That Holiday Feeling
There are days I feel I'm going slowly insane. And, then, there are days when the process doesn't seem to be taking long at all. I've had several of those days in a row. So I'm trying to get into the Holiday Spirit. Here's what I am doing:
1. I am listening to this CD. I just love La Krall. She does beautiful versions of my two favorite seasonal songs: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"
2. I am drinking a yummy concoction of cranberry juice and Diet Canada Dry ginger ale. Must be Canada Dry--Vernors is too cloyingly sweet. Yuck.
3. Tomorrow my mom is coming up to help me put up my Christmas tree. Yay!
4. Sometime very soon, I am going to keep my own personal Holiday Tradition. Every year at Christmastime, I watch three movies, by myself: Going My Way, Holiday Inn, and The Bishop's Wife. I watched them as a single gal just out of college, living in my dumpy efficiency apartment in Rosslyn, Virginia. I watched them as a law student in Charlottesville. I watched them as a new mother. And I will watch them again this year, and they will undoubtedly again bring tears to my eyes -- we all know I'm a rank sentimentalist -- and a smile to my face.
5. I am knitting these little treats from Handknit Holidays.
The "J" is for my nephew and godson Jack. I've got two sons, four nieces, and two nephews, so I've got a few more to go! Luckily, they are the knitting equivalent of popcorn--very quick to knit. I'd be done with all of them, if I could sit down for more than three consecutive minutes.
They're knit in Plymouth Encore and Wool-Ease, naturally. I did make one change to the pattern. After I knit my second one, I wondered why all the decreases leaned the same direction. So on the next one, I did matching right- and left-leaning decreases. See what happens when you read Grumperina regularly? You start thinking about these kinds of things.
A couple of asides: Deety has written a very good, very thoughtful review of Vogue Knitting's Stitchionary, Vol. 1. If you are interested in this book, you should definitely check it out! For the record, I would like to point out that in my previous post, I was casting no aspersions on crocheters, but rather only alluding to the fact that many knitters have nothing but disdain for them. You know it's true. Also, WittyKnits mentioned that perhaps we throwers need a t-shirt. Hmmm...
1. I am listening to this CD. I just love La Krall. She does beautiful versions of my two favorite seasonal songs: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"2. I am drinking a yummy concoction of cranberry juice and Diet Canada Dry ginger ale. Must be Canada Dry--Vernors is too cloyingly sweet. Yuck.
3. Tomorrow my mom is coming up to help me put up my Christmas tree. Yay!
4. Sometime very soon, I am going to keep my own personal Holiday Tradition. Every year at Christmastime, I watch three movies, by myself: Going My Way, Holiday Inn, and The Bishop's Wife. I watched them as a single gal just out of college, living in my dumpy efficiency apartment in Rosslyn, Virginia. I watched them as a law student in Charlottesville. I watched them as a new mother. And I will watch them again this year, and they will undoubtedly again bring tears to my eyes -- we all know I'm a rank sentimentalist -- and a smile to my face.
5. I am knitting these little treats from Handknit Holidays.
The "J" is for my nephew and godson Jack. I've got two sons, four nieces, and two nephews, so I've got a few more to go! Luckily, they are the knitting equivalent of popcorn--very quick to knit. I'd be done with all of them, if I could sit down for more than three consecutive minutes.They're knit in Plymouth Encore and Wool-Ease, naturally. I did make one change to the pattern. After I knit my second one, I wondered why all the decreases leaned the same direction. So on the next one, I did matching right- and left-leaning decreases. See what happens when you read Grumperina regularly? You start thinking about these kinds of things.
A couple of asides: Deety has written a very good, very thoughtful review of Vogue Knitting's Stitchionary, Vol. 1. If you are interested in this book, you should definitely check it out! For the record, I would like to point out that in my previous post, I was casting no aspersions on crocheters, but rather only alluding to the fact that many knitters have nothing but disdain for them. You know it's true. Also, WittyKnits mentioned that perhaps we throwers need a t-shirt. Hmmm...
posted by Laura at 2:10 PM
12 Comments:
I love Diana Krall, too!! Such a gorgeous voice. I love The Bishop's Wife, too. Isn't it amazing how traditions come full circle through all the transitions in our lives? I can recall watching "It's A Wonderful Life" as a sticky kid, as a starving college student, as an underpaid special ed teacher and as a new mom with a sticky kid. I know I will love it even more this year with two sticky kids. :-) Your treats for the kids are so cute! They're going to love how they're personalized for each of them. And I'd definitely buy a throwers shirt! :-)
Sign me up for the thrower's t-shirt too. No offense taken about the crochet comment. You are soooo right. I was a crocheter before I was a knitter and the only thing you can do to bring more disdain upon yourself at a snooty yarn shop than throwing is to say you CROCHET. There was a time when I said that I crocheted EXCLUSIVELY. Sheesh, you'd think I said I like to pick my nose in public! haha
Saw Diana Krall sing "Merry Little Christmas" on Leno the other night. Very nice. The accompanying guitarist looked a little like Elvis, but I don't think it was him, because they didn't spend any camera time on him....
Those Christmas balls are so cute!! Great job on them! Have a blast watching your Christmas movies. My tradition (when I was living alone in my house) was to save any Christmas presents from co-workers and open them Christmas morning while eating cookies. Now I have Pea here and we exchange our presents (which is good, since I no longer have co-workers). . . but we still have Chirstmas cookies for breakfast!
I've been loving the Christmas music this year. I have an Ella Fitzgerald CD that is my staple. I'm searching the DVR for those movies right now. I don't think I've seen Going My Way. The Bishop's Wife is such a classic. (Cary Grant = swoon)
Those Christmas balls are adorable. I'm thinking they would be perfect for my co-workers. Next year of course.
I'd buy a thrower's t-shirt! Which reminds me, I need to put that button up on my blog.
I love Holiday Inn too.
I haven't viewed any of those movies but they look good, esp. since I'm in a very old timey mood right now. Sad to say, I don't have any real holiday traditions as an adult. . . . I love the personalized balls - tres preppy.
Your ornaments are much cuter than mine! I'm a sucker for the holiday movies too - my favorites are Holiday Inn and White Christmas (oh, and Christmas Vacation - love it!). Love Diana Krall's voice too - I may have to add to my holiday music library!
I'll have to watch those movies! What a fun tradition. Love the christmas balls...very cute!Enjoy the holidays ; )
I have to get that cd! Love the ornaments...I may do a couple.
The ornaments are so sweet that I'm almost tempted to try and make some by Christmas. You are a TERRIBLE influence.
Thanks for the link to the review for the stitch dictionary. I'd been wondering about that. And yay for getting into the Holiday spirit. When in college, my roommate and I were on a *cough* Kenny G *cough* kick and listened to his christmas album on repeat while studying for finals. it wasn't until our friend came over again and pointed it out to us that we realized we had been listening to THE SAME SONG on repeat for 3 hours. Doesnt' say much for Kenny does it?
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