Wacky weather, teaching, work and Christmas knitting

EDIT: For some reason some of you have had problems posting comments with the word verification thing... I changed my settings now and hope you won't have a problem anymore. Let me know if you do!

The weather has been so insane around here! We had snow on Saturday night/Sunday morning - it was a high of 30 during the weekend and on Monday. Then today it was 47 degrees and now tomorrow is supposed to be 60! I have no idea what is going on, but it's really annoying to have to be switching around between winter and fall clothes. At least now I get to wear my fingerless gloves some more. So yay! for that.

So along with crazy weather, I've been dealing with students every single day. This is my first time ever TAing, and it's already more work than I had expected! I get about 6-10 e-mails a day from students and professors and the class only has 25 people in it! At least I only have another week and a half of it and then I'm done. In the meantime, work's been crazy busy, my boss is out of the country for the next 3 weeks, and pretty much out of touch as well, so if I have any problems, I'm going to have to either hope to figure it out by myself or wait and put my project on hold. Not that I have any time to SPEND on my project with the TAing, but a girl can dream, can't she?

In more pleasant news, I'm excited about getting a Christmas tree this weekend (woot!) and about my Christmas knitting as it's coming along very well! I have started my sister's sweater dress. I'm waiting for some circular needles to come in so I can start the body, but the sleeves only took me a total of 1 hour or so to make, so I think it should be a pretty quick knit, which is oh-so-helpful now that Christmas is near.

I have finished the Koolhaas hat for my stepdad and hubby was nice enough to model it for me:





I really like how it turned out, and I really want to make one for myself... of course I'll wait until AFTER Christmas to do this! The orange is just the right shade of orange, too, I think. I love it! :)

So then I decided to start on my neckwarmer knitting. I'm making a total of 4 of them for Christmas this year - one for my sister (yes she gets one AND a sweater dress... she deserves it), one for my friend, my sister-in-law and my brother-in-law's girlfriend. Since it only took me one day (!) to knit this up, I'm pretty confident that I will be able to get it done on time. It's a great pattern, and I love how it turned out. I did mess up on the scalloped edge because I mis-judged the button placement of the center button and it's a little skewed to one side vs the other. I don't think it's that noticeable at all, though, and I know my sister won't mind!







Oh and the buttons are awesome no? I got them from an Etsy shop. They are handmade porcelain buttons! And, of course, I now want one of these neckwarmers for me! Yet another project to be left till after Christmas...

And just to prove that Kubrick really DOES love to get into every picture, here he is (just his paw) stretching up on me - I was kneeling on the floor. Yes, he is a silly pup!



Hopefully the next post will have my Christmas tree in it... I hope we can get it Friday night. :)

Welcome to the Holiday Season

The Holidays have finally arrived! The lights are up all over the city and Fifth Ave is just gorgeous, as it is every year! We're getting ready to set up our Christmas tree and my wardrobe consists of primarily coats, scarves, hats and gloves. Yup, it's winter! But the number one reason I know the holidays have arrived: I've been knitting up a storm and the gift countdown is on! My list is pretty long and I'm not sure how many gifts I will be able to finish, but hopefully enough so I don't feel like too much of a procrastinator!

I actually have finished one item so far, but I did start it last August (haven't worked on it since August, LOL) and just needed to do the last 20% of it or so, so I guess it's not TOO much of an accomplishment. It's a baby hoodie and it actually is NOT done, I still need to buy buttons for it! I'm hoping to get the buttons this weekend and be 100% done with it (notice the sleeping Kubrick on the bottom left corner... he always wants to be in a picture! haha!):





I like how it turned out overall, though we'll see how it looks on the nephew! :)

Next up, I'm working on a hat for my stepdad. It's the Koolhaas hat, and I'm really loving it so far! I need to make more of these hats for sure, they are SO nice! And, yes, it's orange, haha!



And finally, not Christmas Gift-related, but something I just HAD to share because as soon as it arrived, I started to drool. Drool, I tell you!



It's Tilli Tomas' Rock Star. 100% silk with glass beads. Just AMAZING to the touch. This one will be for ME... I'm too selfish to give this away after knitting it up! Close up:



Anyone jealous? ;)

Good luck to all the rest of you on your Holiday knitting!