It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Firstly, thank you for the lovely comments on my Hourglass sweater! You guys are the best! Now on to the business at hand...

Christmas is going to be very low key around these parts this year. I heart Christmas. I love planning the presents and the food. But sometimes, its nice to keep things simple. Besides simple gifts = money saved (and boy do we need to do that right now. Each day we are thankful that B's car doesn't shimmy and shake apart as he drives down the street!). I've also saved a bunch of money this year by buying in bulk (thanks again, Nonnahs!) and making things from my stash. Now not everything is a stash project, but I saw several specific-people-inspired projects when organizing my stash for Ravelry, so I went with it!

I also had some early deadlines this year which helped me keep things on track. And now that three of my four knitting gifts have already been received, I figured now is as good a time as any to share.

First up is the first gift I completed. I needed to get it into international mail and although international mail is now always fast and expensive, I wasn't really sure know how long it would take. Turns out it takes about 5 days.

These are Dashing knit in a little over one ball of Zitron Ecco (124). The yarn was really nice to work with and the pattern was fun and easy. I really like how these particular warmers go down your arm. For someone like me who is almost always cold, I think something like these would be a godsend. But, I put them in the shipping box anyway ;-) ...which is good because they went to a friend who is desperately trying to keep warm in his first Japanese winter.

I also knit up this drop stitch scarf, Yo Drop It from the Stitch 'n Bitch Nation.

It was knit from most of a hank of Touch Boucle (566-2), about 243 yards, that was generously gifted to me by Dr. Nyl in a lovely care package while she was living in Australia. I kept thinking about my hair dresser (who I've known for more than six years and never knit for!) and how she would look so pretty in these colors. It was just about the time the drop stitch scarf pattern came up in the Stitch 'n Bitch page-a-day calendar, so I knew I finally had the perfect project for this yarn. It was an easy, fast moving project but the boucle was a little sticky and splitty. I also added some fringe because it just wanted some :-)

Finally, (well not really finally, because my last knitted gift will have to wait until after Christmas to be shared :-D), I made a pair of hand mitts for my 'facial-lady' (calling her an esthetician always seems so hoity-toity for me, so unfortunately she's stuck with this stupid name instead). Now I've wanted so give her a proper thank-you for some time. I was having a serious battle with acne a couple years ago and contemplated getting a medical prescription because I was feeling so desperate about the situation. Now, I usually like to explore non-medical options first and fortunately, D was able to help (she's in the same shop as my hair dresser). Fortunately for me, I've found one of the few affordable facial-ladies in town (she is 1/2 of what most people charge!) and within a month or two my skin was dramatically clearer. I see her now once a month for maintenance and I am starting to think of myself as having clear skin that occasionally gets a breakout vs. having acne. Anyhoo...the mitts:

Hee, hee - I just realized you can see my hitchhiker's thumbs in this photo!

These mitts are endearingly referred to as "21C Fingerless Mitts in 8ply" and the pattern can be found here. I knit them in less than a ball (with about an 1/8th left over) of Vickie Howell Craft in Kelly. I had this as a random ball of yarn and I kept going back to it for D. I knew she would like the organic aspects of this yarn. The color was perfect and she's a surfer. I thought what better way to warm-up after surfing in our terribly cold ocean (or at least that's what I refer to it as!) than with a pair of hand warmers. Yay! once again for Ravelry. I was able to search through all of the mitt patterns until I came across one in just the right yardage and gauge combination to let me use the Craft without having to adjust the pattern. Thank YOU Ravelry!

Now that B is back in town (you can tell I needed to use the auto-timer for the photos above), we've also gone about getting our place jolly for the holidays. We picked out our tree last night and set it up with a glass of eggnog in hand.


B left a signature touch:

Heeelppp meee!!!

Ugh. But then, who am I so determine the 'correct' way to hang an ornament, so the poor snowman is still precariously dangling. Although, I am OCD enough that this is actually quite troubling to me. Things should be straight. And right side up. Oh well, tis the season!