Wrapping Things Up for Christmas

The part of me that loves the crunch of holiday knitting is having a great time right now.  I was really stressing about how much knitting I still had to do before Christmas, but I finished a couple things and I'm feeling much calmer now.  This year it's different- nearly all of my gift knitting is for other people to give- cupcake and other baby hats, scarves and hats for the Mary project, and a pattern I'd like to get done before then.  I'm thinking about maybe making Purdue golf club covers for my dad as he's gotten in to golfing more this year and he's impossible to shop for, a hat for Tall/Dark & Handsome, and a doily with his parents' last name in it.  And those two things are MY Christmas knitting.

But my Christmas knitting still needs to wait for an apple hat, an ogre hat, a mostly finished scarf, 1 mostly finished adult hat and a hat pattern for Good For Ewe.  And then as soon as mine is over I go right back to cupcakes, as a local boutique has picked them up and is doing quite well with them.

I am still madly in love with my quilt but am forcing myself to ignore it- sort of.  After I finish 1 Christmas project, I allow myself to put one more row on it.  I've made 2 more strips since this picture, but haven't ironed them and joined them to the beast yet. 

The pattern I'm using is for a twin sized quilt, and since I'm not going back to a dorm room anytime soon, I decided to make it for a Queen sized bed that I'll have once I move in with T/D & H. But I am having to adjust the pattern and since I don't currently have a queen sized bed to try it on, it's a little tricky to decide how many more rows I need before I move on to the next part- the first of 4 borders. 

What's this 4 borders crazyness you ask?

It's really very simple.  Once I decide that the middle is big enough (and if I'm not there, I'm getting really really close) then I do a couple inches (I think 2.25) of a "solid" color instead of continuing with the strips of squares.  Since T/D & H really loves blue and I love everything that isn't taupe, we're going with a blue batik fabric.  He even went to the quilt shop with me yesterday and picked it out.  (The stockinette stitch fabric was in this $6/yd cuts section and I couldn't NOT take it home- no idea what it wants to be yet)  So a couple inches of blue, a couple inches of the white/bone that is already in with the middle, a border of squares like the ones in the middle again, and another white border.  For binding I'll be using every single color that's in the quilt already- it will either be color-vomit or really really cool.  In my brain it is the latter. 

So that's my plan for the next couple weeks.  Knit knit knit quilt.  Rinse & repeat. Drink eggnog. 

How are your holiday projects coming?

*By the way, the 400th post is rapidly approaching. I'm thinking a giveaway- what do you think?