Yes, you read that correctly. I have been knitting! In an effort to get the Italian presents started, I started knitting the Oink (that’d be the Object in Question….okay, spelled a little incorrectly, but I thought I’d have some fun here.) I can’t actually tell you what it is that I’m knitting since it’s a p-r-e-s-e-n-t for someone, but I can show you some up close and personal photos that will act as proof that I am knitting.

Proof Number One:

Proof Number Two:

And finally, Proof Number Three:

Aren’t those purdy colour choices? All the colours in the rainbow…okay, maybe not, but there’s 5 of the 7 in there. :-)  But don’t ask me what it is yet, cuz I’m not tellin’!

And with today’s shopping dear readers, I have finished my Christmas shopping. Yes, I picked up the last couple of presents this afternoon, and I-am-done. Hell, I even found a couple of presents for my relatives in Italy, whom I normally don’t buy for, however I found a couple of things that I just couldn’t resist. Picked up a birthday present for my friend’s daughter too, as she turns one this week. We’re having a party for her next Sunday, which should be fun.

The mall even had a parade for Santa, as it was his first day on duty at the mall. They had a full marching band and ballerina-fairies, plus Santa’s elves and a giant toy soldier on stilts! He was tall. I was a tad confused at first though, because I was walking around in the mall and heard the music, which I thought was a little loud for being indoors. But then I saw Santa, and thought it made sense. I still think the music was loud, but at least then it made sense.

Now I’m in the middle of doing laundry while I figure out a new knitting pattern to work on. I think I might just have to ring up my seester to get some help, cuz I don’t understand the pattern. haha. I’ll be working on the Everlasting Bagstopper from Knitty.com. My sister’s made a few and says they’re quite nice and easy, plus they’re good for stocking stuffers or whenever you need one type presents.

It’s true, I’ve started! For some of you this is late, for others it’s early, but for me it’s about on par with my usual schedule. I work for a company that produces lots of retail gift items, and we get a good discount on stuff, so I put in my order, and it arrived today. I couldn’t pick it up yet because I didn’t have my chequebook (they only take cheques), so it’ll have to wait till tomorrow. But I’m pleased to see that out of all my items, I got about 90% of them, which is good. Sometimes items run out, or are back ordered, but my list seems to be pretty good. (I got to scan it quickly when I went to see how much it was.)

Now I’ve got to start up my Xmas list…for those of you interested, check out the sidebars here, as I’ll be posting some things that would be nice, if you’ve got no idea for me. *wink*wink*nudge*nudge*

I can’t wait to see what’s waiting for me in those two boxes at work!

Yes people, finally, not one, but TWO finished objects for your enjoyment.

1-my friend’s baby blanket (hopefully she’s not reading this, but if she is, hopefully she doesn’t know it’s for her )

That was the RS. Now here’s the WS.

While I’ve gotten the hang of the log cabin knitting (not that it’s too hard, but still, this was a different pattern than the last time), this was the first time I got to use intarsia with the two colours. It worked out pretty well, see for yourself:

#2-my center square touque from Knitty.com. Tada!

(you’ll have to forgive the self-portrait done in the mirror, but you get the idea.)

Here’s another photo:

You’ll notice that the circles are a bit fuzzy, which is because I continued the ribbing all the way through the touque. That was actually a mistake on my part in reading the pattern, but that’s okay, it still turned out all right. Now Carrie was wondering if the hat was more stretchy because I was knitting it inside out in an earlier post, and I wasn’t sure. Turns out that yes, it is a bit stretchier than I’d like, but at least I know that it fits over my head, and in fact, comes down far enough to actually cover all my ears, which is great. I was talking about this with my sister the other day, and she mentioned that it was because of the way I was knitting the hat, inside out instead of right side out, and while I didn’t quite get what she meant exactly, I figured it was another “mistake”, and I’ll sort it out for the next touque.

All in all I quite enjoyed this project, and oh! I almost forgot! I used the magic loop method to finish off the touque as I didn’t want to buy size 11 dpns, and I must say it worked out nicely. It got a little difficult at the end so I just pulled out one of my other big needles and helped to finish off the stitches. I was doing it with my Denise kit needles, and I think that it would work better with thinner cables. I found the thick ones included in the Denise kit stretched things a tad (not much, but it was noticeable), so I think with thinner cables this would’ve been avoided. But again, the magic loop method definitely made my life easier and saved me some cash.

And since the weather has gotten terribly cold right now here in the Big Smoke (it’s currently -15C, which is 5F), and so any extra thick layers are most welcome. I’ve also just finished mapping out a slip-stitch scarf pattern using the book Monika mentioned a while ago in this post. I’ll probably cast on that one tonight while watching House, or while watching Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, my latest obsession. (Don’t laugh, it’s really good!) I’ll keep you posted on the scarf as it goes.

So I’m on to the intarsia section of my log cabin baby blanket, and it’s going quite well. I wasn’t sure how it would look, or if I would be able to do it successfully, so I am quite pleased to say it’s turning out nicely. I tried to take some close-up pictures of it for you last night, however my camera wouldn’t oblige, so you’re going to have to imagine a section of about 12 garter ridges, half in aubergine, half in light blue, merging in a wonderful column of intarsia style stitches.

I’m also procrastinating a bit from starting my centre square hat from Knitty.com, mostly because: a) I want to finish that log cabin blanket. I’m on the second-to-last set of logs, so I’d like to finish that off first, and b) I’m a little daunted by the double-yarn knitting the touque requires. Now, I know intellectually that double-yarn knitting isn’t difficult, I’m just nervous because I haven’t done a touque before; haven’t knit in the round before; and haven’t double-yarn knitted before. But I better get a move on if I want to actually wear the hat this year, as we’re almost into February! Granted, winter only really just arrived in T.O. a few weeks ago, so it appears I’ll have plenty o’ time, but still, you know what I’m getting at. Time’s a-wastin’.