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When I started to blog about knitting, I decided to include everything--the wild successes as well as the monstrosities. Here are some: . It was so hard to knit these. They are real candidates for What the Hell is This? What's a knitter to do? These were a request of the recipient, who has dressed like a Barbie doll since age three. Often Slutty Barbie. Her parents don't seem to mind. Fortunately, her sister's tastes do not run to the garish: ConservativeSis has already received her scarf (more of the chenille), very cuddly and soft, with giant handwarming pockets on the ends. I am SO glad to have these behind me and out the door!

Wristwarmer details for Peaceful Palms: Voodoo, modified for gauge. It's a fun, quick pattern, but I think I'll try some modifications next time. The nature of the pattern is that it has to stretch a lot for the widest part of the hand. I think I'll add some increases where the hand widens. Hopefully then the buttonhole won't pull so much. I was very careful in making them, but when worn, there were quite visible gaps on each side of the hole. I patched these up with some yarn scraps. It was my first time, however, making this type of buttonhole, so perhaps experience will help in the gap department as well. The wristwarmers were quick, being a chunky yarn (the furry) and a doubled worsted (close up of the sedate).

About the hats: I winged the beret, but got my mom to read me the decreases from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, another Hobby Lobby special which hasn't winged its way cross country yet. The chenille hat is based on Handpaint Hat from Knit Hats! It looks way cooler on. I like it quite a bit and will make something similar for myself.

I like to cut out hands (from a manila folder) when giving wristwarmer gifts. Prevents that "what the hell is this?" moment when someone receives a knitted tube. Provides a map to the thumbhole.

Next up, four pairs of fingerless mitts. That's one more pair than yesterday because I remembered the super nice nice guy-kid who makes us coffee at Sunday evening knitting gatherings. I'd really like to make him a pair, too.

In other shipping news, I also mailed Mom's welding potholders, the vineyard oven mitts, and Aunt Sylvia's scarf to their respective recips. I've been in finishing up mode, and it has been satisfying. Um, I finished A.S.'s scarf last February. It has been waiting to be mailed ever since. How lame is that? Yep, getting caught up has been nice.

I just called Toshi's Teriyaki to order four beef bowls to go. The chick asked, "For Rebecca?" Predictable ol' me.

My parents got me a copy of Knitting on the Road today. I love those half-off sales at Hobby Lobby. When Mom sees one advertised in the paper, she tells me, then I tell her my heart's desire. Mom and Dad go on their errands and make a special stop to scour the books. I can just picture them on their little outings, Dad helping Mom find things, Dad not hearing her, then success and going for a muffuletta after. I do miss them, but I love it too much here. I'm so excited, having seen the many beautiful socks in this book gracing knitblogs everywhere. I've been wanting this book a long time!

On the elf slipper front, these puppies have dried (and the thermostat duly adjusted). I needn't have worried about them being too small. They feel too loose without socks on! They feel good with thin socks. So if you want to wear them sans socks, I'd go for form-fitting/drying au naturel.

On the next pair (oh yes, Mom wants some! I'm entertaining the notion of making a pair for the four of Generation 2, to felt during their next yearly get-together), I'll also knit three even rounds before decreasing from twelve sttiches (where the Fuzzyfeet pattern ends) to eight (where the curly toe pattern begins). I had done one even round like a regular toe decrease, but it makes the curlicue rather abrupt, like an afterthought stuck to the end of the slipper. We'll see if the more gradual decrease helps. As for Mom, I've got the teal or new turquoise Quatro in mind for her.

These are a quick, inexpensive project (one hank of Cascade 220, or two of wool from Elann or Knitpicks). Maybe I'll make some for the many nieces of Generation 4 some day.

It's been chilly 'round these parts lately, so my feet have been cold the last couple days. The first day, I ignored it and started wearing scarves around the house. Keep in mind that I was also wearing boxers (no clean sweats) and a t-shirt (I am no Yarn Harlot). The second day, I wisely decided to follow Guensey Gal's lead in making some Fuzzyfeet. Yes, I do have some slippers already, but they are old and a little small and there's a hole in one toe. That's a good excuse. Plus I'd have to climb a whole flight of stairs to get them. So, I knit like crazy for many hours, during which I dashed upstairs many times. I also robbed to pay Reb, causing a small twinge of guilt (stealing from homeless orphans!), but no matter, I'd just gotten three hanks of Cascade 220 Quatro to make felted hats and mittens, so I still have two. They will tide me over nicely until this little beauty can be replaced. So I started on my merry knitting way. Then I thought about the crazy gold metallic elf booties my grandmother, her sister, and their many daughters wore in old Christmas pictures. They were all adults, with their own children running 'round the tree (in cowboys n' Indians costumes), and I used to think they looked a bit batty. Now I realize they were jolly and free, with huge smiles on their faces. I could almost hear the laughter. Though it's been many years, I could picture the photos perfectly in my mind's eye. Without further adieu, and in honor of my dearly departed Memo and of cold feet everywhere, I give you Fuzzyelfinfeet:

The curly toes pattern was lifted from some children's slippers in Weekend Knitting.

They were a very fun knit. A big part of it was gleefully planning the curly toes. Hee! I had finished the Pakistan hats (except for the evil weaving of ends) and the hideous ensemble (post to follow soon) and really, really, really wanted to make something quick just for me. I had started writing a holiday knitting list a few days ago. It was rather alarming. So I added priorities. 1, 2, and 3. Then I thought that was crap. Really, I have some projects that I need to finish in the next couple weeks. And I have some projects I'd like to finish within the next couple months. The myriad others can wait for some day. So after the hats, I made two dishrags to go with the wine-themed oven mitts These were from the 2-week list, so a reward was in order. Self-indulgence does wonders! Now I'm happily (instead of resentfully) back to weaving in hat ends, then on to three pairs of fingerless mitts from the 2-week list. It has come to my attention that two nephews in Buffalo are woefully outfitted for winter. Fingerless mitts can be for worn in chilly apartments! And the third pair is for dear old Dad. These mitts will be just the thing for a mild Louisiana winter carrying plants in and out of the garage during the odd freeze.

Oh! I nearly forgot--I did shrink these slippers a bit too much. My prior felting experience had been double stranded, mostly on size 13 needles. I should have anticipated that these would felt much faster, but I didn't. My first thought was that these would have to be for a child. Reacting quickly, I dashed upstairs for the thickest socks I could find. Not my very thickest (I think they are buried at the bottom of the laundry basket from last winter), but pretty thick. I tugged a bit, donned them, and the slips are fine.

After these suckers dry, I'll turn down the heat.

LB walked by, glanced at the rerun of Law & Order: Criminal Intent I was curled up with, and asked if I liked that guy's scarf. Oh yeah, he's seen me rewind and pause for closer looks.

He's been puking all day. I tried to get him on the linoleum, and I did, but he puked on the rug by the door. :( I think he ate the feet off his "debil" as we call it. They are AWOL, and I can't find them anywhere. I'm getting a little worried. I tried him on a few little kibbles, but no, theyr'e on the rug.

I saw a very good bumper sticker tonight: God Bless Americahumanity (that's ALL of us!)

This is what I bought myself for Halloween:

• a three-pack of Nestle Turtles


• a Milky Way Midnight


• a Snickers with Almonds


• a plain ol' Hershey bar


• a mini bag of Gummi Bears


• Socks Socks Socks bought with a 40% off coupon

There is nothing like curling up with eye and mind candy while eating tummy candy and drinking cold, cold milk. So many beautiful socks!

Well, I thought I'd be finished with the Evil Ensemble, but I haven't weaved in ends yet. Which is a bummer because I thought I could be madly sock-knitting away this weekend to finish something(s) for Socktoberfest. So, weaving in ends tonight, and more Pakistan hats (the deadline is next Friday). I suppose it comes of signing up for Socktoberfest during the last half of the month then finding out I had a due date for Evil Ensemble (and there one for Sister 'Semble, too), previously unbeknownst to me. I've been knitting like a fiend, just not socks. But it does mean I'll soon have a post for Peaceful Palms. Yay!

On the plus side, I located another ball of Trendsetter Kashmir for hubby's scarf (two balls were just not enough) and gleefully noticed some Classic Elite Beatrice I used for the first Dulaan hat. That means why, yes, I'll make one for myself. I'll run out of Pastaza, but no prob, then I'll have more leftover! I'm really enjoying the leftover-yarn-knitting for charity projects.

Off to weave.

Here are the pictures I was too lazy to post with the last two entries. The sun was still not cooperating, but I was too impatient to wait any longer! My, I had a lot to say after not blogging five months. That's a whole lotta words without pics. Here they are:

• Socks! Yes, I have eight pairs in progress. Actually, nine because I forgot the Dulaan socks (Cascade 220). For Socktoberfest I'm trying to finish the Dulaan socks (just a gusset, instep and toe for these baby socks), Mom's Railroad Rib socks in Lorna's Shepherd Worsted in Pink Blossom, and LoveBoy's woodsy Beaded Rib socks (from Sensational Knitted Socks) in Schaefer Little Lola. The others are Cool Cables Trainers in Louet's Gem Merino Pearl in Pewter overdyed with Black Cherry Kool-Aid while the hank was still twisted, Mosaic Socks for the Six Sox KAL in Regia Mini Ringel and 4 Ply, a 5x2 ribbed sock in Soft Rock Jewel of the Nile by Blue Moon Fibers, and Amble socks from Six Sox KAL in Lorna's Shepherd Sock dyed with Tamarindo Kool-Aid Aguas Frescas. The poor victims of Second Sock Syndrome are a Railroad Rib sock for me in Lorna's Shepherd Worsted Violet and a Regia Mini Ringel for me. I'm usually a fingering weight girl but have been enjoying the speed of the worsted lately. The socks I actually started in October are the woodsy ones, Mosaic, and Cool Cables Trainers.


• Another Dulaan hat. I am having so much fun with these! And with planning to try new things for future Dulaan objects (like mittens and Sherpa hats and slipped stitch hats). This hat is a spiral ribbed pattern by Ann Norling. It's a self-striping sock yarn paired with some blue Cascade 220 Superwash knit tightly for warmth. I didn't really know you can't do much with a single ball of sock yarn when I got this on clearance. I like this hat's colorful cheerfulness.


• Ooh! I almost forgot my first Dulaan hat. It's the same pattern, this time using soft brown leftover Cascade Pastaza (from my dad's felted clogs) paired with a ball of Classic Elite Beatrice. I love this hat! Love, love, love it! Good thing I didn't have enough yarn to make it big enough to fit me! Same story--I got one ball of the Beatrice on clearance, not realizing that 63 yards of worsted weight isn't a lot. I really enjoyed stashdiving and coming up with the beautiful, muted color combo and of yarn I couldn't really use for anything. It was like something out of nothing, a very satisfying feeling. Sorry the pic is so bad.


• Hats for Pakistani earthquake victims. More of the same. Two more on the sticks, because the due date is sooner than Dulaan's.


• The horror that is this hat and scarf. I finished Horror Hat today and almost puked when I looked in the mirror. Sometimes it is really hard to knit gifts for people with wildly different taste. The yarns are Plassard T'Chao and Stylecraft Charleston. And her sister's brown chenille hat of Paton's Bohemian. Horror Hand (one wrist warmer) is finished and I'll post a big of the whole hideous ensemble tomorrow when I finish the other. I think I need to make sister some wrist warmers, too, with a cuff of the chenille and some nice sensible brown worsted. Yes, Sanity, please return! Oh, the hats are posing next to the scarf. It's kinda like a rainbow Chia Pet.


• Mom's potholders. I'm not counting these as a success. What a waste of this gorgeous Sleeping Dragon yarn, available at A Swell Yarn Shop.


• I'll count these lovely oven mitts as a success. LoveBoy calls these the Switcheroos. From Felted Knits.


• Gauge swatch for Mom's Boo, too, courtesy the giant Silk Garden sale at Little Knits (and the reason for the giant yarn diet). I haven't gotten gauge yet. Aww, I'll just have to get some larger Addis with Ben Franklin's 40% off coupon. Hey, needles aren't yarn!


• Fibonacci Sweater. I'm enjoying this. It will be my first steeking project. I can't use the jogless jog on every color change because two of the stripes consist of only one round. Hope the wonky jogs don't show after button bands are added.


• Chinese Charm Bag. I think my mom will really like this. If not, it will be regifted to a niece. The pattern's in one of the SnB books (sorry, too lazy to look) and it's recycled sari silk. I quite crazily knitted it double stranded on size 9 needles. I would not recommend this level of masochism. This is one thick puppy. Hope it doesn't weigh too much to lug around! Why the crazy, tight knitting? To get the pattern's gauge. I could have easily figured out a different gauge for a damn tube, but such is the life of the lazy knitter. Lazy one instant causes much pain and work the next 10,000.


• Last but not least, Mom's lace fingerless glove. Pattern is here, using some of her yarn as well. The darker bits match Mom's teal sweater our dog tried to eat.

Yes, I do knit a lot for my mom. It's not that I'm super pathetically trying to please her, but that I finally appreciate all the zillions of crap she's done and put up with all my life. Also, not all my posts will be this long. I'm getting caught up!

Feeling: accomplished
Listening to: the gas stove (heater) crackling--I am no Yarn Harlot

Oh yeah, I also worked some on the top-down raglan (a la Glampyre tutorial). The stripes are in a Fibonacci sequence because I couldn't get enough of one color of the clearance yarn, Meringue by Knit One, Crochet Too. And I swatched for Boo, Too for my mom. I just picked up 3, count 'em, 3 bags of Noro Silk Garden at 31% off at www.littleknits.com. How could I pass that by? Which now leads to a very strict yarn diet until mid-January. I guess I need to get NumberOneSon's spring semester paid for before buying more yarn...

OK, here's what I've been knitting lately: felted potholders and coasters for my mom. They were a request of sorts--she called asking me about felting, but all she has is acrylic yarn. I very gently told her that wouldn't work. So, I offered to dye her some wool to match her Persian rug. She wanted kitchenware to match the family room rug, despite the fact that the kitchen is late '80s rust and the rug is ecru with pastel flowers. Such are the workings of Mom's mind.

I realized I had the perfect yarn already in my stash, Rose and Chocolate Pale by Sleeping Dragon. The pink would be go perfectly some of the flowers in the rug, and the muted grayish brown matches the rug, too. But the yarn is fingering weight, and I had already bought a skein of Fisherman's Wool (to dye Mom yarn), so I thought I'd double the handpainted fingering weight with the natural worsted. Oh wait, this was after Mom said she didn't think she was up to making the items herself. I thought she'd enjoy it, and it's easy knitting, but alas, her best knitting days may be behind her--she keeps getting holes in the ribbed scarf she's making my niece because she's not moving the yarn forward when switching from knits to purls. That, and the fact that the scarf is mysteriously getting wider tipped me off. I can't blame her that she was stressed because this was while my parents were displaced two and a half weeks because of hurricane Rita. So I whipped them up for her. They turned out pretty ugly ass. They're OK color-wise, but just OK. They pretty much match the rug, but they're pretty blah. It was not the best use of some gorgeous sock yarn. So much so that I had to get another hank of it to make socks. I couldn't bear for the only use of the yarn to be in these potholders. The main, problem with the potholders, though, is that they will be super handy when my mom takes up welding. Yeah, I winged it without a pattern, and was limited by the size needles I have, so to get usably sized items, they turned out extremely thick. Uh, yeah, evidently I cast on too many stitches. Live and learn.

Then I followed the Bev Galeskas pattern for felted oven mitts, this time for my lost-everything-in-hurricane-Katrina niece, and they turned out divine. What a difference the benefit of experience makes! I even had leftover yarn in her colors--a vineyard theme, of course. You can take the girl away from N'Awlins, but you can't take Bacchus away from the girl. I'm working on some coasters and trivets for niecey and then will mail them off. I haven't mailed Mom's stuff either because mail was still not being delivered in her town when the electricity came back on so they could return home. That's a long time. And her neighbors still didn't have power.

I'm finishing her Chinese Charm Bag in recycled sari silk before I mail her package. And her Pink Blossom Lornna's Shepherd Worsted socks, and her fingerless mitts. Yep, that's me. I've stalled on those projects for various reasons. Who wants to sew a lining for a purse? Who wants to figure out how to make thong toe socks for a 40 stitch sock when my pattern is for 56 stitches? Who wants to tink very delicate yarn (since I spectacularly ran out), use the tinked yarn on the second glove, then find a suitable substitute for casting off both gloves? All right, that is my goal for this week. Along with finishing another niece's hat and fingerless gloves so she can wear them on her trip to NYC. They were only for last Christmas. Did I mention I like starting projects? I did make her sister's hat yesterday, but it's a bit short. I may take out the cast on, knit an extra row, then cast off in a more stretchy manner. The cast on was pretty tight. Of course I made the hat for one sister when the other who really needs the hat/gloves for her trip. You really don't need a hat in Baton Rouge at this time of year. Perhaps I should work on prioritizing. Oh who am I kidding, I wanted to make the chenille hat and don't want to finish the ugly hat 'cause the yarn's so gross. No amount of prioritizing will persuade my I-wanna-enjoy-this heart.

Oh, and there are the hats, glorious hats I've been knitting like a fiend. Six hats since Saturday. They are fun and quick. I've really enjoyed finding stash yarn for these charity hats, yarns that combine well to make bulky, fast knits.

On the sock front, I've got 5 pairs in progress, I think. Wonder why I lost count. And that doesn't count the two pairs of which I've finished one sock months and months ago without casting on for the second.

So, I'm going to give knit blogging another whirl. I'd been in a bit of a knitting funk since Pastimes Yarn closed. I don't know why, but it left me feeling directionless. Seems pretty silly since I'm not at a loss for projects or ideas! At any rate, I'm back on track. I don't know what to do about holiday knitting. I won't be able to finish all I'd like. Maybe I'll make a list of the very important things and make sure I do a couple every week. If I can squeeze in some non-present knitting also, great. I'm thinking I've got to look around for a better place for this knitblog. I can't figure out how to do a gallery of FOs, and LiveJournal won't allow enough lists or links. Onward!