Holiday sights and sounds, I

Rock Star and I have been traveling non-stop. It's been great to see everyone. My friends and family have been (too) generous as have been the portions of yummy holiday food. I bought myself some new running shoes but have thus far only worn them to drive back to Chicago from my hometown in southern Indiana. I'm looking at them right now as I wear my robe, blog, and watch Rock Star and Yuck Mouth go out the door for a run.

One of my gifts from Rock Star was this:



...so now I can listen to these:



!

I'm still slogging through the blogs and comments. It's so easy to be distracted by my new toy! I'll get back to stitchblogging soon. Promise.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Pardon the interruption in our regularly scheduled programming...

... but we have a bit of a holiday hangover.

Dirty Elf, the movie

I'm a director. Check it.*

* Dirty Elf is a work of fiction. As such, any resemblance between the characters herein and real persons living or otherwise is purely coincidental.

I'm totally putting this on my blog...

So I've been boycotting Target for almost two months now. It's hard, with the holiday season upon us and my love of all things kitchy kitchen, but I'm holding fast in my resolve. Please, Target, change your policies to be consistent with your otherwise progressive company so I can shop with you again!

Planned Parenthood is trying to get more people in on its virtual protest. If you want to sign the photo petition, go here. If you want to learn more about the issue, go here.

Branching Out for Allegra

I'm back from the Big Conference. It was very fun and educational and I saw lots of old friends who for once I was able to really sit down with and have long talks. And Flesh Juice.



(Thanks Scott and Lady Miss Blogless and Rock Star and Maggie)! Yes, that's right! After months of hassling her, Maggie is starting a blog! I'm so excited! She is absolutely talented and makes Jenny Hart look like she colors with crayons.*

I finished the other Branching Out for my grandmother, Allegra. She turned 90 while I was away and I'm very much looking forward to seeing her in a couple of weeks.



The details are pretty much the same as for my last one, except that I used US8 bamboos and made it much smaller (22 repeats) because Grandma is much shorter than 5 feet.



A reminder for you: Please keep posting your travel/hometown photos on the map as you travel for the holidays. It's an ongoing project and I LOVE to see your shots.

*not a slam. I still color with crayons. In fact, I quite like crayons. But, you know, Maggie is SO GOOD...

(No) Flowers in the Yarder

Viola returns, modeling a quick creation that I excitedly knit last weekend after receiving my order from Jacey. Her hand-spun yarns are so amazing. I'd been waiting forever to order (due to funds, combined with the fact that she immediately sells out of my favorite stuff) - lemme tell you it was definitely worth the wait. The yarn (color: 'Flowers in the Larder') was so soft and fun to knit. I made a winter headband and a scarflette out of it with US 10.5 needles (I'm avoiding the head-on shots for those who were afraid of Viola last time:



Now I just need to find a cool vintage brooch with which to pin it closed.



(no, Viola, you cannot go out. Without a body, you're likely to get brain freeze).

A Fine Mess

Remember how I said that Madil Kid Seta is really difficult to frog? Well, I started my grandmother's Branching Out scarf this weekend, made some mistakes, and it was too tangly to even frog. So long story short, Teak is modeling a 'swatch' for you (the bad part had already been frogged before I snapped it).

In other news, THANK YOU for all the nice comments recently and the advice about those crazy bleeding hearts. I am going to dig them up next weekend when I return from the conference.

I'll leave you with a photo of my back porch, taken yesterday after our first snow:

bleeding hearts

Anyone know anything about helping Bleeding Hearts make the transition from garden to houseplant? Do they need to be dormant in the cold? Is it too late for them now that we're having our first howling wind and snow tonight? Will they be able to return to captivity after a summer of unfettered growth?

Will my annoying question format drive all my blog friends away?

If you know anything about these little guys, please help! I usually adopt a survival-of-the-fittest attitude to the garden, but I really want to take these with me when I go.