Merry Christmas!

My Secret Pal had the ingenious idea of sending me Christmas in July! Yes, technically it's August, but blame the postal service and blogger, what can I tell you... But it's the thought that counts and it sure made things brighter on the hottest freaking day of the year.

First, an out of print pattern book for knit Christmas stockings, complete with red and green yarn, addis and my very first chibi! Very special because my SP has made these for each member of her family and are part of her Christmas tradition. As she knows, we hope to have our new addition to the family before Christmas this year and need to start making our own traditions. I am very touched that she went through the trouble of providing me with everything I need to make them a part of our new family. (I swear this woman has given me a complete addi collection!)
And what's Christmas without the goodies? Awesome cookie cutters with a family cookie recipe. Yum. These will definitely be put to good use. And last, but definitely not least...are you ready for this...it's truly amazing:

Check out these stitch markers!! On the left we have tiny little santas! How freaking cute are those?? Makes you want to bust out singing Jingle Bells, no? On the right, CUSTOM MADE SANTA HAT WEARING PINK SHEEP!!! I can't get over them!! She had them made especially for me and I am so grateful. What a unique and wonderful gift!! I love them.

Well, I really should get cracking if that kid is coming soon, but I really did promise myself I was going to knit for myself once I was done with baby gifts. I decided that I couldn't possibly knit 5 baby gifts before all of those breeders popped, and so far I'm right...one already gave birth and the other is having a c-section tomorrow. So I have to pare down the gift giving...3 out of the 5 are work people who aren't expecting anything anyway, so they go to the top of the "if I have time" list. I have a beautiful crocheted baby blanket that I may give Ms. C-Section if she has a boy (light a candle for me) which will leave me one gift to have to make, which will probably be this:
I picked up the butter cream kimono again, and actually I had to frog this somewhat after this picture was taken...I cast off for the neck hole to late so I had to fix it...I am modifying this one to eliminate the sleeve decreases. So Ms. SP8 hostess, believe it or not, that is all that is on the needles right now. Oh, and I do have this mysterious little project that I am working on, but more to come on that if it works out how I plan:
I suppose after these two things are done I will do some baby knitting along with some "me" knitting...haven't decided yet what exactly that means. Oh, and for those that may be interested, the Ene's Shawl was finished and gifted to my aunt a few weekends ago. Yes, I gave someone a wool scarf in August during a heat wave, you gotta problem with that? She loved it, and besides, I wasn't going to knit a bikini for my 70 year old aunt...they're always cold any way those old aunts.

Pattern: Ene’s Scarf
Source: Scarf Style
Yarn: Knitpicks Shimmer in SweatPeas
Needles: Size 6 addi circs
Comments: Quick and painless, a pleasure to knit. I think I am going to make myself one of these in some pale pink alpaca cloud.

I also finished my first pair of socks using magic loop. Love it love it love it! I am so glad I learned this instead of investing in a million double sets of short circs. While two circs is certainly preferable to dpns, magic loop kicks ass. No seriously, it does. It is not even hard. It just sounds hard. It’s totally logical once you do it. Trust me. Now I must join the legions of other converts on their quest to convert everyone else! Go learn. Now. You’ll thank me. Anyway, no pics of these because they are adoption socks and I need to send them out still. I really want to learn how to do two socks at once with magic loop. I just have to sit down and concentrate on it…a little difficult to do these days, with all the craziness that is my life.