Christmas Arrives

We negotiate the start of the holiday season in our house.  I try to get as early a date as possible, and Neal tries for as late a date as he can get.  This weekend was the agreed upon date, and I knew the season had officially started at Tilly’s Mew (our name for the house…we live in the kind of town where people name their homes, so we did, too–as a joke, people, as a joke) when the Nutcracker Suite filled the house.  While Neal worked on the bathroom renovation, I turned a pair of socks and a few buttons into this cutie from Martha Stewart’s Holiday issue.  I used the cuffs of a (sort of) felted cashmere sweater for his ears.  House decorating will have to wait until the end of the week.  On Thursday I’ll be in Westchester, and while I’m there I’ll pick up my ornaments, which I haven’t seen since Christmas 2003.  Most of them belonged to my Gram, so I’ll be glad to have them back in my care.

Last Thanksgiving, on the bus ride from Rome to Pompeii and back again, I knit this Cherry Garcia neckwarmer.  I love the pattern and will knit it again, but you may recall that I only learned to knit in such a way that got me a decent gauge in January of this year (nothing like waiting eight years to figure that one out, huh?).  So the neckwarmer was way big, and the wool ended up being pretty itchy.  Not what you want against your neck, now, is it?  What, oh what is a girl to do?

How about sew up one end, felt it, and line it.

  Make sure there are handles and a smashing button, and call it a purse.  Check off another finished Christmas gift.

I recently got a gift of my own.  Kimberly sent me these adorable stitch counters after I admired her hippo.  They make me smile every time I look at them.  Thank you so much!