Merry Christmas!

I'm sure everyone out there will be very busy today, spending the day with family and friends, but in case you pop in to The Purly Gate, I'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas from J and I.

My Christmas knitting is totally done. Fini. I spent yesterday from around 11 a.m. until I had to leave for my parents' house at 4 attempting to do my finishing on Vittadini. It went smoothly, but it just took for damned ever! Even at 4, it wasn't done. In fact, we were supposed to be there at 4, so at 3:41 (whoops), I put it away, got ready to go, and arrived at my parents' a half hour late. Once there, I continued to work on it and FINALLY finished it in time to wear to dinner. Although I was cursing its name all afternoon, and started referring to it with such affectionate names as "the beast" and "this f*&%ing thing", I'd have to say that it came out wonderfully. I'd show a photo, but it's in the room where my husband is sleeping and I don't want to wake him. But I will tell you that it fits really well and I feel that I did a good job on the seaming. For those of you who know me, that's saying a lot because I'm usually highly critical of my seaming work (right J?). I was proud of the final product and wore it out to dinner last night, where it prompty shed silk fibers all over my black pants. That's OK, though, it was still pretty.



So, now it's on to post-Christmas knitting, i.e., Under the Hoodie, Picovoli, Chill, my sock, etc. I'm just about to turn the heel on my sock. About 4 inches in, I switched to my other size 1 needles which have a 2.25 mm diameter. The Addi's have a 2.5 mm diamter. My other needles are bamboo so they're very lightweight and easy to deal with, but obviously, the yarn doesn't slide as easily over them, so there are pros and cons to both. This sock fits VERY snugly. I probably should have done it on size 2's or something but hopefully it will be OK.

As soon as Joe gets up, we're going to give the cats they're Christmas presents. There's nothing like a little catnip in the morning. I'll try to remember to take photos and post them tomorrow.




I have a great new idea for a cat toy - circular knitting needles. My cat Princess thinks that, whenever I pull out my circular needles, I intend to play with her and she runs over to me. If I'm working with them, and one end is dangling down, she bats at it. It's so cute. In this photo, she looks a little bored with it, but that's only because I had taken a few minutes trying to get a good picture of it, and that's about all of the stamina she has for playing. She was tired and needed a nap at that point.

In closing, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday and that all of their Christmas knitting turned out the way they wanted it to. For my part, I'll be giving the laptop bag, the socks, the scarf, the footies, the bear, the purse, the hat, the catnip toys and the catbed. Merry Christmas!