i have just about had it completely 100%

I am just fed up today. I'm so totally not in the Christmas spirit, it doesn't feel like Christmas, yet we are celebrating on Sunday, which is less than two days from now. Then we move on to real Christmas. Then Katja''s birthday four days later.

So here's the to-do list

1. Get knitting finished:
- scarf for Nadine
- hat and scarf for Lisa
- socks for Max and Meredith (this is a big problem, due Sunday morning....might have to abandon as not started
and yarn not purchased
- scarf and hat for Dan (ideally)
-snowflake longies for Katja
- soaker for Aimee
-soakers for website

Christmas FO's
- Stacy's hat and scarf
- mom's hat and scarf
- Nadine's hat
- longies for Katja (not a Christmas FO per se...but she needed longies)
- Irene scarf (yippee)

2. Get baking finished.
- sugar cookies done
- butter tarts and mince tarts done
- cheese wafers chilling in mom's fridge
- gingersnaps, shortbread, spritz (if Max can fix the press in metal shop - this will be a post-Sunday treat)

3. find: camera charger, katja and Dan's stockings, one of Max's christmas presents

4. WORK telephone calls to about 10 clients. Letters on 3 files I can think of. Petition to draft, motion to draft and file, set up cross examinations, follow up on receivables, do trust accounting and RST return. Change name on trust account to Roch. Return emails to S.T. and M.H. Draft complex affidavit (x2), get sworn and arrange hearing dates. Follow up on sentencing date and presentence report. Follow up on drug treatment court. Just remembered letter to another client. Set up plan for young offender. Adjourn hearing set for Jan 3. I refuse to work Jan 3.

If I get these things done in the next 36 hours, I will be caught up by Christmas. I think I'm going to have to take a moment and try to find a way to pretend I'm getting stuff done while I eat cookies and feel sorry for myself.


Edited to add: On reading knitting blogs at Christmastime, and in particular the Yarn Harlot's, I've come to realize that what I experienced was entirely normal, and quite frankly, I don't think I took on enough this Christmas when I look at what everyone else is doing!

Photos!

Finally. The baptism was like two weeks ago, and I'm just now posting pics. Why? Because blogging is time-consuming, and I'm not exactly someone with a bunch of time on her hands. I had a major case of needy-client-itis this week too, that just sucked me dry.





Dress, booties, and bonnet - blocking at 10 p.m. the night before the baptism on cloth diapers. Hey, I'll never pass up an opportunity to plug cloth diapers ;)

Sleeve detail



Hallowe'en costume - sheepy pants pattern, with a tail I designed :) Little Devil




And a pic of the cutie with the dog.

Done!

Oh, it turned out beautifully.

The yarn was a bit heavy for the pattern, so I had to do a couple of little modifications. And the crochet edge was a royal pain in the arse with the yarn, it kept splitting and the size 2.5mm crochet hook was...well, there are no words. It's done, it wasn't perfect but at the end of it all, I had no time left and it was really, really sweet.

I tacked the front of the dress together, because it kept flopping over, again a sign to me the yarn was too heavy. I added ribbon to the garter stitching at the waist. I added ribbon to the wrists as well. It turned out absolutely gorgeous. Once Katja was wearing it for a while, though, she got hot and uncomfortable. Bummer.

Pictures tomorrow. They're on the camera but it's upstairs and I just don't want to get it!

So close....

The dress is 91% done, by my calculations. The second sleeve is finished, and the crochet edging around the sleeves and the bottom of the dress is complete. Today I started doing the scalloped crochet edging along the neckline and I'm finding it difficult. I realized I was doing my yo's backwards, no big deal on the edging, but doing it backwards on a dc makes the stitch impossible.

So once I figured that out, things started going ok, but K was impeding my progress. I'm finished the SC row, and am now doing the scalloped edges. I think it looks ok, but I'm so not a crocheter. It looks cute so hopefully no one will notice if it is totally screwed up.

K snuck in a micro-nap in the van on the way home from mom's (fooled me - I really thought she hadn't slept, increasing my frustration). So she was up until almost 10, and woke up again at 10:45, erg. By then I had to get to work, but was desperate to do some knitting, so I started a soaker. I realized yesterday that K is going to need a light-coloured soaker for under her baptism dress, and her existing soakers are colourful, and felted, and bulky - the sad soakers for overnight use that looks gross but are functional.

I make gorgeous longies, sweaters, etc, but soakers just defeat me. All three K wears overnight are misfits. One has gauge issues, and so I felted it to make it less massive, but it's huge in the width and normal rise, it looks weird. Boy is it absorbant though! The second soaker is actually a pair of shorties that I felted (DH put them in the wetbag and I chucked them in the diaper wash on hot. I caught them before they hit the dryer at least so they work as soaker. The last soaker is the one I knit in Minneapolis. It's a curly purly pattern and I don't know why I made 3 soakers with this pattern, I absolutely hate it. I think it would be awesome on a skinny baby or an older baby or over trim fitted diapers, but on my chunky baby it just didn't work. She needs a lowwwwwwww front rise, tons of short rows in the back, big thighs and a drawstring.

So I'm trying the punk knitters pattern this time, it looks trimmer than the other soakers I've made. I will use some of the modifications I've made to the picky pants, like extra short rows and lower rise, as well as doing ribbing only above the eyelets in the waistband. All of these things make them fit better.

It's strange casting on a new project though, after 3 weeks of knitting just the one pattern and yarn, using the one size (2.5 mm) of needle. Using a 3.5 mm needle with a worsted weight yarn is so strange now, though it used to be all I used. It feels bulky, and I'm kind of scoffing at the 80 stitch rounds (the dress had 240 at the skirt), and I found myself wondering if I could knit a nice trim soaker (almost interlock thin) using a wool fingering weight yarn. Then I thought about how many stitches I would be casting on for this little experiment and thought, "um, no, that would not be fun at all!)

Getting close.....

So close in fact, that I already bought my reward yarn for my reward scarf. But don't tell anyone, because I'm actually going to get myself some really extra nice yarn for a second reward scarf. This one's just practice. Shhhh.

The cap is done, the booties are done, and the dress is done except for the second sleeve (I'm about 1/4 done this, and the finishing. I've woven in a LOT Of ends so far. On the booties alone I had about 10 ends each. The hat had quite a few as well. And on the dress...OMG. Lots of work to do, and I understand the finishing involves crochet. English crochet. How hard can it be, right?

I got the stitch n bitch books from the library over the weekend, they're great! I learned how to do proper seaming, on bootie #2. There's a definite difference, and I'm really glad I got these books, they show the techniques really easily. I love the silly references - smily faces and umbrellas for garter stitch, for example. They really helped me figure out the technique quickly. I also learned how to correctly pick up stitches, I honestly had no idea I was doing it wrong - of course, I had never looked up how to do it RIGHT, so how could I?

The modified sleeve looks great - here it is (unblocked of course)

I did a gradual decrease, every 5 rows along with the eyelet pattern, two stitches per row skp at the start and k2tog at the end, then doing it every other row for the rest, once I realized I was 10 cm into the sleeve and still at 50 sts, trying to get to 24! When I got to 24 sts, I did K1, *k2, m1*, then two rows stockingette, then three rows seed stitch. I'm really pleased at the result.

It looks a bit wonky in the photo, but it's lovely on.

To reward myself for finishing the sleeve, I moved on to the cap. It's done too, except for a few stray ends and weaving a ribbon through the eyelets.

Next, the booties - here's a view from the side before seaming. Note the wicked number of ends. I can't even explain what a dumbass move I did in order to accomplish that. But I did improve on my technique for the second bootie, and thus only had about 6 ends to weave in. It still seemed like a lot of ends for such a wee thing.

The finished product, times two:

Now off to finish this stupid second sleeve.

Oh, before I go - a word to the wise. When modifying a pattern such that one will have to replicate one's modifications, such as on a second sleeve, it is best to write down the modified pattern as one goes. Lest one spend countless precious minutes counting rows and stitches on shiny white yarn in bad light. I'll never make that mistake again. Ugh.

oh crud

Another boo-boo detected in the baptism dress. I screwed up the chart on the skirt, making the eyelets on the dress 5 rows apart instead of 4 - I thought I was off, but by the team I'd realized it I was about 10 cm into the skirt. At 240 stitches per row, and 32 -ish rows at that point, I was

Let's see - frog and re-knit approx 7680 stitches of this pattern, plus finish the dress, sleeves, bonnet and socks. By October 21. Riiiiight. So I just went to the land of knitterly denial and kept on knitting. My denial is so deep (or I am so pooped) that I forgot all about my little self-deception until I was 89 stitches * 17 rows = 1513 stitches into the cap. After having already frogged once for a really dumb mistake.

I am leaving it. My knitterly mind tells me no one will notice the lace on the cap doesn't match the pattern on the skirt, or they will think the down-sizing is intentional.

The sleeve is completely modified - I knit from the shoulder down because I wanted to do a fancier cuff - I did this ruffled cuff for a more 'special occasion' kind of look. I might frog and re-knit after the baptism, or even before if I have enough knitting time left.

I have been weaving in ends as I go, too, which I've never done before, but let's face it, my hardest pattern has been picky pants which have precisely 4 ends to weave in provided you have a big enough skien. Maybe 6 ends. This dress had 6 ends in the first 10 cm- Lots of knots in the yarn itself (disappointing considering skein length is 50y) and lots of balls of yarn (I've used 4 thus far), plus four seams for waist and collar, ugh, that's a lot of ends.

But so far so good. I got oohs and aahs from my family today, and my daughter when looking at it exclaimed, "wow, that looks just like the picture!" in true and utter amazement.

I have decided since I've been so single-minded on this task, and may even finish early, I get to knit my next project for myself. ME. I haven't knit myself a single thing! I think I would like to do a fun long skinny scarf, or something lacy to wrap a few times around my neck. Or my first socks. Or all three!

Max wants socks, so I'll probably do the first socks for him. He won't mind if they don't fit, the love.

Off to Ravelry to queue some projects!

xoxox

Moving right along....

The baby dress is really fun to knit, and I would say a good introduction to charts and a somewhat more complex pattern.

The entire body is now done, it took me about 3 hours in total to do the two front pieces (with a false start on the second piece, which I started knitting inside out....honestly, how long do I need to be knitting for before I stop making these idiotic mistakes?).

I did the seaming up today while playing dominoes with the kids after supper (bad mom moment, but the baptism is the 21st....of this month...and apparently it's already the 6th. Oops, the 7th). I did up the shoulders and the waist because of the way I want to do the sleeves.

I started the first sleeve, and I'll have to try it on baby to see if I like it. I decided to pick up stitches and knit it from the top down instead of the bottom up, because I hate seaming that much, especially sleeves. The last one I did was disastrous.

I just realized the pattern as written calls for a gusset type thingamajobby at the underarm, but I'm going to knit it up without (mainly because I couldn't visualize how the gusset would work, but of course NOW it's coming to me that I would just...well, no matter, I'm committed at this point).

I'm stalled now, just trying to figure out if I want to do the cuff that the pattern calls for, or if I want do so something a bit fancier and skip the crochet.

And I just realized yesterday the crochet finishing is kind of mandatory. The dress will really look ordinary if I don't do it. Oh well, what's a fourth trip to the yarn store for the one project really going to matter at this point?

Pics tomorrow. Yawn. Katja doesn't realize all the work mommy is doing on her dress late at night, and has decided to wake hourly recently. The joy of mother-daughter bonding at 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 am is beginning to wear off.