Now, THIS is the most wonderful time of the year!

O.K. 2010, you're here. yipee.
I'm not sure what you have in store for us, but a few years ago I started a knitting blog...with a side of wine and chocolate...and now the truth is out.
1) Time management is not my strong suit, otherwise I would have more blog entries and more knitting to show on those blog entries.
2) I don't finish many/ a lot/ enough of anything to show off. Just be thankful that I don't post all the wonderful ideas, plans and schemes that I come up with, buy supplies for, obsess for a day (and night) or two, and then....abandon....or rather, allow them to become yet another WIP.
3) There has been a sharp decline in the amount of chocolate content in my posts. It's sad, I know.
4) Wine? Oooohhh wine. I've said it before, I wish I could enjoy the flavour of it without the alcohol issues associated with it. My husband thinks I'm nuts when I make a statement like that, but it's the flavour and atmosphere that I enjoy; not so much the buzz.
Please note: I said alcohol issues; not alcoholic issues.
Santa Marguarita still rules.

So, when last we spoke, I eluded to perhaps having some knitting to show you. I finished my Christmas knitting and was looking forward to putting my mind and needles to work on a little bit of a challenge that I would be proud to show you.
I was knitting. Happily knitting. The yarn is wonderful, it has mink in it...and I just have to go where my fingers take me. It's not me, it's my hands, they want what they want and they want the mink!
Now, it seems that I have a tendency to take what someone else has done in the knitting world and use part of their design to see what else it could become. A vision comes to me! This vision does not come with gauge, needle, stitch count or even yardage suggestions, but it looks so wonderful in my head that it could, and should be, well, you know, easy!
That's how it was with the mink, take a little of this pattern, insert this portion here, use this instead of that and....Tada! After 1-2 weeks of knitting and thinking, thinking and knitting....
This is what I've got to show for my latest design endeavor.

I hate it when I've had a negative knitting day. Yesterday, I was pushing it that last little bit. You know, "Just a few more rows and I'll be finished! I know it's a little tight now," (who see's where this is going?) "but it will block out.

Mmmm, maybe I didn't have to add that extra repeat.

When I do the next one," (because I need two) "I'll try not to have those two stitches next to each other and that will look better...the devil is in the details. Lalalala.

Yea, that's going to bug me, and I'm not sure that I'm going to have enough for the second one, after all...so, I better just take it back and work it shorter; that'll be all right."

Frogity, frogity, frog.

"O.K., so not finishing it tonight. Make sure I write all these changes down, so that I can write up a pattern and boy this takes a long time to write out. How do those designers do this? I'm not a real designer, so I'm doing this the long-hand, old fashioned way. That's o.k. I'm enjoying the whole thing, I will get better with practise, I just won't be a prolific designer; I will try for thorough." See how I was being gentle with myself there? I will get better...it's getting finished that's a challenge!
'The devil is in the details.'? That probably wouldn't make a very good company name, it's probably already a blog name.
You know, I bet this would look better if it was done on bigger needles. It still is a little tight. What about this way? That way?
Face it. You have to start over; just rip the thing out and start again tomorrow...on bigger needles.
Should I go up one size or two?"


Three cheers for following a pattern!! Hip, hip, hooray!!
I knit a pig!

And a couple of medallions (again---I reinterpreted the design---oh, that does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it? rrrreeeinterrrpreted)

Now, I've told you all of that, shown you all of that and all I was going to post was how wonderful it is that kids are back at school tomorrow (although, my daughter's been down a couple of time complaining about stomach 'issues', so that's kind of taken the wind out of my sails!). I don't have any urgent laundry to be done (took care of that today). The house has been put back together after all the Christmas upheaval (not my best year this year). I had hoped to get downstairs, tidy up a bit (please see Christmas knitting and reference to Christmas upheaval above) so that tomorrow would be....quiet. Just quiet. No kids. No machines. No going out....ANYWHERE!! Just me, my knitting, my dog and my cats...

Thursday seems to have something in mind......

Now, that's what I'm talkin' about!