Recipe Tuesday: Hoisin Chicken Tray Bake
3 days ago
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Just call me Santa
The Yarn Harlot listed off all the projects she thinks she’s going to get done by Christmas and their current state in her blog today.
Ha! I am so all over this thing! I have:
Five faceclothes like these, one fully knit, one that just needs its ends run in, and three still yarn. They take about two hours apiece to make, so I figure I’m golden. I can finish one per day, easy, just while sitting in the pickup lane waiting for one kid or another to go in / come out of school. That’s only six hours of knitting left to go on this gift…
One pair of socks which are still yarn and which have been giving me fits. Something is wrong with this yarn. I’m serious. I don’t understand it. I take the yarn, I put it on the needle. I need the gauge. It hits gauge dead-center-right-spot-on-couldn’t-be-any-closer-than-that. My gauge is so precisely dead-on that NASA is phoning to compliment me on my engineering skills.
Yet when I cast on the correct number of stitches per the pattern I have used at least nine times in the past – I get socks that look like they were designed for someone suffering from elephantitis.
Anyway, those should take only about 20 hours (or so) of intense don’t-bother-me-I’m-knitting knitting. Hmm. Maybe I could make them ankle socks instead of boot socks…
Three pairs of mittens with matching hats for the girls – still yarn. Well, um, technically, it isn’t even yarn yet, because I haven’t gotten the yarn yet. But, undaunted, I leave them on the list. After all, I can whump out a pair of mitten in less than an hour, especially to fit a tiny little four year old.
One pair of lacy pink socks for the babysitter. I have no idea how long they will take, because I have never done such an intricate lace pattern on socks. I’m assuming somewhat more than ‘about 20’ but somewhere less than ‘the rest of my life.’
And, a scarf for a friend. Still yarn. Yarn which, again, I haven’t received yet. C’mon, UPS, don’t fail me now!! And then, about, oh, eight hours later, I should have her gift together.
Let’s see. {counts on fingers} I make that to be {counts again on fingers}, oh, let’s call it…sixty hours of knitting left to have all my Christmas presents done. There being ten days left, that’s only six hours a day of knitting I need to get done.
And, being for the next week (or two) a SAHM with absolutely nothing to do but sit on my butt eating bon-bons and watching Days of our Lives (is that even still aired?), I should be well able to get that, right?
Absolutely. Just like last year, when everybody got what they really wanted for Christmas.
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Gift cards.
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4 comments:
Inspired by you and others like you (knitters extraordinaire that you are) I have been teaching myself to knit. To start with, I've been marking scarves (what else?) but what I really want to make is mittens. I love the look of hand knit mittens. And your comment ("After all, I can whump out a pair of mitten in less than an hour...") leads me to ask: Is this a project a beginner should leave alone? Is there an easy pattern that you could direct me to? Could you come to Michigan and show me how to knit mittens?! :-)
Mittens aren't hard at all. The only part that might be kind of freaky is that they are usually done on double pointed needles - which ARE NOT hard! They *seem* like they *should* be, but honestly they aren't once you get going with them.
This is a good basic pattern for wee little tiny mittens: http://www.woolfestival.com/patterns/children_mitten.htm
These are great to start with because they aren't a bit complicated, and use only a tiny amount of yarn and time - so you can get the feel for it without putting in $20 and sixteen hours of time. The ones I've made using these exact patterns end up with a mitten suitable for about a 3-4 year old hand.
Bigger mittens for grown-up types are here: http://knitting.about.com/library/blmittens.htm
And, for that pesky picking-up-around-the-thumb thing, here's a site with good pictures of how, exactly, you do it: http://www.socknitters.com/lessons/gusset.html
If you live in Michigan, I think it is almost REQUIRED that you know how to knit good, warm, solid mittens. :)
A million thanks for taking the time to reply. I can't wait to check out the links. Wish me luck!
And if I can add my biased 2 cents.
http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/stories/s1392592.htm
In case you needed another reason to knit.
Just sayin'.
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