Chickenlips Knitting

'cause I loves to do it!
















Generic, no-frills handwarmers which I sent to the MIL in Spokane...it gets bitterly cold up there, and though in her late 70's, Mom still goes out every day to feed her horses. Thus these mitts had to be machine washable, which Bliss Cashmerino Aran is. I hope they'll be warm enough.

I also turned out a couple more items:





















My first pair of Fetching. (It's a good thing I'm not trying to make a living as a hand model--I'll keep my day job, thank you very much!) Clearly they're too small for me, but the fact is, I made them for another co-worker. These ladies are Desktop Publishing/Formatting specialists, so rather than poring over documentation wielding a red pen as I do, they spend their entire work days at the computer, working in such esoteric media as Quark and InDesign. In a drafty computer lab and office building with wildly varying temperatures, cold hands is a common complaint.

Oh, yeah, the mitts! I used Nashua Creative Focus for the first time. What a lovely yarn--wool and alpaca. Feltable, but I probably wouldn't use it for that. It feels wonderful, and not the least bit scratchy.

The other item is also knit from a free pattern--I do have at least a binder full of single patterns I have purchased, but with the abundance of free patterns online, I enjoy not only knitting them up, but also hunting for them! Besides Knitty and Mag Knits, I love Knitting Pattern Central. It's the most comprehensive source of freebie patterns for making great stuff that I've found yet. If you visit it, and go to Scarves, Shawls and Stoles, it's the "Lacy Scarf." I'm very pleased with how it came out. I used 2 balls of Trendsetter Yarns' Dune, which made a 40" scarf with angled edges. Needs a little light blocking to make the edges lie flat, but otherwise, it's soft and twinkly--an unbeatable combination, if you ask me.

Chickenlips, you've got some 'splaining to do...

We have two cars: both late '90's models, both Chevrolets, both paid off. That said, they both have a lot of mileage on 'em, and my spousal unit and I are wondering a) how long the higher-mileage one (the one I drive) will last before we have to replace it, and b) how much of a car payment we'll be able to afford. And that said, today I bought the aforementioned spousal unit a $2,000 electric guitar for Christmas.

I shall now pause to allow my cherished readers--both of them--to absorb that last statement.

OK, it's not just for anybody, it's for the guy to whom I said in front of God and everybody that I did and I would. And it's not just an electric guitar, it's a Gibson Les Paul 1960 reproduction. Maple body, mother-of-pearl inlay on the fretboard, pickups designed to give it a sound on the funky side of classic, and the thing weighs a metric ton. To give you an idea of what it looks like, click here. Our daughter, the lead singer in her dad's band and the next incarnation of Storm Large, knew exactly what her dad's dream guitar looked like, and everyone working at Guitar Center this afternoon assured me that they would in fact crap themselves if they found this guitar under their tree. At this moment, I am optimistic that I can pay it off within the 12 months of the credit agreement--and even though every rational brain cell I possess tells me it's a wildly extravagant gift, I still want to give the man something he dreams about having. He did that for me; after all--he made it possible for me to have a college education, and consequently qualified for the job I now have.

And one last thing, perhaps the most important: he beamed like a little boy last Christmas when I gave him his first electric, a $150 Fender Strat. Now I can't wait for Christmas morning, to see how happy he will be to see this present. In a way, it's a present for me, too.