Fudge Friday

No, I'm not giving you fudge.

Instead, I'm taking a break today from posting patterns and I'm going to share one of my favourite Christmas songs instead.  It's from the album Almost a Full Moon by Hawksley Workman.  It's an album about Christmas instead of being a Christmas album.  It is mostly made up of non-traditional Christmas songs which some people might not enjoy because non-traditional Christmas songs tend to be terrible, but I really like it.

My favourite song on the album is called Learn How to Knit.  Since I don't know how to post the song without violating a bunch of copyright laws, I'm just going to post the lyrics and say that you should spring for it on iTunes since the song is only $0.99 (but if you manage to acquire it by some other means I promise I won't tell).

This song is so lovely in my opinion because it really captures the spirit of Christmas, the ideal of wanting to give absolutely everything in the world to someone.  But even if you don't have the means or the ability, it's always the thought that really counts.  Enjoy.  :)


Learn How to Knit

I don't have a cent this Christmas
usual it seems.
So I'm gonna learn how to knit

I'll knit you a sweater
I'll knit you a scarf
I'll knit a cigarette holder
I'll knit you an aeroplane to fly and meet me here
I'll knit you the nicest taxi cab to pick you up from the airport.
You get in.

I'll knit you some mittens
I'll knit you some socks
I'll knit you a cigarette holder
I'll knit you the perfect Christmas feast for us to share.
I'll knit you a setting sun that seagulls fly behind on the water

I'll knit you a blanket
I'll knit you a shawl
I might not knit anything at all
if my clumsy hands don't learn how to knit by Christmas day.
Would still invite me by to celebrate the day in the morning
if all I brought was a kiss?

A Parliament of Owls

Today's pattern is one that I've made a few times, with pretty good results.  It's called Cutest Little Owl and I really think it lives up to its name.  A few of my cousins had babies this year and I thought it was a great gift for them.  It doesn't take long to make, doesn't take much yarn, and can be made out of any number of adorable colour combinations.

The blue owl was the first one I made, it was for my cousin's baby boy, who I hear enjoys it (even though I'm sure he's too young to know what it is, or at least he was when he got it.)  The green and yellow ones below were for my cousin's two girls.  The green one went to the new baby and the yellow one went to her big sister (I always hated it when my little brother got a new toy and I didn't).  I hear the yellow one's name is "Amy", and once it was misplaced and had to be located before bedtime was allowed to happen.  (insert 'awwwww' noises here)

Anyway, I don't know how wise these owls are, but I would totally vote for them.

Exterminate!

Do I need to explain why this dishcloth is awesome?  I'm not going to explain, so if you don't know what this is, go watch some Doctor Who.  You won't be sorry.

This cloth was actually kind of a pain to make but it's because I was tired and rushed and using old cotton and I hadn't knit anything on straight needles in awhile.  The bobbles are a little annoying but they actually make a really good scrubby surface for washing dishes.  Anyway it was totally worth it.

Cold Feet

I really want to make this hot water bottle cover.  I've been meaning to get a hot water bottle so I can make an awesome cover for it, but I haven't gotten around to it.  My feet get ridiculously cold in the evenings, and the walls of my bedroom aren't insulated very well, which means that I dread getting into bed because the combination of the freezing sheets and my ice cold feet is not a good one.  I think this cover is super cute and it looks really squishy and cozy, and cables are so fun to do!  I can imagine it knit up in a lovely plush chunky yarn so it would be soft and lovely on my toes.

Actually, I do have a hot water bottle equivalent and it works pretty well, although it has a tendency to either complain about the extreme coldness of my feet, or bite them.  It looks like this:

I win at decorating trees

The Enabler and I put up our tree yesterday, in record time too!  The time it took to take it out of the box, put it together, fluff out the branches, string the lights, place all the decorations, and then clean up the boxes and fallen "needles", was just over an hour.  And we didn't even fight a little bit!  The first couple of times we put up a tree together were a real test on our relationship.  Between the tree assembly and light stringing it could get a little hairy, what with me telling him exactly what I wanted and how I wanted him to do it, and him doing it completely wrong (just kidding sweetie, love you!).  Our fourth Christmas together we solved the problem by me just doing it by myself.  Last year and this year however have gone much more smoothly, and we put up the tree together again.  I think it's because we finally splurged and bought a tree that isn't half broken, and we finally have enough working strings of lights that are all the same colour to actually wrap appropriately around the tree.  I don't know though, it could just be coincidence.

Today's pattern is another cute, quick and easy ornament.  In fact, it's actually called Cute Christmas Ornament.  I made a bunch of them last year, and it was really nice being able to put up a bunch of handmade ornaments this year well before Christmas, and not worrying about having to make a bunch more to fill up the tree.  Here are a couple of my favourites.  Please don't judge me for my barely-existent embroidery skills.

Latin 101

So now that I've spoiled you with stories for the last few days, I have to come clean and admit that I don't have a story for today's awesome free pattern, Opus Spicatum.  I just think it's a great looking hat.  I haven't made it yet but I totally have yarn in my stash that would work for it.

Also it's a fun name.  I didn't know what it meant so I just googled it and Wikipedia tells me that it is "a type of masonry construction used in Roman and medieval times. It consists of bricks, tiles or cut stone laid in a herringbone pattern."


See, knitting is educational as well as useful!  I should totally learn Latin.  Hmm...


Eethray eeksway unhayiltay istchrayasmay!


Genius.

Team Charlie's Mustache

I have a confession to make, and this time it doesn't involve wool.  I went to see Breaking Dawn last night annnnnnnd I kinda loved it.  Now before you judge me, I must explain myself.  Back when the first Twilight movie came out, I mocked it and all of its fans and avoided seeing it as long as possible.  And then I read this blog post.  It just sounded too hilarious to pass up (I must add that the writer of that post is a self-professed Twilight fan, by which I mean that she read all the books).  So The Enabler and I procured a copy of it and sat down to watch it one night.  We laughed our asses off but we were thoroughly entertained.  So when the second movie came out we were like, yeah okay, we'll give it a shot...  And it was also pretty entertaining.  Same with the third.  And now... well... I'm not sure what Breaking Dawn was exactly, but I walked out of the movie theatre kinda giddy and totally looking forward to the next (and last) one.

Another confession.  I haven't read the books so I don't know how it all turns out.  I tried to read the first book after seeing the first couple of movies and it didn't work out.  It's probably the only time that I've ever felt that the movie was an improvement over the book.  I couldn't wade through the pages upon endless pages of tortured inelegant descriptions about how beautiful Edward was and how painfully moody Bella felt.  After about a quarter of the way through I gave up.  So sue me.

So to get on with the point of all this...  Whether you love it or hate it, you can't deny the appeal of Bella's Mittens which were inspired by the mittens Bella wears in the first Twilight movie (The link to download the pattern is at the bottom of the post).  They are simple and elegant (unlike Stephanie Meyers's prose), and work up quickly using a heavier weight yarn.  If you've never tried cables, this is a great pattern to learn with.  The instructions say to use the magic loop technique, but I did it with 4 dpns, using the 5th needle as a cable needle and it worked just fine.

And yes, I brought my knitting with me to the movie.