It's beginning...

So here we are, a few days into December and I have to ask...where do you stand with your holiday knitting?

I have one sweater on the needles, playing a serious, no holds barred, game of yarn chicken with it, for my ex-mil and need to figure out something for The Monster Man but other than that most of my knitting lately has either been testing for myself,

(That is Winter Wheat for those that are interested.  I changed the sleeves and knit it to my measurements, so it really doesn't fit TDQ in the sleeves!)

or testing for other people. 

 
The kids are all good for sweaters and just requested socks (all knit, thank you for asking) but you know me..can't have a holiday season without throwing a wrench into the works!

This year, Frankie Brown is publishing advent patterns for a cute little "Needle Advent Tree".  The pattern for the tree was released in November and involves sacrificing a knitting needle for the trunk.  No worries for me there, unless they are double points I have given up on using straight needles.
I knit mine with some seriously bright green yarn, couldn't find the pot I wanted to put it in permanently and forgot about it until December.

Each day there is a pattern for a little ornament to go on it.

 December 1st



December 2nd

 
The Third
 
and finally, this mornings offering.

Each day, TDQ tells me I am a dork for downloading the pattern in the morning, then squeals about how cute the ornament is in the evening when I finish sewing it up.

For someone who doesn't like to knit, she certainly finds people in her life who are knitworthy, and then comissions me to do the actual knitting!

That is for her bestest friend.

I have been, slowly and day by day, organizing the stash.  I am up to 150 entries in my stash pages on Ravelry and as I am cataloging and putting everything away after it's photo shoot, I am being ruthless with getting rid of the yarns I will never use!  In some cases I have "odd" balls of sock yarn that I know I have mates for, just need to sort through some more to find them.

In other news, TDQ had her wisdom teeth out.  We did discover that she has a moderate allergy to pain meds and like TFB does not react well to the anesthetics used in dental work.  Bad timing on our part, she had a class to go to the next day that she couldn't miss, but she got through it like the trooper that all of my kids have turned into.

Speaking of TFB, college tours have started for him.  Straight A's are easy for him, the soft skills needed to actually interact with the general population, not so much, so I did more of the talking and asking of questions than he did!  I think on this recent tour the person taking us around thought I was interested in the program and even mentioned that he is seeing more females in the program than ever before.

My shawl pattern is being tech-edited and should be ready to purchase sooner rather than later...if I can get my act together there might even be some Quick Knits for the Holidays files in my Ravelry Store soon too!