Grab some coffee, cuz we’re going to be here for awhile. I’ll try to keep the chatter to a minimum, k?

First: some more FOs.

sweet baby cap model

Sweet baby cap!
Pattern: sweet baby cap
Yarn: STR mediumweight, henpecked. I still have tons of this left. Sheesh! Will it ever end?
Needle: 3.0 mm (I may convert to metric. It just seems the right thing to do.)
Started: Dec 24
Finished: Dec 27
For: Baby J, to match his mittens
Mods: none

The yarn pooled kind of funny. It doesn’t bother me, though. In fact, I kind of like it. Next!

Some neckwarmers

neckwarmers

Pattern: Giftblitz basketweave neckwarmer, by Huan-Hua Chye
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted, held double
Needle: 8 mm (US 11–It’s hard to stick to just metric. My brain is trained.)
For both, started and finished on Dec 25, on the car ride back from Chicago. I think each took about an hour and a half.
For: some nice people. Yes, I’m sure you know who you are. :)

I got the buttons for these at Joann’s. Who knew they had such a nice button selection?

brown neckwarmer

green neckwarmer

I REALLY liked the pattern. Thanks, Huan-Hua! They turned out fantabulous.

Okay, that officially brings my Knitting Wars tally up to 13. I’ll do the breakdown tomorrow, as well as (I hope!) showcase my last and most glorious gifty FO. Yes, I found something else. And it is BIG. I hope I can finish the damn thing. I WILL be up to midnight, furiously knitting away. Godspeed, good needles!

Now for some gifty things for ME!

knitting books

Yay for knitting books! From top to bottom: At Knit’s End, from the blub; When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters from my mum; Stitchionary 2 from the blub’s parents; and The Natural Knitter from my BIL and SIL. Thank you! I love getting knitting books. Isn’t it the best? I also got some yarn! Goody goody gumdrops!

brown bartlett yarn

2 skeins of this lovely tweedy brown Bartlett Yarn, 2 ply. I’m got this hat in mind.

grey bartlett yarn

1 skein of the same Bartlett Yarns in grey, for Gretel.

Habu bamboo yarn

1 skein Habu Textiles laceweight bamboo. This is so freakin pretty. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but it will be nice!

All that yarn is from the blub. To be honest, *he* didn’t pick it out. Up there is what I exchanged the yarn he got me for. Tee hee. He DID get me yarn, though. But one I didn’t like (Tofutsies–no give! I started a pair of socks with this awhile ago, which are hibernating), and the other I didn’t like the colors (but it was 100% silk. He still gets major brownie points for that). I also got a pattern–the wonderful wallaby. Not bad, eh? AND, I almost forgot, I also got a KnitPick’s gift certificate from my mum. It’s not spent yet, but I’m pretty sure I know what I’m going to get. Thanks, Mumsie!

And last but not least, I got my winter swap package from the knittyboards! It came to my parents’ house on Christmas Eve. Perfect.

silk and merino on wreath

And perfect is the word I would use to describe this yarn. It’s Ellen’s Half Pint Farm yarn, 50% merino 50% silk. It’s from Jesh, of course. I think she must have crawled inside my brain and mucked about for a bit, because I love love LOVE this yarn. It’s really gorgeous; you’d have to see it in person. Believe me. I’m thinking of making some fair-isle mittens with it (these). Would that be bad? I don’t know how it would work with the slippery silk. Or maybe I’ll make it into a cute stripy scarf so I can wrap it around my neck. Or maybe I’ll just sleep with it. I don’t know. I DO know that I very much enjoy just admiring it. Lovely, lovely. Jesh also sent some very yummy homemade fudge, which is um, gone already. And some catnip stuffed hearts for Izzy, that I don’t have a picture of because they’re covered in cat spit and look really disgusting now. But that just proves that Izzy loves them. :) Also in the package were some teeny tiny little origami stars. Jesh did you make those? I wouldn’t have thought that human fingers could fold things so small. I mean they are TINY! Sorry I don’t have a pic of those, either. I was afraid that they’d blow away if I took them outside, and the light in the house is always poor. Anyway, thank you so much, Jesh! Should I gloat and say I knew it was you all along? No, I don’t think I will. I am above such things, thank heavens.

Hee.

Okay, I’ll see everyone tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can pull this huge project out of my nether-regions.

Oh yeah, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!