...Merry Christmas to you. I couldn't resist sneaking in some lyrics from one of my favorite Christmas songs. Actually, I've been saying "Merry Christmas" as often as I possibly can over the past few weeks. Yes, the PC police probably have me on their naughty list, but I don't really care. We spend so much time and energy trying to make sure that we don't say something that will offend that more often than not we are not adequately able to express our feelings, especially during a wonderful season like this one. I'm sorry, but it gets to the point where 'Happy Holidays' just doesn't cut it anymore. Happily I think a lot of you out there are feeling the same way because I've heard many more public utterances of 'Merry Christmas' this season than I have in a long time. To quote Martha Stewart: "It's a good thing."

I suppose I should climb down from the soap box and get on with this week's post. This is really the first time I've had a chance to blog since I've been back from New York. This can largely be attributed to the following:

• Christmas Preparations
  
• Work
  
• Carmen kitty
  
• Two feet of snow
  
• Timesucks (more on that in a future post)

At this time of year I essentially have two full-time jobs. It can be a little stressful going from a job that keeps me busy throughout the day to tackling Christmas shopping, baking, decorating, etc., but I've gotten used to it. What caught me off guard this year was an emergency with Carmen, our female cat, and some weather issues (check out the picture of the snow that piled up on our deck!) that forced me to make some adjustments to my preparations.


Ultimately, though, I was able to do what I needed to make the holiday special for me and the people I care about. The rest...well, there's always next year.

So, I've become somewhat of a monogamous knitter of late. A good portion of the last week and half was spent working on the Super Cupcake Hat for my boss for Christmas. Most people would probably able to knit this up fairly quickly -- Ravelry posting lists the length of time from start to finish as 2 days?! -- but this just doesn't happen in the world of the SH. The fact that I was using this weird abbreviated Magic Loop method probably didn't help. I also struggled with some aspects of the Shaker Rib pattern that made it necessary to resort to frogging more often than usual. To top it all off, the hat 'grew' during the blocking process. I figured that it would from what I'd observed with the swatches but I didn't think it would grow quite so much -- happily a ten minute trip through the dryer (low setting) helped solve this problem.



In spite of all this the hat turned out pretty well. Leslie was so happy with it that she put it on at once and wore it home. The funny thing is that we were having a conversation about knitted hats the day before, so I really think this turned out to be the perfect gift for her. Hopefully she'll get a lot of use out of it.

Now that I'm relatively free of knitting obligations -- I say 'relatively' because my father has put in a request for a pair of socks, but there's no real timeline on those -- I plan on getting back to some of the projects that had to be set aside while I was working on other things. The buttons came in for the French Press Felted Slippers, so I'm going to make a valiant attempt to finish those off this weekend. I may also see if I can finish off the Almeara Gloves and the Peapod Baby Set #2 over the next week or two. Of course, sleep is also very appealing right now... On that note, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

(Note: Carmen is fine. What we initially thought to be a break/dislocation was probably more along the lines of a blood clot. She has a pre-existing heart condition and was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism so we've been trying to find a balance with her medications. She's prancing around here like nothing ever happened!)