Who's a Rude-A-Potamus??!?!?!??

It is done! Behold, the Wee One's Yuletide Stocking:

I like it better now that it's finished and hanging by our fireplace, ready for the holidays to get started. I mean, why pack it away now, we'll be putting up the holiday decor in a couple of weeks? Still needs a washing and blocking though.

Now I'm back to working on the Red Sweater for the Wee. It's honestly a boring knit for me after all that stranded colorwork. I can't say I even worked a stitch on it in two days' time now. Could mean trouble...

Ok now for a pop quiz. You are shopping in a small-aisled grocery store called Complete Edibles. You come upon an aisle where a stunning woman is making her canned pumpkin selection and her cart, with the most beautiful wee one in all the land, is in your way. What do you do?

A. Wait a moment patiently behind her as she finishes. Hey, you're retired and have all day...

B. Say, "Excuse me" and allow her to move her cart out of your way. Hey, you're retired and need to make up for lost years...

C. Push her cart with her baby in it aside, scraping your cart into it in doing so and say absolutely nothing. Hey, you're retired and a big, mean, rude-a-potamous and eat cute babies for dinner.

Yeah, that's right. I went to the store for some foodstuffs and came out again appalled at the minds of people. Who moves your cart with your baby in it and says not a word? You can bet I said a few things. I really need to do the whole on-line food ordering. It could also help me avoid the H1N1...

DOH!!!

So yesterday I stole some moments and tried to further the Wee Yuletide Stocking along. I guess I was a bit preoccupied and seemed to miss some light green and undyed stripe-age:

So I ripped back and tried it again. I was so hoping to have the foot pattern finished yesterday but when I discovered my mistake, all the wind went out of my sails. So I'm only about as far as I was when I initially discovered my mistake.

Here is a close-up, albeit blurry, of the part I'm not so happy with.

It lies in the joining of the rounds. I just can't seem to figure out how to join and carry up the other colors without them showing through to the right side. If you don't twist the two yarns together from the previous and current rows, there is a hole in the seam. If you twist, you sometimes get color where it should not be. Also, seems my tension has been a bit too tight when carrying the yarn up through the join too, resulting in some puckering. Again, hoping a good blocking might help it a little but the colors showing through won't be helped, I'm afraid. I need to further investigate how to sucessfully knit fair isle and/or stranded knitting in the round. Too bad I didn't do so before knitting this stocking...but then again this is a stocking built upon and for tradition and my tradition seems to be knitting with some flaws. The age-old "proof a mortal made it" saga or risk being turned into a spider. Click HERE for some other myths about weaving, spinning, knitting and other fun fibre forms.

Indian Summer

What a great warm weekend we just had! How did we spend some of the time? We walked with the Wee One downtown and on the north shore, then toured some replica ships built to the specifications of the Nina and Pinta of Columbus' fleet. You can read more HERE about the "floating museums" and see the schedule; they are going to be spending the winter in some tropical place. There was a sign in the Pinta advertising for crew members...

We also went to see the new Fred Rogers statue.

We ended the day in a Mexican restaurant, tofu and bean taco with chips and salsa...the best day. Wee One did not sleep once, he was too busy taking in all the sights.

Oh, the knitting, right. The stuff this blog is supposed to be about. The Wee Yule Stocking is about 6 rows shy of the start of the heel. Its ok, I'm not happy with something on the round joining and will show some photos of the problem later when I feel strong enough to face it. At this point I will not rip back and Nature Boy assures me no one but I will notice it. The problem is I will notice it and know it's not my best knitting. I could care less when it's on a sweater for me, but the Wee Yule Stocking? Oh dear...

The Gamble

Sometimes you need to gamble. You need to win or lose. You need to throw it all to the winds and hope it works.

Sometimes I do it in Vegas. Sometimes I do it in Knitsburgh. Sometimes I do it with money; sometimes I do it with yarn.

Here is the Wee One Yuletyde Stocking (outside and inside):

Holy cow, I'm knitting Fair Isle! And liking it! It's like cross stitch and knitting combined and so far it's working, people, I'm winning the bet!

Not so much winning is the Forest Footfalls Project for You-Know-Who. Would it be wrong to give one sock for a birthday gift? Should I just save it up for a yuletide gift instead and hope to have an actual pair? Oh the disappointment...still working on the first sock!!!

To offset this depressing declaration, I will present the finished Punkin'-

Makes things better already for sure!

Plans

Some days just don't go the way you planned.

Rain cancelled my walk with Wee One to the library this afternoon and our walk in the park with Nature Boy this evening.

A kitchen sink catastrophe cancelled out my hopes to chill on the couch and watch a movie with Nature Boy when Wee One had gone to bed (which he is still working on right now at 10PM on Friday night and that is why I am here blogging...it's best to just stay out of the way).

All of our zoo pics and videos were lost due to a "format error" on the little disk thing that goes in the Webbie video camera.

It will be ok though...my sissie is sending a disk with all of her photos from the weekend! Nature Boy is good at fixing stuff! It will not rain all day long tomorrow and we can walk and get to the library then!

This week, Nature Boy turned to me and said maybe I should go buy some yarn. That's right and I almost spit my drink out all over him in disbelief. What could ever make Nature Boy utter such a thing?

A holiday stocking for the Wee One, that's what! The only thing Nature Boy ever asked me to knit for him was a holiday stocking. Not a hat or scarf or sweater or socks or earwarmers. A stocking. So we hang it over the fireplace every Yule/Winter Solstice/Christmas/Hanukkah/Hogmany season. This Yule/Winter Solstice/Christmas/Hanukkah/Hogmany season, Nature Boy gifted me a set of deer stocking holders. There were three, a stag, a doe and a fawn, in anticipation of the new addition to our family and cause we really dig the deer. So Wee One needs a stocking to hang on his little fawn stocking hook over the fireplace.

We looked at many a pattern and narrowed it down to three. I haven't been thinking of it lately since I have three current projects on the needles but Nature Boy expressed some concern it will not be finished in time. So this week I looked at the three patterns and chose "the one." Wee One and I went to the yarn store and got us some yarn for the stocking (Hempton by Hemp for Knitting) and some other yarn too...whoops. Once I start it I will blog more about it, I'm excited and scared at once because I'll be embarking on New Technique Territory. I've been there before with mixed feelings. Sometimes it's a nice trip; other times you need a vacation from it when you come back to Same Old Same Oldsville.

Finally, here are some other things besides making a stocking I need to do soon...or at least sometime...
-Make THESE!!! For camping. Or just for any old day.
-Get cracking hard-core on Wee One's baby book. Before I forget stuff...
-Sew some more stuff. Like the pillows for the porch swing. And maybe a cushion for the new radiator covers in the bedrooms so the kitties have a soft landing. And make THIS. AND THIS!!!
-Rearrange our bedroom furniture and paint the walls.
-Read more.
-Turn off the TV more.
-Blog more.
-Use spellcheck.

Would you believe the asters in the above photo were unplanned? I planted them last year and they bloomed and apparently, they self-seeded and bloomed yet again this year for me too! Thanks Mother Nature for keeping the estate grounds looking cheery, in an unplanned lovely way.