A View from Sierra County

Details on the Gift Knitting

This year, the gift knitting was sparser than usual.... I had vowed not to end up with last-minute midnight speed knitting and the angst that accompanies it.  However, I do owe some photos of the projects accomplished in December, and gifted yesterday.

First, the finished version of Odessa's Christmas stocking.... including the very cute stuffed monkey poking out the top, in honor of her daddy, Jesse, who was my little monkey for many years.  There are also a few toys that she will be able to grasp easily already and over the next few months.  

She is over three months old now, and spent part of Christmas morning being held by grandpa facing the 'present action' and bouncing her legs and arms up and down... we all thought in delight.  I don't think she had ANY idea why there were so many people crowded around HER Christmas tree, and what they were doing, but she obviously loved it.

The next photo is of Odessa being cradled in Kiara's arms (her three year old cousin, with daddy Mike - Dawn's brother - helping keep things secure).  Kiara is delighted with her, and was the only one dressed up as a princess for the occasion... funny how we give that up as we age, even the twenty-somethings no longer  want to dress up!

The other grammie-gift for Odessa was this very cute sweater, called Baby Sophisticate.... and made in washable 1824 merino wool...

even though my baby grrl is growing at a rapid rate (she really likes mama's milk, and her daddy probably outweighed her at this age), it will be a good fit and with raglan sleeves will manage to cover her through the winter.  It helps that her family lives at about 800 feet elevation in the foothills, where it doesn't get anywhere near as cold in the winter.

 

Would I make this sweater pattern again for a baby? Probably, since it went very quickly, but I might add more rows in the neck area before dividing for the body and sleeves... pretty sure that will be the area a baby will outgrow first, at least the sort of babies my family produces!

  By the time all the presents were unwrapped, Odessa had decided she had enough of Christmas... and fell asleep on Daddy. Her poor daddy is the only person getting an IOU from me in at least a decade (that has got to be progress on my part), but I developed a horrible head cold a few days before Christmas.

I spent the two days prior lying around, eyeing the hat I had started for him, and thinking about stories I have read of people wrapping the whole unfinished project, yarn, needles in place, and all, and just couldn't bring myself to do it.  I want to know if any of you have done that in the past, and how it went, but hope to never face the week before Christmas too ill to knit again!  He was ok with waiting... actually, one of my saving family features over the years has been that unfinished knitting, or unrealistic expectations on my part, could be deferred and turned into 'birthday' knitting for two of the sons (including this one), whose births came right up after Christmas... one in January and another in February.

I was well enough to spend Christmas Eve with DD Nikki and her family... here's her very excited step-son Mason waiting for the five of us to open presents after a nice dinner that he paid little attention to... I can remember being five at Christmas!  We did manage to get him to help make a tray of cookies for Santa (and a few for us!), and played with two of the games he got as gifts before heading home.  Nikki looked online to find the NORAD Santa Tracker for him right after we left, and he said "If Santa's only in Europe right now, I can stay up a long time!".  

Light .... returning

Yay for the light!  Today, the Winter Solstice, brings a return of the light, though as Margene pointed out, some of the coldest days are ahead of us for months.  My gift to you this winter's eve... two of Robert Frost's poems, that I have held dearest over the years:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

  

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Still Here But Swimming Upstream

Hi all my dear virtual friends... I really am still out here.  This holiday season isn't especially busier, but I haven't seemed to find much time to blog.  I did just spend the afternoon with DD at her house, working on a secret, non-knitting gift project that we almost completed.  There hasn't been much holiday knitting besides the small gifties I posted about last week.  Unfortunately, I spent time getting ready for that class, and nobody signed up.  I did end up free to spend last Saturday afternoon taking a drive with DH and thrift-store shopping a bit. I also teach another six lovely students how to make mitred squares last Friday... more converts, I hope.

I have a few small knitted items on my working list, that may be holiday gifts, or may be items post-holiday to see me through the cold and dark winter, therefore I can't blab too much about them on the blog, at least not until after Christmas.  For myself, I want a brimmed knitted cap and plan to use the pattern in Stitch and Bitch Nation, and I think another pair of mitts are in order to keep me warm while driving my Jeep (I do have a good heater, but also have a cold steering wheel).

There has been a certain amount of lethargy to my knitting of late.... stuck on the same long project of making a shawl out of diamonds, making small samples for teaching, and having a few projects lingering on the needles because they are too large to take out places with me.  It dawned on me while driving an hour to yet another meeting yesterday afternoon that I really HAVE to get a small and relatively mindless project going immediately, as I have a training to attend later in the week, and it will just drive me nuts not to have something to knit on.

I also have to confess that this holiday season, while filled with joy and laughter thanks to the children in my life (including and especially sweet grandbaby Odessa), is also shadowed by several recent losses in my circle of friends... including two acquaintances who just lost their fathers in the past few weeks, and two dear friends facing this festive season bereft of their spouses.  I am trying to keep a balance in my life, honoring the sorrow and leaving lots of room for the joy.  It is a tiring job, and I will check in periodically to let you know how it's going.  I am finding that forcing myself to get enough exercise is key to brightening my spirits, and that making time for fiber is also a source of great joy.  So are all my dear friends... thank you all for the gift you have been in the past year... and a happy holiday season!

Last Minute Gift Class

This coming Saturday, I will be teaching the knitted version of a last minute gifts class at Fibers, while Kristin (who I have only met through Ravelry so far) will be doing a crocheted version.  I have been busy the past few days getting samples ready.... my version will concentrate on learning the technique of double knitting to make a small pouch, which you can then turn into any number of gifts.

I originally learned this technique over 30 years ago, from a defunct magazine called American Home Crafts, and used it and leftover bits of yarn to make dozens of sachets for sweet, little gifts.

This example is only about 20 stitches wide, and incorporates garter stitch borders on either side of the double knitting portion.

I am just about ready to take the piece off the needles and open up the pouch to fill with this....

Garden potpourri left over from last summer!

Once the stuffing is inserted, the stitches go back on the needles in the same order, and then you have two options.  You can simply bind off the entire row, or, for a smoother edge, you can K2 tog, k1 across the double knitting portion to tighten up the edge, and then bind off.

Voila!  You have neatly sealed up your potpourri in a cute little sachet.  You can embellish, crochet an edging around the whole piece, trim in any way you like.

Once you get bored with stuffing little pouches full of potpourri, you can move on to adding bars of soap instead... new gift, same trick!

Below are two bars of soap encased in leftover washcloth cotton.

As you can begin to see, this technique has lots of possibilities.... if you don't want to fill your pouch with ANYTHING, you can simply open it, rearrange your stitches on the needle, bind off, and add a strap for an Ipod holder, or knit on a flap for a purse... or even make a Tooth Fairy pillow for your favorite wee one.

I love the fun of this and the open-ended possibilities, and invite anyone interested in learning it and close enough, to sign up!  The class is from 2-4 PM, and I will be bringing spicy Christmas potpourri to share... the phone number is 530.272.9276.

If you are too far away, or can't make it, search for soap sacks on Ravelry, and you will come up with some directions, but then you will also miss out on the fun.... be thinking of you all as you finish up those knitted gifts!