What’s that you say? It’s January and so no one CARES about Christmas anymore? Blah blah blah I CAN’T HEAR YOU.

I realized after I had wrapped and mailed all my gifts this year that I really went overboard with the knitting. I mean, sure scarves are awesome, but maybe someone would like a gift that isn’t quite so…heartfelt. Stuff from the store is nice too. Like a Starbucks gift card. Or a bottle of wine. Or a Starbucks gift card AND a bottle of wine. But hey, it’s been really cold this winter so hopefully everyone’s using their fair trade Latin American artisan gifts and thinking nice warm thoughts about me.

If it helps, next year I promise not to be so crafty.

For my dad

Gray cabled scarf made with undyed eco-wool – which means this color came straight off a sheep. I think that’s REALLY COOL and kept telling random people about because LOOK, it’s SHEEP COLORED WOOL I am impressed and amazed at something that is neither impressive or amazing! It’s also about 6 inches shorter than it should be but the cable pattern was driving me BONKERS so…I quit. Sorry Dad.

For my friend Erin

This is my favorite scarf pattern to knit. It works with lots of different yarn, it’s fast, and it’s really useful – you can wrap it several different ways and use any of the holes as button holes…

For my sisters-in-law

…Which explains why both of my husband’s sisters got the same scarf knit with sparkly yarn. I should really make one of these for myself so I’m not tempted to keep other people’s presents.

For my mother

Ok, so the mittens were a total failure – my mom is a small person so I made them a little smaller than the pattern called for…and ended up making teeny tiny thumbs even my toddler can’t wear. Because when I tried for “a little bit smaller” I basically made them for a double thumb amputee. Since Mom did not tragically lose any fingers to frostbite (Yet! Without mittens she might! And then these will be SO USEFUL! See, I’m just PLANNING AHEAD) I made Mom the cowl to make up for the defective mittens. It’s just a big tube knit with super soft sock yarn and again I was VERY tempted to keep it. I need to go buy another skein and start on one for myself. Right after I finish the TWELVE project I’m currently working on/already bought the yarn for/promised to make for people.

For my friend Sara

This right here may be the MOST AWESOME thing I have ever knit. It is an exact replica of the Ravenclaw House scarf from the Harry Potter movies (also the books, but in the books Ravenclaw colors are blue and gold)(there’s some useless knowledge you’ll never get out of your head). If you watch the movies though, Hogwarts upperclassmen wear a different scarf and for a while I considered ripping this one out and making the other version – because my friend Sara is obviously not 11 and would certainly be an upperclassman at Hogwarts – until I remembered IT’S A BOOK YOU IDIOT. THERE IS NO ACTUAL MAGIC SCHOOL. But despite its lack of wizard powers, it’s still super warm and long and I hope it’s keeping Sara’s face from freezing off as she walks around NYC.

For my nephews and niece

And this one wins for most creative gift I gave this year. It’s a pair of mittens for each of my sister-in-law’s kids – kid, toddler and baby sized – and a copy of The Mitten by Jan Brett. I WIN AT CLEVERNESS. I even made the mittens red (unlike the white one in the book) so they would be easy to see and find in the snow.

Things I didn’t take pictures of: fingerless gloves for my BFF, a nice warm hat for her husband, and approximately 20 coffee coozies. I still need to make 4 or 5 more as “Sorry I didn’t get this to you in time for Christmas but I was busy giving birth” presents, but now I’m busy with keeping that thing I gave birth to alive. It’s really cutting into my knitting time.

I don’t think I can find words to describe how much I enjoy knitting. It’s sort of silly to think that something that’s been around for hundreds (thousands?) of years can still feel so cool and so new and so fun every time I pick up my needles. At any given moment I probably have four or five different items in progress with the yarn & patterns ready for another half dozen…and then I get on Ravelry.com and end up starting three more projects I had no idea I even wanted to make before I saw them right. that. instant. There’s a reason my Christmas knitting is way behind schedule and it’s not because I don’t knit every chance I get.

There’s just something about yarn – the colors, the textures, the way it feels on my hands – that I cannot resist. Yarn stores have replaced bookstores as the most dangerous place on the planet for my wallet. And then! Turning it into things! Things I can wear! Or other people can wear! It’s like magic! I’m shocked every single time I put on something I made with my own two hands and think “this used to just be yarn and now it is a HAT. HOW did that happen?!” Despite the image I’m trying to project here on the blog with my crafts and projects and creativeness I suck at almost all forms of domesticity. I’m still not good with fabric and terrified of my sewing machine – I’ll leave that to my amazing, talented, awesome, inspiring blog friends – but me and knitting? Amazingly, we’re BFF’S.

Want to see what I’ve been doing instead of finishing the nursery/new bedroom/cleaning/cooking/wrapping presents/deep breathing exercises/taking care of my family? I’m not going to spoil anyone’s Christmas here, so this is just the stuff I’ve finished recently that I’m NOT giving as gifts.

These coffee coozies take almost no yarn and no time so I still plan to make a zillion more before Christmas.

Super easy and comfortable fingerless gloves made from one skein of something really fancy, like baby alpaca and silk (I lost the wrapper so I can't remember exactly). I also lost the other glove, but by "lost" I mean "it's in the hall closet somewhere and I will definitely find it as soon as I get up off this couch."

Bebeh pixie hats. I made three (four? five?) more of these and sent them to friends who were/are expecting babies soon. The yarn is ridiculous - and inexpensive - but it makes for great newborn pictures.

This may never make it onto a baby, because I sort of made up the pattern and it MIGHT be too small for an actual infant, but if it fits? OMFG TEH CUTE!

More fingerless gloves (can you tell I'm afraid to knit fingers?) But they work great when I'm taking pictures or trying to buckle car seats so I'm going with it. These were the Mom's Night Out project Megan wrote the pattern for, designed to be easy enough for even a real beginner.

And this. THIS is me accepting the fact that I am totally having a Christmas baby who will be wearing this pretty much from the moment she's born. I'm OK with that. p.s. I totally made up this pattern too, based loosely on the pixie hat. I'm pretty proud.

And now, back to the knitting.

I didn’t do very well this week and the pics I did take are a little boring. But to be fair, how many pictures of the inside of a hospital room can you take? Especially when your iPhone is dead? At least I got the kid looking cute in a couple.

Sunday:

My in-laws brought us this box full of homemade jam & pie filling. Then we used it as a baby race car. Wins for everyone!!

We discovered the trick to a peaceful meal is a kid's cup of lemonade served with a straw. Small price to pay to avoid a bottle of ketchup to the face.

Monday:

This is the cutest I've looked in WEEKS. Headband by Uff Da, knit shrug made by me, (non-maternity) shirt from Target, adorable toddler crashing my picture also by me.

E's sudden panic!! over yardwork led to some raking in the dark. At least it was warm.

Wednesday:

Hospital lunch. I have no idea what was even in there - it appeared and disappeared while I was too sick to even THINK about food.

Thursday:

Saddest family Thanksgiving picture ever.

Friday:

You can tell I was feeling better because I could actually SIT UP enough to knit, even hooked to an IV.

Saturday:

So good to be home & back to normal toddler mornings: milk, peanut butter and a football to cuddle while we watch the Today Show.

Apparently the "insanely busy" Christmas shopping season forgot about the day after the day after Thanksgiving. Scored those luggage sets Macy's has been advertising all week and discovered rolling carry-ons are Little Evan's favorite toy EVER.

Link up with the hop below and go to Amy’s blog to get your own HTML code so it shows on your own post. It doesn’t have to be iPhone photos, just camera phone/snapshots of your week!

Do you like these posts? I do. Several other bloggers have started doing camera phone photo wrap-ups, so if someone can set up one of those reciprocal linky things (the kind that shows up on everyone’s blog) we could make it a weekly link up? Or not, since there are about forty zillion internet memes already out there.

Sunday:

I started my week off with a new knitting project - coffee coozies for my Auburn fanatic friends

Monday:

We woke up to this! (Uh, maybe it's time to bring that stroller inside)

So Little Evan and I took advantage of the snow day to work on the new nursery

Tuesday:

Naked, diaperless baby chugs milk and signs "monkey"

I LOVE getting this spot at the grocery store. I figure 1 unborn baby + 1 toddler = DON'T EVEN TRY TO TELL ME I DON'T DESERVE TO PARK CLOSE TO THE DOOR

Wednesday:

Errand day! We bought shuuuuuz at Target to replace the one he lost

And we went to the post office to mail out FOUR different presents. I love our old post office - it's a full 2 stories inside with lots of carved wood and marble.

Thursday:

E used his day off to play horsey

And I used it to get ENORMOUS in the belleh

Friday:

I worked on baby shower crafts

And went out to dinner with my friend Joy for her birthday - this is half an avocado stuffed with lobster, crab and DELICIOUS

Saturday:

I woke up to this, the view from our new 3rd floor bedroom

Despite the fact that we're a hockey family, Little Evan is in LOVE with football. BuhBaaall!! BuhBaaall!! Duh-down!! (Touchdown!)

But he still supported his daddy at the iron man tournament