WIP Wednesday – December 30

This week, its all about the red scarf: (when you click on the link, ignore the bit about the deadline being December 15 – scroll down to see the post about the extended deadline)

Because I really didn’t get enough of the knitting-on-a-deadline thing before Christmas, here I am,  trying to squeak out 2 red scarves for the Orphan Foundation of America by the first week of January.  The goal for this week?  Finish this one – I’m halfway there.  Super simple 30 stitches of basketweave pattern, knit until its 60 inches, crochet an edging around it.  Then cast on another and repeat.  Mail them, along with a couple of gift cards to OFA’s Virginia offices by the first week of January (I’m taking a liberal view of the “first week” and likely over nighting them late next week).

What can I say?  These are my kids – the ones my street outreach program serves, the ones who so often fall through the cracks after aging out of programs like mine.  OFA does a lot to ensure that doesn’t happen.  A little more deadline-driven rushed knitting for OFA kids is more than worth it.  I’d do a hell of a lot more than that for my kids.  And so I knit on…

The Post-Christmas Post

Christmas was wonderful – a day of family and friends, good food, laughter and the delightful chaos that excited little ones bring.  I spent the day at my parents’ house.  The whole family was together for Christmas morning, then my parents, niece, brother and I were together for dinner.  Santa was especially good to me, bringing me a new down comforter and a few other goodies.  The handknits were well received – by the adults.  My knitting simply can’t compete with princess costumes, construction sets and piles of Playdoh, at least in the eyes of my niece and nephew   My sister in law loved her hat and mitts.  The scarf, on the other hand, remains were I left it – to be finished and given later on, with Kelly none the wiser.  That moment of giving up on it was probably the best gift I could have given myself – stressing myself out about finishing a gift was ridiculous.  Rather than worrying about finishing up Christmas knitting, I spent Christmas Eve doing what I love to do – making babka.  I can think of no better way to spend that night than just as I did, carrying on my favorite family tradition.  I even snuck in a bit of knitting, in between batches of bread.  All in all, a perfect holiday.

The day after Christmas, I headed up to Northampton first thing in the morning for Webs after-Christmas sale.  Yeah, yeah, yeah (Paula), I know I don’t need more yarn.  But its tradition – I’ve gone every year since I moved back.  You don’t mess with tradition.  Far be it from me to leave Webs empty handed: I came home with a sweater’s worth of Malabrigo Worsted in Violetas, to make Wisteria – a little Christmas present to myself.  A couple of other random skeins of Malabrigo may have jumped into my shopping cart – other than that, I behaved.  It was another lovely day.

The weekend wrapped up with one more big event – a surprise party for my mother’s 60th birthday.  It was a great party, with family and friends that we don’t see enough and more happy time with the wee ones – no better way to end the holiday weekend.

And on Monday, it seems Santa made a return visit.  I asked him for 2 things: signed divorced papers and an offer on my house.  Santa brought one of the two – I finally have a viable offer on the house (actually, my grrls know there was a 3rd thing – totally inappropriate for the blog – but for their information, he didn’t bring that either).  After almost 6 months and one offer that fell through on the buyer’s end, my neighbor is buying the house.  I’m thrilled and relieved, finally ready to have this chapter of my life over.  It could be a while before closing – at the moment, we’re looking at sometime between March and June.  I’ll know more in the next month or two, at which point I can start to look for an apartment, at last.  As for the other request from Santa, I am indeed still f*****g married.  My attorney is working on getting the king of passive-aggressive to sign the papers already.  Still holding out hope that I’ll be divorced in a matter of days – that would make the holidays truly perfect.

Merry, Merry!

From all of us here at The Painted Sheep, Merry Christmas!

Wishing you every joy this most magical of seasons brings…

Kris and the boys

“Uncle”

Since I last posted this morning, I added a 6 inches to the scarf.  Five of those were while I was watching the news this morning, after a 4:30 AM wake up by the cat.  I thought if I could do that, I’d knit at least 10 inches tonight at knitting.  One.  I knit one inch.  And fucked it up at that.  Perfect!

I’m caving.  There’s just no way.  Most of you knew this on Monday.  Me – stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.  Had to give it a try.

And no, I will not wrap up a scarf on the needles (the last time I did that things went horribly wrong).  My SIL will simply get a surprise gift sometime in January, that is a perfect match to her hat and mitts and will be none the wiser (assuming of course that I’m correct in thinking she doesn’t read this).

In the morning, I’ll cast on the first of my red scarves.  There’s a deadline I can still reasonably meet – 2 worsted scarves knitted and mailed to the Orphan Foundation of America by their drop dead deadline of the first week of January.

Here we go again…

WIP Wednesday – December 23

20 inches in, 28 to go and not ready to throw in the towel yet.  I’ve still got 48 hours to go.

Ten on Tuesday – or not

This week’s topic is 10 New Year’s Resolutions.  You might remember, I don’t do the whole new year’s resolution thing.   The last couple I set, years ago – lose weight and swear less.  You all can guess how those worked out.

Couple that with the current state of affairs here at The Painted Sheep – I’m now a whopping THIRD of the way through the scarf – I’m taking a pass on this week’s list.  I will, however, throw in one little “goal” for next year:  STOP PROCRASTINATING.

ahem.  back to the knitting.