December 2010 | Himiko No Sekkai

So, one of the secret presents has been opened. Time for some sharing I think.

As you may or may not be aware my husband of sorts is one of those IT people. Surely you know them. They are never seen without their laptop or PC or other pieces of hardware ... not unlike conjoined twins actually . Furthermore they always claim to be "just five more minutes honey" on those computers before they get glued to the screen for hours on end.

They also tend to work in places where other IT folk hang out. So does my husband. A workplace filled with IT folk. And a Christmas tree and a party with the cunning plan to buy ,make or have something made for a fellow IT person.

As I'm not so much into IT -to me it's more of a nuisance with perks- I opted for some crafting. This crafting to be precise:

drupal bag

Hey, it's a bag with a funny drop on it! Congratulations, you're obviously not into IT.

Hey it's a bag with the Drupal logo on it! Congratulations, you're a real IT person.

Indeed, I made a drawstring bag featuring the logo -made in felt- of the computer programming language that my husband and the fellow IT man work with. Very exciting for IT lovers.

I then filled it with the newest mascot in town:

felt bunny blue

A cute bunny in the Drupal color. Very exciting for everyone.

felt bunny and bag

I can also let you know that the fellow IT person was very happy and excited with this IT-craft combo and so now I can rest my weary head in the knowledge that all is well in the land of IT.

Because let's face it, I may not like IT myself but I definitively need someone who does in order to repair my trail of PC destruction that I tend to leave behind. Yes, that would be you husband of mine!

1068 ... a fascination with Henry I of England perhaps?

Nope, I don't think so.

1068 ... trouble starting your remote access auto connection manager or print spooler in Windows XP?

Nope, I don't think so.

Then what good woman? Then what is it with 1068?

Well, 1068 is the number of loose ends that I'm weaving into my granny square blanket.

Are you kidding me? Did you count them all?

Well yes. And no. Some rudimentary math you see.

Anyhow.... this is how it looked

granny square crochet blanket

And this is how it's looking now

granny square blanket

I'm pleased. Ever so pleased. And what's more, there's only about a row and a half to go. By tonight all will be done. And by Christmas I'll be huddled inside this swell blanket... armed with a crochet hook to get started on a new one. Yihaa!!!

Well, first I went off into the snow...

snow

Only just down the road and back but off in the snow nonetheless. The girls are having a blast with so much snow and frost this year. Back in the day when I got them their snow boots I figured they'd be useful for a day or two each year but it looks like they'll be worn out by the end of the winter. Hah!

Shall we start dreaming of a white Christmas?

And then, I indulged in some chocolate.

chocolate

It just keeps beckoning me. How odd is that?

And before and after some persisting ear infections, soar throats and nasty coughs I did manage to put in some work of the crafty kind. Unfortunately most of it is also work of the secret kind so there's little to share ... for now that is. Once Christmas is done and dusted, I'll do a retrospective.

But until then, these bits and bobs are not so much of a secret.

A Christmas bunny under construction

felt bunny

felt bunny sewing

And a tiny snowy man

felt snowman

To give you an idea of how tiny, his head is made of a felt ball measuring about 1 cm in diameter. What possessed me to start embroidering on that you ask? Well, I still ask myself that question. So far I haven't really come up with an answer. Perhaps you have one...

This weekend was one of the crafting of a different kind. Just about the best invention in toys has been discovered by the oldest little lady of the house and so we spent a weekend constructing a small town. With it's own bus! How cool is that?

lego bus

Wow, I need to hurry to the bus stop or I'll miss my ride...

I'm in a lazy mood. It takes me forever to get going in the mornings and apart from household chores just about nothing gets done.

I blame the snow and cold.Not sure why precisely but it's making me lazy. Maybe it's because it slows down regular life so much -even walking goes slow- that it's making me think that I've got all the time in the world. And we all know that is rather relative... for heaven's sake, the year is almost finished and it only just started like a second ago. In any case the day is over before I can blink and all on my to-do-list is still there.

All except this. I did manage to finish this pillow.

granny square crochet cushion

But that's as far as productivity went this week. I also blame the pillow. The colors remind me of Mongolia. To be more precise the yurts on the highlands of Mongolia and the colorful pompons in the hair of the little girls living in those yurts in Mongolia. And then Mongolia reminds me of the cold and snow both in Mongolia and my garden. And that makes me slow down and think I've got an endless supply of time in the day... making me ever so lazy.

I swear, all this cold has frozen my brain.

Another cardigan knitted.

Another one that looks remarkably like the ones already occupying the wardrobes of the girls.

granville cardigan

But I can explain.

You see, they like this model of cardigan -yes, well spotted, it's that Granville again- so much that they requested one more. Each that is. Because if you have two girls, all comes in pairs. Anyhow, for the sake of variation I went for double alpaca instead of récup.

Wow, how daring a move is that, right? Well it did mean that I knitted this on needles size 5mm instead of the 6mm I use for récup. Hence I knitted the cardigan in a larger size in order to end up with the width of the smaller size yet the length of the larger size. And by leaving out the pockets this cardigan now resembles my own Zadig cardigan rather a lot.

granville