I went to the doctor yesterday.  The mysterious comes again, goes again wrist pain finally made me do it.  I had really put off the visit - I was so so so afraid of what I would hear.  This is my right hand - the one I use to write, cook, knit, sew, and, yes, mouse click.  Just thinking of what could be causing all this pain when I don't remember injuring my wrist has had me trembling in my boots.  There was one diagnosis I did not want to hear.  I think you know which one I mean.  I am not going to even type it.  That is how scared of it I am.

It turns out I have tendinitis.  Hopefully with some anti-inflammatories and physical therapy, I will be right as rain in a short time.  I am so thankful that this isn't some big deal.  Really, truly thankful.  But, truthfully, I could kick myself for waiting so long to get there.  If I had gone two weeks ago, maybe my tangled yoke cardigan would be further along than it is.

Don't let Scout fool you.  She may be looking out the window, but she is way more interested in that ball of yarn.  Typical cat.  Anyhow, if pain hadn't forced me to put down the needles, I wouldn't have made so much of this:

So I guess I still come out a winner.  7 down, 2 to go.  Directions on making an X coming soon.

Back to my blog break.

I keep forgetting to share this hat that I knit for my cousin Michael.  It is just like Fatty's hat, but the fair isle pattern is a bit different.  Tonya test knit the pattern for me - hopefully I will have it ready to share next week.

Ok, that's it.  Later gators.

I really like blogging in the morning.  I'm not sure why, but that is when it feels right to me.  Today I didn't have time - Tuesday is the Iactuallygotomyparttimefivehouraweekjob day.  And in reality, I don't have too much to report.

The light is nice this afternoon - finally!  I took this photo of myself in the carpool line.  I didn't even have to crop it - nice, huh?  The necklace was made by the ever so talented Kristen. It was a gift to me from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.  Heather bought it from Kristen in person without knowing that I already have some of her jewelry.  Serendipity?  I think so.  Anyhow, I love it.  You can check out Kristen's other baubles at her own little web store, Mood Swing Studios.  I bet you like what you see.

I squeezed some knitting in, too.  Maybe about five minutes worth.  Better than nothing.  Tomorrow is the day I conquer the sewing room.  I left it a huge, gigantic, really horribly bad mess after my bout of Christmas crafting.  I think the twill from Fatty's apron is sitting on the floor next to leftover patchwork strips from the blanket.  When will I ever learn?  Apparently, um, never.  I must get it spiffed up, though.  I've got something in the works.

Jane requested a hat with ear flaps this year.  Her flapper hat disappeared some time over the summer.  I really wonder where it could have gone.  And as I am typing this, I think I should probably check the camping bag we took to Telluride last July.  That may be the only place I haven't looked.

Back to the hat....Leslie pointed me towards Through the Loops and the Thorpe hat.  Perfect.  I bought the yarn right before Christmas, thinking that I might actually have time to knit it up before gift giving started.  I did finish it with time to spare, but since it fit me, I frogged it.  I threw the yarn and needles in my suitcase for some vacation knitting.

Pattern:  Thorpe by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn:  ggh Savanna, 1 ball in turquoie, 1 ball in green (I don't have the numbers - sorry)
Needles:  size 8 double points
Modifications:  I added pom poms to the braids and the top of the hat.  You know we are all about the pom poms here.
Notes:  Fast and easy - just the way I like hats to knit up.  The hardest part for me was casting on the four stitches and joining them without my addis flying to the floor.  I think it took about five tries to get it right - both times.  Also, like Leslie, I learned how to half double crochet.  Cool.  Thank you You Tube.

Here's Kate's version - sorry for the bad photo.  For hers, I switched to pink yarn for the garter stitch portion.  Mostly because I wanted to see if I could get by with the remaining green from Jane's hat.  I wasn't so lucky.  Oh well.  Also, Kate did not want the braids.  Despite my best efforts, I could not get her to change her mind.  Fatty thought the pom poms would look like giant earrings hanging off her hat.  In reality, it is super cute on her.  And she loves it - that is what matters, right?

And they are finished right in time.  It's snowing!

Get your cup of coffee and settle in.  This is a long one.

Let's start with Fatty's gifts for the girls.  Remember how I told him that he could burn me a CD and I would be happy?  Well, that is what he did for the girls.  Jane and Kate both have CD players in their rooms and are constantly asking us to make them copies of our CDs.  So Fatty spent the better part of a Sunday creating playlists for each of them on itunes.  He burned the CDs and put them in a CD case of their own.  They loved this.

Jane's disc:
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
Way Back When - Donna the Buffalo
Shine - Dolly Parton
Lakes of Pontchartain - The Be Good Tanyas
Penny Lane - The Beatles
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - The Jayhawks
My Right Versus Yours - The New Pornographers
Laughing - R.E.M.
Singular Girl - Rhett Miller
Children of December - The Slip
6 String Belief - Son Volt
Mysterious Ways - U2
The Long Cut - Uncle Tupelo
Everything I Do - Whiskeytown

Kate's disc:
Silver Lining - Rilo Kiley
Walking On The Moon - The Police
Hello, Goodbye - The Beatles
Teach Your Children - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Waiting for the Sun - The Jayhawks
Blankets - The Gourds
Life Is Just A Tire Swing - Jimmy Buffett
Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash
Catapult - R.E.M.
Get Off My Cloud - The Rolling Stones
Windfall - Son Volt
One - U2
We've Been Had - Uncle Tupelo
Either Way - Wilco

And me....well, I knitted ponchos for the girls.  Completely inspired by the one Kristin made for her daughter, I started with Kate's.

This is the back so you can see the hood.  Kristin told me that she wished she could make the hood bigger - I am so glad she did.  Kate has a big noggin, so I made some adjustments to accommodate it.

I also added pom poms to the drawsting for a little whimsy.  I would be lying if I told you that I didn't think they would add to the appeal.  My kids are all about the pom poms.

When it came time to knit Jane's, my plan was to make it the same, but just in a different color.  When it came time to pick up the stitches for the hood, I hesitated.  Given her pickiness in clothing, I wasn't sure if the hood was such a good idea.  I knew she would like the pom poms, but I wasn't convinced that she would want the hood.  I asked Fatty what he thought and he agreed with me.  I decided to leave the hood off and if she really wanted it, I could always add it on later.

Without the hood, it needed something.  I added a sweet flower pin, in her favorite color turquoise.  I actually showed her 5 fabrics and asked if I were to make her something out of one or two of them, which would she want.  She chose two Denyse Schmidt prints and I pulled out my copy of Blair's great pattern and whipped this up in less than fifteen minutes.  I took the Sarah route and cut circles with my pinking sheers instead of the scallops because time was not on my side.

For you knitters out there, here is the scoop:
Pattern:  Knitting Pure and Simple, Children's Ponch (#243)
Yarn:  Nashua, Creative Focus Worsted, 3 skeins of hot pink for Kate and brown for Jane (I probably could have done Jane's with two if I had made it about 1/2" shorter)
Needles:  16" and 32" circulars, size 8
Modifications:  I added 1" of length to Kate's hood and made 3 sets of increases along the center back of the hood to allow more room for her big head.  I added pom poms to the i-cord drawstring on Kate's also.  Jane's didn't get a hood.
Notes:  This pattern runs small.  My girls wear about a size 8 - I knit the size 10 to 12.

Kate loves hers - she wore it all Christmas day!  I was standing in my brother's kitchen and saw her running in the back yard, hood on, pom poms flying with a huge smile one her face.  I wish I could have captured it on film.

And Jane....well, at first I think she was disappointed she didn't have pom poms.  But I knew that was a gamble.  In the end, I think it paid off.   She has decided against the hood which is fine by me.  She wears her poncho all the time - sometimes with the pin, sometimes without.  She would sleep in it if she could.  Well, if I would let her.

Little does she know that by loving something I made her, she gave me the best Christmas present of all.

While I thought about pulling a number out of a hat, with 152 comments, that didn't seem feasible.  Instead, I used a random number generator and got this:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

127

Timestamp: 2007-12-19 13:39:28 UTC

Congratulations Jen!

(Ok,I've been knitting for 4+ years and today I read about tuck stitches.What are these?! Does this book have the answer? I'm hoping to find out.
Posted by:Jen  |December 18, 2007 at 08:51 PM)

For the record, I don't know what tuck stitches are either!  Jen, email me your address and I will get the book in the mail to you right away.

In other knitting matters, here is Fatty's completed hat.  It's been finished for awhile now, but I've neglected to take photos until now.

I wanted to post the pattern for you all, but just haven't had the time to write it all down.  The 70's ski hat over on the Purl Bee is made almost the same way.  Theirs has stripes, mine has fair isle  and theirs has two decreases and mine has four decreases per round.  On mine, I knit one round between my decrease rounds.  Have I lost you?  If you need help, email me and I will try my best to explain it better.  I do use the provisional cast on, but, alas, no cashmere for Fatty.  Just some super soft bel air by ggh.  Love that yarn.  I used it to make these mitts for Meg which just happen to match the green cabled hat.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Back tomorrow with a completed project I can actually share (imagine that!) and my newest wrapping technique.

or rather, Knit Speak.

The folks at Stewart, Tabori & Chang sent me two copies of Knit Speak - An A to Z Guide to the Language of Knitting Patterns by Andrea Berman Price.  Yes, two copies.  One for me and one for one of you.

This little book (about 5" x 7") is a wonderful resource to tuck in your knitting bag.  It reads like a dictionary, listing all those abbreviations and confusing terms from the beginning of the alphabet to the end.  It covers the symbols, too.  You can find out what an asterisk means when you see it in a pattern and why there is a difference between brackets, [ ], and parentheses, ( ).  How do you Sk2p?  It's in there.  Kitchener stitch?  Covered.  Different cast on methods are included as are cables and bobbins.  The illustrations are wonderfully simple and easy to follow, also.  And this my friends just scratches the surface.  Knit Speak is a very comprehensive reference tool and I feel lucky to have one on hand.

So how do you get yours?  Leave a comment on this post before 8:00 a.m. EST (New York time) Wednesday, December 19th.  In your comment, tell me what knitting term befuddles you the most.  I will randomly pick one winner.  If that doesn't work out, you can always buy it here.

Now, back to gift making.....

I've been working on our Christmas cards.

I used my gocco to print the inside of the cards and the envelopes.  And yes, it was silly of me to be so scared.  The gocco is so much fun - easy, too.

Fatty's hat is on the needles.  It appears that I have blue and green on the brain.

Did I ever mention how much I like fairisle?  Well, I do.  I like it a lot.