Marram v 2.0

I finished another Marram for my co-worker who wears purple and/or gray nearly every day. Here is the finished result. Pictures taken w/my new camera (clearly I still have some learning to do with this thing).



The top really is where the magic happens with this hat.



I still haven't finished Manda's scarf (bad friend!) and I haven't finished or started anything else. I really need to finish it so I can work on that sock that I left behind before the holidays. Poor thing is still tucked away in a bag, heel half finished, just waiting for me to pick it up again. One day, soon.

Oh, and gift cards apparently aren't working on the joann website right now so still no ball winder. *pout* By the time the gift cards at working I can probably just afford to buy one without the gift card. But I really want to use it for this because there's not really much else I want to buy at joann's and the store here is kind of depressing.

Christmas goodies!

I only got one knitting related gift this year, but it sure was a doozy. Kevin made me a yarn swift! I was so surprised by it and the thought that he actually made it for me it nearly unseated the kitchen aid stand mixer as top present this year. I still need a ball winder (which I plan on ordering if the stupid joann's website will ever take my gift card (so I guess that might be 2 knitting related presents)). I did wind up a ball by hand this morning just to give it a whirl and make sure it works ok. It does! It's a little slow at spinning, but that was probably more winding by hand than anything. Kev was really proud to see his little device in action as he had no idea how it was supposed to work.

Yarr, there be pictures behind this cut!

Kev modeling his Marram

Isn't he a handsome devil?





I'll have to get a more detailed shot of the hat because it really is neat looking. There are two spirals. One from the slipped stitches and one from using the two colors.

Marram round 2, complete!

I started Kev's Marram Friday afternoon (we got out early thanks to the snow) and finished it Sunday evening. Pretty much all I did this weekend was knit and bake cookies non-stop. No mistakes this time around. It's the right size. No problems at all! No pictures yet since I haven't been able to get him out in the sunlight to take a quick picture.

But since that one knit up so quick, I decided to start another one last night and it's going by just as quickly. The ribbing and first 2 repeats of the pattern are done. It's fun and easy to do and the finished hat just looks so dang clever and more difficult than it really is. This one will be purple/gray (the first was gray/gray).

The cookiepalooza that I had all weekend long was fun. I did two batch of peanut butter, one sugar, one chocolate chip and one chocolate christmas tree peppermint batch. Oh, and one batch of lemony snickets last night after replenishing my butter supply. I think my urge to bake has been satisfied and all of the cookies were gone before lunch after bringing them into work. I work with a bunch of pigs. :-p

Manda's scarf is the last holiday knit I have left to do. Fortunately I've got a grace period on it and will probably use it as my Christmas knitting when I go home to see the family.

Hope y'all have a fantastic holiday!

The dishes mittens are done, bitch.

I wish I had some buttons to use as eyes, but unfortunately I didn't have 4 teeny tiny matching buttons. Beads have to do. Now I am redoing Kevin's Marram hat. it's coming along nicely and maybe I'll have it finished by tomorrow (a day too late for this super blizzard we just got last night).

Guilt free knitting

I took my last exam yesterday (I got an A in the class. Yay!) so now I can knit, guilt free, without worrying about homework or assignments or test until January 11th. w00t!

Of course there's still that work thing that gets in the way, but I'll just make due with knitting in the evenings and on weekends like 24/7.

Both mittens are finished. I just need to block them now. I should have plenty of time to do that this weekend seein' as how we're about to get dumped on (they're calling for a foot of snow! In Roanoke! WTF?).

And because my weekend plans consist of baking a buttload of cookies, I'm going to share a recipe for my favorite sugar cookies. I've made this recipe since I was in high school and I've missed it since moving out from home. I had Mom fax me the recipe so I plan on baking up a boatload of these badboys this weekend.

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVAR

Thoroughly cream one cup sugar with,
1/2 cup butter,
1/2 cup vegetable oil,
beat and add one egg,
add 2 cups flour,
1/2 teaspoon baking soda,
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar,
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix well, chill overnight (or for several hours). Roll dough in small balls and roll in sugar. Flatten on cookie sheet (if desired). Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.

They are melt in your mouth delicious. And if you top them off with a bit of powered sugar after they come out? YUMMO.

Validation

So this past weekend we had some friends over for a 'beer tasting' party (Kev needed help deciding which beer to enter into the next homebrew competition coming up this weekend). After several (I do mean several) beers our friend Mike just started positively gushing over my knitting. Complimenting my socks, stuffing his fingers into my mittens (that sounds vaguely naughty) and generally just showing off my stuff to everyone. It was nice to hear someone appreciate my knits (now I really do need to get around to making him a hat...after Christmas, first thing!). Kev shrugs and says things are nice, but Mike just went gaga over little details. He was just amazed at how fine the knitting was on my socks, exclaiming 'they're just like store bought!'. Ha! Since I don't have many knitter friends it's not often people compliment the details.

So yeah, it was nice to have a bit of (albeit, drunken) validation.

Progress:

Mitten 2 is 2/3 of the way done. I've been busy with homework and shopping and decorating and stuff so I haven't gotten to sit down and finish it off. Maybe by tomorrow if I get my exams taken care of tonight.  I've just got about 3-4 inches to go and that won't take long.

Manda's Scarf is slowly coming along. I got about 4-5 inches knitted on it this weekend. This will just require a day or two of hardcore nonstop knitting. After the mitten is done, that is what I will do.

Oh and I started a little tiny cthulhu from Creepy Cute Crochet for my friend Joe. Hey, it's what he asked for for Christmas! Still deciding on if I'm going to deal with the polymer clay eyes, or just stitch little black eyes on? IDK. This is my first amigurumi. It's nice to finally get to stuff something after buying a big bag of polyfill like 2 years ago.:)