34 Knitting Days until Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is so near now. Every time I think I've nearly finished all my Christmas knitting I think 'maybe I should knit something for so-and-so'. I'll never get done at this rate.

I finished my Chevron Socks last night and am really pleased with them. I'm going to use the same pattern for my dad's socks and expect I will eventually use it for myself with my Harry Potter sock yarn, although when will get around to that is anyone's guess.

I promised my mum that I would knit her some Christmas decorations for the shop as she's been too busy to do anything herself. A little foolish, I know but they're only little and shouldn't take up too much time. I should have plenty of opportunity to knit over the weekend if we get the snow we're forecast, although I won't hold my breathe, we didn't really get any in town last year. It's meant to snow Saturday through to Monday, which I am looking forward to, although I'll probably be staying indoors as I'm really rubbish at walking in the snow and I'm sure my ability won't be improved with my ever expanding belly - I seem to have lost my centre of gravity!

Anyway, so, I actually made a quick start on the Christmas decorations last night and knit up a six-pointed star. It took me about an hour to knit. I used Martifil Diva on 4mm needles. I had received the yarn from my Secret Knitting Pal on Swap-Bot. I think it looks really pretty, especially with the silver sparkles. I will knit up a few more. There are some other patterns that I'm planning on knitting, including some baubles and some knitted fairy lights, should be interesting!

Meme

I stole this from Heather and thought it seemed like a little bit of fun...

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"But if any of us were to chronicle the false patterns, the lulls, the storms of perpetual feeding, the general loony and uncontrollable eating behaviour of a new baby, it would be impossible to make a sensible theory out of it."

From How Not to be a Perfect Mother by Libby Purves

I forgot to mention - When in Rome...

Of course, how could I forget, I visited a yarn store while I was in Rome. Of course, I just had to do my research before setting off, Mr H was very accommodating and led me there to cheer me up on one of my more painful days. The store was called Lana della Vecchia and is at Via del Baullari 3, 00186 Rome.

It was a cute little shop, stuffed to the roof with yarn. The women in the shop were very friendly and one spoke limited English. I think the shop is definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the city.

Of course, I bought some Italian yarns while I was in there. I bought two balls of Laines du Nord 'Medifra' in a beautiful reddish colour (possibly going to be a pair of Fetching for myself). I also bout two balls of a yarn I'd never heard of before - Tropical Lane 'Complice', which is a bulky yarn in a mixture of browns and reds. Very cute, although I have no idea of what it is to become.

While I''m here, I can tell you that my Chevron Socks are coming along beautifully, I'm actually quite miffed that I will be having to give them away, I really am that fond of them. I will definitely be knitting the pattern again, quite possibly using my Harry Potter sock yarn.

Catching Up

Wow, it seems like ages since my last post. Well, I was sick, then I was in Rome (still sick) and then I've just been generally lethargic since I got home.

Rome was really cool, except that I was sick (Crohn's complications - I won't go into the painful detail), so between that and Mr H having a bad back we didn't really get around as much as we would have liked but we still managed to take in plenty. The weather was really great most of the time too, which was a relief as rain was forecast for our whole stay, it only rained twice, the rest of the time we didn't even need our coats during the day.

We also got around to taking some much awaited (so I'm told) "Sarena with Bump" photos. Yes, there is certainly a bump there now and it's not entirely made of chocolate and cake! I seem to be cooking a little acrobat and he's been kicking like mad; I actually saw my belly moving yesterday from the kicks, which was really freaky, I don't know how I hadn't noticed it before! We had the 25 week scan yesterday and everything is looking perfect, so around the 15th February 2009 there will be a baby H coming into the world, eek! I still can't believe that I have an actual person living and growing inside me, that's just so weird.

I have been getting on well with the knitting, despite a very irritating holdup with my Pinwheel Blanket. I decided to do a pointed cast off, like the one on my unfinished Debbie Bliss Circular Cardigan but I managed to run out of yarn for the very last triangle on the cast off, can you believe it?! I was livid! Luckily one of my fellow Stitch 'n' Bitchers has come up trumps and will be donating me a metre or so of the required yarn so I can actually finish it. I love my fellow knitters, I think knitters are generally a lovely bunch of people.

I'm actually really pleased with how the blanket's turned out. I love the colours and think they're a lovely combination and will look lovely draped over little bubs in the pram. I can't wait!

I have also been getting on with my Christmas knitting but it is still far from being finished. I knit Fetching from Knitty.com for my step-mother, using some Grignasco Australia that I had kicking about in my stash. I might knit another pair for a friend of mine but using a lighter coulour as I think the cabling will show up better and there is some reasonably priced Gringasco with an angora mix in the Coop in town.

I am also working on a pair of Chevron Socks for my mother's partner. My only concern is that he is rather colour-blind and so might not actually be able to see the pattern and the colours, hey ho, at least I'll know they're pretty! I will post pictures later when there's more to see.

So, just left is 2 hats, on for Mr H and a friend of mine, something else for my mother that Ican't mention in case she reads this and possibly a pair of socks for my dad. Then I think I'm done. Probably...