Sunday, December 16, 2007

Down the Christmas Home Stretch

My Christmas projects are (almost ) all well underway. I think I will be casting on for one more quickie knitted project and making up some beaded earrings, but all other deadline holiday items are either well underway or completed. This is not to say that they will all be easily completed in plenty of time, alas. I think everything that must be shipped next week is ready to go except for the wrapping.
Miss Vivian's sock monkey is ready to go, and I do hope she likes it as much as I do. I kept it pretty simple, with no buttons or clothing so it would be baby safe and easy to take care of.



The office exchange gift is more than half done, after experiencing a complete change of item. I had an afghan in mind which I thought would not only be a nice gift, but also would use up the last of my remaining stash of afghan acrylic. I was thinking zigzag with the various shades of black, grey, and red I had on hand. Sadly, the initial incarnation was proving to be bulletproof. Subsequent evaluation made me decide that even at a larger gauge, or maybe especially at a larger gauge, it was just too ugly to live. The color combo will work out for someone a bit more Goth than my office mates, so maybe after the holidays it will be reincarnated as a Goth afghan. Instead I am knitting a simple seed stitch scarf with a slip stitch edge with the Wool blend Moda-Dea yarn Tweedle Dee on special from Michael's that will fit under the $10.00 spending cap while being soft and pretty. The yarn is a 16% wool, and a little underspun, with tweedy bits and some gradual color shifts. I knit the first half from the outside of the skein and the second from the center, so the color shifts should be symmetrically arranged on the scarf. Two skeins will make a generous scarf on size US 15's. It will need to be done blocked and dry by Wednesday night, so the race is on. I seldon knit with such large needles these days, so I have found it a little awkward.


I started on the baking portion of the season yesterday morning, and got about half of my selection finished. This year I have access to a freezer, so the items are going in there as they are finished. I have the ingredients for all of the rest, which I plan to finish over the course of the week. I still need plates and chocolate kisses to make up the gift trays, and I think an impending trip to the local Target should settle that.


We are lucky enough to have full power at home except for one day, but at the office all this week we were down, and we are still down today. The generator produced power enough to run our computers and phones, but with few lights and no heat it has not been that much fun. I've been at work every day, but I don't feel like I was as productive as usual.

1 comment:

Allison said...

That sock monkey is adorable!