Random Wednesday

I've finished 3 Christmas Knitting Projects now and I have one more to go! This means that Friday (Caleb has an appointment tomorrow morning, so no blog), I should have actual pictures of something I can show you!

To distract you from a complete lack of blog content, I will share something about Ramius. He can talk. Not just meow, meep, purr and normal cat sounds, he can actually say words - or rather, one word: "Mom." I guess Mom is close enough to Meow (and normal cat noises) that it's not too hard for a cat to say. The funny thing is, he says it exactly like Caleb says it.

Caleb's room is farther from our bedroom in this house than it's ever been in previous houses and while we can easily hear him if he calls, it's a bit of a hike for us to get to him. When he does call, one or both of us jumps out of bed and runs to him to see what's wrong. (Caleb isn't a "cry wolf" kind of kid, so if he calls us in the middle of the night, he's had a nightmare or is sick and he needs us there immediately.) Ramius was apparently paying attention to this and one night, in the middle of the night, I heard, "Mom!" So I jumped out of bed and was racing to Caleb's room. Running next to me, purring more than he usually does on the way to check on Caleb, was Ramius. When we got to Caleb's room, he was sprawled out in a tangle of covers, snoring happily, completely asleep. Ramius, I noticed, was rubbing against me and purring ecstatically. That's when it hit me - it was the cat, not the kid, calling me. Unfortunately, Ramius had figured out how to get me up at night if he wanted some attention and he now does this periodically. Not every night, not even every week, but a couple of times a month or so, he feels that in the wee morning hours, he needs a human awake to play with him. Fortunately for me, I've figured this out and knowing both Ramius and Caleb the way I do, I've gotten a little bit smarter. When Caleb needs us, he calls and keeps calling - the kid has no patience and doesn't even give us a chance to get to him from his first call. Ramius on the other hand has infinite patience and will call and then wait. I've figured out that if I get a second "Mom!", I'll know if it's Caleb or Ramius before I jump out of bed and race through the house. The first couple times it happened, it took me a while to figure things out though. It just goes to show that not teaching animals to talk is probably a good thing, although Ramius figured this out all by himself.

I am in charge today...

because Mommy can't come to the blog. Actually, she could come to the blog, but she has nothing to show you because she's still Christmas knitting. She said to let you know that she has finished Christmas Knitting Project #2 and is working away on Christmas Knitting Project #3. Her goal is to finish it by tomorrow, which will only leave her with one more project and that last one doesn't have to get shipped, so she'll get it done in plenty of time.

Anyway, enough about stuff that doesn't have anything to do with me. Today I am going to soak up as much sunshine as possible and then I'm going to go sit under the tree with all the lights and dangly things and look fabulous. Every year Mommy and Daddy and now the Caleb-thing helps to put a tree in our house. I do not understand the ways of the humans, but as long as I don't see the bottom of my food bowl, I humor them. I must admit, I do look rather fabulous sitting beneath the branches with the twinkly lights on them, but then I look fabulous doing anything.

He-That-Is-Called-Finn seems to think that just because I'm sitting on the floor, I'm fair game for snuffling. This is not the case. I need to train him the way I trained the Small-Loaner-Dog-Called-Barclay. He came over the other day for a play date with Finn and I didn't even have to remind him of my superiority and power. As soon as I walked into the room, he jumped up and ran to Mommy's other side and he kept her in between us the whole time. Yes, the Barclay dog is wise to remember me.

I think I feel a nap coming on now. There's no point in being tired when it's time for my lunchtime nap after all. Being the Supreme Power in the Universe takes a lot of energy, you know.

Still with the Christmas knitting

I am now past the halfway point of Christmas Knitting Project #2 and hope to really make a dent in it today and tomorrow. Then I have Christmas Knitting Project #3, which should be pretty fast and Christmas Knitting Project #4, which is identical to Christmas Knitting Project #2, except in a different color and it doesn't have to be ready before Christmas because it stays here.

Did I mention that originally there was a Christmas Knitting Project #5? There's no way it's getting done on time. I'm currently debating wrapping it up as it is, which will free me up to work on it in front of the recipient, or keeping it a secret for next Christmas. It could be Christmas Knitting Project #1 for 2010! The only thing is, while I want to give it this year, it will make the giftee happier if it's finished when they get it, so I'll probably just hold it til next year.

Want to know what cracked me up yesterday? When I read the Yarn Harlot's post about the French Press Slippers, I had to laugh. I found that pattern wandering around Ravelry several weeks ago and I love those slippers, but I won't let myself cast on for them until I'm done with my Christmas knitting. Periodically, I go to Ravelry just to look at the finished slippers - they're so cute, I definitely understand her obsession with them and I'll be casting on for my own pair next month.

I'm a little reindeer!

Mommy got me this new fancy, fluffy thing to wear for Christmas! She says I sound just like a little reindeer! It makes fancy Christmas noises when I walk around wearing it, so Mommy only puts it on me for a little while every day. Caleb giggles when I wear it and Daddy says I look like an idiot - that must be a good thing because he smiles when he says it. Ramius doesn't like it very much, but he's probably just jealous because he doesn't have one. Here it is:

Isn't it pretty? Oops, I dropped it.

There it is!

Now Mommy put it on me so you can see how pretty I look in it.

Now I'm all decorated for Christmas! Are you decorated for Christmas yet?

From the Deepest, Darkest Corner of the Stash Closet...

...where wooly dreams wait for their day in the sun and naughty projects go to think about what they've done, comes something from Blog Past. The Bohus Gray Mist pullover!

I don't think I've done anything with this since we moved to Texas. According to the project page for this on Ravelry, I started it in January of 2007. I set it aside during the move, knowing that I'd mess it up, and then every time I thought about it, I remembered that I needed to weave in ends (the pattern specifically says to do them as you go) and stitch down the neckband facing. I got the ends woven in a couple of nights ago and yesterday I stitched down the neckband facing.

Now it's full speed ahead on the colorwork and I did get a little more done in the knitting department too. I'm more than halfway through the chart for the colorwork (though not by much), but I'm not quite to the halfway point visually in the colorwork - make sense? I've just started the lightest color and then I'll start fading back to the darker colors of gray and blue. I was sitting on the floor with Finn curled next to me, sleeping, looking at the way the colors work together, and thinking of the traditions behind this Swedish style of knitting, with the fine needles (US 1.5 - 2.5 mm), tiny wool and angora yarn making tiny stitches, the patterns of color and purl stitches growing beneath my hands and listening to Aerosmith scream about how "Dude Looks Like A Lady." Yes, just like they did it when the designs were fresh and new!

For those of you who are wondering, this was purchased as a kit from Solveig Gustafsson (click Bohus Stickning for the Bohus kits) . I just checked out the "newer" kits (they are all traditional Bohus designs, reproduced as kits for knitters now, the "new" ones are just new to the site - not new designs) and I can see I'll need to add the New Azalea to my stash - I love the pinks and reds against that black. I already have the Forest Darkness in Black and the Large Lace Collar Jacket kits stashed away. I'm playing with the insane idea of making one of these for the Olympics - we're supposed to push ourselves, right?

Cassidy

I've finished up the back of Cassidy! I finished it over the weekend and have cast on for the fronts but that's about all I've done on them. In Christmas knitting, I've finished one project and I've started a second project. The second and third projects are going to be pretty fast but last week I got a request for a fourth project. Fortunately, it should also be fast. I am taking pictures of these things when I finish them and I'll blog them after Christmas, I just can't blog them right now.

I did find another unfinished project that I need to get back to work on that is bloggable so you won't have to see Cassidy every single day. I'm going to have to do some archeological reconstruction to figure out where I am on it, but I tend to be pretty OC about making notes so hopefully I can figure it all out quickly.

In upcoming pattern design news, I've started a design for a new wrap that is pretty different from everything else I've done so far. The design is charted in the computer and I'm test knitting it now (but it's not bloggable). I'll also be designing the sock pattern for Yarn 4 Socks' February sock club (which is not bloggable either). I realized a couple of weeks ago that the only new design I did for 2009 was Flamenco. I know I moved last year, but I would have liked to do another pattern or two.

Fortunately, everything that has a deadline will be finished in time for the Olympics. I'm on Team Cardigan for the Ravelympics but at this point I have no idea what I'll be knitting. The Olympics are 16 days and last time I cranked out 4 pairs of socks. I don't have to knit a cardigan (even though I'm on Team Cardigan), but I'm having some trouble getting my head around that so I'll probably choose a cardigan pattern anyway. Any ideas or suggestions for Olympic knitting? I can knit a fairly simple cardigan in about 2 weeks (and could probably do Cassidy in that time if I tried), so it's got to have more going on than stockinette or a few cables. Ideas?

Tiny Ornament Socks

Every year in December, we pull out Caleb's little advent cabinet. It has 25 small doors and little compartments for small gifts. Each night he gets to open one little door as we count down to Christmas. This means that I need 25 tiny things to put into each compartment. We usually go with small ornaments and this year I decided to knit some tiny socks for some of his gifts. This is a great way to use up the tiny bits (and sometimes not so tiny bits) of leftover sock yarn.

Here are two of the socks I've done so far. I'm not really working from a pattern, I'm just casting on 24 stitches on my size 1's (2.25 mm) and winging it. The sock on the right has a heel flap and probably should have had more rounds on the foot before I started toe decreases. The sock on the left has a short row heel and I like the foot length better. They measure about 2-3 inches long. If I took the time, I could probably find a free pattern (or 10) on the Internets for tiny ornament socks, but I'm having fun just making it up as I go.