So, my sinus infection never turned into bronchitis, I had beautiful, very merry, Christmas, and I've been knitting like crazy trying to finish all the items in my sidebar before 2004 opens. I want a nice, clean slate for the New Year, even though I'm going to begin projects that I've had around for a while.

I've decided to forget warmer knits all together and jump straight into spring and summer. First up is Core, the denim cotton cardigan reminiscent of a denim jacket that is part of the Rowan Treasury and was designed by the super-brilliant Kim Hargreaves. After that, I have a surprisingly long list, partly because...

I got some Cash For Christmas. I had a few dim thoughts about saving it, and then I was flipping through my copy of Vintage Knits this weekend. Naturally, I am COMPELLED to call Woodland Woolworks tomorrow for a Rowan Extravaganza.

I LOVE ROWAN!

Two years ago, at Stitches Midwest, when I bought my Rowan Recycled Chunky Tweed, I was SO HAPPY, because I never, NEVER, had an opportunity in my usual life to buy Rowan yarn. I don’t have an LYS anywhere near me for HUNDREDS of miles (or 130) and catalogs never had it available. This doesn’t seem to be true any more. Now, MOST of my catalogs have it, if only a little. The world is a brighter place.

Trivia: the character Lexa Doig (Andromeda!) plays in Jason X is named Rowan.

I'm sick of having a cold. I'm sick of being cold and I am sick of winter. I want it to be summer. I want it to be summer so much I am actually thinking of knitting myself a bikini.

WARNING: I finally decorated my tree this weekend and now suddenly, inexplicably, I am In The Christmas Spirit. I could break out in a Christmas Carol at any time. I also wrapped presents. This is something that frustrates me because I am So Bad at it. My packages always look like the work of a five-year-old who has had Way Too Much Cough Medicine.

My Ram Wools order came Friday with the yarn for the Folk Bags Camel Bag and the very nice little Paton's Street Smart booklet. I like three of the four designs in this book enough to make them, and I have yarn in my stash for each. However, in thinking of the immediate Knitting Future, I see that even if I finish the Silk Garden Cardy by the end of the year, I won't really have enough time to make another winter garment and be able to wear it this season. I've almost decided to do the Sashiko Jacket next, on the theory that I can wear it into semi-chilly spring. Then I'll start on spring and summer.

More yarn fortune. I drove a MILLION miles (or 70) to visit Cousin Lana today. She made us wonderful Cobb Salad Sandwiches and gave me the yarn I had her buy for me at Threadbear. I now have Lamb's Pride in Shotgun Season Orange for a Bucket O'Chic hat and three Kureyons for a Booga Bag. Lana selected for me the gorgeous #87 which features lime, LIME, and hot pink, HOT PINK. Also purple, which she liked so well she bought some for herself.

Bad news: my husband has been sick for three days and just a couple hours ago, I began to feel the tell-tale itch in the back of my throat. BRONCHITIS. That Was Not On My Christmas List. If you don't hear from me for a while, it could be that the holiday has me busy, or I'm lying around feeling sorry for myself.

Eeek! It's almost Christmas. I had planned only a very little bit of Christmas knitting and somehow I am still getting close to running out of time.

I have to finish the egg cozies. All the food for the goody basket arrived this week and I found the perfect decorative box to put it all in. (I wish I could find some egg cups.) I have to make a pair of snow-white mittens for a four-year-old to put with a copy of The Mitten, which should be arriving from Amazon any time now. This is the sweetest book -- I have bought it before as a gift for one of my nephews. I wanted to buy it for Braden particularly because it is based on a Ukrainian folk tale. He came to the U.S. from the Ukraine, adopted by our good friends, and his mother likes for him to have Ukrainian things. AND, lastly, I need to do the last bit of finishing on the Booga Bag #1, because I’ve decided to give it to my mother-in-law. Actually, I could do all this in no time if it wasn’t for the other stuff I have to do.

Oh yes -- I finished and felted my French Market Bag. It was an almost-complete success. My yarn felted shorter than the model yarn so my handles are a bit too short. My color scheme is fine, but the three bands of red colors from pink to midtone to dark look a little more Gap than I would have liked. I’m thinking about adding something -- embroidery (I do love the embroidery) or beadwork if the materials won’t cost me an arm and a leg.

One great thing about the French Market Bag: it is fashioned after a lantern basket and it sits flat and round. PERFECT for knitting out of -- which I am sure is what the designer intended.

Ooops! I spoke too soon. Both Thora and Catherine have notated they used Kureyon #115. Both of these look a lot different from mine and they look a good bit different from each other. Ah, the magic of Noro. (Mary’s looks a good bit like Thora’s but she didn’t say what color she used.)

Booga Bag #1 took three turns in the Heavy Duty wash to felt to size. It might have even stood another one, but the stitches had disappeared and it was at given finished measurements so I quit. I found the perfect box in the basement this morning to block it on -- the box my hair dryer came in. My husband thinks I am insane because I save every single box that crosses the threshold of this house. Crazy? HAH! Crazy Like A Fox. The surface of this felted Kureyon turned out to be a lot fuzzier than I expected -- almost mohair-y. It is very nice.

Check this out: Julie Anderson, the Woman Who Gave The Booga Bag To The World has compiled a Booga Bag Gallery. Are those not some beautiful bags? I don't see any others in color #115. Here are the ones made just by Wendy. I don't know what color my next Booga Bag is going to be because Lana picked it out. I told her I trusted her to select one I would like, and I do! I can't wait to see it.

Rowan Plaid is So Soft and So Pretty it deserves to be a lovely, chunky sweater worn right next to the skin. Alas, I have only two balls. But I wouldn't have those if I hadn't made a great trade with Kerrie -- some of my superfluous sewing patterns for her Plaid -- and now I'm going to have a Luxury Scarf. This color is Sea Mist, which is one ply of almost charcoal, one ply of almost taupe and one ply of almost blue-gray. Plaid is 28% “superfine” alpaca. I worship the alpaca.

For a good bulky yarn gauge, I have to use #13 needles, so I unearthed some rather ancient wood needles that were among the stash passed onto me by my husband’s grandmother. (Not his stepfather’s mom, who gave me her stash wool in red hues in a plastic grocery sack, but his mother’s mom whose stash included 3 pairs of vintage wood needles [#11, #13, and #15,] a pattern booklet circa 1930s and 2 garbage bags full of 50-year-old wool.) As I work with these needles, my eyes keep falling on a name written on the side of one in ink, “L. Clark.” I wonder who she was. She must have been a friend because I don’t know of any Clarks in the family. I may call my mother-in-law sometime and ask if she knows. I admit this woman who used to own these needles captures my imagination now and then and I’m curious about what SHE made with them. I, of course, am currently making a Plaid scarf in a simple broken rib pattern (1x1 rib alternated with a row of knit plain.)

Bottom of French Market Bag is done and I’m about one-fourth way up the side. I’m going to felt the #1 Booga Bag today sometime. May report later how it goes.

My cat thinks the Christmas tree was erected just for her to crouch under. I’m sure she appreciates the soft, snowy white cloth we laid beneath it for her comfort, too. I don’t know what she’s going to think when we have decorations and presents.

Lana called me Monday night and, after I got done expressing Shock and Awe that she has posted to her blog THREE TIMES in the month of December, she said, "I'm going to Threadbear tomorrow do you need anything?"

Leaving aside the many different ways one can define the word NEED, I posted her a list muy pronto. Today she reports that I will soon have in my possession more Kureyon for another Booga Bag and Lamb's Pride for a felted Bucket O'Chic.

In another incident of Good Shopping Karma, I had been putting off buying a new printer cartridge: then, I ran right out to get one when Bonne Marie posted the Bucket FAQs. THAT SAME DAY the new Knitty was released with a MILLION patterns I HAD to print. (Okay, six.)

As soon as I finished the Booga Bag knitting, I started the French Market Bag with some 20+ year old wool given to me by my husband's stepfather's mother. The bottom is claret, the middle will be scarlet and the top and handles will be pink. Unless the scarlet takes me all the way to the top and then no pink. I've got the bottom almost done.

I wanted some Cascade from Threadbear to make Flappers right away, but there were color issues that need to be resolved before I can start. I'm always wanting to felt with white....

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately. I've been in a mean mood and I’ve been trying to limit my interpersonal contact so No One Gets Hurt. A bit perkier today, but I should probably apologize in advance for any grouchiness that may find its way into this entry.

A work friend hosted one of those fancy food parties this week and I bought lots and lots of spices, mixes, sauces, etc to make a Christmas gift basket for my husband's father and stepmother. While I was thinking of other things to throw in (candles, little Heath toffee bars) I remembered the soft-boiled egg cozies in Weekend Knitting (photo featured in Seattle Times' harsh book review.) I don't really know anyone who serves soft-boiled eggs in little cups, but I thought the mini-sweaters were funny. I've finished one, and while I'm certainly nowhere near Minako's league (her work is rather like art), I think it is pretty cute.

Coincidentally, that same Seattle Times article begins with a review of Stitch N'Bitch, a book I inspected while shopping yesterday and decided not to buy. It seemed most of the text was devoted to Knitting Instruction. Not only do I already know all that stuff, I have at least five books already with that same information. I did like the patterns a lot, but I quailed a bit when I saw one of my favorites was designed by the woman who thinks a 40” sweater should be a size XL. This book also inspired me to include, along with “funky,” the word “hip” on My List of Words That Really Irritate Me.

Speaking of Standardized Sizing in Knitting Patterns, my new issue of Knitter's indicates they haven't gotten the hang of it yet. According to their fancy new Specifications Charts, Standard Fit is bust size plus 2-4". At 34" that places me in the range of 36-38" for Standard Fit. Pattern Cinnabar, the only one in the magazine I looked at three times, 34 1/2" is a Medium and 38" is a Large. Fine, except in pattern Vermilion, which I liked okay, 34 1/2" is Extra-Small and 38" is Small. Both are tagged "Standard Fit." What is the point of giving them size designations at all? I think there is No Point to size designations. The idea of including fit information in patterns was a Great Idea. With that information, and the finished measurements, I feel I can choose what size to make. This XS, S, M and L nonsense is making a mess of things.

Eeeek. In proofing this post I see I accused the Seattle Times of being harsh to Weekend Knits, then I myself was rude to Stitch N’Bitch. I criticized poor Melissa Lim for calling 40” a Large, then said I thought size designations were foolish. I was going to close with a promise to post more often in the coming week. Perhaps I should promise not post again until I feel a little less Lucy.

Watched After the Thin Man last night as the Booga Bag commenced. At the end of the movie, Myrna Loy, as Nora Charles, is knitting on the train and she holds BOTH her needles pencil-style. I think that is the only time I've seen that. She's throwing her yarn like a champ, though, so even though the WIP we see (the foot of a baby sock) couldn't really be knit on the straight needles, it seems like she did know how to knit.

I may get my Booga Bag all knitted tonight. This Kureyon is color #115, which is very lovely: plum and forest and very dark blue and other stuff. I can see why these bags are addictive. It is easy and soothing to knit and Kureyon is, well it is KUREYON. What more is there to say? I can't wait to see it felted.