My problem -- when I over-buy for Christmas

Never fails, every year, I slightly over-make, over-buy, over-plan for Christmas. It's not by much, but just enough that I think, "hmmm, we really don't need to saturate ourselves with treats and gifts." So, I set just a little aside until Valentine's, Easter and/or spring birthdays.

This year, I bought just a tad too much candy. Not a huge problem. I could just eat some myself, or put it all into the stockings. But instead, I chose to set some aside for Valentine's Day. I had a bag of foil wrapped candies, wrapped in green, gold and red foil. I pulled out the red-wrapped candies, and those will be added to the goodie bags for my family on Valentine's Day.

I also have a couple of small gifts that will be perfect for Valentine's and two birthdays. So, in essence, I've got a jump start on the 2014 holidays.

Now, that's a good problem to have!


Merry Christmas Eve!

Knitting headband/ear warmers plus the one thing I didn't need to buy this year

Last Thursday, I posted photos of two knit headbands that I've made for my daughters's Christmas stockings (that post is here). And I promised that I would come up with measurements and details of how I made them. So here I am, beginning a third one.I begged some yarn off of my daughter, yesterday. She has some plum acrylic yarn that I thought would be the perfect, go-with-everything-winter-that-I-own yarn.

This one may take me a few days, as I'm, uh, kinda busy this week. (And I bet you are, too!)

To start, I needed to figure my gauge. It's the gauge in width that matters, with the headbands. So, I started with yarn that I doubled, size 9 needles, and I cast on 14 stitches. I knit 6 rows, to get an idea of how wide this would be. The finished headband should be about 3  3/4 to 4 inches wide. It turned out that 14 stitches was just a tad too wide. So I pulled that one out, and cast on 12 stitches. This gave me a band about 3  3/4 inches wide, which I thought would be good for an adult (me!).

This is knit in the garter stitch, which is knit both sides. There's no finishing the edges, the knit won't roll, and it will be a thicker headband than if knit in stockinette stitch.

Once the gauge was established, I began knitting. I'll knit the band until it is about 20 inches long. At that point, I'll try it on my own head by pinning it together (leaving the knitting needle in place on the last row) and slipping it over my head. I'll use the highly technical jump-around-and-shake-my-head-about method of determining if the headband is the right size. If I need another inch, then I'll continue with the garter stitch a few more rows.

When the headband is long enough to go around my head, plus have an extra 1  1/2 inches of overlap, I'll finish the final row, with the traditional bind-off, leaving a yarn tail about 6 inches. After weaving the yarn tail into the edge, I'll stitch the headband together (with needle and matching-color thread), with the edges overlapping.

Now comes the embellishing part. I haven't decided if I'll simply sew on some buttons, or make a knit bow, or gather the headband just off-center from my face.

I'll continue posting photos as I progress. Yesterday afternoon, I spent about 1  1/2 hours knitting/untangling yarn, and got a little over half way done with the band (I've got about 12 inches knit). It will be close, as to whether I have enough yarn or not. I began with about 1/3 of a skein of yarn. (I used the highly precise method of scrunching the yarn up in my hands and guessing if it felt like a thick headband.) I think 1/2 skein would be a safer bet for one of these headbands.

For a girl-sized headband, I would think that 3 inches in width and probably about 16 to 18 inches in length would make the right size headband (you can do a quick measurement with a measuring tape, to get the right length).

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And the one thing I didn't need to buy this year?

Candy canes!

Every time I've stopped at a store, there's been a bucket of mini candy canes, free for the taking (one at a time, not the bucket). Over the course of the holiday season, I amassed about 10 mini candy canes! Woo hoo! Freebies are always nice!


I realize that many of you will be heading off to visit family in the next day or so. I want to wish you a very merry Christmas! (I'll still be here this week. It will be a family-at-home Christmas.)