Christmas Wishes

Well it took me a while this year but I am FINALLY in the Christmas spirit. It's been snowing like mad here in Brussels which is unusual for Belgium but it's meant that one can't help but feeling Christmas-y.

I finished up Shazza's Birthday pressie in the nick of time and was surprisingly challenged by what I thought would be a simple triangle scarf. After fiddling with it and conferring with Rosalind at Kaleidoscope ( My local yarn stone and second home) I finally worked out the appropriate increases. I added metal beads and silky tassels at the ends

to give the scarf some weight and some elegant finishing. She seems happy with it and for that I'm glad. If anyone would like the final pattern I came up with, just let me know.

But let's get back to Christmas.

This time of year always involves more time spent at home and I've been working on a great sweater in a plum color. I love having some warm and cosy yarn in my lap as I rock out to Elvis singing "Santa Bring my Baby Back to Me" on the iPod!

This afternoon my beautiful babies and I even came up with my very own version of the famous " 12 Days of Christmas". Try to sing it while you read, k?

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me

the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me

2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me

3 balls of Mohair, 2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair, 2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

5 GOLDEN SCARVES!

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair, 2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the Sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

6 Chica's stitching, 5 GOLDEN SCARVES!

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair , 2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the Seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me

7 skeins a spinning, 6 Chica's stitching, 5 GOLDEN SCARVES!

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair, 2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the Eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

8 balls unravelling, 7 skeins a spinning. 6 Chica's stitching, 5 GOLDEN SCARVES!

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair, 2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the Ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

9 stitches slipping, 8 balls unravelling, 7 skeins a spinning, 6 Chica's stitching, 5 GOLDEN SCARVES!

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair, 2knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the Tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

10 people purling, 9 stitches slipping, 8 balls unravelling, 7 skeins a spinning, 6 Chica's stitching, 5 GOLDEN SCARVES!

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair, 2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the Eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me

11 lacy leggings, 10 people purling, 9 stitches slipping, 8 balls unravelling, 7 skeins a spinning, 6 Chica's stitching, 5 GOLDEN SCARVES!

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair, 2 knitting needles and the gift of cre-a-tiv-ity

On the Twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

12 cabled cardies, 11 lacy leggings, 10 people purling, 9 stitches slipping, 8 balls unravelling,7 skeins a spinning, 6 Chica's stitching, 5 GOLDEN SCARVES!

4 pattern books, 3 balls of Mohair, 2 knitting needles and

THE GIFT OF CRE-A-TIV-ITY!

So there you have it. I wish you all a lovely and creative holiday season. Enjoy the time with your families and try to take a minute to reflect upon the good things that have happened to you this last year. I hope you made the most of the people around you. I was speaking to the daughter of a friend of mine who told me of an interesting conversation she had with her mother. In the conversation she compared life to knitting. She said "When you knit, you make mistakes. You leave it and you think that it'll be alright and keep going. When you finish, you lift up your work in front of you and when you see there are holes throughout your piece you can't be proud. It's just like life. When you make a mistake, don't put it in the back of your mind and just think that it's ok... Fix your mistakes...FIX YOUR HOLES"!

An interesting metaphor from one of my favorite 8 year olds! I hope that in the upcoming year, I will try to "fix" as many holes as I can so that when I look back on my "work", I'll be proud. Big Love to Lily Flynn for laying that "purl" of wisdom on me!

I see my knitting as a gift. Even if it's not a gift for someone else, it's a gift to me. I find it increasingly difficult to focus on one thing for extended periods of time but knitting is an exception. To me its an outlet for creativity but also a kind of meditation. When I knit, everything else that has been occupying my scattered mind gets pushed aside. Wait now...yes, it's coming to me..."Zen and the Art of Knitting"! Don't laugh too hard now. Think about the sense of accomplishment you get when you see what you've made. In this age of too much technology, be proud of something you make with your hands!

Enough of a sermon for ya? Blame it on the sentimental time of year but just think about it ok?

Again, Happy holidays. Now quit reading and get back to your knitting will ya!

Big Christmas Love,

G.

One Down But About Five to Go

Kindly forgive my laziness! I haven't posted in a bit. It's been busy, busy, busy in my house lately and for the last couple of nights I've been knitting under a tight deadline. My Mom was visiting and I was trying to get this sweater done for my handsome Nephew, Gus. The sweater was supposed to be a birthday present for him in, wait for it, October but on account of my knitting ADD I'd been picking it up and then picking up something else plus I managed to hit London and Istanbul for a bit, and well, you get the idea.

Why the deadline? I wanted my Mom to take the sweater home to Canada where I'm from and where my sis and my Mom still live. REALLY didn't dig the idea of mailing from here in Brussels and didn't just want to plop my hard work into an envelope if ya know what I mean. Mind you it's still got to make it's way from Toronto to Vancouver but as a Canuk I have a kind of blind faith in the Canadian Postal Service. Shhhh, don't jinx it.

So there! It's done and I hope he looks KICK ASS in it! He's a fiesty little man and I thought it was only fitting for him to have a pirate sweater. FYI I was thinking Johnny Depp more than the Jackass pirates of late. Just to clear up any confusion, as if.

But enough of showing off. I gotta keep going. There are presents to be made not to mention I've been shopping ( Moi, surely not!) and I got the most beautiful Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran in an Aubergine color. It's got some crappy yardage and will probably only knit about 10 cm per ball of the sweater I've decided to make but its SOOOO soft and I just had to give it a shot. I just HAD to.

THEN there's this beautiful la Droguerie "Soyeuse" that just came into my local yarn shop. It's the palest of pink and when Rosalind, the co-owner showed it to me I just

HAD to have it. Are ya seeing a common "thread" ( Ha, I kill me) here? Tragically, I think I HAVE to have a LOT of things.

Suffice it to say that I''m knitting up a storm. The pirate sweater for Gus was in Navy blue which was a gigantic pain in the butt only because my vision is failing me and I was dropping stitches all over the place when I tried to knit in the evenings. Gotta get my eyes checked!

Now I'm working on something in a dark purple which would normally be ok except that I just HAD to have these wicked pimped out needles in multicolored stained wood and the needles are the same color as the effing yarn!

Alright so this is not the greatest photograph and you can SO see the needles from the yarn but just trust me. It's a challenge. Things are further complicated by the fact that its actually three different yarns spun together. It's a prezzie. I have high hopes for it even if it does my head in. Awesome needles though right!

Stay tuned for further updates.

I'm supposed to be hanging with my knitting group today but things have kind of fizzled out of late. The time of year has meant that people just don't have the time to pop in to knit for a couple of hours. I'm guilty of not showing up either last week. I hope someones around this aft because I'm showing! We've had quite the cold snap here in Brussels and that's meant I've kept my outings to a minimum. When Belgium gets 5cm of snow they shut the schools! While initially this made me laugh, as someone who grew up with heaps of snow in Toronto and Montreal, I began to take it seriously when I saw how many of the Belgians drive under those conditions. A Nightmare would be the best way to describe it.

I'll leave you with this smile. Yesterday I was at my son Max's winter band concert. I had to drop him off early so the kids could get themselves sorted. This meant that I had an hour to kill so I grabbed my knitting to bring with. Was it the most social thing to do? Don't know, but I would have rather done that than just people watch plus I'm knitting in Garter stitch so I could watch WHILE I knit. A friend came up to me and said " Oh I used to knit. Yup, I did for a bit but then I realized that I was really much better at BUYING yarn than knitting! I've got ton's of it at home". In typical Gazelle fashion I started to wonder...Is that me???

Nope nope nope. Onward and this is certainly true of knitting; Upward!

So now you're all caught up! Would love to hear about and see what everyone else is knitting so let me know. I'm planning to put up the tree this weekend and before I decorate I'm going to go a little crazy with some yarn. If it doesn't look ridiculous, I'll post a pic. Happy Christmas Shopping everyone!

Peace,

G.