Thursday, December 31, 2009

Silent Night


Quiet!  Please....
No need to ask; my guests have departed leaving a vacuum of space and sound, and most of all, a time for knitting.



How little did I knit in the past month?  Very little.  I didn't finish the Advent Socks, but I created and finished a quickie "Little Miss Santa" in less than 24 hours.  I'll try to be more prepared for Christmas Eve NEXT year...  I'm not totally happy with my creation;  I used stash yarn of 100% acrylic (thick: lovely; touch: horrible) with trim in off-white wool.  The end result: Something that looked like it came out of a cedar chest from the '50's.  It worked with the red tights and black shiny shoes.  (Baby's first shoes!)


To accentuate the quiet, we have snow.  Several inches in the past 24 hours:  Wonderful crunchy snow.  The only sound is movement on the snow, of the occasional car, and a few footprints.  My own steps are shockingly loud as I move around the block with my dog. Tonight I awake to the glare of an almost full moon shining through the trees, making a beautiful scene.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Little Christmas Eve

The plans have been made and there's no looking back!  Christmas and the holidays are here!  In Norway we say today is "Lille Jul Aften" or Little Christmas Eve.  That should be fair warning that things that aren't done, won't get done, and we'll be fine!


Knitting has taken a serious backseat to sight seeing and eating.  Even the Ivories haven't been tickled a whole lot.  Remembering that I will be playing at least 11 familiar Christmas tunes on Christmas Eve tomorrow night spurred me to task by practicing yesterday and getting my ducks in a row this morning. (Getting ducks in a row is the technical term for putting my music in order so I can flip through a notebook instead of rearranging and looking for the next piece. Very helpful when there are more than 4 or 5 pieces.)  So that's my secret:  I feel organized!


Two days ago I made a trip to Bluff, Utah, to show the Norwegians the beautiful monuments of the area.  They were very impressed first with the long roads that disappeared into the distance.  We turned north then southwest and then west and at every turn they remarked how far and straight the roads are.  They've seen such highways in films but were amazed that they really exist.


When we got home that evening, the rest of the gang were beside themselves trying not to spill the beans about a surprise for the next day, and by early the next morning, with a little nudging, I looked at the front page of the daily paper and there was our little 6 month old granddaughter!  They had been to the library to see the sun come through a solstice window, and the cutest baby was there to play with the marking on the floor...  That's how we celebrate 1/2 year birthdays!


The Advent Calendar of socks remains incomplete.  The most I can hope for is 20 socks.  What are the chances I'll have 24 when I put it away for the year?  The answer:  none.


What are the chances that I will have a red shift ready for baby in 24 hours?  80% chance, or higher if I end the blog here!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Ready or Not



For the past month, I've been planning the perfect Christmas, expecting guests from Norway any day now.  Being semi-retired, and having so much time on my hands, I guess the dreaming got out of hand--reality is hitting hard.  I'm hoping to accomplish at least one project:  24 knitted socks for Advent.  See?  I haven't even gotten anything up on the wall, and it's already Day 9!  I'm a slacker... but I have a little person to smile at every day, and people visiting, and places to go, and music to practice and organize.



Here's what my Christmas socks look like this morning... grrr.  Something is going up today!  I have numbers on 1-7 and 3 without numbers.  That puts me even with tomorrow.  Needless to say, there have been no Advent surprises yet.  I'm just lucky that a 5 month old makes her own surprises every day.


"Even though I'm gritting my teeth so hard that you could crack diamonds between them...I like knitting, I think it's fun, and I really am relaxing."  Stephanie Pearl-McFee

Friday, December 4, 2009

Baby needs....


Baby needs a new... bonnet!  Baby, it's COLD outside.  With our evenings turning to the teens, my knitting is put to the test:  My third baby bonnet is complete.  Tonight my granddaughter, unwillingly went out after dark.  She's here from Norway, 5 months old, and resisting the adjustment to our time zone.  Tonight we tried to push a few more hours towards MST, but the cold snap has us wondering why we have to roam around at the river's edge, following a trail of paper bags glowing with candles.  One reason is to hear the carols and the Trumpet Geezers; another is to visit with friends; hot chocolate isn't bad either, in fact that's a necessity!  It really is beautiful:  the city has bonfires for warmth, but babies adjusting to time zones don't care about those things.  


Three days ago I went to Ravelry and looked up the yarn, needles and number of stitches cast on so I could recreate the Lilac Bonnet I made for my granddaughter when she was 2 months old.  Now at 5 months, I bound off a little earlier than I anticipated to make tonight's deadline.  She wore it proudly, with warm head and ears, carried up and down the river's edge, trying to sleep.  We met several people who know her mother, so we were stopped and she looked out from the warmth of her mama's chest wondering about the craziness, and probably enjoying the exclamations of the adults at her perfect-ness.  

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