Getting Warmed Up.

That does not refer to the weather outside, although it's cold and rainy, and generally unpleasant. It refers to Blog365, which like an idiot, I have committed to. That means 365 posts for the next year - yup, once a day, excluding Leap Day in February. What the hell, I may throw caution to the wind and blog that day, too.

Haven't been doing much (any) knitting lately. I haven't had the time. Before Christmas I was working, shopping, wrapping. Yesterday, I spent taking care of my son's cat, shopping for wrapping paper, tree ornaments, what-have-you. Last night, a long string of lights on my tree conked out. Changed fuses, wiggled bulbs, everything I could think of. Nada. No light. Unwound it from the tree and tossed it. I figured I could pick up another strand today at the after-christmas sales. Heh. Not a chance of that. All that was left were funky lights - chili peppers and such, or strands in just one color. All I wanted was either 50 or 100 multi mini-lights, but there weren't any. Oh well. Just re-arranged the lights on the tree to more or less cover the gap.

After I wasted half the day doing that, I baked. Lots. I made four different kinds of cookies today


Top to bottom: Chocolate dipped sliced almond cookies, French Buttercream Cookies, Sugared Almond Bars, and Mocha-Cinnamon Melts.

Merry Christmas

And what is Christmas without Christmas cookies? Candy Cane cookies have been number one on the list of favorites at chez Knitting At Night for over 20 years.

Solstice

Or, as most people know it, the first day of winter. I don't think the weatherman knows it - it's supposed to be in the high 50's tomorrow with - what else? - high winds rain, thunderstorms, locusts, frogs, whatever. And, of course, most of it is supposed to hit late tomorrow afternoon - right when I have to leave for work. It never fails.

I have been busy shopping, wrapping, and decorating, and attempting to get some baking started. I am nearly done decorating, shopping, and wrapping, so I'm hoping to get some baking action tomorrow before I go to work. Then, I get four days off! So, the baking will continue on Wednesday and Thursday.

Gremlin taking a well deserved break during helping to decorate the Christmas tree. "helping" consists of swatting ornaments off the tree.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (Sort Of)

Well, the tree went up last Thursday night, and this Sunday, it was lit. Now all I have to do is put on the garland and the ornaments. The garland will have to wait until one of my taller sons has a few minutes to help. And, the outside lights are done, finally. We've had a lot of rain and wind lately, so it was kind of tricky, but it's done.

I had a few days off from work, so I did some marathon shopping today. 5 1/2 hours, three different malls and Target. At least, I'm nearly done now. Just a few things here and there, and c'est fini. I'll try to get some wrapping done tomorrow before I go to work. I'm doing another three-in-a-row.

I've been working on Clapotis, between putting up lights and shopping. I only have a few more rows to go before I start the straight section, and dropping stitches, which I find kind of fun. Fun being a relative term, because Noro Silk Garden does not take to dropping easily. You have to encourage the stitch to drop, and sometimes you have to force it. If this was a project where I wanted to have the stitches not drop, you could bet your booties these stitches would unravel like crazy.

Saturday Sky

And, here it comes. We have a nor'easter predicted for tonight. Where I am, we will mostly be seeing rain. Lots of rain. Biblical rain. And wind. I'm praying my trees stay put.

Because my knitting time is so limited now, between work and Christmas stuff, I'm still working on Clapotis, part II, in blue, instead of the Philosopher sweater. I'll get it done, I promise.

When I got home from work on Friday morning, this had shown up:


The tree inspector, otherwise known as Gremlin, approves.


So, now all I have to do is decorate it. I finally finished the outside of the house. I remember the days when I was a stay-at-home mom, and I used to have the inside of the house decorated the day after Thanksgiving, and the outside lights went up that weekend, and I started baking. I used to make 30 different kinds of cookies - about 3,000 in all. Unless I win the lottery, those days are gone forever. Now, I need to worry about keeping a roof over our heads, food on the table, and the utilities functioning.

Startitis?

No, not really. Just kind of fair-isled out at the moment. What am I talking about? I've put my Philosopher's wool sweater on hold for a day or two. I half half a pattern (about 6 rows)left to finish the sleeve, but I wanted something that requires a little less counting. Enter Clapotis, part 2. I did Clapotis in a brown-bronze-grey-black Noro Silk Garden, which I love, (although I am thinking of frogging it and making it bigger.)

This is Noro Silk Garden in Shade 008, dye lot R. Here's my problem. I only bought 7 skeins of this, which is what it took to make the first Clapotis - which I now think is too small, which means this one will be too small. There is quite a bit of this color for sale on ebay, but not in my dye lot (at least yet).

I can certainly make more aggravation for my self than I need, can't I?

Got a fair bit of Christmas shopping done today, thanks to a canceled meeting at the hospital. I hate driving out there to find that it's been canceled, but at least it was close to where I was shopping, so it wasn't entirely wasted.

Slacker

Gee, less than a week and a half out of NaPoBloMo, and I've stopped posting already. Shame on me! I was working for three of those days, but I have no excuse for the rest of them.

Started putting up the Christmas lights this week. Chris put up the major outdoor lights, and I did around the front door with garland and lights, and finally got them to work. I have the window boxes done, but can't find the extension cord or the little doo-hickey that screws into the light socket so I can plug the extension cord in. It's been cold, clammy and damp, and I don't really feel like getting into the garage to find them.

I finally got my new air conditioning system in, and a new thermostat, that actually sets the temp. Before, I had my thermostat set at 62 degrees, but I knew it wasn't 62 degrees in this house - I was wayy too comfortable!

Been knitting along on the Philosopher sleeve #2. I only have three more patterns to finish on that sleeve, and then I'll start on the body, and see if I can figure out steeks. From the looks of the yarn I have left, I'll have more than enough to finish the body. It looks like Philosopher's wool is very generous with their yarn kits.

I also put in an order to SpinBlessing for some Dale of Norway Wool. Last winter, I bought some Dale yarn, but I don't have enough to make a sweater. So, now I do. I'm wondering if I want to put this next in the line-up. I have a few extra Dale booklets I'm thinking of putting up for sale. I can't believe how much these things go for on ebay.

I finished reading the Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I am not really a big sci-fi fan, but I loved this book. It was an excellent read, very engrossing. I have another of her books - "To say nothing of the dog" - so we'll see how that one goes. Right now, on my nightstand, I have "..And the Ladies of The Club" by Helen Hoover Santmeyer. I read this many years ago, and am enjoying this reread. It starts with a womens club founded in 1868, and continues up through the years, up to the 1930's.

Continuing...

Well, I know I missed two days, but that was mostly because I'm having trouble sleeping again, and have fallen into a somewhat distressing (to me) sleep pattern, and because we had an unscheduled flood in the bathroom on Saturday morning.

Got home from work on Saturday morning, and found Chris mopping up the bathroom. Apparently, the sink in the hallway bathroom was leaking for a while, and just collected enough water underneath, or the leak got bigger, can't figure which, and he found a flood on the floor when he got up. Naturally, the shelf under the sink is now ruined, too, all warped and messy, and I have to find someone to come out and fix the damn thing. I tried. I called an emergency plumber on Saturday morning, who said he'd be out between 1 and 4 to give me an estimate. Great. Only, 1-4 passes, and I get a call saying they're running late, and can they come tomorrow morning between 10-1? I tell them ok, but I'm going to dinner, so please don't be late. Heh. Get another call, the truck broke down, and they're trying to find someone. I remind them of my dinner obligation. Finally someone shows up at 3:30, gives me a $872.00 estimate. Glahhh! For a leaky sink!!?? Oh, and it'll take three hours to fix. Great. I'm going out to dinner in two hours. I tell them no way, and then they remind me of the service fee to come out, payable if I don't have them do the repair. I remind them they were supposed to be here yesterday, and I refuse to pay the service fee. Then I call the company and tell them, nicely, how I feel. So now, I'm back to square one. Crap.

I'm knitting away on sleeve #2. I didn't take a picture of it, because, get this, it looks just like sleeve #1. I'll take another picture when something interesting happens. I'm already planning another project. I have two more Philosopher's wool sweaters, but I'm going to break it up with something else. Haven't decided what. More on that later.

I was talking to one of the other nurses the other day, and I think she put her finger on why I feel so exhausted after a night of postpartum. She mentioned that her boyfriend doesn't understand how emotionally exhausting it is to take care of 8 or 10 people who need you for 12 hours. I love nursing, but I have to agree, it is like she says. I can have a busy night in the nursery, but when I do postpartum, I feel exhausted at the end, even if I wasn't that busy.

We had the world's smallest snowstorm early sunday morning:

Nothing much going on today, except it's insanely windy. I want to put up the rest of my Christmas decorations, but it's a bit windy for that.No snowdrifts, but a nice leafdrift between the cars.