Good Riddance to 2008

While a few great things came out of 2008, like a new apartment I love and the opportunity to quit my job, overall the year was pretty crappy for me. Philip called the year two-thousand and hate because that is what the universe seemed to do. There are only four and a half hours left of this horrible year and we are going to spend that time partying the year out with some close friends. Tomorrow is the start of 2009, the best year ever (or at least that is what our new calendar says and I am inclined to believe it.) Here's hoping that you and yours have a very happy new year!!

My new painting

Here is the painting, well part of it, that my uncle gave me for Christmas. It was painted in Korea in 1960 from two photographs that he took with him. We still haven't decided where to hang it, but I am leaning toward the tiki room.

Christmas knitting and more

Since all of my knitted gifts have gone to their recipients I can finally reveal what I made this season. All of the details and more pictures are on my ravelry project page so I will let the knitters go there and spare all of the non-knitters. These are in no particular order.

For my sister-in-law, Bambu, I made a modified version of the Swiss Cheese scarf. Doesn't it look lovely over my new sweater? I love the way this came out with the great Noro color changes.

For my father-in-law I remade the Coronet hat that I made him a few years ago. He lost the first hat and really wanted another one so I made it again, but this time with matching fingerless mitts.



For my sister I made some fuzzy slippers to keep her icy feet warm in the winter. I love my Fiber Trends clogs so I have made these as gifts for many family members.


For my mother-in-law I made legwarmers from Sarah's 20-20 legwarmer pattern. I like these so much I decided to make a matching calorimetry-style headband to go with them.



I was going to get my dad some fancy wood for Christmas, but he came into the shop last week and he was talking about the neckwarmer he bought last year and lost. He really wanted another one so I made him pick out the yarn he liked before he left and I made him a new one. My plan was to make him two, but since I didn't measure his neck I wasn't sure if the first one would fit the way he wanted. It did fit so I have started the second one using a sailor's rib which he will receive sometime next week.


I made some other non-knitted items, but since they haven't all been given away I will have to save them for another day.

We had a terrific Christmas. After the shop closed on Christmas eve, Philip and I headed over to my sister's house in Georgetown for my family's annual Christmas eve dinner and gift opening. This year my sister invited Philip's parents along so it was my dad, my sister, my sister's husband Greg, and Philip's parents. My sister put together stockings for everyone and we opened gifts. My dad got me the giant steamer that I wanted for making seitan and huge batches of tamales. He also made me a two-toned, hand-turned ornament that went on the tree as soon as I got home. My sister made me reusable heat packs that Philip and I put to use as soon as we got home that night and they were fantastic. When we got home Philip thought we should each open a present. I noticed that he peaked into one of his packages (he totally messed the tape up) so I let him open that one. He gave me one of my stocking stuffers which was Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano's Dream Hunters which I managed to read in two days and I loved it. Not only was it beautifully written, but the illustrations were amazing. It was based on a Japanese fable about a monk and a fox, but it also incorporates the Sandman character from the earlier series.

Christmas day Philip had to work so we had lunch together (by lunch together I mean Philip came home on his lunch break and wrapped presents in the dining room while I stayed in the living room and out of sight of the gifts and we talked back and forth.) After "lunch" my dad picked me up and we went to visit my Uncle Bud and Aunt Cathy with my sister and her husband. My Aunt Cathy really went all out for Christmas by making Philip and I an afghan, two kitchen towels, a set of coasters, and a bookmark. I was completely blown away by her love and gernerosity. Then, my uncle who is pretty much confined to the house at this point gave my sister and I each a painting he had done of my grandparents in Korea in 1960. I almost cried because I knew how much these paintings meant to him and to have him hand them over to us was such a touching gesture. The painting I chose is really cool and I will be posting it here in the next couple of days, as soon as Philip and I decide where to hang it.

After visiting my uncle my dad dropped me back at home. I had a few hours until Christmas with the Castlens so I decided to watch some Christmas movies and finish wrapping our presents. The Christmas movie idea went out the window when I discovered that Spike was having a Bondathon. I watched the end of From Russia with Love and the beginning of Goldfinger while wrapping the last few gifts. Then Philip came home and we did our little Christmas and opened our presents. I didn't make Philip anything this year, mainly because I am starting the sweater he requested in early January. He refused to make a wishlist so I was flying blind this season, luckily I found a few things he would really like and a few silly things to go in his stocking. He completely ignored my wishlist and ended up getting me some really fabulous stuff. I got a few books including the Found book which I have been eyeing for months and My Secret: A PostSecret Book. He also got me a new glass head, a keyboard stand, and a stocking full of Luna bars and Kinder Surprise eggs.

After present opening, we loaded up Astrid and headed over to Philip's parent's house to do our Christmas with them and his grandmother. Sally made a spread of finger foods to tie us over until dinner (which was good since we really didn't eat before that.) We opened our gifts which included a heated mattress pad and a share of the co-op. Philip also got several graphic novels that he was wanting and I got a knitting book, a set of large Denise tips, and a set of Raellyn's fabulous stitch markers with the ABC's for making Cat Bordhi's socks. After opening all of the gifts and spending some time enjoying our new stuff, we picked up my dad and went out to Christmas dinner at Asian Wind which is a tradition in Philip's family. After dinner, Philip and I headed home. We put the new heated mattress pad on the bed and warmed it up before snuggling into bed to read for awhile.

I got to sleep in until 9am this morning since Astrid spent the night with Bruce and Sally. It is always a little sad when she is gone in the morning, but it sure is nice to sleep in. I am writing this entry between customers at the shop since we are having some friends over tonight for a game night and there will be no time for blogging later. Tomorrow we do Christmas with my mom which is the last of the Christmas celebrations for this year. On Sunday, both Philip and I have the day off so we are planning to take a morning trip to the coffee shop and then we are going to the Morris Book Shop to spend our Christmas cash. Hopefully it will be a relaxing end to a busy busy season.

More snow

This has been a crazy morning. I woke up to Philip's cold hands letting me know that was cold and snowy outside. I tried to warm him up a bit before he headed out to face the great wintry unknown. Then, I went back to sleep for about an hour until Astrid let me know that she was ready to go on her walk. I decided that the weather warranted my warm winter coat so I pulled it out from inside the bed and I put it on with all of my fabulously warm hand knitted accessories. On the way out of the house, I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a $10 bill that I must have let in there last winter (probably from the sled day last Spring.) Ten dollars richer, Astrid and I proceeded on our walk. Astrid has mixed feelings about the snow, sometimes she does her business and heads back inside and other times she hops around and explores like a little child. Today was the latter so we ended up going on two walks so that she could get the maximum amount of snow fun in before I left her to her daily napping duties.

Kentuckians aren't equipped to deal with a lot of ice and snow so in general when there is a snowfall a lot of government and city services shut down or go on alternate plans. Lextran was one of those services. Evidently, if your bus stop doesn't have a snowflake the bus won't pick you up. There is no list that I could find of the stops with snowflakes so I just headed to my stop and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, my stop did not have a snowflake so I had to trek to the next stop. Luckily the bus was a little late so I made it there in plenty of time. I also discovered that the stop I get of at by the shop doesn't have a snowflake either, but the driver was super nice and let me off there anyway. Now I am at the shop, which is completely dead and I am playing contraband Christmas music while I work on Christmas presents.

If I ever find Jesus...

Last night we were dogsitting at Philip's parent's house so instead of sitting around the house and watching TV all morning we decided to go to Third Street Cafe for some coffee while we worked on Christmas presents. While we were there this song came on the radio and I just thought I would share.

Some knitting content, finally

Most of my knitting lately has been Christmas related so I haven't had anything to post, but with the shop's extended holiday hours I managed to get in a few non-holiday knitting projects.

The first is a Calorimetry for the shop. It is made out of d've Autunno which is a beautiful yarn that just doesn't seem to sell very well. Sarah and I have no notion to discontinue this yarn so I decided to knit up some samples so that people could see how truly great it really is.



The second and third projects are both Abalone hats made from Autunno. Philip's hat is a green and blue colorway and my hat was made using a two row stripe of the green and blue colorway and a two row stripe of the magenta and green colorway. This is Sarah's favorite technique to use with Noro yarns so I knew that it would look great with the Autunno. The best part about both of these hats is that the color changes line up perfectly at the grafting line so they look completely seemless.





Finally, I finished my hempwol sweater quite a while ago and never posted. It is a top down raglan of my own design. It took me a few tries to get the sleeves and the bottom to my liking, but now it is done and it fits like a glove. I wore it into the shop the other day and it kept me comfortably warm through the snow and the insane heat of our backroom. The yarn is Hemp for Knitting's hempwol and I have to say that it is the perfect weight and warmth for Kentucky. Plus, this sweater only took me 5 balls which is amazing since I am not a small girl. I am planning another raglan out of the same yarn, but since it is third in my sweater queue it will be a little while.

If you are interested in any of my finished Christmas knitting projects, they are now up on my Ravelry project page.

A Christmas meme

I saw this meme on Jess's blog and I couldn't resist. I used to really hate Christmastime, but as I get older and more settled I love the season more and more. I am even starting to like the cold weather a little.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
The wrapping is the one thing I really don't like about the holiday season. I have a stash of wrapping paper that I have been using up slowly, but other than that I have been trying to find new and interesting ways to package gifts. This year Philip and I are collaborating on a special wrapping for our families. It is top secret so I will reveal after the holidays.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
We have a small fake tree which is perfect for us. My dad would always get live trees with their roots in tact and replant after the holidays, but I can't commit to something like that and the idea of throwing away a live tree after the holidays makes me a little sad.

3. Why are you willing to answer these questions?
It's more fun than doing laundry.

4. When do you take the tree down?
As early in January as possible.

5. Do you like eggnog?
I don't drink the real stuff, but I love Silknog. Unfortunately, our Krogers keeps selling out of it before we can get any. This has been a hot cider year.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
It was my first Barbie. I remember all of my friends had Barbies way before me and when there was finally one for me under the tree I was ecstatic.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
That would be my Grandpa.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Probably Philip, I usually have several ideas before the holidays roll around.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
No, we just started decorating last year and I think that it will be quite sometime before we are hardcore nativity people.After decorating last night we discovered a Jesus, a Mary, a Joseph, and an angel made by my grandmother so I guess we technically have a nativity scene.

10. Do you send your card by mail or e-mail?
I don't do Christmas cards at all.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Last year I got some horribly stinky perfume that went straight to Goodwill. I always get duds from my extended family because they don't really know me. No worries, it's the thought that counts and I bet someone who went to that Goodwill really liked it.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I really like White Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I am not sure that I have a time when I start. I don't do a lot of holiday shopping so probably pretty late.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Lots of times. I figure regifting gets me out of shopping which is a gift in and of itself.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My dad makes potato candy every year and it always reminds me of childhood.

16. Lights on the tree?
Of course.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Here Comes Fatty Claus which Sarah won't let me play in the store

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Stay home!! Even when we lived in Virginia we wouldn't travel until after the holidays.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?
Yepper depper

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
We don't have an angel or a star, but I would prefer a star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Both. I come from a broken family so that combined with Philip's family means that we celebrate Christmas several times.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Definitely the traffic. I had to go to Hamburg today to pick up some organic tea towels and it was a nightmare. I generally avoid shopping centers and chain stores from Thanksgiving until MLK's birthday.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
White glittery things and snowflakes.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
We change it up every year.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
My list is here. I really don't want anything too terribly exciting, but there are some kitchen things that I need.