I've received three Christmas Eve gifts already today:
Christmas Eve Gift #1: I had a dream this morning that I was standing, front row, at a private house concert by none other than The Boss, who was singing "Backstreets". Woke up in a great mood with that song (and that great piano-playin') still in my head, so I had to hear it! Come to realize that most of my Springsteen library is still stuck in the 80's -- either on scratchy albums or warped cassette tapes. I do have his Greatest Hits on CD, which I've ripped to my PC, but alas, "Backstreets" is not on that album. I've also downloaded quite a few of his songs, but again - not "Backstreets", for some reason. I quickly remedied that situation and started my Christmas Eve morning off right! Had to let Cara know that she's not the only knitter who dreams about Bruce anymore!
Christmas Eve Gift #2: Went to Target yesterday and spent far too much time and money in that store. And pooh on them -- the advertised Scunci steamer was nowhere to be found. It doesn't even look like they ever stocked it -- I didn't see a bare shelf where it once might have been. The only semi-decent steamer they had was made by Shark, so I purchased that. On my way home I stopped in CVS to pick up a prescription, and what do you think they had on their shelves? Yep - Scunci steamers. So I bought one and returned the Shark to Target this morning.
While roaming around Target I happened upon this display of faux hand-knit socks:
Who is Target trying to fool? We know these things were made on knitting machines attended by little Malaysian children forced into slave labor! And I also know that all you sock hand-knitters can do a much neater & nicer job than this! Sad.
Christmas Eve Gift #3: Blocked my dad's scarf with Scunci during the first quarter of the Redskins game, which they WON, by the way, 35-20 against the Giants who shut them out earlier in the season. A fantastic game and an especially sweet win.
(Hail to the Redskins, Hail Victory. Braves on the warpath, Fight for old D.C!)
But I digress....
What was I talking about? Oh yeah - blocking, as in a scarf, not tackles. Anyway, the steamer worked great, although I don't know that the scarf will be as wide as I hoped - that ribbing, you know. As I type this, it is rolled up in towels to dry and be protected from further lint acquisition, which is a real threat in this house. It's got until Tuesday-ish to dry because we're not having the big family gathering until Wednesday.
Here's one end of the scarf, pre-blocking:
where, as you can see, it's about 50 inches long, and about 4 inches wide. I didn't take any pictures during the steaming process because it's hard to hold a camera and a steamer while also trying to keep a wobbly ironing board from falling over, which it did, at one point, dumping steamer and scarf onto the cat-hair-covered floor -- arrgh! Spent the next 5 minutes picking lint and cat hair out of it. I did try to block the scarf's width to be around 6 inches, but I don't think that will "stick". Perhaps the towels will help keep it spread out -- we'll see.
I'll try to remember to take a picture of it once it's dry. Or perhaps a picture of it around dad's neck after he's received it.
Now I need to finish niece Jessica's birthday scarf and all my holiday knitting will be done!
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
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