The Christmas Aftermath

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas full of family and friends! I just got back from my vacation home, and I had a great time!  The gifts I gave were well received, those bought, those computer designed, and those knitted!  However, I need to work on my graphics for my knitting!  It wasn't clear enough that the card came with the gift, and that it indicated a hand-knit.  I've brought home some light cotton/linen cloth to try and make actual tags for my knits, I'll have to see what I can come up with!

The rest of my time at home was fabulous - I got to hang out with my good friends, try out a bunch of new bars, and eat some tasty home-cooked meals!  I also got to try my hand (again) at screen printing.  We did the easy way this time - no burning the image onto the screen, just using plastic sheet stencils.  Check out my bibs!

Butterflies!

Flowers!

My screen printing partner - not as useful as you would think!

I need to work on my screen print photography - those are terrible, eep.

ALSO - I did, in fact, FINALLY finish the Simplicity Cowl!  Drumroll please:

TA-DA!  Looks good, don't it?

Completed before I even made it home!  OH YEAH.  I think it looks pretty snazzy, here's hoping it gets good use!  

The fingerless mitts however, were not completed without a mad knitting session at the airport, on the airplane, and at 11pm on Christmas Eve.  But they were done before Christmas, and that's all that matters!  I did not take a photo, however, because I am a genius.  Oops.  I'll have to ask the sister for that as well.  She and her husband both liked them, I'll see what I can do for him.  It'll probably be next Christmas.  I'm not really what anyone would call, "Speedy".

In other hometown adventures, I took the parents to the Science Museum (since I bought them a membership last year and all).  I think this is some amazing wayfinding signage:

It's really well-balanced and instructional!  You can see the passage of time and the variety of the species on the planet, and it's a pretty graphic!  I love it!

While at the museum, we saw some re-created panels from the Lascaux Caves:

The Panel of the Great Black Cow, in the Nave of the caves

The newly renovated Hall of Egyptology:

This gave me some color ideas - should I ever start doing something colorful!

And some gems.  Lots and lots of shiny gems.  It was a little overwhelming, those gems.  I'm not as much of a fan as I feel I should be.  Oh well.  It was a good time anyway, and the parents got out of the house!

How was everyone else's Christmas?  Any awesome adventures or gifts?  Amazing food perhaps?  hmmm, food.....  :)

I'm going to coordinate my thoughts for my New Year's post and get that up as soon as possible.  Until then, I leave you with Glitter Dancer and Friends:

Meet Stompy the Parapalegic Trike, Glitter Dancer, and as-yet-unnamed Mr Fox.  They only came together this year to form my supporting crew.  :)

Have a great night!

Eek! Almost Christmas!!

I was just re-reading my last post...I had almost forgotten about the snow!  This weekend it has been 70 degrees, because, you know, Christmas.  It's been a little peculiar to say the least (plus very difficult trying to get dressed. T-shirt? Jacket? Shorts? WHAT DO I DOOOOO? Haha.)

In knitting news, I had a whole post written out last week in my notebook, talking about my progress on the fingerless mitts,

Took me 8 hours to get this far, while watching Good Eats, Carl Sagan's Cosmos (which I can no longer find), and Doctor Who's Spearhead from Space.  Imagine what would happen if I just worked without distraction???

The gifts I needed to finish,

Bike Helmet Ear Warmers for the BF

Christmas tree pin for a friend

And some other random things, but look!  They're all done now (and I totally forgot to post it. whomp whomp)!  The bike helmet ear warmers were very well received, but we discussed adding a button to each to actually keep them in the correct location.  They're a little dorky, but no dorkier than wearing a hat underneath your helmet (and way more comfy!).  The Christmas tree pin will be given tomorrow, I think she'll totally dig it, but I'll let you know how it goes!  I also made some cute tags/business cards for each gift, using the sheep photo from Iceland.  It needs a little work, but a good start!  I can't wait to make more!  :-) 

The fingerless mitts are still just "mitt", and remember that Simplicity Cowl?  Yea, still haven't seamed that up.  At least I wove in the ends where I broke the yarn and had to do some joining.  But not yet seamed.  I didn't know about the provisional cast-on when I started, so that cowl will definitely not be as cool as it should be.  Almost totally awesome, but not quite.

Alright, 2 more nights til I fly home, need to make my fingers fly through the yarn!  Happy knitting!  Have a great Christmas!

PS - haha, I was reading my posts from the beginning.  I made absolutely NOTHING on my original Christmas gift list!  They say if you post your goals, or at least announce them to others, you're more likely to stick to them.... bwahahahahaha.  Not true.  All lies.  Hahaha.  But everyone gets something anyway.  Except for my mom.  She gets a ball of yarn and a pattern.  The she can tell me, "no, I don't like that, make me this instead".  I feel that's a much more appropriate use of my knitting time (plus it's been very difficult thinking of something she'd really like.)  Ok, off i go!