Dancing as Fast as I Can

I think maybe this is not just me -- the knitting furiously to try to finish a holiday present. Neh? I'd love to hear your comments about your holiday knitting quests. I just enjoyed reading a compilation of "SHE Shouldn'ts" on FlyLady's web site. (SHE stands for Sidetracked Household Executive, so these stories are about what SHEs, as opposed to born-organized folks, should NOT have taken on for the holidays!). Included were several stories of elaborate knitting/crafts projects begun in November (or later!) for Christmas use/giving. I'm hoping that since I have only one in progress (Okay, two if you count sewing up my mom's needlepoint stockings. Okay, three if you count DD's slipper socks... uh oh...), I'll be able to finish in time.

The knitting project in question is not a surprise anymore -- there's no way I could have finished on time and kept it a secret -- so here's a photo:



Recognize the Prisoner of Azkaban - style Harry Potter scarf, in Ravenclaw colors? (Hey, here's an unabridged CD version of the book for listening while knitting! I used to do this while quilting, but hadn't gotten there yet for knitting...) Perhaps from the knitting + blogging combination you already figured out I'm a bit of a geek, without even knowing about my physics background or my obsession with home canning? Well, here's letting you know that it runs in the family. The scarf is a special request for my husband, who got me going on Harry Potter and oh so many other series of books, mostly sci-fi and fantasy. I found the pattern, by Lauren Kent, on Ravelry -- here's a link to it on Lauren's web site.

Progress on FlyLady's BabySteps has been stalled for the past week or so, as I nursed DD and DH through their respective winter bugs and rested a lot to avoid getting sick myself. Now everyone is well (knock wood), so I'll be trying to get back in the groove. The good news: I haven't needed to backslide, just to stop adding new things to my routines for a little while. The next step I'll be taking is to reorganize my Control Journal a bit for three daily routines: One for before I leave the house in the morning, one for late morning or afternoon, and one for before bed. My morning routine was getting unwieldy and not so doable, so moving some items to the midday routine should help prevent discouragement and the attendant temptations to Give It All Up. 'Cause you know, giving it all up doesn't keep my house looking nice, and I'm getting to like it looking that way.