A Few Days' Recovery

We made it back from Toronto yesterday without incident. While we were there, we had Paul's friend Jay take a look at the car. Jay was able to take a hammer to the door (yes, he's a professional) and fix it enough for us to be able to get the driver's door open and closed (though we still have to open it from the inside). We could also get the window open, which was good for driving through customs at the border. Actually, the whole thing helped us at customs. The customs agent, who had been taking an awful lot of time questioning the people in front of us, asked us a couple of questions and then asked, "Did that happen over Christmas?" We discussed what had happened and how we couldn't get it into a shop in Canada in time, and he felt bad for us and let us go without too much hassle.

Our stay in Toronto was short but sweet. On Tuesday, we hung out with our friends Jay and Lisa before our Big Family Christmas Event. I was pretty darn excited about giving out my handmade gifts.

The first was Ed's alien scarf:

After he opened it, we spent some time playing with it and studying the pattern, and it turned into the joke of the year. Whenever someone opened another present, our BIL Paul would add, "If you look at it from an angle, you'll see aliens!"

The next morning, when I got up, I found Ed wandering around the house wearing his scarf, so I'm guessing he liked it. :) I'm glad. I thought of him the very first time I saw the pattern, way back in the day, and it was so much fun to knit!

After Ed's scarf came Suzanne's socks:

Look! They fit! I was so relieved! After two full weeks of panic (which, I told Suzanne, she could read about here -- hi Suzanne!), it would have seriously sucked if they hadn't fit. But the graph paper foot-tracing that I've been carrying around for the past year served me well.

Every once in a while, I pick up my own socks (the ones I started back in May) and do a round or two. I don't want to burn out again, but I really do want to finish the socks. I really liked Suzanne's, and it would be nice to finally have a pair of my own. So this year's goal is have my own socks finished by next Christmas. :)

On Wednesday morning, I got up and headed to Romni with my MIL and SIL J9. Unfortunately, we'd missed the after-Christmas blow-out sale (GRR!!), but it was fun to wander anyway. I was looking for some discontinued yarn for Barbara, but they didn't seem to have it. And I still haven't found anything for my Clapotis that's prettier than the one I saw in KnitPicks' Andean Silk Twist (in Pumpkin Patch), so I may just have to place another order. Believe it or not, I came really close to buying some sock yarn. But I held back.

Actually, this was my friendliest visit ever to Romni. In fact, I felt positively fawned over. I had my felted clutch with me, and that caused quite a stir among the staff, as did the long scarf that I made out of scraps that I pulled out of the free bin at the Classic Elite store back in Massachusetts.

In the afternoon, we went to visit our friends Dan and Amber, who are expecting their first child in April. I brought along the Big Bad Baby Blanket that I made for them. They loved it. :) Before I left, I promised to start on a sweater soon...

Yesterday, in the car, I finished my Kid Silk Night scarf. I used the pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but I almost doubled the length. It still has to be blocked, but here's how it turned out:



And, while I'm posting pictures, here's the picture of the latest tote, pre-felting:



And then one more. Here's this year's collection of knitting gifts:



Paul got me the swift (yea!) and the accessories. Julie got me the Stitch 'n' Bitch books. She figured it would be nice for me to have them so I could stop taking them out of the library. And the alpaca is from Barbara, who even found the pattern for me. It's meant for the Anthropologie-inspired capelet from Craftster. I can't wait to get started!

Now we're off to run some errands. Paul just got back from getting estimates for the car. If we didn't have insurance, it would have come to $4,000. Ugh! And it's so bad that it's going to take 2-3 weeks. We'll be dropping the car off before we leave, but they most likely won't be able to start working on it until the 9th. So it'll be almost February before I have a car again. Not fun...