Hail to the Redskins!

*

Another hat for another nephew's birthday:


His birthday is today, actually, but the party isn't until next weekend, so I hope to get a live-action shot of him wearing it then.

Specs:

• Yarn:
• * Main Color: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran 55/33/12% Merino/Microfibre/Cashmere in Brick (#611)
  
• * Stripes: Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL 50/50% Baby Alpaca/Merino in Pinewood (#010)
• Gauge: 4.5 stitches per inch
• Pattern: Cast on 96 stitches, join in round, K2,P2 for 1½", increase to 99 stitches and knit every round for 5", adding stripes as desired, decrease & finish according to Super Simple Hat Calculator
• Needles: U.S. size 8 Denise interchangeable circulars & Clover 7" bamboo DPNs

The main brick color is much closer to the required burgundy, it's just a little washed out by the flash in that picture. I do wish the color of the stripes was closer to Redskins gold, but that's a hard one to nail down. This will have to do.

Here's hoping that the kid likes it!

Today I spent a large part of the day downtown at the Convention Center, attending the Maymont Flower & Garden show. I took lots of pictures, and will most likely have a lengthy report about that on my gardening blog, but the extended report will have to wait, because tomorrow, I leave for a 3-day weekend at the beach with knitting friends, where I doubt I'll have internet access, so things will be quiet around here until Monday, most likely.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

*

Monday Afternoon Quarterbacking

***

Went to my parents' house yesterday for my Dad's 75th birthday. We all chipped in and got him a larger flat screen monitor for his computer, which is a giant upgrade over the tee-tiny 15" CRT he's had all these years. We ordered in pizza and I made a family favorite for dad's birthday "cake" -- Ho-Ho Pie., an ice cream and Hostess Ho-Ho pie in an oreo cookie crust. If there's enough interest, I'll post the recipe here.

While there, we watched the Redskins lose another game. They've apparently given up and are just going through the motions to make it through to the end of the season. My theory is that now that they're completely out of play-off contention, they're treating the rest of this season as next season's pre-season. Might as well give Jason Campbell as much experience as possible. He's young and quick and has "arm strength" and "foot speed" (phrases the announcers throw around far too often), but he lacks maturity and panics under pressure on occasion. And the wide receivers aren't used to the power of his passes -- the ball sometimes bounces out of their hands, often resulting in a detrimental turnover. So, for the third year in a row, this has now become a "rebuilding" year for my beloved 'Skins.

Okay, enough Monday afternoon armchair quarterbacking....


The Christmas knitting is coming along slowly but surely. I finished my mom's Christmas hat last week, and about 1/3 of the way on my dad's Christmas hat. Both are made from the Misti Alpaca Chunky I bought awhile back. Mom's hat is identical to my first roll-brimmed hat, although a bit smaller, since she doesn't have a pumpkin head like mine. I'm also using the same yarn for Dad's, but with 3x3 ribbing for a fold-up brim. I'll show pics of both when Dad's is finished. Yesterday, I worked on it while sitting right next to him watching the game -- he doesn't know it's for him, and by the time Christmas gets here, he'll have forgotten what I was working on yesterday. I've decided that if I have time, I'm also going to knit my mailman a hat. Probably just like my dad's hat. It's going to be a hatty Christmas. Last year was the year of the scarf. This year it's hats all around, which are so much quicker, especially with fat yarn and fat needles.

After the Redskins game and birthday festivities were over, my brother and his four boys played some touch football in my parents' back yard, which makes a perfect football field. I had fun watching from the sidelines while shooting pictures using the Sports Mode on my camera:



Alrighty, time to shower and hop in the car for a friend's Christmas party. Later!

***

We've had a week to mourn...

...it's now time to bury the dead.

(Generate your own tombstone here.)

The Party's Over....

***

The season is over for our beloved 'Skins, who lost to an obviously better Seahawks team yesterday, 20-10. (Stats here.) We had high hopes they'd go further in the playoffs, but I'm happy they made it this far, it being only Gibbs' 2nd season back as head coach. Third time's the charm, right? (Redskins fans are nothing if not optimistic.)

All was not lost, however, as we still enjoyed ourselves at a festive gameday affair hosted by Pat & Jenny. Par for the course when they host such an event, SIL Jenny went above and beyond the call of duty with her spread:

(and that's just the appetizers!)

While everyone gathered around Pat's shiny new tv to watch the play-by-play:

(The looks on their faces reflect the outcome of the game)

And the boys had fun playing football in the hallway:

Thanks, Pat & Jenny, for a lovely Saturday afternoon!

***

I think I'll go sit-n-knit again this afternoon with the ladies at Countryside Christian Church. I had a nice time last Sunday and expect the same today. One of the ladies, (Bunny, a crocheter), sells Mary Kay and is offering free facials to anyone who is interested. I will be getting mine this Thursday.

***

This Tuesday, the prayer shawl ministry at Bon Air UMC will be having their first meeting of the year, and I hope to attend.

In preparation for that, I stopped by Lettuce Knit on Monday to scout out some shawl-appropriate yarn. My goal was to get something as soft as possible. My first choice was silk, but that was a bit out of my price range, since I would need several hundred yards of it, and so I caressed it and then reluctantly put it back in the bin. I finally found something equally soft and nice -- a rayon, (boy, do I love rayon), in 550-yard hanks. I bought two hanks of it, which they kindly wound for me with their ball winder and swift. And so, without further ado, I give you:

Blue Heron Yarns' Rayon Metallic in "Cayman"

Blue Heron Yarns' Rayon Metallic in "Heather"

Unfortunately, they had a little trouble with the ball winder and had to wind the Heather into two smaller balls.

I think I would have preferred these yarns without the metallic in it, but I'm not sure if Blue Heron makes a non-metallic smooth rayon -- hard to tell from their website. It does show a shawl knit with rayon metallic carried with kid mohair. It looks lovely, but I'm not sure mohair is such a good choice for a shawl that may be going to someone who is dealing with illness, as mohair can bother even healthy people....

I believe I'll knit up a swatch of this later tonight to see how it'll do all by its lonesome....

***

GOOD NEWS!

***

Arrests made in Harvey & Tucker murders!

Many kudos to RPD!

***

And in significantly less important, but still very enjoyable news -- Redskins make it to their next playoff game, beating the Bucs 17-10!

Game stats here.

(I so wanted to headline this post as "The Bucs Stop Here", but then I heard about the arrests, so football will play second fiddle to that good news!)

***

The Boss, The Scunci & The 'Skins

***

Merry Christmas Eve to ME! ;-)

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!

Doggone it...

***

Redskins vs. Cowboys today (right now). I just can't miss that match-up, and I'm guessing the knitting group isn't going to have a tv nearby (or would approve of my distraction). And so, I'm going to skip the knitting group today in favor of watching the game and knitting here at home. Darn.

Next time, for sure!

-------------------

Update:

Washington pounded Dallas, 35-7 -- Hail to the Redskins!!!

This was definitely worth watching! (Game stats here.)

Just a quick Sunday evening post...

...because there's just ten minutes until I'm lured to the boob tube to watch Sunday night must-see tv: West Wing, Desperate Housewives, & Grey's Anatomy.

Watched the Redskins finally win a game (Hail!) earlier today, after three losses in a row. Perhaps we'll get a wildcard slot after all. We can only hope Joe Gibbs' heart-to-heart meeting with the key players earlier this week will stick with them through the next few games.

Watched SNL last night and my favorite comedian, Dane Cook was hosting. What a nice surprise! That guy is pee-in-your-pants funny, and has a new CD out, which I may have to purchase if Santa doesn't bring it. I first saw him a few years ago on Comedy Central Presents, and my favorite bit of his involves what he calls "Christ Chex". So irreverent, but so funny! I think his monologue last night was a hoot, but the "turtleneck sweater" sketch was also hilarious. I've been trying to Google a picture of that, but there are none, thus far. It would have been a stretch, but would have allowed this post to qualify as knitting-related! ;-)