Holiday Rush

i've been rushing around making scarves and things for people for christmas since the beginning of october, now, with November started and i have a real deadline, i find myself falling into a slump.

I don't want to finish these scarves!

I want to make things for myself with all this yummy yarn.

Each time i pick up the Bumblebee scarf, i want to put it down and work on the pair of spats i'm test knitting for a book.

each time i go to cast on to work on the fingerless gloves for my brother, i want to put it down and cast on for the scarf for myself.

I still have so much to do before Christmas, i'm not managing my time wisely. /sigh

and now i keep thinking about the Ravelympics. and which event i want to enter, even though it's almost 4 months off.

Note to self, seriously invest in stitch markers....

Knit...there's a Purl?

I'll admit I'm slow about alot of things (usually cleaning). I try not to commit myself to things i can't accomplish, stuff like that.

I volunteered to test knit a spats pattern for a Vampire Inspired Knitting book, through a forum on Ravelry, i got the pattern in my email last night, and looked through it, thinking, i know the basics, it's a beginning pattern, i CAN do this!

very much of it involves stockinette stitch, and it's not knit in the round (which i love doing btw). so here i am, sitting with my little needles and my yarn, a whole row cast on and one knit, thinking, you mean i actually HAVE to purl??! well fook!

So i tool around, putting it off for all of about an hour, then i decide to hit Youtube, the Stitch Witch showed me how! I watched the little video on purl, and did a row, and holy crap! I can purl. I mean, i knew the technical part, how it worked, i'd just avoided doing a purl stitch, for almost a year. how sad am i?

This opens up a whole new world of patterns i can use!

/squee (the picture is my inspiration photo for the spats, it's Marie LeVeux's Grave)

Family Ties

I have a routine, some things i do everyday, two of those things, are check my facebook and check my Ravelry forums. While i was checking facebook yesterday i got a note from my Aunt Jill, it made me realize something, and got me thinking.

My Aunt Jill and my Aunt Jane both knit.

Both of my mom's brother's wives.

My great-grandmother on my maternal grandmother's side of the family also knit.

My maternal grandmother didn't knit, but she did embroidery, quilting, crochet, oh hell, the woman was almost an adult during the Great Depression, she did everything! (including being a spectacular cook!)

It got me thinking about my heritage and my family, my Aunt Jill said Jane got her back into knitting just recently, but she used to do it once upon a time, and she's being genuinely supportive of my taking up the hobby. (yay!)

For the first time since my Grandmother died when i was 14, i actually feel a tie to my family, especially the women in my family. It's a Nice Feeling.

This picture is my Daughter, Kaeley, attempting to Knit with mommy.