December Deadlines

I know I'm a bit early, but I thought I would post about my December goals and deadlines!

Ok, so, the current Christmas Projects I have on the go right now are (in order of importance/deadline):

1. Dad's Socks (these will be finished by December 1st)
2. Hubby's socks (these MUST be finished by the evening of December 14th, or he'll be getting half of a pair of socks as he's on vacation and home every day from that point on)
3. Gramma's Tuscany (MUST be finished by mid-day December 20th so I have enough time to block it. We leave the evening of the 21st for her house. She lives 6hrs away from me, so it absolutely must be a finished gift)
4. Sarah's Blanket (Sadly, this is of the least priority on the list. I can see her whenever, and it has the least done of everyone else's gifts that live close by. If it were to be done by Christms, it would likely have to be done before the 14th, which is looking extremely unlikely at this point)

I may knit a toque for FIL on the car ride up north, but I also may be a little selfish and use that time to finish my birthday socks - we'll see - maybe I'll do both!

Projects for after the above list is done (maybe minus #4, as I don't really want to bring all that is needed for it on our trip):

1. Finish birthday socks
2. Finish my brown cabled hat
3. Do some work on Wisp (will do this unless I get some stuff I can't resist for Christmas - which I'm hoping is the case - lol)
4. Mittens for the Goof

That seems to be all! December hasn't even started yet, and it already feels like it's almost over! The knit crunch is on!

In other December/Christmas-y news - I only have 3 people left to cross off of my 26 person Christmas gifting list! Hurray!

Small update/Goals for the week!

I've been a bad blogger - but for good reason! I've actually been getting knitting done! I've managed to finish one of hubby's socks, and I'm currently 3/4ths of the way done the leg of my dad's second sock! Yay for sock/Christmas knitting progress! I've not managed to make much, if any, progress on Tuscany, but I should be getting into that after I've finished Dad's socks (he'll be getting an IOU for a second pair - no way I'll be getting another pair in for him before our Christmas exchange!).

As for goals for this week:

1. I WILL get Dad's second sock done (plan to be into the heel, if not finished the heel, by the time I go to bed tonight) by Friday night!
2. I WILL make some sort of progress on Tuscany
3. I will try to cast on for Hubby's second sock.
4. Set December goals/deadlines (will do this in another post)

Sad news...

This is going to be a bit of a sad post - no real good news to report, only sad/disappointing stuff.

I guess I'll start off with the least bad first. I had managed to work my way through the first 2 sets of repeats on the Ruby Tuscany. I was happy. It was moving quickly. That mistake I made in that first repeat - I thought I could handle it. I swore it wasn't going to bother me. Well, I looked at it this morning, and it drove me insane! Can we say "Ribbit! Ribbit". That's right. I frogged it. Have I mentioned how little time there is left between now and my knitting deadlines? Oh boy....

This next bit of news is something that is really saddening - my sister-in-law, she lost the baby :( I really don't know what to say. I want to try to do something for her and BIL, but I don't know what to say/do... I can't even begin to imagine. She doesn't want to talk about it at all - which I find to be totally understanding. I just feel the need to do something, I just don't know what :(

I think we may have a problem here...

Oh my... I have procrastinated on certain projects for much too long, and I now fear that I'm not going to be able to get all Christmas knitting done on time. 5 weeks left of knitting time. 5 projects to complete. Oh. Dear.

Hubby's socks and my Dad's socks won't be an issue, and I'm REALLY hopeful that Gramma's Tuscany should be done in time (Oh do I ever hope it will!), but it looks like my sister's blanket will be late. This = craptastically suckular, especially seeing as it's also doubling as her birthday gift. Tuscany is making me nervous as well - especially because I'm having such about of knitter's ADD/procrastination lately. All I want to do is knit socks (and Gramma doesn't really wear socks, and I don't think my sister would appreciate any at all!). Oh my! Hopefully finishing both of the Christmas sock pairs on the go doesn't further fuel the sock-knitting flame!

Oh, how I love knitting socks!

Bad Monkey!

Yes, I've been bad. I worked on my Christmas knitting for all of 30mins so far this week. Last Friday, I had tired of knitting for everyone else, so I cast on for a pair of socks for myself! They're all I've been working on - in between all the "catch-up cleaning" I've been doing this week.

I love them - they're things of beauty, and I've decided, they're my birthday gift to myself. So, I don't feel guilty for working on them instead of the other 4 projects I have to finish by the 21st (of Dec.) :P

Half of a FO

That's right! I finally finished that one sock!
I've also learned a new technique - kitchener stitch...

I'm just so glad to have this one sock done! I do have leftovers from this sock, so I know that there will be some from the other sock as well, which gave me an idea! Socks for Goober :) Perfect way to use up the leftovers so they don't end up kicking around in the yarn drawer for all eternity :)

After I finished the sock, I cast on for sock 1 of Hubby's sock. I've finished the cuff and am about an inch into the leg - hoping to get halfway done the leg today so I don't feel bad about not being able to work on it over the weekend.

Since I can't work on the sock, I'll use the majority of my weekend knitting time on the new Tuscany that I cast on for yesterday. Hopefully I'll manage to get a few repeats in this weekend!

Hurray for better days!

Today has been SO much better!

The yarn for Hubby's Gramma's Tuscany came in today, and it's BETTER than I expected! So, of course, I was SO excited about it, I HAD to start it! I love it, I Love it, I LOVE IT!!!!

Now, I would have LOVED to be able to knit this with the recommended sea silk, but unfortunately, the budget just wouldn't allow for a $75-ish whim. BUT, finding the PERFECT shade (this is her absolute FAVORITE colour, in exactly the right shade!), for $60 less - I'll take that!!

In other news, I have FINALLY started the toe of that darned sock! Yay! Should hopefully be done by the end of the night (fingers crossed!). Once that sock is done, because I'm starting to feel the time crunch coming, I'm going to go ahead and start sock one of Hubby's sock. I'll keep that as my day-time knitting (lovely mindless knitting that it is), and work on Tuscany in the evenings while Hubby is home. Yeah, I think that should work!