Gifting Wrap-Up

Hello Blog! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break.

I will cop to the fact that our Christmas week started out very sluggish. In spite of my very best efforts to keep my heart and mind on the joy of the season I was extremely distressed due to the weather. It started with a bad snowstorm the week before Christmas that landed me and my van full of kids stuck in a snowpile on the side of the road (on our way to ring bells for the Salvation Army bucket--poor Sophie was so sad she bawled). Then we had another bad snow/ice storm that kept the kids out of school on their last day--the big Holiday sing/party day. Then the cold and snowy weather kept my mom from coming up the week of Christmas to do our baking/crafting/sewing with Grandma.

I know it was rough in many parts of the country. I know I was not alone in weather frustration! I feel bad for the people who had to brave the airports. I tried to relax and enjoy the staying-at-homeness of it all, but the worst thing was that I really wanted my mom to be here. She did finally make it up on Christmas afternoon (even with getting a flat tire on the way! Shout out to the lady that owned the bar that was open on Christmas day, and Angel, the tow truck guy who helped her change her tire!) Yes, truly. A tow truck guy on Christmas Day named Angel. Does it get any better than that?

So, thanks to Angel, we did end up having a wonderful Christmas with my mom on Christmas day and Dave's whole family the day after. A few days later, my Molly got her tonsils out so we had a quiet New Year and a nice quiet week full of R & R.

I did get a little sewing done: a big pile o' Christmas flannel jammies, and the tree skirt (at the top of the post) that I've been wanting to do for years.

I tried to keep the Christmas knitting to a minimum this year, still recovering from the November Advent stocking marathon, and not wanting to make myself too crazy. I made 2 presents, one for Dave and one for my mom, and they were both very happily received!

For Dave, who walks 3 long blocks from the train station to his office in windy downtown Chicago, a cozy scarf:

Pattern: A Scarf Askew by emily elizabeth knits

Yarn: Sophie's Toes Mahogany, doubled to make a worsted weight.

Notes: knit as pattern, no mods. What a nice manly pattern. It does have a tendency to curl in, but it is wide and cozy and so it doesn't really matter, I might give it a good steam now and then to open it up.

The one thing I'm going to remember about knitting this was that the day I was planning on finishing it up was the day we had a big snow day and Dave "worked" from home. Yeah, you know why I put in those quotation marks. Most of the time he was hovering, and the thing is, I knit on it anyway, and he was oblivious. I got in a good 1/3 of the scarf that day!

Is that an unfortunately placed bowl in the background or does he have horns? You decide.

For my mom. My biggest cheerleader for my yarn business, who has no hand knit socks. I dug deep into the bin labeled "Sophie's Toes Super Secret Special Private Collection." And came up with this. Hollyhocks.

It suits her perfectly! Here is is wearing them with her cute Mary Janes.

She kept commenting on how warm and cozy they are. I think she possibly knows how to play her cards right in order to get another pair. xo