miscellania

as my last few posts have probably already made clear, things are a bit crazy around here. since things always happen all together, that of course means there are many things about which i have not posted. most of these are more of the same but there are two items (of unequal importance) that are not.

Christmas stockings
Originally uploaded by jacquichris.

the lesser item of note is that i finished Hailey's stocking. of course, as i made my way into turning the heel, i suddenly realized that the entire colorwork section was meant to be knit flat. this error partially resulted from the spotty nature of the pattern and partially from my own inability to recognize that the fact that knitting the colorwork in the round while managing the tension was positively hideous just might mean something was awry. Mickey would have chuckled herself silly if she was here to see me. (she helped me map the colorwork on my stocking a few years ago when i first decided to try this.)

the foot was completed at what seemed like lightspeed after the long-suffering misery of the leg Saturday night.

then i sat for awhile and contemplated frogging the entire thing and reknitting it to maximize its perfection. i decided that the story and suffering really better capture the love of a handmade Christmas stocking and put it away from me.

for Hailey and Kylie
Originally uploaded by jacquichris.

being me, i kept returning in my mind to how much faster and more painfree the work should be if knit flat. knowing that i intended to eventually make one this year for Kylie (my other nieceling), i finally caved and decided to do it now. late Saturday night, i cast on and worked most of the name. Sunday i lazed about with TraV and knit. i decided the stockings should not be identical and put children on the top of Kylie's. this decision i regretted almost immediately because the first two versions looked like ghouls and had to be frogged lest they inspire recurrent nightmares.* even with that challenge, i finished the stocking by midday. it took half the time, at most, of Hailey's.

*TraV still thinks they will lead Kylie's imagination into dark alleys given her quick wit and great zest for living. i stoutly maintain they represent a family of vegetarian Quaker snowpeople who would hurt no one.

i am now finishing up TraV's stripey socks, a pair of mittens for my boss, and a preemie set in time for the Thursday drop. oh yeah, and writing my dissertation. superfun!

in other, bigger, shinier news, Monday was TraV's and my first anniversary of dating. of course, we have packed this week full of celebratory goodness in the form of dentist and 'girlie' doctor appointments, exorbitant transmission blow-outs and committee meetings, preparatory blood work for Mr. Head's procedure* and scientific presentations, and planning meetings with the plumber who is going to tear a hole in my kitchen wall and ceiling to fix the upstairs apartment. if only everyone got to have our romantic rock-n-roll lifestyle. still, we are getting by, still adore each other, and have said very little we will regret.

*he 'gets' to have radioactive iodine therapy to ablate an overactive thyroid. wa-hoo! glow, kitty, glow!