Christmas Recap

I love going home to my parents' house! It's not because of the gifts, or the food - it's for the years worth of stories. This year was no exception in the story department!
My hand knits were well received, and much gushed over by a few specific people. I, or course, failed to get many FO with recipient pictures. I did get Mr. Ship with his socks though!

He is such a dork. Mr. Ship also received an "Emergency Jail Kit" since he is so "bad-ass". Included was a doo-rag, candy cigarettes, nail file/shiv, harmonica, metal cup, soap on a rope, "prison approved porn" (Victoria's Secret Catalog), and a mirror - among other things. Since we open our presents on Christmas Eve at about 1 am, the family is usually pretty slap happy by the time we get to the funny gifts. It isn't hard to get your brother to try on his Prison Survival Gear at 2am.

It also isn't hard to get your Dad to try on the "Learn to be a Princess" accessories from the joke gift you got your Mom.

Then you stop taking pictures because you are laughing so hard you think you might die when your other brother puts on his new "old fashioned" motorcycle goggles with his half helmet, that just happens to have a red Mohawk down the center. When the laughing subsides, you start to relive the evenings events for brother #1, since he was at his Fiance's house earlier. This year he missed going to Grandma R's. It is too bad because this year is the year my family decided to cause trouble.
Uncle Gene's family sits on the only couch in the basement every year. They ALWAYS sit on it. My family decided to see what would happen if we infiltrated the couch. Mom went first. Then I took another empty spot when one of them got up to get food. On and on it went. The whole night we were giggling like kids, gene's family was wandering around trying to decided what to do, and The rest of the people at the party were completely confused. You had to be there to truly appreciate the chaos we caused. It was great.
Now we are all wide awake, and our sides hurt from laughing, so we decided to make popcorn in Dad's new Popcorn cart. At 3am. Yep. All of us watched the second half of A Christmas Story and ate popcorn until 4am. Then we got the Christmas dinner ready so we could go to bed. Nothing beats sleeping in until 11am when guests are coming at noon! All we had to do was pop in the side dishes, The turkey was already cooking, all the sides were prepared to go in the oven, the potatoes needed to be cooked and mashed. It was awesome. Sleep deprivation makes everything funny - even Aunt Florence.
I received some very nice gifts this year, especially from Evad. He rocked the gift giving world with an Immersion Blender, an Aero Garden, and YARN! He also gave me two knitting books I have been lusting over - GlamKnits and Knitting Lace Triangles. Then the yarn kept coming! Princess Evangeline gave me yarn too! There is nothing like the scent of Christmas balls and cones!

The two cones of lace weight and the teal lace weight bison (!) yarn are from Evad. The rest is from Princess Evangeline. I am one lucky knitter!
All in all, we had a great Holiday this year. The gifts were great, but the laughs and fond memories will be what endures.
Till tomorrow!

All Hail Mr. Ship!

Things have been a little busy around chez' Costumechick this last week. I finished my July Socktopia socks 4 days ago, and still haven't posted about them! I either need to get my ass in gear, or I need to make more hours in the day. Either will work, but the "more hours in a day thing" in more likely, at this point. So, this morning, I'm stealing some Charlie time to post on my blog. You guys are do lucky. You rank above Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That says something...
First, some back story...
My Little Brother is a "type A" personality, "go-getter", "super human" type of guy. I say that because we are cut from the same cloth. (ah, a little plug for the awesomeness of Costumechick. :) ) He is 11 years younger than me, but we compete with each other like we are twins. Which has the higher IQ (me, for the record), which has more awards(him- he's a kiss ass), who had harder college courses (probably a push, but we both think our major was harder), which political party is better (he has no ground to stand on), and on and on and on and on.... But, I love him to death, and when he called me to tell me he own the "Mr. Ship" contest, I said, "the what?".

Name: Mr. Ship 2007 Socks
Pattern: My own toe up with a little color work.
Yarn: Regia Nation Color, #5396, 2 balls
Needles: Knitpicks classic circs, size 0 and 1.
Notes: "Mr. Ship" is chosen during a charity fundraising pageant at Shippensburg University each year. the contestants raise money while campaigning for themselves on campus. As a freshman my brother won "Audience Choice", but not the big prize. Last year, he won. Evidently, it is odd to win as a Sophomore, but Mark is odd. I asked if he gets to cut the ribbon at car dealerships and stuff, like Miss Pennsylvania. He just looked at me. But, his reign is almost over, and I wanted to make him some commemorative socks to remind him of his days before he became a "washed up beauty queen".
Shippensburg University colors are red, white, and blue, and the Regia Nation Color was perfect! On top of being Mr. Ship, my little bro' is also a big fan of his country. (We may not agree on political issues, but at least he still believes in something, and I can respect that.) Add that to the July Socktopia theme of "patriotism", and I was set! The yarn is a bit....loud, but that's ok, Mr. Ship is not known for his shyness.

To do the fair isle portions, I used the outside of the "other" ball. That worked out well, and left very little leftovers. I did have to wind off a little from the second ball for the second sock, just to start the socks in the same place in the color pattern. I was a little nervous, but they ended up matching almost perfectly!

Overall, I think this was a very successful project. Good Socktopia theme usage, good Christmas gift, and I get to check #16 off my summer knitting goals list! All hail Mr. Ship, 2007, and his fantastic socks!

A quicky

I know what you were thinking! For shame!
I suppose it's OK. You wouldn't be surprised if my post was about *that* anyway. But it's not, so don't go getting all hot and bothered on me.
Through the wicked humidity, I've been dong some knitting!
Another two repeats on the Zetor


Some foot on Sock #2 for Socktopia

yep... looks pretty much like last week. I don't know how much I will get done this week, as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fittings start tomorrow. Cross your fingers that it all will fit, and I'll just have to do finishing touches.

Independence Day

Happy fourth, a day late, 'cause that's how I roll. I had a nice, quiet Independence Day, mostly involving the task of Oompah Loompah puppet making. Ehh. I did have some knitting time too, and managed to finish off sock #1 for Socktopia, July. The theme I went with was "patriotism", and the socks coming off the needles are my "Mr. Ship 2007 socks".

I forgot how fast plain stockinette socks are to knit! Anyway, I added a bit o' color work to personalize Mr. Ship's socks.

I plan on reversing the pattern on sock #2, so the front of the foot says 'Mr. Ship', and the back says '2007'.

Mr. Ship, for those who don't know, is my youngest brother, Mark. He won the title in a pageant at Shippensburg University. Mark is no slouch in the ego department, so he never lets us forget that we are in the presence of Mr. Ship, and loyal subjects of his "Markdom". That's my baby brother for you. Anyway, the school colors are Red White and Blue, Mark wears loud socks, and I wanted to "honor" Mr. Ship - so out came my newest project.
These are on the Summer Knitting goals list too. I'm totally rocking my list.