Look the t-shirt goes with pajamas too!

And the hat works with jeans. Who knew?!

Now that I've made my Halloween deadline, it's time to get cracking on my next deadline project, the weasley sweater. November 18th is creeping closer and closer!

just over two weeks left to get from here to a finished sweater

As of today, I'm into the armhole shaping on the first piece, the back.

hey, that's not how Molly does it!

So I'm cheating a little and using Ann Budd's excellent Handy Book of Sweater Patterns to fudge up the numbers to convert Mrs. Weasley's simple drop-shoulder pattern into a set-in sleeve. I just know that it will look a lot better on me. I was tempted to add waist shaping, but didn't want to get too far away from the original look, so I decided against it. Plus, it's faster knitting without it.

Come on magic needles: knit, knit, knit!

Finally, after getting my deadline knitting out of the way, I can tell you about the fabulous semi-annual Knitsmiths yarn swap that happened this weekend. I wasn't there (had to work at the store) but, thanks to Johanna, I still managed to swap a lot of stuff.

Here's my swap stuff, here's my swap stuff with Johanna's dog, and here's the whole table of yarn everyone brought in:

oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

oooooh, what should I pick?

And here's what I got:

Classic Elite Gatsby for a hat
(thanks Colleen!)

white yarn for some Kool-Aid dyeing with the kids
(thanks Johanna and Monica!)

a giant ball of hand-dyed mohair boucle
(whatever should I do with this stuff???)

Plus a couple other lovely yarny goodies. Hooray for yarn swaps!

(By the way, when I post late in the morning like this, it's usually because I've had to spend my usual blogging time building Lego cars like these for my boys. Woo hoo.)

I was pretty excited about trying the Kool Aid dyeing on my newly acquired white mystery yarn from the swap, so the boys and I rushed out yesterday to get Kool Aid. Each picked out a few packets of his favorite color and I promised to make hats for them with the yarn if they helped me dye it. We got home and immediately pulled out the instructions and all the supplies. We began with the little swatch that Monica had knit up and half a packet of cherry Kool Aid.

An hour or so of "is it done yet?", a rinse and a wash, and the swatch looked like this. Red! Good enough to proceed to the real thing. Next we weighed a whole hank (2 oz. on the dot) and tossed it in two packets of lemonade Kool Aid.

The lemonade didn't have much color in it, so we cooked the yarn a second time with two more packets. After three hours of "is it done yet?" and a night drying in the bathroom, everything looks like this. The boys are very pleased with "their" yarn.

Next up, dyeing a whole hank of cherry for S and finding a brighter yellow so we can get B's yarn to match his winter jacket. What fun!

Ann finished her Azkaban scarf for Halloween and is working on Gryffindor socks now
Christy made TWO quidditch sweaters for her brothers!
Emily finished the Hogsmeade hat (you know the one Ron wears in the snowball fight scene of PoA) - it is so cool!
Laura is all done with her son's weasley (so cute!)
and Makenzie finished her Azkaban scarf

Aimee is just starting her scarf - and planning to knit 6 inches a day so she can have it done in time for the movie!
Erica is almost done with the back of her weasley, knitting as fast as she can
Erin says she's about halfway through her Azkaban scarf now (love the colors she's using!)
Mary reports that she has her HiP yarn and is finally getting started
Pixie is getting a little bored with all the stockinette on her scarf - it looks great though
Ruth has a Ravenclaw scarf underway (and just in case she can't get it done before the movie opens, she's telling the family they can see it the second week!)
Sarah has finished the back and is up to the intarsia on the front of her weasley
and Stacie is getting close to finishing her Azkaban scarf (check out the Halloween pic of her knitting in costume!)

My weasley is also coming along on schedule. The back is complete and I'm about to cast on for the front.

Hubby asked me last night if it's okay that he doesn't want a weasley. If it means that I don't have to knit yet ANOTHER weasley before the movie opens, then yeah, I'm fine with that!

I'd never seen this plastic mesh stuff before and then in two weeks last month, I saw both of these little things. I don't know what it is about this stuff, but I'm intrigued. It's plastic, but then there's, you know, yarn. It's not really needlepoint, but, then again, you can bend it and make shapes. It's sort of tacky, but it's also kinda cute. So what is it? Anyone?

A little bird told me that the Dana Farber Institute was collecting Caps for Kids (see page 2 of their January newsletter for info on last year's drive here), so I pulled out all my stash yarn and got to it!

I realized I already had this orange hat that I made for myself last winter. It came out a little snug, so I never wore it. Well, it'd be perfect for a child! Then I remembered that there was an almost finished kid's hat (in leftover Rowan Magpie) in my knitting bag that I always use for demonstration purposes when I teach my beginner's hat class. I could easily finish that up and donate it.

Then I decided to try to make a hat a week in the remaining two weeks of my beginners' hat class. The first done was the Hogwarts striped hat that I showed you last week. I was tempted to make a second and keep them for the boys, but now that they'll be getting kool aid caps that they helped dye themselves, I can give this hat away, as intended. Then I quickly knit up another with a sort of marled look, knit with scraps of Elann's Peruvian wool and Rowan's soft baby held together. It is amazing how soft that soft baby makes the hat! And it's soooo warm.

I've got one more hat (a girly one!) already in the works and if the boys help me dye some more yarn (we bought some Crystal Lite orange which I'm curious to try), I can donate a kool aid cap too. I'm enjoying inventing new hats and the boys are having fun trying them all on for me. Plus, it's using up stash. That's enough of a good deed already, isn't it?!

Well, there's not much to report in the old sockapaltwoza. Little has changed from two weeks ago. A few more socks have arrived on the doorstep of relieved pals...

Gaile received socks from Janine
Amber received socks from Lori
Sarah received her socks from another Sarah
Sister Amy received her socks from Timothy (look, they match her habit!)

...and some make-up socks are already being delivered, like these that Amy got from Bliss. (By the way, thanks to all my sock saviors out there - you'll be hearing from me with another list of forgotten pals very soon!)

But I will make this announcement: I do plan on doing a third round of the Sockapalooza!! I think it's best if we wait until the new year to get started though, since holiday knitting and general holiday busy-ness might prevent a few people from finishing on time. And speaking of holiday knitting, anyone doing a holiday knitting knitalong? I did one a couple of years ago and man did it ever help with getting those pressies finished! Who's up for it??

(Also coming up in January, another Rip-along. New Years seems like the perfect time to pull out those projects gone wrong and FROG 'em. I can't wait!!)

After Thing One and Thing Two I might just be a little intarsia-ed out*. I made it this far on the front of my weasley...

... before I put it down for a little (well, a LOT) of simple sleeve stockinette.

I predict I'll finish this with time to spare.

* Uh-oh, this doesn't bode well for my finishing my long-sleeve nbat, which I put down five or so rows into the intarsia on the front!

This dyeing with Kool Aid thing is way too much fun. This week the boys helped me dye the big hanks for their hats.

Red for S.

Yellow for B.

Okay, now watch how the yarn sucks up all the color. This. Is. So. Cool!

This was the Crystal Lite orange, by the way. It ended up making a yellow that is PERFECT for B's jacket!

Ready to begin knitting....

...there's a new knitalong all ready for, well, knitting along.

I set up a group blog at whowouldntloveahandknittedgift.blogspot.com so everyone can post about all their progress. Just leave a comment to this post or send an email and I'll send you the invite to join the group!

...I love IKEA.

There's FINALLY an IKEA in the Boston area! We skipped the craziness of the grand opening on Wednesday, but one day was as long as I could go before visiting. So we drove over yesterday to check it out. The boys had a blast playing in the playroom and the showrooms and even got balloon animals!

....the boys loved their Thing costumes. Last week, before the Stoughton IKEA opened, we went to the New Haven IKEA (we just went to meet up with grandma!) and the boys wore these for the two-hour car ride.

Wow, there's been a lot of weasley knitting going on! I guess that's because the movie premiere is coming soon. (6 days for us in America!)

Anna finished gryffindor socks and a Slytherin scarf (the scarf is crocheted, folks)
Dani finished her HP scarf a while ago (she knits so fast, who can keep up?)
and Emily finished her HiP scarf before I could even add her to the knitalong list!
Janell is already wearing her HP scarf
Julie finished her Azkaban scarf (and her first sock!)
MA finished her Gryffindor scarf and has started a Hufflepuff scarf (the colors look great)
Manda just finished this cute London Beanie in Gryffindor colors and plans to knit matching mittens and a weasley next
Margot has finished 3 Gryffindor scarves and is casting on for another!
Monique also just joined the knitalong and has finished a Gryffindor House Scarf
Stacy, "the coolest aunt in the entire world", made an Azkaban scarf for her niece which she wore for Halloween

And elsewhere, Alex's Ravenclaw scarf is long enough for a real picture and there are lots of newcomers like Sharlyn who couldn't hold out any longer and will be making a weasley for her son, Ann, who'll be making a HiP scarf, and Spring who's making a scarf for the movie and a weasley for her son.

I, however, have come to a grinding halt with my weasley. Front and back are finished and sewn together. (I know I'm supposed to wait to set in the sleeves before I seam up the two body pieces, but I always need to know how the body will fit!). Well, it fits fine, but with the roll, it's a little short. Not crazy short, not cropped, but a little too short for it to just be a sweater I can wear with any pants. I decided to try adding ribbing like there is at the bottom of the sleeves to the bottom edge. I did that on the back and now, unrolled, plus two inches of ribbing, the thing's wicked long. I'm totally conflicted. What do you all think??

Put two of my favorite obssesions (knitting and Harry Potter) together and how could I resist? Apparently, I'm not alone.

After one round of knitting weasley sweaters (the "letter sweaters" that Molly Weasley made for the family, Ron, and Harry in the first book/movie) last year, we've moved on to another weasley along where we're knitting everything Harry Potter in preparation for the release of the fourth film, the Goblet of Fire, this November.

Hat.

I so seldom knit for girls that it didn't even occur to me that most of the hats I'd made for the kids for caps program were sort of boy hats. Until I found some leftovers of Debbie Bliss' cashmerino asktrakan in my stash. It was so fluffy and purple that I had to do something girly with it. I did the roll edge, a small dot on the top, and a big, floppy flower in the asktrakan and the rest in some white Pingouin also from the scrap stash. (By the way, the asktrakan is cool looking and fine to knit with, but trying to rip something out, seam, weave in ends, or pull a strand through live loops is a nightmare. I'm glad I was only doing a little trim and embellishment with it.)

You think S will hate me someday for taking pictures of him in all these hats?

From kool aid cakes to kool aid caps.

B's yellow yarn was first. (You didn't think that "Thing One" was going to wait, did you? Actually, we're still trying to perfect the color of S's yarn so it will better match his coat.) I made no gauge swatch and just guessed at the numbers. With a 1x1 rib on the bottom, I rationalized, it'd probably fit anyone! I added some white stripes to copy those on the jacket and volia: a perfect fit and a perfect match.

B said, "I love my hat. I'm going to wear it to keep my hair warm." This was in the house this morning while he was still in his pajamas. He pulled it on and padded off to play the Dora boardgame with his brother. In his hat.

I'll have to ask for the hat back again at some point, because it's not completely finished. It still needs a lining. Hubby's not convinced that wind won't blow through a knitted hat, so they need to be lined to get his stamp of approval. But that can wait. B's approval is enough for me today.

Almost another weasley!

Doesn't it look done that way? This is how it really looks though. Still the last sleeve to finish and sew in and the bottom edging to complete.

After going back, adding a couple more inches to the bottom, and watching it roll even higher, I decided to hem the bottom edge. It's a nice, clean look and the sweater is the perfect length now. I wasn't 100% sure what to do at the neck however. Ribbed cuffs, hemmed bottom edge of body, and a roll neck seemed like too many styles for just one sweater. So I did the same stockinette hem on the neck as at the bottom edge and I'm giving it a day to see how I like it.

Other weasley knitters trying to make the deadline:

Aimee has 13 bars finished on her scarf
Jen also has only one stripe left on her scarf
and Karlie is almost done with her PoA scarf too
MA has finished her Hufflescarf
Ruth has finished a House glove - you gotta see it, it has all the House colors on it! - and is knitting away on her Ravenclaw scarf

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

It's almost time to close the door on the sockapal-2-za! There are lots of make-up socks underway and a couple more socks have made their way to pals:

Beth got some fabby mermaid socks
MeBeth received some supercool superhero socks
and Nanette loves her new socks (check out her post and see how much!)

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

In the holiday knitalong, we've got over 80 participants and even more in the queue to be invited. There are some really fabulous projects over there! I love the fact that people can post their pics there for us all to see without the gift recipients seeing them on their normal blog. It's so fun being in on everyone's gifts!

My holiday list of 7 pairs of socks, 1 scarf, and 2 hats has a half a checkmark on it, as B's kool-aid hat is all knitted but still needs a lining. S's red hat is underway, so that's like a quarter checkmark. Woo hoo, that's 3/4 of a checkmark all together! Of course, I've just added 2 more scarves to the list, so I'm actually 1 1/4 checkmarks down now. Hmmm, maybe this keeping track thing isn't such a good idea after all. (Heh, heh.)

How meta can you get?

Earlier this week, I went over to MIT to give a little talk about blogging. Now there's something I never thought I'd do. (Especially with my GRE math scores!) But Katie, fellow weasley-alonger and MIT instructor, invited me to speak to her class, which has been looking at blogging all semester long. (Now doesn't that sound like a fun class?!)

picture proof

And here's my blog up on the big screen:

look, it's like the boys are at MIT!

And the audience: some very smart students (it's MIT, what do you expect? Wanna read some student blogs? Check out the links from this admin blog. Man, I wish I could have gone to MIT!) and a few knitters as well, including Katie, fellow holiday-knitalonger Danielle, who was knitting red sox socks (you've got to check her blog to see what her husband did to his pants!), and Kathy, who was knitting on a cutie-patootie little weasley.

I talked about how I started blogging (I actually started my first blog in the fall of 1997 when I moved to Germany and before there was any blogging software. I posted monthly.), why I love blogging (what's not to love? keeping track of my knits, meeting other knitting folk, watching my boys get bigger in the background), and my woefully inadequate knowledge of HTML, PHP, MovableType Template Tags, RSS feeds, and anything remotely technical (Katie offered me the Unix machine to demo my blog. Uh, Unix, with like command lines and everything? Me no can do the command lines.). It was a blast!

Almost as fun as actually blogging. Or knitting "IRL".

(I'm sick today and so have treated myself to a little extra computer time. So far, I've spent the whole morning reading MIT student blogs, like this one. These kids are just so cool!)

S's red hat, all knitted and also awaiting a lining before it can make its outdoor debut. For now it's just for tv watching and such.

For the sticklers out there, no the red doesn't match his jacket as well as B's matches his, but it's pretty good considering the meager Kool-Aid selection that is available in my local grocery stores. The final color is from overdyeing the cherry Kool-Aid skein with raspberry no-brand "On the Go" drink packets (you know, the nifty little tubes of powdered drink mix that are just the right size for a water bottle?!) . I used twice the number of packets as I would have with regular Kool-Aid and it did a good job knocking down some of that orangeiness in the cherry.

And finally, we have hats the boys love even more than their fuzzy blue Thing hats.

I finished!

More pics after I get through the morning routine here and get everyone dressed. Who else made it? Let me know for tomorrow's update!

Here we are: the three weasleys! (So, if I'm Ginny Weasley in my ginger weasley, does that make the boys Fred and George? They're my favorite characters in the books anyway!) Look what the boys wanted to wear for the first picture. Mama weasley couldn't be more proud.

I'm off to the movie tonight! I've checked out all the sneak movie clips on Mugglenet and am ready to see it for myself. Hooray!

Loved the movie! Really good acting this time and excellent special effects. Of course, many details were changed and several whole plot lines were left out in order to fit everything into one movie. A few of my favorite scenes from Book 4 - where the Weasleys send the letter to the Dursleys completely covered with stamps and then when they show up in the fireplace; and the scene with Harry stuck in the stairs, Snape about to find him, and MadEye seeing him through his invisibility cloak - weren't there at all! I was so looking forward to those scenes. But it's all good. The movie took the time to focus on the major points, like the competitions and You-Know-Who, and did a super job on them. The biggest surprise for me is how funny the movie was. Really, the first hour and a half: funny, funny, funny. They even added some scenes that weren't in the book to bring in some more laughs. Really well done.

So knitting. Right. In the theater, I saw four house scarves: one Gryffindor, one Slytherin Azkaban style, one Ravenclaw? (red and blue chenille), and what looked like a crocheted Slytherin scarf. Didn't see any other sweaters but mine. And, weasley knitters, Ron's got a new "R" sweater in this film! For those of you who hate intarsia, it looks like you can sew on the letter now!

Alright, enough of the movie, on to the updates. Look at all the knitters who finished in time for the opening day of the film:

Aimee finished her Hufflepuff scarf
Alex finished her Ravenclaw scarf for the midnight showing (and she's scoped out all the new knitting possibilities from the movie - check it out!)
Amy finished her Azkaban scarf
Ann finished a HiP scarf
Ann was racing against the clock to get her Gryffindor socks done in time
Emmy made a Gryffindor hat
Erica didn't finish her weasley, but she's got some good excuses
Erin finished her scarf and wore it with the Ron and Hermione hats to the midnight showing
Heidi knit-along with us in secret and finished a weasley (love the rib and roll neck and the hemmed edges!)
Jen wore her HiP scarf and met more knitters at the movie
Karlie got both her scarf and Hatmione hat done in time
Krista shared a pic of the beautiful Gryffindor scarf she knit for her husband - she made a Hufflepuff one for herself to wear to the movie
Margot has now finished four, count 'em FOUR, Azkaban scarves!
May finished the incredible Heraldic Lion sweaters she made for her girls
Nathania posted pics of her awesome Slytherin house sweater
Ruth finished two scarves (check out GryffinDOG and RavenPAW - too cute!), house mittens and those nifty house gloves with a house color for every finger
Seanna Lea fringed her scarf just before the film
Spring finished her Ravenclaw scarf
Stacie finished her scarf with just minutes to spare (and no time for fringe!)
and Stephanie finished her son's weasley and he wore it to school on the big day - well at least for a little while ;0)

Bravo, everyone! But the needles aren't stopping just 'cause the movie's out. There's still plenty of other weasley knitting going on.

Christina is working on her weasley and is up to the letter
Mouse got 3 1/2 bars done on her scarf and then went to the movie anyway
Sharlyn started her weasley and is trying to decide on the edging and Shireen completed the letter (an "X"!) on the weasley she's knitting

And I gotta say it: my favorite thing about the movie? Fred and George. 'Natch. They even mention knitting!

Remember these crazy things?

They're the funny front panels from the original pattern for my pop sweater. They came out so well that I couldn't rip them out, even though they didn't work all sewn together in the actual sweater. So I saved them and they laid around collecting dust until last week when I needed some swatches to use in the finishing class that I was teaching. Much better than regular old square swatches, they were like mini-sweater swatches, with sloped shoulders to seam together, side seams, and that great curved neckline for picking up stitches.

They look way better like this than they ever did in the sweater!

One weekend on the job and the elves have already finished one holiday knitgift. And yes, this one is really done, not merely almost done, like the boys lining-less hats or hubby's still plain tech guy socks!

This is a scarf for one of my great aunts (and just because I love misleading the folks doing tacky google searches, I'll say it again, these are the aunts for whom I knit the hotties). I like to try to knit something for them every year and this year mom suggested scarves. I scoured the store for just the right yarn - soft, washable, chunky, and not too expensive - and Marks & Kattens' Kosmos yarn fit the bill perfectly. With the acrylic content it's soft and washable, on US10's it only took two days to knit, and it cost a mere $10 for the whole scarf. I picked a lovely pink for the other aunt and her scarf is already blocking!

The elves are back and they're on a mission.

Have you been over to the holiday gift knit-along recently?! There's so much incredible knitting going on, I can't keep up! Every day there are like 20 new posts, most with finished projects! (This sort of blog is exactly why we've got Bloglines notifier, people.) Seeing so many projects finished makes me feel like my gift knitting is moving at a glacial pace. Only one new knitgift to show you today.

A scarf-sized clapotis, also in Kosmos yarn, also knit in two days, for my other Great Aunt. I'm afraid that the quick and frugal gifts are at an end though. The next gift scarf is the turtleneck shrug from the cover of Scarf Styles in some rather pricey but fabulous Cash Iroha. 3x3 rib in black for miles. This one is definitely going to take a while.

And then it'll be time to get down to the socks.

Here's my sock pot, full of yarn for holiday socks. There's six pairs in there - one Koigu, two Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and three in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport (so glad that I went sport weight for at least half of these babies!) - all waiting for the elves to dig out the dpn's and work up their courage.

If I can only get them to stop surfing the holiday knit-along!

Speaking of socks, I'll be working on some final sockapaltwoza details (checking in with sock saviors and those still waiting for socks). Let me know if you still haven't received socks and have given up on your pal and I'll get you on the final sock savior list.

As it is Thanksgiving, I thought that I might redirect my crafty efforts to finishing up knitgifts for the two people I'm most thankful for. So it's time for those kool-aid caps to get their linings.

I pulled out some old gray turtleneck shirts that the boys had outgrown, lined up the hat along the bottom edge (so I don't have to make a hem on the lining), and cut out two panels.

The boys watched as I sewed them together - their first experience with the sewing machine and they loved it. Apparently it's machine enough for them. And now I've got two linings ready to be sewn into the hats. B let me slip the lining on him and take a picture without ever losing focus on the Lego building factory that is our dining room.

Yes, their tolerance for my try-ons and photo-taking is definitely something to be thankful for. The boys are thankful for Legos, of course.

Chuck E. Cheese Skee-Ball.

And each other.

We almost didn't go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The weather reports had called for rain, snow, winds, and cold temps, so of course, it was dry and mild.

Spongebob

Chicken Little

Charlie Brown

When we told the boys we were going to a parade with big balloons, they said, 'can we have a balloon?' We explained that these balloons were giant and needed like 50 people to hold them down. They boys looked around and concluded that since there were only four of us, we couldn't get one.

The day after Thanksgiving and you know what that means: time for the elves to get their little sock-knitting patooties in gear!

At last, the first of six pairs on the holiday knit list is on the needles.

And speaking of Christmas lists, the boys started making theirs when we went to FAO Schwarz this afternoon.

Judging from their reaction, what the boys would most like for Christmas is another taxi ride through Manhattan!

a big yellow taxi took my heart away

Not many updates this week:

TrevorKane finished her husband's beautiful heraldic lion sweater
and Jeanie has done some major surgery on her weasley

The knitalong's not over, folks! In fact, I've still got another weasley to make: a mini-weasley ornament for a new arrivial to my husband's family.

And here's an eensy-weensy little glimpse at that new Ron sweater from the film!!

from ABC Family's Inside Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Can you see the R? You can really see the sweater (it's a raglan with button closures on the raglan line) in the scene where they're riding to Howarts on the train, but I can't find a screenshot of it anywhere. We'll just have to wait until the DVD, I guess. Still, that doesn't mean that someone can't start sketching out a pattern already! (Um, not me, but I did hear that my fellow weasley co-hostess, Jenn is thinking about it!)

Look what came home with me from mom's.

jess is back

It's my mom's jess! She never wore it - just didn't end up fitting the way she wanted. It seemed such a shame for it to just be sitting under her bed, so I asked if I couldn't maybe have it back. I had wanted to make another one for myself and remembered how much I liked the one I made for her. Now that it's back, I'm remembering how I wanted to make mine shorter.

jess is long

And how I would have changed the armholes and neckline a bit, so it's not quite so wide.

jess is big

What to do? Should this be my first candidate for the upcoming new year's rip-along (can you even frog this angora stuff?)?? Or is it still kinda cool and comfy just like it is? Anybody?

Scarf Style, that is. They're working away on the turtleneck shrug and have just finished the first sleeve.

This scarf will be for my mom's friend who I recently made the ruffles scarf for. She saw the pattern pic for this scarf and said she'd love it. And she's such an appreciative recipient that I couldn't say no. She asked for black and after searching a bit for the most fabulous possible yarn, I settled on Noro Cash Iroha in this awesome jet black color. The yarn feels so great with the cashmere and the silk gives it a beautiful sheen. It's going to be wonderful to wear.

The elves would like me to mention, however, that they are not so much enjoying the tiny little 11 inch circular needle that you need to use to knit the shrug according to pattern. I'd asked others who've made this pattern or worked with the wee needles before if it was a nightmare, and everyone seemed to suggest that it was fine, so I thought I'd give it a try. After about foot of knitting, I sort of got the hang of it, but I'm still not liking it. I can't help but think that this would be SO much faster if I simply knit it flat and then sewed the seam up the inner arm. I'm determined, however, not to give up. I may be a seamer, but I'm not a quitter! Plus, the elves are planning on making holiday cookies.

How long can two four year-olds play Kinder of Catan?

Three hours? Four? I don't know. We're still playing the game. Right now B is singing: "I love it when I win. I winny-win-win!"

No one likes it when he losey-lose-loses.

I woke up this morning to choruses of 'do you remember this game from yesterday?', 'can we play this game again?'. As a matter of fact, yes, I do vaguely remember something about a three an a half hour game marathon yesterday. After a few more games of Kinder of Catan this morning (one which was pretty heavily thrown B's way), SpongeBob has finally relieved me of my duties. So I can get back to cleaning, blogging, laundry and, if I'm lucky, knitting.

The holiday gifts are still top priority. The first gray sock is past the heel and I've updated my progress over at the knitalong. If I can't get all these gifts knitted, it may just have to be Kinder of Catan for everyone on the list this year!