Gift 2 on its way...

I finished the hat in elapsed time 10 days, but probably just a few evenings of concentrated knitting. It's on my dresser waiting to be felted. I missed a good opportunity to do it on saturday night and didn't realize until I thought it was too late that I could have done it. I've already warned her that she might be doing the felting herself and since it's part of the fun, I marked it as finished on Rav.

Here is the side view:


...other than the lime-y stripe, I like the colours on this hat too

I started next gift in the lineup - said fetching fingerless gloves in red for my friend Pam from Portland. I looked up the cabling without a cable needle instructions on stefanie japel's website that megan mentioned and they are very easy - way easier than the way I was doing it. Unfortunately, doing it that way means I sometimes ended up poking my needle where it didn't belong and the yarn split, so there's a few pulls. well, it's handmade. she'll appreciate that. also, the yarn didn't end up being as soft as i'd hoped, so there's that.

in my hopes to keep my attention focused, i've started another project (heheh, mary will be pleased). I wound a nice skein of handmaiden camelspin a couple of weeks ago, dug out a US 3 (3.25mm), and started Alhambra last night. A rocky start with too long a cable (47"), i'm holding the excess in my armpit as of now (don't worry, i'm wearing a shirt). Once I read the instructions on the chart, it went much better. I'm half way through the first repeat (18 rows) x 17 repeats - lol - hopefully, my attention holds. I imagine i'll be knitting fetching on tues knit night.

As for christmas gifts, today, I did a little early christmas shopping for myself and for some friends. I sent some bath bombs to a friend in portland from saltspring soapworks and treated myself to a foot scrub bar that smells like anise (i love that scent). I almost bought one for my swapee (BSA Swap 2), but I thought she might think it too personal a gift to give. I also splurged on something i've been wanting for quite awhile - a goose down duvet. As bad as the US market is, even with the low value dollar, Victoria and western canada are still doing quite well with the lowest unemployment rate in the country. It was on sale, and lower than I've ever seen the prices (although I haven't looked in the last 5+ years or so). The killer was that I do have a duvet cover that i bought in pdx, and surprise (again), it's in my storage unit and unaccessible, so I sprang for a nice red spice color one (see pic below)) with dark red-brown leaves, and creme outlined leaves all over.

It was a b to get the duvet in the cover, since the zip's on the side, I miss flipping it in, but it's settled on the bed now and can't wait to get a good night's sleep.

My room's been so cold at night 65-66F, since I usually like it at 70F. I know i'm a wuss. I remember a lady one time at Meier and Frank (before they went belly up) tell me how I could put the heat down to 60F and use a heavy duvet. lol, like i'd want to stick my toes out from under the covers at 60F to get up and go to work!
for you metric canuck readers - that's 18C, 21C, and 15.5C for yous. sorry, still not converted.