The Wave Has Rolled In

Print O' the Wave Stole is Done! Fin!

I want to shout it from the highest building, "Done! Done! It's Done!" I love it, after aggressively blocking, it went from a brown lumpy mound to perfect undulating crests and a coral patterned center. When I wear it, it feels really soft and ethereal, like I have wings made from dew. Sorry, you have to bear with my corn, I am drunk with love.

If you want to feel the same elation, you can make your own, it really wasn't hard. The designer was Eunny Jang. The free pattern can be found here on her blog. I wanted a wider stole so I made one extra pattern repeat to have 5 repeats in the middle, instead of 4. It needed no real adjustment with that change. Some people also made one long piece, instead of 2 symmetrical pieces to be grafted together later. But I liked the symmetry and it was worth the work. I used Rowan Kidsilk Haze and size 1 needles, tricky to knit with (mohair is slippery), but the end product is so worth it. You don't have to listen to me though, I'm an admitted Kidsilk Haze addict. I also broke three size 1 bamboo needles in the process. I finally learned my ways and bought a Japanese brand bamboo circular needle, it worked great.

I like this shot of the corner border best, even though it is blurry.
It also is closest in color to the real stole, which is a soft brown.

Santa Claws!

Santa Claws, a giant chocolate lobster, the most unique present received.
Can you tell the gifter was from Maine?

My sister and bro-in-law was nice enough to have us over for Christmas and I was very happy with my presents (except hubby's, I'm exchanging his...shhhhh). My sister made up a fun game for the present opening based on the game show: Are you smarter than a fifth grader? My parents surprising really got into it. We viewed A Christmas Story countless times, there was a 24 hour marathon on tbs. The highlight of the last viewing was when my dad exclaimed the punchline in Chinese, when I explained what the boy wanted for Christmas: "He'll shoot his eye out!"

I finished off hubby's Space Invaders Socks on Christmas Eve. The socks were so soft after they were washed and dried. The high score sock (on the left) was looser than the first, the design made it harder to keep the floats in the back even. I already saw complaints about this on other blogs. I also wimped out on sewing in the shooter, it was blinding to try to sew in the little v's of the stockinette stitch on black yarn. I think hubby liked them, he wore them for a while after they were finished.

I was in a slump for a while, we've gone to a lot of funerals this year, the last one being one of the most painful, and my job was still uncertain. But, unexpectedly there came a surprise, I got a call several weeks ago, when I was at home sick with a very bad cold (I couldn't stop coughing for days + nights even with cough medicine), and my manager told me I was promoted. I thought that was an early Christmas present, and made me think that things may start to look up for the new year.