Finished!

Christmas knitting is finished!

Socks for Mom. For some reason, this colorway doesn't photograph well. It's a very lovely teal and brown, called Teal Party actually, in Claudia Handpainted. She picked out the yarn herself, but she can't remember what color it was anymore. My evil plan worked perfectly.

Socks for the Best Roommate Ever, in Lotus Yarns Nirvana. The colorway is called Dig, and it's a beautiful mix of golds and coppers and bronze.

Felted Clogs for my brother-in-law. He and my sister live in one of those uber-trendy concrete lofts, so she suggested slippers to keep his tootsies warm.

Here's how big they are before felting. (That's my foot, not his.) If I were a nice person, I'd felt them before gifting, but a) I want to let them dry on his feet so they'll mold perfectly to fit him, and b) I want to see the look on his face when he unwraps these and says, "Boy, thanks! What the hell is it?" I'm a bad person.

A hat for my little sister. She recently dyed her hair a brilliant red, and the pink (fun fur: oh, the shame!) hat I made for her a few years ago clashes terribly. She also has cute little bangs, so I made her a tam so she can avoid crushing her hairdo.

Here's the detail close-up. It's not as easy to tell as I'd like, but those are little hearts done in purl stitches.

Merry Christmas to all from everyone here at Chez Light Wading!

Here I am, popping up like a little groundhog to give an update and reassure everyone that the house hasn't killed me yet. I've been doing a crapload of cleaning and cleaning and yardwork and taking down seriously icky A/C window units (those things are freakin' heavy!), and yardwork and lots more yardwork. My bedroom looks so much better.

OK, well, you can't really tell from the picture, but believe me, it does.
And um, here should be a picture of the enormous pile of brush and lawn debris that my parents and I made, but I guess I was too busy trying not to pass out and die to actually get a picture. Crap. Just visualize.
My parents have come out the past two Saturdays and helped me bushwhack the yard. They are amazing. Aparently I have a pretty sizeable side yard, but you could never tell because it was horribly overgrown and covered in English ivy.
My next big task is picking out paint colors.

I have actually been accomplishing quite a bit on the knitting front.

Mom's socks have two toes and two heels, and lack only cuffs to make them complete.

The Branching Ferns shrug is almost three-quarters finished. I have one more lace repeat before I join for the sleeve.

The Best Roommate Ever's socks are coming along. I finished one toe, which I did not take a picture of, because I am full of picture-taking fail today.

And finally, I have a few gifts for guy-type people that I promised to make, so I snapped up some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky at Knitch. Soft, machine-washable, and on sale! If only guys weren't so boring about colors.