Twelve Days Left

How can Christmas be that close?  It doesn't seem possible.

Here are my lovely children!

We had a great time in Florida.  The Nutcracker was fun, the little children were adorable, Smallest danced beautifully, there were some challenges with some of the dancers, but overall it was lovely.  I'm so glad we went, and Catherine sure seemed to have a fun time with the kiddos.  They all goofed around on Sunday while we drove to Orlando to see Lauren.  We got to go on a Lauren-guided tour of one of the Disney parks and had a great time.  The rides were fun, and it was just nice to see her.  The Star Wars area was really something.  Very cool.  She'll finish up after Christmas, so we'll see her when she's done with her program there.

Since Middle was on the trip, I didn't work on their hat.  I did start the hat for their person and that is going pretty well.  The swatch got better as I went and the hat is too.  I am remembering why I don't like knitting with dark yarn, but it's just a couple of hats and then I'll be done.  At least the needles are a different color.  Here are the hats so far.  I'm about 1/3 of the way through the patterned part of Middle's hat, and then just a couple of inches into the other, so a ways to go.  That one I can finish after Christmas though, as it will go back to Chicago with Middle.

I did work on the sock some, I'm through the gusset decreases, but I didn't take it on the trip because three projects seemed like overkill.  It was tempting though.

I need to find John's bug.  I think I know where it is.  I also think I need to buy some gold braid to finish it up.  We shall see...

I think that's it.  Hopefully at least one hat will be complete by next week!

Margie

All The Hats!

Great news!  I put the hat on Javi's head while he and Sarah were here and it fits nicely.  I might undo the decreases and make it just an inch bigger?  There wasn't quite enough brim for my liking.  Similarly, I'm about to the point of decreasing on Sarah's hat, so I will make hers a little longer as well.  Here's where her hat is:

I am also making hats for Middle and their person, so yarn and patterns were finally selected and I'm swatching.  Middle chose this cool hat - Divide Hat - and their person would like this very functional one - Ribbed Beanie - which I think will be nice to make as well.  Middle wants green for the brim of their hat, and then since there was no black yarn in the same brand/weight, we selected this nice brownish color to go with.  Person would like a black hat. (yarns below)

I'm a little worried about the black yarn, it's not as squishy/stretchy as I'm used to.  It has some alpaca or silk in it?  I think alpaca?  Perhaps that's why it's less stretchy?  I'll swatch it and see what I think.  There is time for more yarn.

While Sarah and Javi were with us, I needed something to work on other than their hats, and since the yarn for the other hats hadn't arrived, I pulled out some yarn I got a year or two (or three?) ago to make matching socks for Middle and Smallest.  That has progressed nicely, I'm about to turn the heel on the first sock.  Hopefully I can finish up the hats quickly and get to work on finishing the socks!  It would be nice to get more of the yarn sitting around worked up and shared!

Next week we're going to see Smallest perform in the Nutcracker - her first time to be in one!  We'll also see Jeff's other daughter, Lauren.  They're about three hours apart, so it's a little tricky, but I think we can make it work.  Catherine is coming too!

Catherine and I have started exercising together over the computer as a way to make me exercise between trainer sessions.  Plus, my trainer is taking the month of December off, so I _really_ need someone to keep me on track.   Catherine also reminded me that I need to finish the bug for our brother.  It's just the border now, so I need to get that done.  I think I ran out of the gold floss?

That's about it, I think.  I'm looking forward to post-Xmas knitting!  I have at least two cowls to make, one with the yarn I got in Florida recently, and one that Jeff bought the yarn for in New Orleans.  I don't know what he picked, so that will be very fun!  I'm having some surgery in January which will leave me convalescing at home for 3-6 weeks, so I'm thinking that's some prime knit and watch bad movies time.  Should be good!  And reading too!  So many choices...

Margie