Pimp My Tree

We got more ornaments for our tiny tree in the mail from my husband's grandmother. How cool is that? They are cute and just perfect for our wee tree:




Doesn't it look great? Almost like a real Christmas tree! I've added a couple of ornaments that I knitted myself. The first is a pair of wee mittens- I totally made up the pattern. Mittens are so easy to make!

And I made a wee wreath. Found the pattern for this one at knittingpatterncentral.com. You just make three I-cords and braid them together:

And last, but not least, Ginger basking in the sunlight, recovering from the party mom and dad threw the night before. It stressed them out! Hugo is in the background, staring out the window, probably plotting how to escape and eat the birds in the yard:

I'm a snow chicken

I totally chickened out on S 'n B tonight. I was driving from Michael's to the north valley, and it was like a fucking slurpee machine out there! Pure slush falling from the sky, and I thought to myself, "Self, do you want to see what this turns into in 2, 2 1/2, hours?" Hell no! So I drove home, and of course at our house there was but the faintest whisper of a flurry falling and my husband was wondering where all the snow was that I was talking about.

At Michael's I bought some good cheap yarn for making Christmas ornaments. I found lots of free patterns online, and decided against the felted ornaments. And, acrylic is a hell of a lot cheaper than wool.

You will soon be transformed into tidings of comfort and joy, my pretties!

I also found some wee garlands for our wee tree at Michael's. You can barely see them in the picture. And it is kind of blurry. I got that cheesy tin at work, it was full of popcorn as a suck-up gift from a consultant, and the presents are fake, and that board of pictures is something we had up at our wedding reception.

I also finished the Dashing gloves for my dad. I just have to weave in the ends. They look kind of big on me, but they are for a burly dude. Well, semi-burly. He does live in Santa Fe now, after all:

And I ventured into felting this weekend! Here are my sample swatches. I think I like the shibori effect, when you tie crap in the knit fabric before you felt it and it makes a shape in the fabric. I plan to do blue pillows with shibori felting for our living room:



So, looking at all the shit I've made, including a sweater I've started that I have yet to post, I realize I have way more free time on my hands than I thought. Or I'm a fast knitter. Who knows. What I do know is this means I have enough time to knit and also start studying for my architectural licensing exams (*gasp*!). So, I've taken a step to get my ass in gear and am attending a 9-hour seminar in early January. And I have a goal to get my registration number by then as well, so I can start taking the tests next year. Eek! But it is probably better sooner than later, as a lot of it, I am afraid, I will forget the further I get from being in school.

One last picture. This is Ginger helping me put away holiday stuff (the stuff we aren't using right now), this weekend. Isn't she cute?!?!?!

Good news!

No, I'm not pregnant. I got my Ravelry invite today! Yay! I signed in and cruised around for a while, joined the New Mexico Knitters and the Gilmore Girls Knitters groups. I hesitate to post projects on there, only because I already do that on my blog and I hate redundancy and doing it twice would annoy me.... and I don't use flickr yet... but Ravelry is pretty cool.

In other news, I started a sweater and we got a Christmas tree. It is small, about 2'. It is a live tree and we will plant it after Christmas. I like the idea of planting a tree for Christmas rather than cutting one down. And I'm not a big 'ol tree hugger or anything, quite the opposite. I just hate wasting stuff, and you can't really use a dead Christmas tree for anything after the fact. Why pay $30-$50 for something you just end up throwing away?

I hope to get my ass to the yarn store and buy some wool to make some felted ornaments. This being our first tree, it has like, 5 ornaments on it so far.

On that cigar like Monica Lewinski

We went to the Old Town Cat House last weekend and bought early Christmas presents for the kitties. Ginger got some replacement toy mice, and Hugo got his very own catnip cigar. Ginger doesn't react to catnip, but Hugo goes absolutely nuts. He's been carrying his cigar around with him for the last week. It's like his new best friend. Here he is welcoming it into the family:

Don't even think about it, lady.

Anyone who knows Hugo knows this is abnormal behavior for him. He is normally very crabby and skulks around the house, with a very pissed off expression on his face and is exceedingly suspicious and wary of strangers and anyone who lives here that he hasn't seen in the past five minutes. He's known for attacking visitors. I love it when he gets high on catnip - it makes me think he isn't such an asshole after all.

In knitting news, I sent off the wee mittens and hat to my nephew a few days ago. His mom called us and he screeched "THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!" on the phone to us. So freakin' cute! Here they are completed:


I've started "Dashing" from Knitty. They're the dude version of "Fetching", the women's fingerless gloves. I'm making them as a Chistmas present for my dad. He never reads blogs about knitting, so I'm safe showing them off here:




I've finished the left one, and will hopefully complete the right one in the next week. They are really easy and knit up pretty quickly. I'm knitting them in Patons Merino wool. I love that stuff!

I would next like to venture into felting and make some pillow covers for the million year-old pillows we have that still work fine but look like crap.

We also added some Christmas cheer to our house. I need to pick that crap up off the porch, though.


And one more kitty picture. I am so glad they like their cowskin condo: