Successfully made the long trip up from Dallas to Des Moines yesterday. 12 hours of solid driving in a car with no cruise control is surprisingly painful, and I love my naproxen so very much. I finished ALL of my required Christmas knitting and got the required pieces in the mail in time for everyone to get it before the holidays. ^_^ Now I'm trying to finish my cousins socks before presents are opened on Saturday. These, thankfully, are in no way a surprise except in that she might get them this weekend. I'm doing Kate Atherley's My Vampire Boyfriend socks in colinette jitterbug Fuchsia. These have given me fits trying to get them to fit her feet. I've ripped the suckers back 3 times now. I did finally get the sizing correct and finished up the first sock Monday night. The second sock is currently here:














....we shall see.

Ahhhhhh the smell of wet wool in the morning! ...which you know, is really not my favorite smell. But I have finished ALL of my Christmas knitting! *happy dance* Now I've just got to work on all the various socks I've got on needles that I've promised to various people.
As I was getting dressed this morning I happened to pull these out of the drawer:



















These are my very first pair of socks. They are gone in Opal self-stripping using Ann Norling's pattern #12. When I started these the only things I'd ever knitted were scarves (no pattern, must me playing around with knits and purls) and most of a baby blanket with cables. I'd never worked with double points. I'd never worked in the round. I'd never picked up stitches or done a decrease. But I figured it out and that joy and sense of accomplishment at finishing something that has a real, honest to God purpose, is what keeps me knitting. So yes, these socks are what took from someone who knew how to knit, to a true Knitter. ^_^

Ahhhh winter has come to Dallas (and yes I'm very well aware that its been winter in most of the rest of the country for at least 2-3 months now). And this morning as I'm rushing to my car trying to balance everything, it dawns on me: its really, really stupid that a knitter, who not only knows how to make gloves but has in fact just finished making a pair of a friend, does not have a pair of her own. -_- Owwwwwww my hands hurt!!!!!

I'm so thankful for new anime. Especially stuff with a good dub (bad dubs are unwatchable and its harder to watch something subbed when your constantly having to refer to a chart). My knitting was in danger of stalling out this week. Not so helpful to be all hyped to knit during work hours and then want to fall directly into bed the second I get home. And so K's gloves are now this far along:
This is the second glove so I've just got about half the index finger and the thumb, and then just some ends to weave in and then to give it a bath. I find it very easy to make gloves for K since our fingers are exactly the same length except for the pinky (her's are just slightly longer than mine). Tonight is PJs and Pearls at the yarn shop so I will definitely make some progress so hopefully I can make my goal of finishing these by Friday (my evil friend brought over a new RPG to play and its proving to be as fun as promised, so now there is competition for my attention). Wish me luck!