Howdy from Avon, Colorado!

We’re snow ready.
I can’t even believe how gorgeous it is out here. I’ve never been around this much snow before in my life. We were actually driving yesterday, and it was SNOWING REALLY HARD! Acck! It was beautiful and really scary at the same time. I feel like I’m in a movie set…


Taken from the car, but you get the picture.
So. Amazing. It’s freakin’ cold, but I’m getting used to it. And I’m getting to hang out with these two:


Teamies Drew and JoAnna!
Good times. There has already been much eating and drinking and being merry and tonight there will be sledding down a mountain at night. Yay!
Getting lots of knitting in too – I’m up to almost 10 inches on the body of Cathy’s Tubey, and I’m starting a new Panta for JoAnna this afternoon. Panta is perfect for the frosty Colorado weather!
This entry is short and sweet because we’re about to go do Colorado things. YAY YAY YAY!

So here’s the super quickie holiday knitting update: I didn’t exactly finish. Hee.
I tried *really* hard, but no dice. I also tried the purple present on in the car with some bulky clothes on, and it didn’t fit right, and I had a nervous breakdown and almost frogged the whole thing. Luckily, I made an emergency phone call to High Energy Jenny, who talked me down and let me know that there were ways to fix the thing. And guess what: when I got home and tried it on in front of the mirror, IT FIT FINE. Wanna see what it looked like on the recipient?

It’s Tubey on Cathy!
For those who couldn’t tell, it’s Tubey from the Winter Knitty. It fits my sister perfectly! She really likes it, so I’m knitting away on it – I’m about 8 inches into the body now. I’m using Peruvian Alpaca from Elann.com. I got stitch gauge perfectly, and my row gauge is a tiny bit off, but so far it’s working great. This yarn is soft soft soft and totally affordable.
That’s not all the holiday knitting! I whipped up this headband for my sister as well:


It’s Panta on Cathy!
I found this pattern on craftster.org, and it’s super quick and super cute. I used some Mountain Colors yummy yarn that HEJ gave me (I also used this yarn to make a pair of fingerless gloves for my friend Roxanne and I totally forgot to take a picture. D’oh!) Here’s the Panta I made for myself:


Cell phone pic taken on the road.
I used 100% acrylic (gasp!) Caron’s Simply Soft, and I LOVE it. It’s totally great for bedhead or bad hair days. I’ve been wearing the crap out of this thing. (If you google “panta headband” you will find the link to the craftster forum. Craftster.org has the best knitting forum threads!)
I don’t have time for a big long holiday post with more pics– I’ll definitely be doing that this week. I have to go get ready for my trip to COLORADO!!! Whee!!! But before I go, I’ll have to show you what Jacob gave me for Christmas. Here’s a few hints:


It’s got a macro mode.


And a black and white mode. It’s in this picture!
It’s a new digital camera, and it is totally awesome. I’ll show you more pics later! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday with lots of family and friends.

Holiday Knitting: 1 down, 2 to go.
Here’s Project One: Holiday Swap Socks.

They’re done!
These are the ubiquitous and fabulous Jaywalker socks, knitted in some yummy Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock (I have no idea what the colorway is). The image is a little dim, but the socks are all blues and greens and browns. V. pretty. These girls are definitely fraternal twin socks, but I love them anyways. They are winging their way to a secret destination for a Holiday Sock Swap. I hope they fit their recipient!! And I hope they can stay dry. It’s a little rainy out today…
And by ‘a little rainy’ I mean SUPER COLD and ICY and WHY DIDN’T THEY CANCEL WORK. (I know, I know, I’m a huge wimp.) Brrrrrr.
Ahem. Onward, to Project #2.


Is that eggplant I see?
I’m only posting this picture because you really can’t tell what it’s going to be. It’s Secret Holiday Knit Number Two, the large project. I can tell you that I’m using some delicious alpaca yarn from elann.com that is soft and wonderful, and I can also tell you that it’s eggplant. But that’s all you get. That’s 14 inches of knitting right there. Only … a lot more inches to go.
And as for project #3, well, I just got the yarn in the mail yesterday. I’m using Berroco Lullaby in black (thank you Yarnmarket.com!), as suggested by the pattern designer, and I think the yarn is going to be perfect. (Sorry to be so vague but I’ve got to keep SOME element of surprise going here.)
I’ll be traveling to get my dad and bring him home for the holidays next week, so I’m hoping that all the travel time will equal super knitting productivity and finished Christmas gifts. If not, well, everyone gets a bonsai tree! (Which I personally think is a *great* gift.)
Happy happy happy. shop shop shop. knit knit knit.

I am so tired of having gross coldy flu-y symptoms. Blech. I self-medicated this weekend with echinacea tea, Tylenol Cold and Flu, and sleep. I’m feeling a bit better today, so it seems to be working. And good thing, because the holiday knitting push is here.
I don’t have a huge list, just three things:
1. Socks for Holiday Sock Swap.
2. Secret Project #2.
3. Secret Project #3.
Here’s how I’m doing on Number One:

Almost there.
Blurry picture courtesy of my phone, again. So maybe I’m a little obsessed with phone pictures right now .. but I *JUST* learned that you can post them to your Flickr account! (Thanks, Casey!) The finished sock is all blocked and ready to go. Deadline: must be in the mail this Thursday. I CAN DOOOOOOOO IT.
And, well, I can’t really talk about Numbers Two and Three on this here blog, because the recipients may read occasionally. Here’s what I can tell ya: they are both free patterns. One is a small project, the other one is large. I’m trying new yarn for both, and I’m about to embark on a math problem to figure out my schedule for finishing. (As in, if Carrie completes x number of inches each day, she can complete Secret Project by this date.) We’ll see how that turns out. I’ve got 13 days until Christmas, right? Easy peasy. hahahahahahahahahahaha.
I actually don’t mind the deadlines. It’s fun to have a clear knitting purpose every now and then. And it makes me feel like my hours of TV watching are productive.
This weekend’s Bling show went well. Our theme was 80s, so my friend Leslie helped me bling it eighties-style….


hahahahaha.
I even wore my Carrieoke belt, which helped the crowd remember my name, which means they would yell “We love you, Carrieoke” occasionally. I feel that this was completely because of the belt, but I still liked it. Also, we may have covered U Can’t Touch This. Ahem.
Okay. Back to work. Send speedy knitting vibes.

Gah. It’s freezing today. COLDCOLDCOLD. It is so hard for me to get up in the morning when it’s cold and rainy and Bella is curled up in the tiniest ball ever. It makes me a grumpy schmoo to leave my bed.
Luckily, I’m knitting a big old warm sweater to wear now that the weather has gotten chilly. I’m using yarn recycled from an enormously HUGE handknit sweater that I got for THREE DOLLARS at the J and J Flea Market. (See Anne Marie’s blog for more J and J details.) My goal was to find a wool sweater that had usable yarn, and I definitely found it. Pictured here is what’s left of the bottom of the sweater … I got a little excited and unraveling and forgot to take a before pic.

Big.
You can see that it was a fair isle sweater. A BIG fair isle sweater. I managed to get a LARGE amount of navy blue yarn, and a fair amount of several other colors. At least enough to make a stripey hat. But the navy is already becoming something fabulous: the Lace Leaf Pullover, of Interweave Knits Summer 2005 and also Loop-d-Loop by Teva Durham. I’ve been wanting to knit this for a while, and I got spot-on gauge with my recycled yarn.


Spot. On.
I never get spot-on gauge. I’m talking row and stitch gauge. Clearly, this yarn was meant for this pattern. So I’m a-knitting. My only concerns are:
1. This yarn is itchy as HELL. I already washed it once and let it hang up before I started knitting with it. I have plans to give the sweater a nice long bath in Eucalan after I’m done with it.
2. I have no idea how much yarn I actually have, but I’m already done with the bottom half of the sweater, so I’m just going with it. Will I be pissed if I get to the last sleeve and don’t have enought yarn? Well, yes. But will it be my fault? YES.
3. Sweaters obtained at the J and J are from an unknown source. I got a little itchy while I was knitting with it. Am I inhaling some strange unknown substance that is residing in the yarn? (This concern actually overcame me on Sunday, while knitting and watching “The Man with the Seven Second Memory” on TLC. He got a crazy rare infection in his brain that destroyed his hippocampus and now he only has a seven-second memory. So my brain went: Yarn from unknown source = possible rare infection = Carrieoke with the Seven Second Memory. And people, I actually PUT THE SWEATER DOWN, took the needles out, and stopped knitting. Insane? YES. I know. I will plead that it was late at night and also that I take meds for the crazy. I had a smart friend reassure me the next day that the yarn would not destroy my hippocampus, and I’m back on track now. Yeesh. )
In other weekend news: we got a dishwasher. See tiny photo taken by my phone. YAYAYAYAYAYAY. I cannot express how happy the dishwasher makes us. It’s portable, on wheels, since we have limited under the counter space, and we totally got a deal on it. Holla.


We love you, tiny dishwasher schmoo.
This weekend: Bling show. Piano gig on Saturday at some fancy corporate party. And lots of knitting. Stay warm!