Hat Pattern: 1×1 Ribbed Hat
Handwarmers: Sucky Thumb Mitts
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Solids, Heathers & Twists
Needles: US 6

And why are you making me wear these things?

My nephew moved from a warm climate to a colder one, Chanukah was coming, and I needed to use up my stash that is still going strong at 53 items (with more on the way) *ahem*. Enter, handwarmers and a hat!

She knew these weren't for her and gave them back after modeling them.

I used my standard 1×1 ribbed hat pattern because it just works so well. And that totally sounds like a shameless plug, but I didn’t mean for it to be. Of course now it is a plug. The Sucky Thumb Mitts pattern is a really good one, and I highly recommend it. Between that pattern and my last fingerless gloves project, I think I understand the idea behind the hand warmer construction and may try my hand at creating a pattern that’s in my head. But I’ve digressed, haven’t I?

The finished pieces

I guess I don’t have much to say about the project. It went together really fast and really well. I’m happy with the finished product. I’m a bit of a yarn snob and have had bad luck with Lion’s Brand in the past, but they redeemed themselves with this yarn. It was a good, solid yarn without any breaks. AND I liked the color. I bet it was because my Godson bought it for me.

Handwarmers on my kid.

We’ll see how the nephew takes to them. He may find the yarn tastes better than anything.

In a Jewish household, Christmas can be the most boring day of the year. Everyone is busy and pretty much nothing is open. Growing up the day was sometimes spent volunteering at one of the churches to serve Christmas dinner to locals who had nowhere else to go. I miss volunteering like that, although I don’t miss everyone in town knowing who I was. When your Dad worked in one social service area and your Mom the other, everyone at that dinner knew the Sister and I.

Other years, Christmas days included watching a Muppet Christmas Carol. Why, you ask? Well, for one thing, it’s the Muppets. For another, it’s a good movie. I introduced it to OP a few weeks ago. She seemed to like it, but the ghost of Christmas yet to come scared her. We skipped those scenes.

No matter what we did though, our Christmas Day ended with corned beef and cabbage and Daddy’s Chocolate Cake for dessert. My Dad’s birthday was December 25, and in our family the birthday person got to pick dinner. Even when I’m 103, I will still think about corned beef and cabbage on that day.

When I met the Husband, he introduced me to “Jewish Christmas,” which is his family’s tradition of going out to the movies and eating Chinese for dinner. It’s a lot of fun. We did that a few times with his parents. Last year, I was on a plane to Austin to help my sister with her new baby boy. The year before that, I was home with 4-day-old baby girl and a sliced abdomen.

While I have whiled the hours away on Dec 25 in so many different ways, every way was with family or friends. I hope, dear readers, no matter how you spend or celebrate the day that you are with those you love and cherish. I wish you a happy day and happy thoughts that your year to come will be a good one. To my Dad, I wish you Happy Birthday wherever you are.

Dad and his girls (I’m the one who looks like a boy)

I am a one project kind of gal. I wasn’t always that way. When I started out knitting I’d have two or three projects going, but with multiple projects going, I never seemed to finish anything. Eventually, they’d get done but with my time split among projects it always felt that I wasn’t getting anywhere.

A few years back I decided to stick to one project at a time. Of course, sometimes I would work two projects. For example, a project would end up in time out and I’d move to something else for a break, or I’d go on vacation and didn’t want to bring the intricate piece I was working on in case I lost it so I’d start socks. For the most part, however, I focused on a single project.

Comparing the two phases of my knitting “career,” I think I’ve been happier focusing on one project at a time. I do admit being jealous of my friends who would have 3 or even 5 projects going on at a time. From the outside they looked so prolific!

Recently I’ve begun to regress. I’m working on 3 projects. 4 if you count the hand warmers I have yet to weave in ends for. I have the handwarmers, a hat, the Husband’s scarf, AND Skew is back out of the naughty bag. I’m stressed. I have too much on my plate and I’m not able to focus as well. I need to get them all done ASAP, but I only have two hands. (Why couldn’t humans have been built with more hands!!!) I need a plan so I can stop feeling overwhelmed and focus. I will weave in the ends of the hand warmers and then focus on the hat. Maybe I can get the hat finished by Friday. Once they are done, I’m only down to 2 items. I want to get the Husband’s scarf done ASAP, and with the addition practice I’ve put in knitting with two colors I’m feeling confident. But I also really want to get Skew done before the new year. I do need to get that scarf so the Husband can wear it while it’s still cold. Argh!

Maybe it’s time for extra knitting sessions with the girls and OP can live at Grandma and Grandpa’s for a couple weeks?

Um, I would like that very much. Grandpa let's me do anything I want.

First a weekend update. I did not run the race on Saturday. We ran errands all day and I just crashed. I blame the Husband because he said if you don’t physically feel up to it, you shouldn’t do it. Had he got all Jillian on me, I’d have made myself go and probably gotten sick, but I would have felt accomplished. I’ll try again next year.

A few posts back, I mentioned some exciting things in the Kis*knit household. While I wish I could report that I just knit 10 skeins of yarn in the last week and am now in the 40s, alas that is not the case. However, a couple other interesting things are happening.

The first of the two is sort of lame, but it’s a first step. I wanted to start getting my photography out locally. I’m an amateur photographer, but it’s something I enjoy and like to think I’m good at. I did a bad job building my portfolio past what I have, but I did get into a juried show at my local YMCA. It’s not a huge deal as I suspect they just let everyone in, but it’s up.  Also, the sheet I picked up said it was a holiday themed, but apparently not all the sheets said that so it’s not a photo that I would have normally picked. It’s a start. Hopefully next year I can focus on it more. Of course the second item may make this difficult.

I’ve been thinking about my career options. I’m currently a web programmer, but were I to switch jobs, I don’t think I would want to continue that path. I’m just getting burnt out. So, since I work at a college, I decided to start taking classes to see if Exercise Science or something equivalent is what I want to do. If it is, I will be going for my masters in the subject. I have narrowed down the focus a bit to either the exercise/nutrition/psychology link in weight loss or how to combat joint stiffening as we age–possibly including joint problems, RA, and other ailments along with aging. It’s a lot to think about and I’m worried that at 35, I’m just too old and too busy with a full-time job and kid to pursue it.  We’ll see. It may be the best thing yet. I’m hoping to talk a bit about what I learn in the intro class next semester, if my lovely readers are interested.