Be*mused

Merry Christmas!

*Down to the wire* should be my nickname.  Finally, all of my lists have been checked (twice!) and just the packing remains.  We're leaving for the holidays tomorrow, so yesterday I dashed out and delivered the neighborhood plates when my cookies were barely cooled and decorated.  For me, Christmas doesn't start until the gingerbread is baked.  In the spirit of the times, I'm *recycling* last year's holiday photo.  Really, I'm all about tradition...my cookies look the same every year.  And I'm running behind.  But you knew that, right?   

The empty suitcase awaits.  I hope you all enjoy a happy & healthy holiday week and safe travels if you're venturing away from home.  Wishing you and yours all the joys of the season!

Applehead

That would be me.  Choking down munching through a mountain of apples that arrived in a huge gift basket on Tuesday.  The non-perishables can be saved until M gets home tomorrow but fruit doesn't last very long so it's been my snack of choice (not to mention, occasional meal) this crazy week.

I've been wound up since I got back from Chicago on Monday night, but this afternoon I'm feeling pretty good.  The international packages have been sent, the tension problem on my sewing machine has finally been resolved (how & why do these problems only ever develop with a deadline looming?) and things are falling into place.

Today I got back to this gift project and spent several hours, jaw clenched, zigging and zagging through its final steps to completion.  Kathy wrote a wonderful pattern, but there's no getting around topstitching light thread on dark fabric and the perfectionist in me was stressed out until the last thread was snipped.  I was actually planning to rubberstamp my nieces' names on the front of these with fabric ink but have decided not to tempt the fates and am calling them done.  All but the pencil sharpening.

And I'm on cruise control with That Little Scarf so it looks I'll be able to join the Procrastinators-Not-So-Anonymous line that will be snaking out of the post office early Monday morning.  And I'll be happy to be there.

Seven repeats to go

Now I need to answer some email (my inbox runneth over) and address the Christmas cards, literally.  If you're waiting to hear from me, my apologies.  Soon.  When I get overwhelmed with lists, I prioritize and email is what got put on the backburner this week.  It looks like most of the country will be getting some snow this weekend.  I hope you all have your errands finished and can enjoy some quiet time at home.  I'll be putting on a pot of chili and knitting lace.  But not anywhere near each other.

Maybe next year

Clearly, my calendar must be defective.  Somehow, despite everything looking so rosy last week, I seem to have lost a critical 5 or 6 days and it is already December 12th.  I was so sure that this year was going to be different (as I am each year, coincidentally,) that I was on top of all of the making & baking & wrapping & sending with time to spare and then today it all hit me like those big Gatorade buckets full of ice water that they dump on the winning Super Bowl coaches.  Youch! 

I'm moving right along on the That Little Scarf but it's clearly not ready for wrapping & mailing so tonight I'm going to knit like mad for a while and then, at a self-appointed hour (Project Runway?), I'll be putting it down to unwind a bit.  Although I've really cut down on my bad magazine habit this year, I picked up three juicy, new issues in Chicago over the weekend.  And then today, a holiday box arrived from Molly into which she had tucked the new copy of my favorite Japanese magazine, Illustration.  (Hyperventilating.) 

Yesterday at the drugstore I came across Organize, a new-to-me periodical that I thought might provide a gentle kick-in-the-pants for the new year.  When I went to snap this photo for the post, it took me 10 minutes to remember where I had put it.  Maybe need to start with that one. 

Thanks, Elann!

I'm having one of those weeks.  The kind that starts as a glorious blank slate.  No commitments, just a long list of holiday prep plans.  It all looked so manageable...even, dare I say it, fun!  A week alone...just me, my sewing, my knitting, my Christmas cards, my up-but-as-yet-undecorated frasier fir, baking plans, a shopping list, gifts & wrapping paper piled on the dining room table.  Throw in a little gently falling snow, some Christmas music and voila!  Dream week.  *Ahem*  Let's just say that falling snow needs shoveling, deadline projects sometimes go awry and the clock seems to tick faster at this time of year.  Doesn't it?

That Little Scarf, Silke Tweed

When Anne posted That Little Scarf last week, I saw it as the perfect solution to one of my Christmas gift conundrums.  Click! purchase! download! and head right out to find some yarn and get this project on the needles.  It was difficult to find something in the right weight (fingering) that met my color/wooliness preferences (neutral/not so much) and I ended up with GarnStudio's Silke-Tweed, which I've used successfully in a previous lace project.  Because of its gauge, I had to reduce to number of pattern repeats to use the recommended needle size and I could quickly see that it wasn't really working.  That Little Scarf definitely needs a finer, springier yarn to show off its pattern to best advantage.

Plan 2.  Drop everything and head out to yarn shops hither and yon in search of perfect yarn. (I can see now that this may have been the beginning of the unraveling of my week, so to speak.)  No luck.  Hmmm...ponder quandary.  Continue to fixate on That Little Scarf or just buy something?  I start scouring yarny websites.  The Christmas clock ticks.  Did I mention that this gift is going to have to be sent?

Baby Cashmere

Elann.com to the rescue.  I crossed my fingers and ordered some Peruvian Baby Cashmere on Tuesday, figuring that I wouldn't have the new effort on the needles until next week.  It arrived yesterday...two days from computer order to mailbox.  Wow!  Thankfully, it's working out perfectly.  Just seventeen and a half repeats to go. 

Some things are getting accomplished around here.  Carole's fantabulous Polish Teacakes are cooling in the kitchen now.  (The international dispatch batch.)  And the house is decorated, pretty much.  I'm starting to feel the crush of mailing deadlines and social commitments.  M is straddling two regional offices, both of which have their holiday parties this weekend, so that will take care of the next couple of days, between prep (out of the jeans, into the stockings) merriment and travel.  I just may be able to knock off the scarf on the roundtrip, though.  Hope you all have a great weekend! 

Edited to add:  Med Pinner, a blog from Oslo Bergen, Norway, has just put up a new post featuring a gorgeous, GORGEOUS new Latvian mitten.  Oh.my.  Must finish my Christmas knitting and get back to my Latvian mittens! 

Old dog, new trick

Remember this little block?  It doesn't look like much here, but I was compelled to make it up after seeing the most breathtaking antique scrap quilt at Woodard & Greenstein's fabulous gallery in NYC several summers ago.  When I wrote about it here, I had every intention of replicating the quilt, a block a week or so.  Two years plus later, one sad, lone block.  The sample got pinned to my bulletin board and though I often thought 'I must get back to that', the fiddly nature its small size always stopped me from moving forward on it.  Because, dear readers (and here is where the quilters will want to run and get the smelling salts), I used little templates when I made it. 

I admit it.  I'm a traditional girl when it comes to my quilting habits.  (In my mind, 'deliberate', as opposed to 'provincial'. Or 'nuts'. You decide.)  Aside from the occasional Jan Mullens quilt or log cabin design, I don't much use my rotary cutter.  Which is why I often stall out on projects.  So many ideas, such a big stash.  Flit, flit, flit. 

Last week while out doing errands, I found myself in a favorite quilt shop, thumbing through new books.  I almost never purchase books which feature traditional designs because I prefer to draft them myself, but I can't resist flipping through to check out new quilt photos.  So it was that I came upon a quilt that may have been inspired by the same antique quilt I saw in NYC.  And the book offered quick piecing instructions.  On my third trip back to consider it (I may have a large stash, but I do consider my quilting expenditures carefully), I caved.  Bought it, hustled it home and between must-finish holiday projects, whipped out a flying geese strip (above) in a mere 10 minutes.  Revelation! 

Favorite old block from my WIP box

This opens up all sorts of projects I had put on the back burner!  Do you need to find this book now?  No, you do not, because after I brought it home, I Googled 'quick pieced flying geese' and up popped this wonderful tutorial.  What?  You all knew about this already?

Nevermind.