Pajamas in the middle of the afternoon

So my car was all packed, I had some knitting in the passenger seat, I was cruising down the LIE ... and felt absolutely, utterly exhausted. I could have closed my eyes and fallen asleep right then.

Which is why I'm home now, instead of at my friend Liss's house, 175 miles away from me. I haven't seen her in almost a year, and feel absolutely pathetic that I'm not up to making long car trips yet. I've spent the week sick (Christmas Eve: fever, spent most of day in bed. Christmas day: exhausted, had to leave Aunt's house early, missed dessert. Yesterday: slept incredibly late in, just stuffy. Today: couldn't fall asleep until 4 a.m. because of sinuses, generally fatigued).

So my dear Liss, if you're reading this, I miss you dearly, and have your Christmas presents in my car.

Looks like Christmas...

I finished my brother's DNA scarf just last night. I also baked gingerbread cake (Trader Joe's Gingerbread Cake mix, mmmm).

(just in case my brother reads my blog, a slightly awful picture)

Finished (pre-blocking) dimensions for the DNA scarf: 10 inches wide, about 56 inches long (not as long as the five feet I envisioned, but what can you do).

Three quarters to go!: Or, why my brother's Christmas present might be on the needles in ... 15 days

One quarter done!

It only took me ... about three months, but the first quarter of Rob's Christmas scarf is finished!

As a refresher, I'm knitting this baby up on US 11 needles, using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in White. This is a great wool to work with, and feels oh so nice on the fingers. The only downfall is that this is handwash only...

So I have fifteen ... no, thirteen, days to finish this baby up. The adults in my family exchange gifts on Christmas Eve (after the little ones are put to bed), and I would like to give something to my brother that *isn't* on needles.

Thankfully, he's the only person I'm knitting for this year!

Quick and mini book reviews

So several people know that in real-life, I'm an aspiring librarian. This of course influences what Christmas presents I get for my family (heh heh heh).

For my brother, his scarf is still in the post-cast-on stage. Once I finish my second sock, I'll dive right back to his Christmas present. It might be wrapped up still on the needles, with a promise of "I'll finish it, I swear."

For my niece I picked up Horns & Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson at the Scholastic Book Fair. It looks like a cute book, and I'll be reading it before I give it to her (and being very careful to not break the spine while doing so).

I read an absolutely beautiful pop-up book last night at Borders, which I desperately covet. Tomie de Paola's Brava, Strega Nona. This book is totally made of win.

Pictures later this week of Trish's (finished!) scarf and the sock-in-progress.

Yarn diet? What yarn diet?

Picture post, soon, I promise!

I'm ordering wool for some Christmas (and birthday) presents that need to be knitted up. I'm ordering a grand total of seven skeins of Wool of the Andes in the following colorways: White and Williamsburg (which is the closet shade to sky blue I could find).

Despite going over my Ravelry queue over and over, I have no reason to buy any other yarn. I have a somewhat sufficient stash for my other Christmas knitting projects, and since I have been out of work for a few weeks, I really cannot afford to buy more yarn than necessary. (Or shoes. I have been lusting after this pair of severely marked down stilettos at DSW, which are more than likely gone at this point)

Never too early...

...to start thinking about Christmas. According to my desktop widget, there's 262 days until Christmas.

Since I'm just a little in love with brooklyntweed's photographs of the Urban Aran, I thought I would knit it up for my brother, in a show of sisterly-love and daring (especially since this would be my first sweater).

Except my brother doesn't really wear sweaters. However! he would love a long white scarf. Grumperina has a free pattern on Ravelry (so dude, if you're reading this, hah hah! You can't see the picture!).

Since joining Ravelry in the past two weeks, I now have a ridicolously long list of queued knitting projects, most with notes - "show MarySusan (genome socks)" - "knit for next baby in family" - "hmm. Knit up in green?"

And I'm madly in love with my Monkey sock.