New Year’s Notresolutions

I don’t make resolutions. To me, they’re kinda like life insurance or prenuptial agreements. They pretend to be planning for success, but they are really planning for failure. Look, I know I’m not going to exercise every day or actually keep up with my correspondence or even read half the books on my TBR pile, as much as I may want to.

So I’m not going to make any knitting resolutions. I’m not going to resolve to complete all my UFOs. Not even Chaos. T and I discussed it. It’s not going to happen. And it’s become such an anathema to me now, I may not even use the yarn after I frog it.

I’m not going to resolve to whittle down my stash, either. Jeez, that would be like going on a diet or exercising every day or something! (shudder) Look, I already know I have so much yarn I could knit for the rest of my life and not run out. And yet, I still get all excited when Michael’s announces SWS for $1.50 this week. Am I not supposed to buy SWS for $1.50? Come on!

And make swatches? What? Where’s the fun in that? So much more exciting to just give it your best guess and cast on. That way, 2 inches into the project, you have the opportunity for a little surprise!

I would like to make a little notresolution, though. That would be to document the knitting a little better. Here at the end of the year, as I am really thinking about it, I realize I actually did knit a lot. And finish a lot. (Believe it or not.) I think it would be kinda cool to have some actual record of FOs.

Hm. But where could I document them.....?

More Christmas (Dare I Say?)

Here are a couple more projects… Urban Zen for Jon. (I like the paired twists done without a cable needle, don’t you?) This would have gone a lot quicker, if not for Achilles swiping my circular needle. Still have not found it, but I assume it will be chewed up when I find it (just like my #10 dpn bakelites). So I did replace it in order to continue working on this hat.

Oh, in case you are wondering, that IS Notpatwoman. Remember how long she was missing? Guess where she was? M had her trapped in the trunk of her car, wearing a red bobbed wig. M claims she doesn’t remember putting her there. How twisted is that? Anyway, now Notpatwoman has an irrational fear of red wigs and red cars. Nice going there, M. Scarred my notalterego for life.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. Christmas.

I made this purse for M. Felted beautifully, and kinda matches the hat/scarf/glittens. (Same colors, just faded.) It's Lion Brand Wool in Flower Garden. The button is very cool. Took me forever to find just the right button. I liked this pattern a lot. It’s Amanda's Squatty Sidekick. I might even do one for myself now that the holidays are over.



I also made this scarf for my boss. It's Yarn Bee Beguile Ribbon in Nocturn carried along with some Moda Dea Dream in Black.



Here’s the Booze Hag liqueur. I made Amaretto (fabulous!) Coffee, and Raspberry. Keeping some of the amaretto for myself. We’ll see how everyone else likes them.


And this… This is something. It was what I got from the White Elephant gift exchange at work. It’s my colleague, Josh. At first I said, “I’m keeping this on my desk, dammit.” Then, I thought, “How much more fun would it be to put Josh on my blog?”

Stay tuned. I have this sneaky feeling some pretty weird things are going to happen to Josh.

Should We Talk About Christmas?

Yes, I did some Christmas knitting. Even though I said I wasn't going to. Even though it stresses me out. Even though I've not had much luck in the past--gifts not appreciated, rejected, etc. (Remember my dad's "I don't want this" and my older bro's scathing letter about leaving a gift on his porch?)

But I never learn.

So, you've already seen the hat/scarf/glittens I did for M:


And the Cthulhu hat I did for R:


I also did a couple of these. This one is a purple color, for J. It's Moda Dea Tweedle Dee in Blackberry Heather.
I also did this one for K in Blue Heather. Love that yarn. It "paints" really nicely and is softer than 100% wool. The pattern is a mutation of this one. I say mutation because I had to adjust for guage. The pattern for both scarves is basically a K2, P1 on every row.


I also used Tweedle Dee in Cinnamon Twist(what can I say? Tweedle Dee was on sale.) for Blamey's gift. This is a Beret pattern I got here. Scarf is a drop stitch/double drop stitch, separated by garter. It kinda matches the hat. I also brewed up some liqueurs under my own "Booze Hag Brewery" label. Tasty and toasty!

Did Reasonably Hip for M's reasonably hip bf, E:

Notice he wears it at a jaunty angle?

And this one, for A. It's binary. It says it's A's hat.
(My pattern.)

And, finally, this blankie for General Nuisance, which I think you've seen before. Done on those sexy size 50s! GenGen was very pleased.

Just... Wow.

Read this.

So Philip K. Dick foresees the future once again. Apparently, some scientists have determined they can target certain memories in the brain and erase them. That seems very dangerous (socially, physically, mentally, and spiritually) to me.

Of course, that may just be me talking. I guess maybe you could only really appreciate this technology if you had, say, accidently watched Bio Dome.