The Day After

'Tis the day after Christmas and the house is very quiet since The Husband and my daughter had to return to work today.  I just finished my breakfast which consisted of three cups of coffee and a piece of the yummy chocolate my daughter stuffed my stocking with.  Breakfast of champions, I tell ya...   The smelly doxies are all passed out in the sunshine coming through the patio door, which is a sort of miracle in and of itself because the glass is so smeared with dog nose prints, I’m amazed the sun gets through.  Hey, YOU try keeping the glass clean with six dogs around.  Anyway, I’m glad we have sunshine today as my family in Ohio is dealing with blizzard conditions – yet another reminder of why we left.  I cleaned the house this morning (except for the patio glass) and I will spend the rest of the day knitting and waiting for my son and daughter-in-law to roll in later for our belated Christmas celebration.

Christmas Day was decidedly great - I actually surprised The Husband with a few Duck Dynasty bobbles (he's never surprised by anything).  My daughter got me a rockin’ book of knitting stitches by Barbara G. Walker and the aforementioned chocolate plus some nail polish.  The Husband bought me a portable steam machine which will not only help me clean my house but will come in handy for blocking the big pile o’ knitting I plan to do in the new year.  And it certainly IS a big pile.  After we opened gifts and ate a yummy Christmas dinner, I spent a lot of time adding patterns to my library and queue on Ravelry.  Ravelry rocks, by the way (as if you didn’t already know).  I’ve tried Pinterest but honestly, it can’t come close to the sheer volume of stuff I can find on Ravelry.  I might have also perused every volume of Twist Collective’s online mags and added at least a dozen patterns from them alone, but that may be just a vicious rumor.  So much yarn, so many patterns, so little time…

One adorable kid!
(she'll kill me for this)

My daughter at least appears to like her version 2.0 gift, which I still need to take a good picture of to put up on here.  This one will have to do for now.  My daughter makes even a so-so picture look good (she’s so cute!).  The pattern for the first version that was hideous is not worth mentioning, but the second pattern I used is the Ballet Camisole by Alexandra Virgiel which came out pretty good.  If I had to change anything, I'd have modified the number of stitches to cast on for her size, as the bottom ended up a little too wide (it was knitted bottom-up).  The yarn I used was Mulberry by Louisa Harding.  It's 100% silk and I learned through this endeavor that pure silk is very unforgiving.  It is so sleek and shiny; it doesn't hide any variations in yarn tension or decreases.  It feels lovely but I don't think I'd knit anything from 100% silk again unless it was a shawl or something lacy.  Maybe a silk blend would be easier to work with until I reach that pinnacle of perfection in my knitting.  Ha!

Mi Madre
(thanks to my brother for this pic)

I only have one other FO with pictures to share with you today of my mom in the sweater I made for her.  This was the first piece of Christmas knitting I finished.  I'm sorry the pictures aren’t ideal – I’m trying to get better at this photography thing.  This is probably my favorite piece of them all.  Mom chose a beautiful dark turquoise blue color and the only problem I had with it initially was the neckline finishing but this wasn't the fault of the pattern-writer, it was just because I was so new at picking up stitches.  I actually pulled the first attempt apart and re-did the neckline and it came out much better.  The pattern I used is Peasy by Heidi Kirrmaier.  I used Classic Elite Yarn's Liberty Wool.  It's not my favorite wool but I didn't hate it.  The buttons I found at my local Hancock Fabrics really made the piece.  It fit my mom perfectly so I was absolutely thrilled.

You can see the front panel better here
Um...kind of but not really

I plan to have more stuffs and pics to show you over the next few days.  I still have a few secrets to keep until January 7^th but I’ll get there.  I’m also still working on the Christmas blanket which is progressing painfully slowly.  I have another sweater to cast on but will do that after spending these next few days with family.  Then I’ll knit like a mad woman, which will be easy because the shoe certainly fits, if you know what I mean.

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