Major Knitter

It Must Be Christmas

I made a batch of Grandma Grace's krumkakes for our Christmas celebration.  This is a sign that it's officially Christmas.  Grandma used to make these delicious Scandinavian cookies for us every Christmas (and sometimes during the summer, too!)  Ours were never filled, just eaten as the light, airy wafer that we knew and loved so dearly.

Her krumkakes were such a treat and I'm so happy to have inherited her krumkake iron.  For those family members who want to carry on the tradition, they sell many types of krumkake irons - many of which are fancy, electric non-stick versions.  You can still get the one like Grandma Grace's from Nordicware by clicking HERE.

I've posted the recipe for Grandma's Krumkakes and also for the Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies you see in the background.  Two family favorites baked just in time for the holidays.

 

Hoping Against All Odds

You know, the clock is ticking.  Time is running out.  I've hit that brick wall.  I will NOT get all my holiday knitting done.  In fact, I haven't knit since Sunday.  I'm at a point where I'm taking some drastic, dare I say, ridiculous measures.

I go to my Ravelry project page and see if I've made any progress on my WIPs.  No?  Not yet?

Maybe if I hit "Refresh" enough, they'll be done magically.

Making Progress

I keep knitting and knitting, in between all the last minute holiday stuff I have to do (like shop, sew, bake, cook, prepare for our big Scout party at the house tonight)

I barely started on the snowflake fair isle section when I realized that I couldn't follow the graph in the book because it's smaller than I'd like.  So I went to Excel and made my own graph - much larger - and much easier to read.

So there's hope for this stocking.  I hope I like the color combination in the actual stocking as much as I did in the sketch.

 

A Neat Little Trick

Ann Shayne of Mason-Dixon is a genius.  We already knew this of course.  The little stories, guidelines and tips on making the New Ancestral Christmas Stocking  in the book Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines are marvelous.  But the trick to knit the fair isle portion inside out is truly genius!  I thought I was a pro at fair isle, but I guess the crazy tight timeline is making me a little tense and affecting my knitting.  So I decided to give the inside-out-knitting a try.

This is how I knit using the Magic Loop method.  It took me a few rounds to get the hang of it and the proper way to hold the yarn when I switched from front to back... but it worked well.  I wrap the yarn every other stitch so I get a tightly woven fabric.  I'm still very tense with the holiday rush and it showed on the front of the knitting, but this trick sure slowed that down.

Now I'm on to the striped section of the stocking.  When my entire stocking is complete, I'll come back and duplicate stitch the criss cross lines of the argyle here and add Secundogeniture's name.

The Stockings Were Hung

By the chimney with care...

At least I have the paper templates done and hanging by the fireplace.

Here are the drawings for the boys - both in multiple shades of blues and greens.

Here's mine, BF's and Wilma's in some interesting choices of colors.

Now let the knitting begin!

Finishing Friday or Startitis?

I know it's Friday and I'm supposed to share pictures of my Finished Objects or Works in Progress, but with holiday knitting and all, I can't really do that.  In fact, rather than finishing something, I'm actually contemplating starting something(s).  I was intrigued by my friend Joanne's family tradition of hand knit stockings and did a search on Ravelry for stockings.  The pattern that caught my eye was from Mason-Dixon's Knitting Outside the Lines - New Ancestral Christmas Stocking.

I sketched out some templates for the stocking, made several copies, then got out my colored pencil set.  This should be lots of fun.  I love coloring - makes me feel like a small child all over again.  I'll let the guys pick out their own colors.  As for Wilma - she'll get what she gets and she won't get upset.  

Just so you know - I don't expect to have a single stocking done for this year, but I might as well strike while the iron is hot.  Who knows maybe I'll have five new hand knit stockings by the fireplace for 2011!

 

Wilma's Monkeying Around

Wilma has a new toy.  It wasn't a gift.  She stole it from Secundogeniture's room.  But she loves it.

She slept with this little monkey in her mouth - and yes - her tongue was still hanging out while doing all the above.

She's got talent.  That's for sure.  Now if I could only teach her to knit she could help me finish my Christmas knitting.

Holiday Popcorn

I finished the popcorn swatches for both the green baby sampler blanket and the red sampler afghan yesterday.  I love this stitch.  I wouldn't want to knit an entire sweater out of it, but for a small swatch, it's the cat's meow.

It's quite convenient that the colors happen to be green and red.  Very festive, don't you think?

Baby Needs New Shoes

My friend sent me a picture today of her little baby wearing his baby booties.

This is definitely a knitter's favorite type of thank you - photographic thanks!

And the timing is perfect as today is the coldest day of the year.  Brrrrr.

The Perfect Gift for the Knitting Scoutmaster Who Has Everything

This weekend BF and I hosted our annual holiday party at our favorite restaurant in the city.  We've been hosting this event every year for 11 years - and it's our favorite night of the year.  This year was our largest event ever - we were 16 people - and required a private room.  This was probably a good thing for all parties involved.  The night is filled with laughter, frivolity, great food, best friends and lots and lots of gifts that are either handmade, recycled, regifted, gag gifts, or even some real gifts (but with the hopes that nothing is too pricey).  I'm an easy target since I post so much on my blog and Facebook - and my friends always go out of their way to find the perfect gifts that mix Wilma, Scouts, Marines, knitting, and more.

Here is a gift that seems to match every single part of my life - it's a camouflage ear warmer for my Scout cap - along with a headlamp clip - so I can continue to knit in caves, or any other dark location I might go on a future campout.  This ear warmer is the creation of Jennifer White and you can find her creations on Etsy by clicking HERE.  I am definitely wearing this on a future campout.  It really works to keep your ears nice and toasty.  Oh the lengths I go to - to embarrass my children.  

But the camouflage handknit ear warmer was not the only knitting gift this year.  I also received my very own copy of Stitch 'N Bitch.  I think that the Big Bad Baby Blanket   will be going into my queue for a future baby gift (not that I have anyone in mind or in need of one now, but there's always a need at some point).  But I wasn't the only one who got knitting gifts.  See The Knitting Doll?  It's a gift for BF so he can get started and finally learn how to knit. But BF says "NGH" (translation = Not Gonna Happen)

BF got the final knit gift of the night.  It's Merino Morehouse Farm's Gecko scarf.  It's absolutely perfect!  And these are only the knitting related gifts of the night.  

It truly is BF and my favorite night of the whole year.  Happy Holidays to all!  Ho! Ho! Ho!