Victory!  I won Dark Victory!  It is seamed, steamed, wrapped, and ready to travel.  As I was finishing my other last minute wrapping this evening, I watched the sweater’s namesake movie, Dark Victory starring Bette Davis.  It was made in 1939 so my mom was the same age as Agent B is now when it hit the screens.  It was actually not a bad movie.  I have to admit to not having watched very many “classics.”  I’m not really sure why, I guess they just don’t really have a strong pull for me.  I did enjoy this so I will not preclude them from my future Netflix queues.

So the movie is billed as being a tearjerker and it almost got a few out of me except that my viewing was rather choppy as I had to keep getting up to look for things and the phone kept ringing and then everyone came home before it ended.  I did have everyone watch the “Dark Victory” scene so they would know the essence of the sweater a bit better.  The scene is near the end of the movie  and the character that Bette Davis plays is about to die from a brain tumor. She is saying goodbye to her doctor turned husband, but only she knows it is the last time he will see her alive as she says (very dramatically as she says everything in the entire movie):  “Nothing we have can be destroyed. That is our victory, our victory over the dark.”

I can agree with her on that.  I have built a very solid relationship with Dark Victory but only after a very passionate courtship with its instructions* much like her tumultuous relationship with her doctor.  I knit it and fought in the days approaching the winter solstice.  Now the solstice has come and the dark is over and I have won.  Victory!

*After recovery from the holiday is complete, I will post a project assessment complete with Technicolor pictures.  I have much to say but I think I may forget all the bad when I see it on LFG.  I have a  feeling it is going to be super stunning on her!

Tick tick tick tick…

How are you doing with your holiday projects? Here is mine — just ends and seams left…

This week brought us 2 late openings and 1 entire snow day. I guess you can consider the weather both lovely and gruesome; lovely if you get to stay home, but gruesome if you have to drive. We are expecting a Nor’easter this weekend too. The #&#@! Nor’easter canceled the 2 Socks on 2 Circs event at Webs too. Drats.

Tonight there are supposed to be clear skies so IHA and I are off to the holiday party sponsored his law firm. It has been a while since we have been to a “fancy” party. The last company he worked for didn’t have them at night. They just had something right on site for employees only. So the last “fancy” party we attended was when he worked for GE and it was at the Wadsworth Atheneum during the Festival of Trees. It was very beautiful and a great night out. Tonight’s party is at The Hartford Club and after the party we are staying overnight at the Marriott. I’m wearing this dress which isn’t really extremely “fancy” but I think at least I can wear it again. I bought it at Ann Taylor Loft. I had never shopped there before, but decided to go in since Sarah always talks so highly of it. I went with a friend and we both had very successful shopping experiences.

So, I better continue getting ready and packing for tonight, but I leave you with a couple more wintery weather photos…

Here is one from yesterday. The agents had a great time playing out in the snow. They went out several times yesterday and their new thing is to go out and slide in the dark:

Our town had 13 inches of snow though it has settled down and melted a bit today. This is the view from my kitchen door:

Mr. Snowy, our family snowblower, has been very busy today. I think he may be coming down with something though because even though IHA went out to buy him a new spark plug and we gave him a warm bath, his engine has been spitting and sputtering. IHA did a bit of internet research and found that it is not an uncommon problem in older blowers as the quality of fuel has decreased since they were designed. We are wondering if perhaps he needs a bit more fiber in his diet…

Happy weekend to all!

Today, we fought the bleak December by making gingerbread houses.

This is an actual holiday tradition in our family.  The first couple of years we made gingerbread houses, I made the dough and all the pieces from scratch, but then one year I discovered the “kit.” The gingerbread kit is a beauteous thing!  All the pieces, the frosting powder, and the candy all in one box.  This year it got even better. At Target they have $8.00 kits that include quite a bit of candy, PRE-MADE frosting, and a plastic base which has slots to hold the walls in place.  Very easy and the girls were “caught being good.” when they completely cleaned up after themselves!

This was not really the plans that I had for today as we were supposed to attend a Womens Hartford Hawks Basketball game, but with IHA off at a Patriots game and the threat of inclement weather we decided to opt out and shop in the morning and gingerbread house in the afternoon.  I think this worked out really well, as I have one more thing crossed off my todo list!

I needed to get back to knitting Dark Victory this week and I think I am starting to get moving again.  But to get back on my knitting feet, I made a quick roll brim hat for Agent  B:

This was some handspun yarn I had from a Funky Eclectic Nuclear Superwash Wool Roving.

OK, onto Dark Victory.   Here is the body portion so far up to where I have some stitches bound off for the sleeves:

As I attempted to start the sleeves last night, I discovered that I just didn’t understand the directions.  I played around a bit and reworded the directions so they made sense to me. I think the sleeve is progressing nicely and the increases are coming out symetrical.  My only hope is that I can complete all my increases by the time the sleeve reaches the appropriate length.  For anyone interested (and for myself when I go to start the second sleeve), this is what I am doing:

Start with a long tail cast on and smaller needles.

R1 (ws) edge stitch (knit on all rows), K1, P2 (K2, P2), K1, edge stitch

R2 (rs) Switch to larger needles. edge stitch, P1, K2 (P2, K2), P, edge stitch

(What I think is going to happen by doing it this way is that the 2 purls from the opposite sides will combine together for the purl 2 rib after the edge stitches are seamed using the mattress stitch.)

R3 (ws) Follow rib pattern as established knitting edge stitches.

R4 (rs) K1 (edge stitch), P1, K2, place marker, Inc 1 (I use m1 by picking up running thread from back to front and knitting into the front) (P2, K2), Inc 1 (pick up running thread from front to back and knit through the back), place marker, K2,P1, K1(edge stitch)

Then just follow the rib pattern and increase every 4 rows.  The increases have to work into the existing rib pattern and I could not get that to work by “following” the instructions in the book. This way, they seem to working in nicely.  When it is time for a purl increase I do the make 1’s by purling instead of knitting.

You are probably wondering why I titled this post with a quote from The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe.  Well, I’m reading stories from The Return of the Light by Carolyn McVickar Edwards to the girls each evening.  Tonight’s story was called “Raven Steals the Light” and in the introduction to that story, the author compares Poe’s raven to the Inuit’s raven. She says that while Poe’s raven is “dreadful,” the raven in the Inuit story is “comforting” and ‘the very antidote to Poe’s “Midnight in December.”‘   So I have been thinking about the raven in Poe’s world and whether that raven is allowed to exist in our culture today with its plea for constant holiday cheer.  We fight the bleakness of December in many ways from endless shopping to thousands of strands of Christmas lights.  We get so busy that the month of December flies right by and before we know it that shortest day has passed and the days get longer and the sun stronger again.  Overall December is a month to get through and all the holidays in that month throughout the ages have been  just a way to quickly pass the time to get on to better days.  So, it seems to me that we have 2 choices for December. We can get through it by accepting its innate dreariness and dealing with Ravens such as Poe’s or we can fight the dreariness by bringing in our own light like the Raven in the Inuit story who stole back the light with his wit and cunning.  I think for tonight at least, I choose the second raven.

Hello! Well, today is our first really wintery day. It started with a late opening for the agents and now mid-afternoon there is a fluffy snow falling from the sky. The trees are all thick with ice and at times today when the sun decided to play some peek-a-boo with the clouds, they all sparkled like crazy. (Probably much like Edward Cullen glistens in the sun.)

I just noticed that my tagline in my header is much out of date. I’ll have to think of something new. Maybe it could be, “Getting through winter one stitch at a time?” or on those most grievous gloomy days, “Getting through the day by avoiding the oven, sharp opjects, and other could-be-dangerous items.”

Anyway, here is something fun:

What does it say about me that this is one of the most fun activities in which I have participated in a long time? Perhaps I’m enjoying it because I can lock the door and turn on the radio, but I am really enjoying painting circles on K’s wall. I keep thinking, “If this wall was a sheet of scrapbook paper what would I put on it next?”

I haven’t been knitting, spinning, or dyeing very much lately, but I do have a finished project to show:

Black Rainbow Ruffled Scarf

Pattern: Ruffled Chevron Scarf by Karen Caron

Yarn: Black Rainbow Sock Yarn by Perchance to Knit (This yarn literally has a rainbow between every span of black!)

Needles: Addi Turbos size 5

Thoughts: I only made this a once around the neck scarf for indoor wear. I think it would be nice to use to dress up an outfit. The pattern is simple with a 2 row repeat making it easy to take-along. It lies nice and flat and required minimal blocking. It was also really fun to knit with the rainbow yarn and see how the colors flowed. There are 39 stitches across this scarf and it worked out nicely with the way this yarn stripes.

I’ve sort of come to a point in Dark Victory where I have to make a decision about how long I want the sweater to be. I’ve already completed the chest increases and now I just need to knit until it is 19 3/4 inches. To me that seems strange because by the time I get there I fear the chest increase section is going to too close to the waist. I’ll have to take a photograph to show you as it is hard to explain. Maybe I should start the sleeves while I think on it.

I guess I best be off to hunt down some dinner, have a great evening!