The man likes his hat. The hat is soft and big enough for the man’s ginormous Carpathian head. So yay for a happy man. If you would like to be a happy man or a happy woman for that matter, the pattern for the MacDuff hat will be coming out soon. I have test knitters testing it right now!

And as a sidenote, I’m always looking for cheap labor. Wait, it gets better. I’m looking for cheap labor that isn’t afraid to bitch at me. How much fun would that be? Someday I will be rich and famous and I will pay my test knitters cold hard cash. Right now I offer my test knitters a free pattern (the one they are test knitting) and another free pattern from my collection. (Go ahead and laugh - I know six patterns does not make a collection, but I’m working on it!) So anyhow, if you see something on my blog and you’d like to test knit it, let me know!

So anyhow, the designing mojo is back. Two patterns have gone out for testing in the past two days. So that’s good. And I got lots in the works. And school is out for the winter break. So that’s a whole month when I have nothing to do but design work. Well, except for that small interruption called Christmas.

Also a few years ago, I knitted one glove of the Cigar pattern for the man. He tried it on. It fit. He looks at me and asks why can’t it have skulls on it. (The was before I knew about duplicate stitch). I frogged it. I’ve considered knitting for him a few times, but that little incident was a nice painful reminder. But a few weeks ago I dyed some yarn just for him. I asked him what he wanted in a hat. All he said was “cables”. And last night as I noted, inspiration struck. So here’s what we got so far - this picture gives a good idea of the true color:

And this picture shows you one of my favorite things - ribbing that flows perfectly into a clean, crisp cable. Love it!

You might notice it’s on two circular needles. I’m knitting it on only one of course, but I put it on two for the man to try it on. He’s got a huge noggin and I didn’t want to keep going if it doesn’t fit. So he tried it on. It fits perfectly. And this is what he said…

“Aren’t you gonna make it so there is a fold up brim?”

So then I say “Eureka!” Ok. Not really. But the sentiment was there.

Eureka! I will work on the man’s hat. It is cold. The man is bald. The hat must be made. So I pull out a stitch dictionary and the perfect manly cable jumps out at me. 15 stitches. 15 x 8 equals 120 sts. Perfect stitch count with cables for the man’s big head. Where is my size 8 addi circular that is 16 inches long?

ARRRRGGGHHHH! I can’t find it! And this is why…

I’ve been busy lately, and instead of putting things away, I’ve been kind of just setting things in front of the shelves. Not so good for finding things. Not so good at all. So I suck it up. I have to clean. I find the washcloth. I find some lovely Cashmerino aran that I am either making cabled slippers out of from the Holiday IK or some cabled footie socks of my own design. I find some very cute pieces of fabric that are already cut and ready to sew up as an apron.

And then I find some needles.

The one on the left is the missing size 8. The one on the right is the now unusable size 4 addi 40 inch long circular. I love me some 40 inch circulars. So now I am sad. But I realize I must finish cleaning the office. So I do.

And when all is said and done, guess what? No really, guess. Yeah, that’s right. I *lost* the size 8. Again. Did I put it away? Oh no. I thought I left it on the desk. Fortunately after 20 minutes of mad giggling (because at this point I’m losing it) I find it. Folded up in my stitch dictionary. Next to the perfect cable pattern. I’m gonna go cast on now. Ok?

I did some knitting downtown tonight while watching the Light/Boat parade. But I can’t show it to you. It’s December’s sock pattern which is gorgeous if I do say so myself. Of course the yarn dyed by Chris is the main reason it’s so beautiful.

But I can show you a few fireworks pictures. These were awesome - they were towers of light that looked just like palm trees. True Florida fireworks.

And then Elvis started singing and we got the Blue Christmas fireworks.

Dreaming of a white Christmas? We won’t get one here, but these waterfall fireworks off the bridge were breathtaking. Literally.

In other news, NaBloPoMo has one more day. And amazingly enough I’ve done it all. Now you might have ended up with more insight into my scary brain than you wanted, but thanks for reading.

From my favorite Christmas album of all time, with John Denver and Muppets. I played it today as I ran my errands. While we did our decorating, we made sure to get some extra silliness in.

Little dude doing his best Holiday Ric Flair impression (WOO!)

Big dude realizing he is sadly too long to fit in the Christmas tree box.

And the finishing touches.

It was a good day.

You would be wrong.

And then you wake up to your husband’s 5:30 AM alarm (he’s on call this week) and smell something. Fortunately it really just smells like slightly overbaked pie and not the flames of death and doom licking at your toes. As you sprint to the kitchen you start doing the math. Pie should have cooked the last stretch for about 60 minutes. It’s now been 300 minutes. This is bad, very bad.

In the good news department I did get everything but the lemon bars done last night. And I still have three good pies. Even the buckeyes got dipped.

Even if you’re not American, if you’re reading this blog you’ve got something to be thankful for. (No, not this blog silly, you’re living higher than most of the world). I was thinking last night about what I was most thankful for.

My Family - everything in my life is better because of my husband and my amazing boys. I’m blessed by them everyday.

And Knitting - stay with me here. If it weren’t for knitting I would not have met all of the amazing people that I’ve become so close to - online and in the real world. It has changed my life, and for the good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So tomorrow I will get up early-ish and knock the rest of this out. It won’t really take that long. I remember being a kid and my mom used to do all of it - every last thing by herself. And there was tons of stuff on the table. I have no idea how she did it. She must have been Wonder Woman in disguise after all.

Well, I didn’t see much on page 27. Well I did see some things that made me slightly grumpy, but I got over it fast. And then I remembered. I hadn’t done my blogstalker yet this week. And blogstalker week ends today. So, it’s another double topic day!

What is your favorite breakfast? Oddly enough there was a picture of my favorite breakfast on (you guessed it!) page 27 of my flickr photostream. Chicken minis from Chick-Fil-A. Little fried chicken nuggets wrapped up in yeasty rolls with a sweet glaze. Nummers!

And the second question: What makes you into a human being in the morning? That is a bit more detailed. I get up a good 30-45 minutes before anyone else. I plurk, I shower, I check my normal online haunts quickly, and then I get up and fix breakfast and lunch for everyone. I get dressed, I try to squeeze in a spot of makeup. And finally, sometimes before I take the boys to school, but more frequently after, I get a bit of breakfast. But the thing that makes me human is the diet pepsi. It runs through my veins. I audibly sigh after I take the first drink in the morning. Scary, huh? Well you asked. Ok, technically the blogstalker folks asked. But you’re the one who’s still here reading after this near month of craziness. (And I love ya for it!)

Hey, maybe tomorrow we’ll have some knitting. That’s funny, isn’t it?

I’ve always been flighty. My mind runs at a million miles an hour, and I find it very hard to focus sometimes. And then when I do focus (like reading all four Twilight books in four days) I end up with a headache, a messy house, and what can only be described as a focus hangover.

So I’m trying to focus. The semester is nearly over, but next semester is gonna be tough. I have to suck it up and finally take Calc III. Which isn’t really that hard, except for I’m out of practice in the higher maths. I’m tired of school.

I also need to focus on my fiber arts. I want to design, dye, and make project bags. And I’m not sure I can do all three at the same time with any level of success. Bags seems more straightforward money-wise, but it’s also the most automated, and therefore has the potential to be the most soul numbing. Dyeing is really fun and good for my artsy side, but it’s a market that is filled with stars who are better with color and more creative with naming and the like. Tough.

I think I could be very good at the designing. I’m proud of everything I put out so far. But it’s very competitive and very hard to make money. Also the time and materials investment is kind of steep. Cherry Tree Hill is having a design contest. But to enter I have to buy a certain yarn (which will run close to $30 with shipping) and then design and submit the objects. I have to actually mail in the objects. It doesn’t say, but I assume I will get the objects back if I don’t win. If I do win, I could earn $150-$200 for the design, plus be reimbursed for the yarn. But the rights go to them. If I don’t win, I could self-publish the design, but it won’t be suitable for submission anywhere else because it will have been seen online. Conundrum, I’m telling you. And don’t even get me started on the crazy nonsense that it is to submit to a magazine. It doesn’t come out for like a year or two, and you have to wait forever to find out if you’ve been accepted, and in the meantime you have all the hard work that goes into a design just hanging in limbo and you’re not getting compensated. And won’t be compensated, unless it is accepted, or you self-publish it. Either way, you’re working for the 2010 paycheck.

I’m sorry. I was ranting there. But I’m confused. And there is so much to think about. And dagnabbit I am tired of thinking. Freaking exhausted even.

What kind of job can I get that I don’t have to think? At all. Ever.

Hey, you wanna see a little something I’m designing? That’s right. Skip to the cute picture. The official picnicknits washcloth pattern. I’m gonna edge it with some white lace - possibly crocheted. If you wanna knit yourself a nifty gingham washcloth, the free pattern for this puppy is coming soon to a blog near you. (Yes, this blog!)

I decided it was high time I use up some of that fabric I’ve been stockpiling. Many, many prototypes had been sewn, and I was finally happy with things, as I told you earlier this week. So this is what I ended up with…

Bighugelabs seems to be down today. So no fancy mosaic for you! Anyhow, I made bags. Twelve of them. And I plan on making more. This seems to be a good way to bring in a little money (I need yarn to design with!!) and they are actually quite fun to make. I see a trip back out to the mega quilt shop in Trenton in my near future.

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