And I hope you didn't believe it either..

That I would actually knit up a slew of small gifts for the other coders.  There just was not enough time.  But hey!  I did get some little presents knitted for the Plaid Patrol.  DiscoDame got a warm lace headband in bulky yarn, from the Blueleaf Headband pattern.  And the Plaidman got an Ear Warmer for Baseball Caps (Kraemer Yarns, free pattern).  Observe:

Doesn't she look thrilled?!?  This is a fun & quick pattern, also free.  And she was kind enough to display the Plaidman's ear warmer for the photo.

And then Plaidman had to model it, minus the ball cap....

Look, kids!  It's Santa during his hippie years!  He was such a rebel then, wearing all that plaid.
Now you're ready to see what I got for Christmas:

There she is, sitting in my parking spot.  She's a 2014 Chevy Malibu.  She makes me so happy!  I've always named my vehicles, and I've really been thinking hard about this one's name.  So far, I got nothing.  This car deserves a nice name, something that either has a lot of meaning to me or that just tickles the snot out of me.  The black car sitting next to my new beauty is our old Malibu, which went through a couple of name changes before I settled on one.  When we first brought it home, I told Disco that I would name it Barbie....Barbie Malibu.  She flipped out, which of course just made it funnier.  So I called it Barbie for many months, until she finally started calling it that too.  Then I said that as I am the pirate captain, I was renaming her the Black Purl.  And that she remains.
But back to my Christmas presents!  I got jewelry, both dressy & cute stuff.  Disco gave me some specifically "Christmassy" pieces, which she knows I collect:

I love the Rudolph earrings!  The others are less holiday & more just winter, so I'll probably wear them real soon.  The penguin is a pin, and I might wear that soon too.  Then both my roomies got to the pretty stuff, and each got me a dressy bit:

The necklace is from Disco, and earrings are from Plaidman.  As you can see, nothing terribly expensive here, but nice to add to the wardrobe.  I think I need to get Plaidman to hang another necklace holder on the wall, for the shorter necklaces -- they're getting rather crowded in the jewelry box.  The only ones that need to stay in there are the ones on silver chains; I keep a dessicant in there to combat tarnish.
Disco has a few days off, she did work thru the 26th so she's eligible for the completion bonus.  She's going to go in to work on Wednesday, which would be her next scheduled work day if she's still employed.  Now, she was hired as a seasonal worker, and they did say the 26th was the end of the season, so I don't know that they'll actually let her report to work!  But hey, if they do it's just gravy.

It's too pretty

Our weather has finally decided to change over to "spring-like", temp was 65F earlier with almost no clouds in the blue blue sky.  We have these odd paper cell shades in the living room, which were here when we moved it.  They are really rather nifty, as they'll adjust up from the bottom, or down from the top.  We had light without sacrificing privacy, an important consideration in a housing development!  Alas, the middle one had a complete failure last night, coming unglued from the top frame.  Plaidman & I went down to a local home improvement store for a replacement, although we have not a clue who made these.  We did find paper cell shades, in the right width, but without the nifty feature of the ones we had.  And we could have as many of those shade as we wanted, as long as we wanted them in "champagne" color -- which looked rather dark to me.  They only had one shade in solid ecru (ours are a lighter base color with a print of fine lines).  The clerk thought they'd have more in store in a few weeks, so we brought home the one they had.  But I didn't even want to come home!  It's too pretty outside to be cooped up inside!  While we were shopping, we picked up some nice drapery rod sets, so we can hang the drapes & sheers we bought (two months ago?) at another store's sale.  That's entailed hanging the rods, and figuring out that we need one more bracket for the living room.  Lordy, my man has lint in his head.  He was getting all upset about that extra bracket, saying the store was unlikely to open up one of the drapery kits just to get us one bracket.

ETA: Well, that was last weekend... and I never did come back to publish it.  I've been thinking about this post all week (when I wasn't too frazzled to rub two thoughts together...it's been a WEEK).  I was interrupted right there in my story about our lovable goofy Plaidman, when Disco told me he was on her phone.  He was calling from the home improvement store, with a problem.  Seems he opened the trunk of his car to look for a tool, setting his keys down in the trunk,  When he had the tool, he closed the trunk with, you guessed it, his keys inside.  Thank goodness he had his phone.  So he called & I had to run out to the store's parking lot with spare keys; which would probably have worked a lot better if I'd remembered to take the spares with me.  Grrr...turn around, run back home & get the keys, back to the store.  All this to hang sheers that I've decided are a) too dark and b) too short for the living room windows.  And I guess he & I are two of a kind in our modest goofiness.

In the Knitting Knews, I'm still working on my Color Affection, elebenty million garter stitches relieved by M1L, M1R, and short rows.  I know why I have such a hard time with large projects: I have a life outside my knitting!  Yep, working full time sure cuts into the knitting time.  I'm forever finding sweaters or shawls or afghans on Ravelry, that I'd really like to make if it wouldn't mean spending months on each item.  I call this Glacial Knitting, as that's about the speed of it.  And I've been so sorely tempted by yarn sales lately; this is usually the first sign of startitis so I'm resisting the urge to spend on yarn.  However, I'm still buying magazines:  just bought some back issues of one mag, and re-upped my subscription to another.

Cha-cha-changes!

I have been reading lots of blogs with weekly features, and was wondering if I could come up with a feature or two ("Manic Mondays"? "Thrifty Thursdays"?). I sure can't do a Fashion Friday, and couldn't bear to giveaway yarn every week (My Precious!). I'm not the greatest cook, although I do love my slow cooker! But the slow cooker blog's already been done; I'm a big follower. Both of the Make it Fast, Cook It Slow books are on my Amazon wish list. I've been knitting hats, cowls & fingerless gloves like crazy lately--and I could stand to give some of them away! I'll just post a few pics, just those little items that are available to a good home:
She really doesn't eat much, but is a nightowl for sure... No, I can't giveaway that one.
Erm, I made a slew of those silly fingerless mitts recently, but I did give some away already. Let's see now -- here's a pair that fit my hands (women's mediums)-

These are worsted acrylic, most likely Red Heart -- just be sure to add fabric softener to both the wash & dry (COOL only) cycles. I have another pair, same kind of yarn (aka "scraps"):

Then there are the ones I totally made up myself, based on Classic Elite's "Montera Cob Toque" (it's a free pattern). I've given a pair to Ms. Amanda, but I have more:
The green ones are a softer acrylic, still wash & dry cool.
The teal ones are also a soft acrylic (probably not Red Heart). These will fit an even larger hand.
Now, I don't expect a tremendous deluge of folks wanting a pair of my mitts, but I will post something in one of the Rav blog groups, and I'll put the friendly responses in a hat & draw 4 lucky ones. Be sure to tell me how to get in touch with you, in case you win -- tell me who you are on Ravelry, or give me a link to your blog. I've asked DiscoDame if she'd like to be part of my first giveaway, and provide a couple of sets of stitch markers for the First and Second responders only. I don't have pictures of the stitch markers yet, but Disco will make one set for needles up to US size 4, and another set for larger needles (up to US size 10.5). Here's how it works: you go to the Blog Comment Train group in Ravelry, find my post about the giveaway, which will direct you back here to make a comment. Or, you follow my blog (all 4 of you! Woot)and just happen to read about the giveaway here, and you make a comment. The 1st & 2nd commenters will get stitch markers, to be mailed out by March 12 if I've heard back from you as to a address. All commenters names go in a hat, & I will draw 4 out on Feb 18 to send them by March 12. I'm sorry, but I will only mail to North American addresses--this time! I hope to have a giveaway every month, which will vary between beaded goodies from DiscoDame, handknits from me, and possibly a few nice skeins of yarn (the stash is taking over the living room!) So, keep watching this space, as I'd like to do this again in March! Good Luck!