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You may remember that I have a small collection of elves that show up every year at Advent.  Well this year I have continued to add to the collection with some little holiday themed gnomes.

The thing is, if you do a gnome in red and green, is it still a gnome or is it an elf?

Does the gnome nature depend solely upon it’s presence in a garden?

In Harry Potter, the Weasley’s dress up a garden gnome and use it as the angel on top of the tree.  Are they then of the same short statured origin just with different names?  Hmmm….

Regardless of what you call them, the gnomes from Never Not Gnoming are addictive to knit.  They are fast with an easily memorized pattern.  It’s perfect for using up all the little tiny balls of yarn that are leftover from knitting socks, or for the mini skeins that some of us collect.  Each new combination of yarns is even more cute than the last.  That gray mohair beard?  Adorable.  I think he looks like the gnome version of one of the ZZ Top guys.  I think I’d like to see a strand of mohair held with the fingering weight yarn.  Short beards, long beards, dark beards, or light; they’re all adorable.

I’m planning on teaching the Here We Gnome Again pattern as a shop class.  Which means that I need to get rolling on making more gnomes.  I can only imagine that they will be as much fun to make.  I’ve also got a few quick knits going for Christmas presents and an Advent calendar scarf which I am woefully behind on.  ‘Tis the season where I blissfully cast on new items with the hope of having them done by the time we celebrate.  And let me tell you,  making Christmas presents gets harder the older the girls get.  It’s not that they are picky (they’re really not), it’s that they stay up so late!  I’ve taken to hiding and knitting at night so that I can get something done without them knowing.  Sigh… who knew parenting teenagers was so fraught with peril!?

 

 

 

I don’t complain about the heat much.  In fact, I’m much more likely to run to the cold end of the spectrum rather than the hot.  But seriously, Lake Superior could turn up the AC a little this week.  When I got into the office yesterday morning the temp upstairs was running around 90 degrees F.  It only went up from there.  A chocolate bar I had in my desk melted.  Melted.  All on it’s own.  Without being in the sun or being touched by a human.  I was melting.  While this might be normal for other areas in the country (or even the state), this is not normal for this close to Lake Superior.  We don’t have air conditioning in much of the housing stock because the lake tends to supply us with all the cool air we could desire.  (and then some!)

Which is kind of ironic since I just finished a sweater.  And by finished I mean the knitting is finished.  I need to graft the underarms and sew on buttons and weave in ends.  But essentially, it’s done!

And it might be my new favorite sweater.

I kind of want to cast on another one right away!  I’m sure I need at least one or two more of the Carbeth Cardigans, and maybe one Carbeth Sweater.  It’s entirely possible that I have the yarn already in my stash.  (I may have even pulled out enough yarn for another one two last night)  Honestly, these do not take that much yarn.  The knitting on this took me 2 weeks.  Four days of that I was in the Boundary Waters knitting on socks instead of sweaters.  Granted I did knit sleeves in the car on the way up and back but did not take the sweater in the canoe because it was just too bulky.

Before I can knit another Carbeth, I have all the other big bulky things to finish knitting.  Just when you don’t really want anything large on your lap…  I’ve got child sweaters, and blankets, and big cowls, oh my!

The red is a child sweater that I’m working on.  More on that a little later when I come to terms with my lack of ability to measure gauge.  It was a very patriotic type of knitting weekend!

Before we went camping in the Boundary Waters, I finished and blocked these socks.  They are the Smooth Operator socks.  This pattern has become my go to sock knitting pattern.  Mostly because I can now do them without looking at the pattern.  They make for easy peasy lunch time or movie knitting.

(It’s possible that my foot model has outgrown her gig.)

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Hi.

I like you.

I think you’re probably pretty funny.

Yes, I mean you.  The one that’s staring at this from the other side of their computer screen.  No, don’t take that literally, I don’t mean the back side of the computer.  I mean that you take the time to read what I write.

I think you’ve got a really good sense of humor.  You read what I write anyway and I think you keep coming back.  Which implies a certain sense of humor.

You’re still there, right?  I haven’t scared you off?

So this is awkward, but could you maybe please leave me a message and let me know you’re actually there?  Just go down to the bottom of this post (or any post) and click on the button that says “0 Comments.”  You might have to type in your name, but you could probably leave a fake name and I would never really know.  Unless your name is “Bob TheMinion,” then I’ll assume it’s my 8 year old leaving me a comment.  Leave whatever comment you want.  You don’t have to tell me that I’m funny or not funny.  Talk to me about knitting.

Tell me that you’re listening.

Ok, now that the awkwardness is over, I’ll get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

What I’m Knitting

I finished the 2nd gray cowl last week and gave it to the recipient in time for a decent size snowstorm.  By decent, we got about 4 inches during the day and another dusting with blowing snow that night.  So not a huge storm by any stretch of the imagination but enough to make driving sort of crummy.

I cast on a sock during a road trip last weekend.  Socks really are the comfort food of knitting for me.  I hate to say it, but these are white and gray – with little flecks of color.  It’s sort of a vanilla sock pattern with a variation of my very own.  More about that later.

In direct contrast to the whole lot of gray that I have been knitting, I also cast on a pair of Stay On Baby Booties in lime green for a new baby on my husband’s side of the family.  These are my go to pattern for babies feet.  The pattern is in Knitting for Baby.  Lots of these little shoes have been made and they really do stay on baby’s feet.

What I’m Not Knitting

• The sweater… for no real reason except I guess I want to knit on something that feels like progress is being made.
• The hat for Addie…. again for no real reason.  I’d better pick it up again soon since it’s really almost done.

Knots & Tangles

Not knots or tangles this week.  But then again, there probably hasn’t been enough knitting to run into any problems.  I just finished up a big project at work, so hopefully I’ll have the bandwidth left at night to knit more.

Loose Ends

I had somewhat of a wild hair last week and started checking out knitting retreats and gatherings.  I haven’t been to any knitting classes in some time.  I looked into one in Madison, WI but decided that the cost of the hotel room I would need for 2 nights plus the registration fee made it more than I was willing to spend.  Then I remembered Yarnover.  Yarnover is hosted by the Minnesota Knitters Guild and is only about 45 minutes away from my in-laws house.  A day long class with Franklin Habit was open!  (I’ve met him before, but I go slightly fan girl in the presence of funny knitting bloggers)  Since the hubby works the weekend of Yarnover, I arranged to stay with my in-laws and have the kids hang out there for the day.  Problem solved!  Knitting enabled.  The list of vendors is pretty amazing, so I’ll have to save my pennies.

Now I should probably tell my husband about this plan…. Right?  I should tell him?