Three on Thursday

Three very random and very brief things this Thursday -

1.  I have finished my Christmas shopping.  Both gifts and groceries. I can not express how happy that makes me.  The shopping experience isn't over yet though.  Today, my husband and I are going on our annual 'Christmas shopping ordeal.'  The tradition started when the kids were young.  Grandma would keep the kids overnight and Mike and I would spend the day shopping and having an adults only, child-free, alcohol fueled meal somewhere.  It was great fun.  Over the years, the day has morphed into lunch and my husband starting his Christmas shopping.  Yes, starting! he's starting his shopping on December 21st.  It makes me insane.  The day usually ends with a big argument and me sitting in a food court reading while Mike wanders aimlessly around the mall muttering about not knowing what to buy, how much things cost and how empty the stores are.  It's sort of miserable, but it's also our tradition.  And of course, the holier-than-thou martyr in me enjoys the misery just a tiny bit.

2. I was at the grocery store yesterday buying everything we could possibly need to see us through Christmas.  Just so I wouldn't have to make another trip, I even bought an entire basil plant instead of the few sprigs that were needed for a Christmas Day dish.  While wandering the vegetable section I noticed a gigantic bag of carrots.  Craziest thing I've ever seen.  Twenty five pounds of carrots for $19.99.  Who in the world needs 25 pounds of carrots at one time?  I really, really wish I'd taken a photo.

Three FOs

3.  I've finished knitting a few things.  I finished One For the Books, the Strickplaner cover.  I'm not crazy about the way the self striping yarn striped but it's a knitted book cover that fits!  I'm in total awe of this pattern.  I've also finished a pair of fingerless mitts and a striped cowl.  Now I just need to come up with a #ChristmasEveCastOn project.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and joining up with Carole's Three on Thursday link-up.

A Christmas Miracle

It just may be a Christmas miracle!

One For The Books Strickplaner cover

My One For the Books Strickplaner cover is actually turning into a book cover! 

One For the Books - inside cover

An ugly book cover, but a book cover none the less.  I'm not thrilled with the way the stripes are working out but it's good enough for a practice cover.  If this really works and I actually end up knitting a workable book cover, I can always knit another, with prettier yarn.

Christmas cactus

And the true Christmas miracle - last year's Christmas cactus survived an entire year under my care and is blooming again!

One For The Books

Remember my Strickplaner?  I finally started knitting a cover for it.  The pattern is called One For The Books. 

One For The Books

So far, so good, but I'll be the first to admit - I'm totally knitting on faith here.

Knitting a book cover.

It's like knitting a sock heel for the very first time.  There's just no way the instructions can be accurate and you feel totally lost and confused.  But you follow the instructions, re-reading each line 18 times, and you just take a deep breath, tell yourself it's only yarn and time, and you blindly follow the instructions and try not to over think it.

I HOPE I'm knitting a Strickplaner cover.

That's exactly how this One For The Books book cover is going.  I'm just blindly following along, totally confused and without a clue how what I'm knitting is going to turn into a book cover.  And so far, so good... but I am confused about the shaping I'm getting on the inside of the cover.  If it turns out that I've misread or ignored some terribly important part of the pattern and I'm actually knitting a weirdly shaped football instead of a book cover, well.... It's only yarn. 

And if you're curious, I'm using old yarn from deeeeeep down in the stash pile.  It's Lion Brand Magic Stripes in the Denim Stripes colorway.  The price tag on it says it came from Ben Franklin which closed over ten years ago.  I'm very proud of myself for using stashed yarn instead of buying something new.  My self-imposed yarn diet is going well.

Join me over at Frontier Dreams for today's #craftingon link-up.

2018 Plans

Christmas day can not get here fast enough! I love Christmas and I've been fighting the  urge to listen to Christmas carols and decorate, specially since we've been experiencing an unusually cold cold-snap for the last few days.  I've been in the 'Forget Thanksgiving, let's be Christmassy' mood for several days now.  But, as excited as I am/was for Christmas, now, I'm just excited for December 25th.  I know, I know.  Ordinarily December 25th would mean Christmas, but this year, Christmas is being outshined by....

Orange blanket and a Strickplaner

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The start of my new Strickplaner.  It starts on week 52 of 2017, which just happens to be, December 25th.

Have you heard of the Strickplaner?  Oh my!  You MUST check it out if you are a knitter or crocheter.  I first heard about it from Wendy Knits.  Her Meh post was the most exciting thing I've come across on the web in a long, long time.  First, Wendy announced that I'd won Knit Mitts and then she proceeded to introduce me to the Strickplaner.  Before I even finished reading Wendy's post, I went to the Strickplaner site & purchased a 2018 planner.

Strickplaner is german for knitting planner and let me tell you, this little book is THE perfect planner for knitters!  I haven't taken pictures of the inside of mine because the Strickplaner website does a great job of showing you the details.  But please, take a look.  They have both photos and a couple of short videos. 

If you are a knitter (or crocheter) and use any kind of a planner, this just may be THE planner for you.  The planner is great for all knitters (& crocheters) but it is simply Fantastic for knitters who make money (or wish they made money) from their knitting.  

Besides a normal weekly calendar with space for appointments and to-do lists, the Strickplaner has goal setting and tracking pages and a bullet journal styled section for keeping up with patterns, yarn purchases, projects, contacts, lists and blank grid styled pages.

Oh, and did I mention, there's a Free pattern for a knitted book cover that comes with it?  

Is it any wonder I'm practically pee-my-pants excited for December 25th?

And nope, I'm not affiliated with Strickplaner in any way, other than that I am the proud owner of one and can not wait until December 25th to begin using it.  And you can bet, if I ever finish knitting Sarah's orange blanket (which I'm starting to wonder about,) the very next thing I begin knitting will be a cover for my Strickplaner.  I can't wait!

As a side note, after typing this post, I will forever be confused about how to spell 'planner' correctly.  

Join me over at Frontier Dreams for today's #CraftingOn linkup.