How do You Organize Christmas Work?

Ever read the Yarn Harlot blog?  It follow her, and this is an interesting post:

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2012/11/26/now_i_have_a_spreadsheet.html

I understand exactly how she feels.  I am "in charge" of Christmas at our house, too.  I love Christmas and want to have a beautiful holiday, but I must buy a great many gifts and do lots of other Christmas chores.  Also, I live far from my extended family and struggle with gift decisions.  

My husband John is more than willing to help, although a few years ago, we had the following conversation:

Diana:  Whine, whine, I'm overwhelmed, there's so much to do for Christmas, and maybe I won't get everything done this year.

John:  I don't have any problems at all getting everything done for Christmas.

Diana:  (annoyed, almost speechless, croaks out)  Oh, yeah?

John:  (grin)  I get my wife to do it.

I keep a spreadsheet, too, which has an abbreviated "to do" list, plus a gift list.  My gift list is the most useful part of the spreadsheet - I have names, a place for ideas for this year, and, since I've kept this list several years, what I gave the person the last few years.

I have beaten the over-whelmed-by-Christmas blues, but not everyone can make the change I made: I started taking vacation days in the month of December and spending them doing Christmas tasks.  This uses up some vacation time, but I get so stressed by the holiday workload that I'm quite happy to make that sacrifice.

Hey, got any great tips for getting holiday workload organized and under control?

Tis the Season for Charity Knitting

Tracy's got some very cute projects she's donating:

http://tracykm.blogspot.com/2012/11/donations.html

Ideas, Ideas at A Kitten Knits

More snooping in the hand knit and crochet blogs to see the gorgeous projects.  My favorite over at Kitten Knits latest long post is the lace shawl (scroll down a ways):

http://akittenknits.blogspot.com/2012/11/catch-up-part-one.html

I used to hand knit lace from Anna magazine.  I haven't been finding time lately to hand knit lace, but I haven't stopped loving it, and I don't intend to stop finding ways to make fantastic lace on the  knitting machine.

Inspiration at Marg Coe's

Marg's toque and another pair of no-sew slippers, in purple:

http://margsknittingplace.blogspot.com/2012/11/purple-color-of-day-my-granddaughter.html

Inspiration at Rett og Vrang

Cute hat and neck warmer:

http://rettogvrangstrikk.blogspot.com/2012/11/testing-red.html

Synnove has such a good eye!  Lately, I've been noticing how effectively she uses just a little bit of fair isle for her striking designs.

Good Idea, Vanda!

Vanda's made a nice sweater and then used matching yarn for a scarf.  What a great way to add variation to a sweater - wear the scarf, or not, and tie it different ways for neckline interest.

http://ilmiomondodilana.blogspot.com/2012/11/le-maglie-di-maura.html

Inpiration at Machine Knitting is My Life

I honestly have never felted mittens, but I love the idea. 

If we lived in snow country, I'd certainly be looking for a way to knit mittens that is less permeable to water, a sort of knitted ski mitten.  I imagine that felted mittens are much warmer but that moisture still soaks through.

The one idea I have entertained is installing a layer (inside or outside, I'm not sure which) of waterproof fabric, probably a rip-stop nylon.

Look at these nice mittens at Machine Knitting is My Life.  Maybe she'll run an after-felting picture later on:

http://machineknittingismylife.blogspot.com/

Scarf Knit-Along

A terrific club project - a progressive, charity scarf knit-along!

Hi Diana 

Sometime ago we spoke and I mentioned the charity  summer project our machine knit club was doing.

Eight of us ladies from the Kawartha Carriage Knit Club where working on scarves for a charity in our local area.  Each of us started a scarf (most of us did two) and then placed it in a paper bag and we meet at each others homes and exchanged projects without looking into the bag. The idea was to not look at the progress on each scarf as we meet, each person only got to see the scarf (or scarves) they took home to work the next section on.

We had all agreed to use either our mid-gauge or bulky machine and keep the width around the 30 to 38 stitches  and knit approximately eight inches a section. 

As we are all at different levels of knitting we had an open option of pattern to knit but to also consider trying new stitches to challenge ourselves.  We agreed also to use an acrylic yarn that was suitable for the given machines and what ever color we felt went with the already scarf in progress. 

Six of us took turns making lunch ( and they where delicious lunches with the some wonderful desserts)  and we would go home with a different (new to us) scarf to work on until we meet up again. It was a great learning experience and a pleasure to visit with each other over lunch and build on our friendships.

They are now complete and gift bagged up ready to be deliver to the charity in our area as a little warmth of caring to ladies in need of compassion.

Us ladies in the group pictures  Margaret, Marg, Betty, Barb,  Nancy (myself), Pat and the two missing from the pictures are Krys and Ialean. 

I hope you have enjoyed hearing a little what other knitters are doing. 

Thank-you  & enjoy

Nancy

 

Knitting for the Troops

Today, I got a note from Barbara, who coordinated the "For the troops" project here in Central Texas and used a Yahoo group to help organize us. 

The Knit Natters, After Our Knit-In Day for the Troops

Happy Thankgiving everyone.

On Friday we will be mailing out 194 items to the Troops.

I want to thank everyone for all of their help. I would not have been able to do this without all the help.

Thank you
Barbara
Leander TX

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

And thank you, readers and friends in the online machine knitting community!  May you have a very blessed Thanksgiving weekend.

 

 

 

 

Cable Lesson at Ozlorna!

Check this out:

http://ozlorna.blogspot.com/2012/11/my-cable-athon-continues.html

I'm going to be a bit tied up this week, but I promise more posts next week.

Vacation!

As John keeps reminding me, we're on vacation! 

We are on a cruise that left Sunday out of Galveston.  We hadn't had a vacation so far this year, and we wanted something easy.  This fits the bill - we merely drove from Austin to Galveston and got on board.  After that, Carnival provides meals, lodging, and entertainment.

I am writing this concurrently but can't put the posts up until I get back.  There's surprisingly good bandwidth on the boat, but not enough to upload my many pictures to Blogger.

First, we had a sea day.  We  like making friends with other passengers, spending some time exploring the floating resort, and going to the shows and events. 

Yesterday, we went to Key West.  We saw the end of Highway 1 - at the southernmost point of the US, it runs all the way from Key West to Canada.  We did an overview tour on a bus, then

Inspiration at Ladybudy: Knit a Christmas Stocking

Great project - charity knitting Christmas stockings!  Let Marg show you how:

http://margsknittingplace.blogspot.com/2012/11/christmas-stocking-each-year-our-knit.html

Cute Kids' Sweaters at Machine Knitting is My Life

Cute:  http://machineknittingismylife.blogspot.com/2012/11/more-sweaters-for-little-girls.html

Knitted Jewelry

Marcia Hauser's seminar in Dallas inspired me to try knitting jewelry.  Here is my first small success.  It took me a few tries.  First, I tried to put too many large beads on the background and it didn't look good; then I broke the wire.  I just cut the beads off those two and tried again (you can't unravel this stuff). 

I enjoyed working from Marcia's book.  She writes a good, detailed explanation and includes lots of photos.  I especially appreciated her detailed advice as to exactly what supplies to purchase.

 

I like the effect of the gauzy knitted wire.  This is the copper color, and I used some glass beads I found on sale at Hobby Lobby.  I have some silver and gold wire, too.  I thought, when I bought it, that it might be fun to use all three colors in a necklace. 

 

I found knitting with wire awkward, but hopefully, I will improve with practice.

 

I'm planning to try some more!