Christmas Knitting.

No, seriously. Those of you who know me also know that I swear that I never do Christmas knitting. Well, somehow, this year, I have been sucked into the bottomless pit of despair that calls itself Christmas knitting. It started with these:

Hmm. That's not a very attractive background, is it? Maybe this one is better:

The socks are for the only non-knitting commenter on this blog. She's seen them, and even tried the first one on, so I'm not worried about her seeing them here. No surprise for you this year Fi! Also, according to her blog, she's just started knitting again. And this coming a mere two weeks after I visited and let her try on the socks? Coincidence? I think not! Muhahahahahahaha! (ETA--read the comments--she just outed herself as a knitter! Fiona, you can live in denial no longer. Knitters will have world domination, and you are one of us now!)

Then I found a blanket that I started years ago (possibly for my niece before she was born--she's almost 6 now, so it really has been a long time!). I have no idea what size I meant this to be, but I still have 3 balls of the yarn left ( Lily Sugar Babies cotton), and they're each 140g. Anyway, I decided that I would just cast off right then and there and have an almost instant finished object. It's cradle sized. I also decided to continue with the black and white cat motif:

Well, when will I learn not to put blankets next to cats?

I'll never get that blanket out from under that cat! Literally, he's a very heavy cat.

Moving on to the next bit of Christmas knitting:

I've finished the first pair. I need to do two more pairs. Somehow, I had the brilliant idea that I would knit them for The Boy's daycare teachers--he has three daycare teachers. One of them saw my fingerless mitts when I dropped the boy off the other day and remarked that they would be great for tying shoelaces out in the playground in the cold weather. Anyway, you can see that the blanket is still firmly attached to the cat. The yarn is from Mirasol, and is lovely. And only $8 per skein! A skein is just enough to finish these fingerless mitts. I have 300, 303, 306, and 308 in the Hacho.

Anyway, I'm off to knit some mitts.

PS I organised my stash on Saturday night. The Boy informed me that I had made a big mess and needed to clean it up! I have 4 rubbermaids, 6 individual bags of a sweater's worth each, and some other stuff hiding under the couch that I don't yet have the courage to confront! I have an entire large rubbermaid container of acrylic in my house! How did that happen? Who brought that acrylic in here?

PPS I just confronted the yarn under the couch. Barely enough for two adult sweaters and three child sized ones, so not as bad as I feared. Found I had this hidden under there though. That's the entire kit, not just the pattern.

PPPS I'd actually like to finish with this photo:

I can't take credit for this. I got it from the Daily New's website. You can find the entire slide show here. The photographer was Paul Darrow (funny Halifax-isn't-it-a-small-world-story, he's the brother of the boyfriend of a friend of mine!). I hope he/they don't mind my stealing this photo and posting it here. The Boy has been to a Remembrance Day service every year since he was born This year he actually asked questions: Why do we wear poppies? Why do we need to remember the soldiers? Why didn't they come back from war? What is war? I wish I had better answers for him.