Boxed

Yes, the Daughter Christmas cardi fit like a dream and she loves it!  Now I just need to get her to stand still long enough in natural light to be photographed.  Soon, I hope.

In the meantime, I hope everyone had a peaceful holiday. Christmas day here this year was spent quietly with just the two of us, a vegetarian lasagna, and five hours of Harry Potter.  The last two movies were one of the kid's gifts and we watched them back to back.  I've seen the darn things three times in the theatre and I still sob like a teenager when Dobby the elf dies.  Oops.  Did I spoil it?  You do know that Dobby dies, don't you?

As is my annual tradition, I did a bit of Boxing Day yarn shopping. Some Berroco Alpaca at Knitomatic, some Cascade 220 Heathers at Romni.  I like to spread my financial expenditures around.  I bought enough of the Cascade to make this:

It's Agatha by Andi Satterlund.  I knit her free pattern Miette last year and loved both the process and the product.  A cleverly written pattern that's easy to follow and produces a gorgeous garment?  Who could ask for more? I jumped at purchasing this, her next cardigan pattern.  I think this gal has the potential to be one of the next big things in sweater design.
So, I've been waiting for the sales to purchase a sweater's worth of yarn. Did I mention that it only takes 5 skeins?

This turquoise is a little brighter than my usual palette but I think it will suit the fifties vintage feel of Agatha beautifully. It will also work well as a spring cardigan and will match many of my dresses.  Can't wait to cast on!.

The Home Stretch

Christmas gift #1 , a Damson for my friend, is pinned out on the dining table drying.
Christmas gift #2 (the above Daughter cardigan) is blocked, seamed, and just needs a collar and the buttons sewn on.
Christmas gift #3, a dish cloth for my sister, is postponed due to the nephew being too ill to receive guests.
So, I'll make it.  
The Daughter claims never to read this blog so I have no qualms about posting this partial view picture of her gift.  I so look forward to photographing her wearing the darn thing.  Oh my goodness! I hope it fits!

Kids These Days

So, I told The Daughter that I'm thinking of trying online dating in the new year.  She offered to take my profile photo.

Tree is Up

We raised the tree this past Saturday - a few days earlier than usual but The Daughter was returning to her Dad's the next day so it was either Saturday or just two days before Christmas.  We chose to buy from one of the local fruit markets that sells trees from their side patio where they sell plants and veggies in the summer. Standing between two rows trying to choose, we suddenly heard a soft "Hello, Hello."  It felt briefly like a Christmas miracle with talking trees until we noticed the proprietor emerging from the shadows.  He's a small, pleasant, Asian man. Soft spoken and shorter than me, he hoisted our chosen evergreen onto our cart as if was no heavier than a feather.


Arriving home we discovered that the lower trunk of our pretty Christmas tree was misshapen and had a lumpy bit sticking out of one side.  No way would it fit into our stand!  I made a quick trip down to the Landlord's garage and came back with a saw and a big pair of tree branch pruners.  We would not be defeated! I sawed and The Daughter clipped and soon we had a sawdust strewn carpet and a gorgeous upright Christmas tree. Boy did we feel robust and accomplished!
Our tree is beautiful indeed.  Every year I say it's better than last year's and every year that's true.  However, I'm getting an extra little kick this year from our dining table centre piece.  Recently, a neighbour was throwing out some  slightly faded vintage ornaments. We pocketed the nicest ones and brought them home.  They don't really match our other tree ornaments, being too large and the wrong colours.  So, I arranged them in a salad bowl and placed them on the table.  Ooo Shiny.

Dreamwood

In the old, scratched, cheap wood of the typing stand
there is a landscape, veined, which only a child can see
or the child's older self, a woman dreaming when she should be typing
the last report of the day.   If this were a map, 
she thinks, a map laid down to memorize
because she might be walking it, it shows
ridge upon ridge fading into hazed desert,
here and there a sign of aquifers
and one possible watering-hole.   If this were a map
it would be the map of the last age of her life,
not a map of choices but a map of variations 
on the one great choice.  It would be the map by which
she could see the end of touristic choices,
of distances blued and purpled by romance, 
by which she would recognize that poetry
isn't revolution but a way of knowing
why it must come.   If this cheap, massproduced
wooden stand from the Brooklyn Union Gas Co.,
massproduced yet durable, being here now,
is what it is yet a dream-map
so obdurate, so plain,
she thinks, the material and the dream can join
and that is the poem and that is the late report.


Adrienne Rich
Time's Power, 1987

Friday Night Knitting

That's right.  It's Friday and I turned down all those fabulous invitations so I could stay home and knit.  Sexy and in demand am I. Thank goodness for Drunken Knitting next week so I can have a small social life.
Above is the progress on the entrelac scarf.  As a non-Christmas gift, it's been temporarily laid aside so more pressing projects can get completed.