Wow.

I have to say that I am in total agreement with the Yarn Harlot today. That version of "Christmas" doesn't mean much for me anymore. With the maniacal focus on consumption and the hubris surrounding the utterly petty semantics of "Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas", I am pretty turned off to the whole thing. Stephen Colbert has captured it well and kept me in stitches (ha, pun!). I have finally stopped feeling bad for admitting that the Biblical stories I was raised on are little more than mythology to me. As a Unitarian, I enjoy the traditions that were Pagan in the first place, and I plan to celebrate the winter solstice from now on.

These are things I think of when knitting up all those gifts (there will be pictures after they are opened). I have the great fortune of belonging to a family that will accept the homemade gifts and the sentiments they contain.

CR

Links galore!

I just ate an entire can of sliced beets. It was delicious, and beets have the most gorgeous little designs in them, thin white veins. Who knew?

I wish this post were more exciting, I really do. I'm just procrastinating. I'm working on graduate application stuff, and stuff like this always makes me stall out like an old bus. It's just too hard for me to put Big Goals into writing, much less get my brag on.

Few knitterly things to report. I'm in the midst of my first holiday gift knitting frenzy, or as Stephanie calls it, IT. IT is truly scary. Some projects haven't worked out according to plan, so there are last minute revisions...chunky yarns and drop stitch patterns are my BEST FRIENDS. I just hope I've pegged everyone correctly with colors and textures. I fret a lot over such things.

Eric completed his scarf and will guest blog soon to debut the masterpiece. I'm thoroughly impressed by his effort. When I wasn't around to offer advice, he consulted Maggie and the Bible, which is adorable.

I completely forgot that I joined a knit-along a few weeks ago. We're knitting Demi from Rowan Vintage Style and I swatched MANY contenders: 4.0 Donegal Tweed and Brora Softspun, both on a cone, both from work. Two shades of Tahki Donegal Tweed (the lively hunter and the Granny Smith pale green). None of these looked 'right', and I am not posting pictures because they are all hard to photograph tweedy shades of green.


I did pick a winner though, and I'm well into the bottom portion of the back. The winning yarn is a rather plain brown by Classic Elite. It's Skye Tweed in Pheasant, which is discontinued but ever so lovely. Speaking of pheasant as anyone read 'Danny the Champion of the World' by Roald Dahl?


It's a beautiful story, and now the sweater and it are permanently associated in my head.

The flecks are caramel and lilac, barely noticable but lovely. Buttons are a key element in this sweater, and I've found the perfect ones. They are rustic, floral and flecked with lavender, perfect for the yarn and pattern. And they smell nice!

Lexie photoshoot this weekend. The day before it, in celebration of the solstice, I will be doing 108 sun salutations at my yoga center. Hopefully this will land me in the right frame of mind to be all Zoolander on Sunday.

Over and out,

CIRILIA

Secret!

I am going to be a model for Lexie Barnes bags! The day after Halloween I sat down to send her an email with pictures of me in costume (I dressed as two prints from her bags) and I saw an email from her in my inbox with the subject line "New Catalog". I thought it was just going to be information about new bags, but she was asking me to be a part of her ad campaign. I'm nervous and excited of course and trying really hard to lay off the junk food, but diets and I just don't get along. The shoot is on the 18th and the ads will run next spring...in some of my favorite magazines, no doubt, eep!

In other news, Eric has stuck with the knitting! I suprised him with a really good closeout (some Jaeger Chamonix) and he is cranking away on a scarf.

He didn't want it to look too perfect, so I taught him how to make "holes" (not eyelets, too ladylike) and now it's looking like a more manly version of this scarf, which fits, because I'm pretty sure he'd leave me in a heartbeat for Scarlett, and I wouldn't even be that angry. Girl is a fox!
UPDATE: Boy wanted to add color. Not just any color. INTARSIA BLOCKS OF COLOR. This is so in line with other stories I've heard about ballsy dudes just jumping right into knitting, and I'm so inspired. Oh, and he also knit the entire time I was at yoga (2 hours!) and gave himself a sore neck =]

I've been having a really fun time obsessing over the purchase of beads for a sweater I won't really get to start (without massive guilt) for a long while. I changed my original choice (Rowanspun 4ply in Rumtoft) to Frog Tree Alpaca Sport Weight in a camel color, and then I played around with lots of different bead colors. Finally, I changed to this color of 4ply, Reed, and bought a whole heck of a lot of copper colored beads to match the flecks.

Hope your Sunday was wonderful,

Cirilia