.

I think I'm getting a cold

I have a massive sore throat. I dragged myself into work today since I had worked at home yesterday. I drove though, didn't bike. It's only 37 degrees now and again they're predicting snow. yeah yeah

I finished "The Lighthouse" yesterday evening. Good book. I made it last as long as I could. And I worked on the Booga Bag-ish thing. I love Kureyon. You never know what you're going to get but it's always beautiful. It reminds me a bit of that candy when I was a kid. Just a round piece of sugar - stupid really - but all different colors. So every minute or so you were taking it out of your mouth to see what color it had turned. The Kureyon is like that - knit just one more round, what color is going to come up next?

The fares to France are fluctuating nearly every day. I am going to wait until January to book. I still need to hear from a certain someone (ahem) about schedules in January. My friend Emma is living in Luxembourg now and she is available those two weeks to get together. I am also trying to convince my sister to come along, at least for one of the two weeks I have planned to take off. She hasn't been to Europe for years and years - like 20 or more. It all depends on if her gallery gets sold in time. Fingers crossed.

It's a dark and cold day

NOT raining ... no, not snowing either. Just dark and cloudy and dreary. I'm working from home today. Last night I didn't work on that blanket, like I had promised myself. Instead I started a modified Booda Bag with the leftover Noro Kureyon from the tea cozy and the full skein that my Secret Pal sent me. If I find that it's not enough I'll just get a third skein. But the pattern seems like it would make a larger bag and I only want a small one so I'm figuring it should work out just right. Yeah ... well .. there ya go.

So what do you think happened?

On Monday evenings I pick up my nephew from school and take him for an hour or so, letting his mother work. He was very excited yesterday about the news that there was a 90% chance of snow. Oh boy!! The guy on the radio was saying that in his opinion, if the meteorologists were predicting a 90% chance of snow you could bet that we wouldn't get any. And he was right on. I awoke to the sound of pouring rain in the middle of the night and this morning it was blowing and a little rainy. Thankfully also, a bit warmer. While I had to wrap my face yesterday for protection, I didn't need it this morning. It is very dark and I can see that it is going to most likely rain again soon, (hopefully while I am at the gym and not en route) I am quite sure it's too warm for snow. Probably up north they got some, and in the higher elevations. But not here. All those poor children waking this morning, running to the windows expecting a winter wonderland and just getting good ol' soggy Seattle.

I have got to kick myself into gear and get that mohair blanket done. I have two weeks to finish it. It's not difficult. In fact, it's mindless. It's boring, quite frankly. But I always like to have a project like that sitting around - something that I can knit on while I watch a movie or the game. But I'm right in the middle of a purl stripe and it's getting big and I don't like to purl. Oh well, I just have to make myself tackle it. Perhaps if I just assign myself so many rows an evening and then have another fun project to work on. I haven't started frogging that sweater yet. I want to wait for the weekend so I can do it at the dining table in good light. It's not going to be easy. I am just hoping it's going to be worth it.

Snow!?

The weather report is for a 9O% chance tonight and in the morning. Guess I am walking to work tomorrow.

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A very nice, long weekend

Wow! What a great weekend!! I cooked on Thursday, but I was very well organized and it was an early dinner so I had my house back to myself and all cleaned up by 6 o'clock. Nice. Friday it *poured* rain and I didn't leave the house except to walk the dog and send my Noro Felted Bag to someone in New York. Somebody bought something from my Etsy Shop again! I put up a couple more scarves - cashmere and mohair ruffled ones. Anyway, it was fabulous to just laze around the rest of the day!! I got a good bit done on Ruth's sweater and watched a movie and got a little more done on the mohair blanket. Saturday was a gorgeous day - all clear and crisp. Tink got a longer walk and I got to finish up Ruth's sweater body and get a whole sleeve done! Now I've only got to make one more sleeve and it's finished. The latest P.D. James novel arrived from Amazon on Saturday - "The Lighthouse" - so I put down the sweater and started that book. At 10:30 I made myself put it down so that I could make it last. I love her stuff and I could have easily just kept reading into the night and finished it up. I will now just read a little bit before bed for a few night to make it last. Oh, and yesterday. W-O-W! It was a incredible football game. I must say probably the best game I've ever been to. The Seahawks won it in overtime after the Giants kicker (who, incidentally, used to be a Seahawk) missed not one but two attempts to end it. Our kicker came on and we won, 24 to 21. I can barely talk this morning. It was just almost too exciting.

I'm going to put the alpaca lace peplum sweater back on the projects list, since I'm going to be frogging the peplum part of it and re-doing the body. Good thing for me I didn't use up those two and a half skeins I have left over. I was thinking last night that maybe I'll (obviously) extend the plain body part down to the waist and then put about an inch or just one repeat of the lace pattern instead of a band. I think that might look good and it would kind of bring it all together. We'll see. I am NOT looking forward to frogging that lace. I think it's going to be tough. Plus which, to add to it, it's been sewn together and blocked so the seams are going to be awfully hard to get undone. It'll be a challenge.

Th UGLIEST picture of me in the UGLIEST sweater

I don't usually let ugly pictures of me out in the public domain but since I've been talking about this sweater for so long and I am going to rip the bottom part of it off and make it into a NOT ugly sweater, I'm going to put it up. Well ... hmmm, that's weird. It won't upload the picture. Maybe because it's so freakin' UGLY!!! I guess we'll just have to wait until Monday when I can do it from work. I've had this problem before where it wouldn't let me upload a picture. Oh .. .I could put in a link. http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a87/sgolard/uglysweater.jpg Just a warning -- I look like I weight about 200 pounds. When in fact, I wear a size 4. I swear. Plus which it makes me look like I've got a double chin. The sweater is the single most unflattering garment I have ever owned Bar none. I am going to frog the bottom lace part and just knit a regular bottom and I think that will make it into a wearable garment. Now I'm going to bake pies.

A lesson learned

The lesson: Just because you like the sweater in the magazine does NOT mean that it's going to be suitable for you.

The sweater in question is the alpaca lace peplum from Vogue Knits. I had decided to wear it this morning with a certain skirt and take pictures. Okay - I got into the skirt, boots, tank top -- nice looking outfit. On goes the sweater. YUK. The skirt is slim fitting with a flippy, tulip like bottom. It did not look good with the sweater. What it needs is a slim fitting, plain short black skirt, which I don't have. Fine. So I got out of that and put on a pair of black jeans. It looked OK. Just OK. Not the most flattering fit, actually. And if I had tried this on in the store, I wouldn't have purchased it. That's what I must get into my head!! Although frankly it's a bit hard to know if a certain style is going to look good on you until you try it on and when you're knitting a garment ... well, you can't try it on until you've put all the work into it! Is that paradoxical? Anyway - so I set up my digital camera and took a few pictures and to add insult to injury, the sweater makes me look fat!!! I promised to post pictures so I will probably Friday. I need to download them onto my computer. But seriously -- I just wasn't comfortable with it so after 15 minutes of fussing and taking pictures I tore it off, tossed it on a chair and threw on a cardigan. Now I must decide if I should give it to someone or frog the damned thing and knit something else. You know ... it just occurred to me ... I could frog away the peplum bottom, which is mostly the problem, and just continue knitting in SSt, put a band on it and that might work. Hmmmm ....

Anyway - I'm getting all amped up about Thanksgiving. I'm baking pies tonight. Short day at work.

What a GREAT Secret Pal I have!!

Not only is she a football fan, but she sends me the best goodies!! Here's a (bad) picture I snapped this morning on the way out the door. A cute little book called "Kniticisms", some lovely pink Rowan Kid Classic, a skein of some Rowan Cotton in a great loden color, some sweeeeeet smelly stuff, lip balm, chocolates, a handmade card AND a beautiful pink latte bowl, which I will use Thursday morning for the first eggnog latte of the season!! Thanks SO MUCH, Secret Pal. You are the BEST!

She sent me before a skein of Noro Kuryeon and I am going to use that and these great ones as well for things for ME. I tend to knit mostly for others these days, but I am saving these for something nice for me.

Speaking of knitting for others -- I have a gift list that keeps on growing so I am very glad that I finished the alpaca sweater because it's going to be weeks and weeks before I can start on anything else for me. The weekend I spent using up some recycled cashmere and I made two more of those ruffled scarves. They turn out so lovely in cashmere (well, really, what doesn't?). The recycled stuff is tricky. It's all curly when you use it and doesn't look or feel much like what you'd expect. But as soon as you wash it, it straightens out, blooms and it's just fabulous! I had been working with some orange stuff - I got a lot of it and it is 3-ply where they are usually only 1 or 2 - trying out making a raglan little sweater out of it. But I realized that I really didn't care for the color and I surely wouldn't wear it if I did finish it, so I used three strands, making it 9-ply, and crocheted one of the ruffled scarves and it is warm and really really nice. I shall certainly use that for a gift as well as a smaller pink one I made with 3-ply. I have lots of the pink left as well as some yellow. I don't think I'm up to socks, but maybe some mittens. I'll have to think about it. But first I have to finish that blankie. Shouldn't take too much longer. It's mindless knitting and I just need to make myself have it in my lap at all times, except when eating.