My Week in Bullet Points

--I knit an iPhone cozy. That was all I could handle last week, with giving (and then grading) final exams and what not:



(While proctoring a three-hour exam it occurred to me that this could have been prime knitting time. Alas, I fear my students sometimes think I am cuckoo as is; no need to scare them further with knitting needles. BTW: my students this semester were, for the most part, terrific kids. I'll miss them.)

--Hubs ordered a hat. I immediately searched for all manly hat patterns available to me (including the beautiful Koolhaas), and once he had considered them, he picked... sound the drums please... the Navy Watch Cap. I died of boredom at the mere thought. The Hubs then said, well, maybe the Danish Earflap Cap...? Love it!, I replied. Stranded color work, fabulous! No, he said, of course without the snowflakes. Just the earflaps. Couldn't I add earflaps to the Navy Watch Cap...? I saw my last chance in color choice and asked him for his preference. Black, he said. I gasped. Fine, he compromised, how about a really dark grey? Ugh.

--And while on the hat, why not throw in a scarf for the Hubs? He's officially abandoned the Sculptured Lace Scarf I made for him last spring (my first knitting project: a labor of love. That's how I learned of yarn-overs. I-cords. Charts. Knitting code. Knitting into the back of a stitch. Really, I learned so much by knitting that scarf. And I had picked the pattern because it was designed by a man for men. Nevermind the word "lace" in the name.) So, the Hubs doesn't like the scarf. Instead, he started wearing my Clapotis. My Clapotis! For comparison:

I thought of a wicked plan to save Clapotis. I will finally block it and then convince the Hubs that it's a lace scarf...

Alternatively, I'll make him a black 2x2 ribbing Death-By-Boredom scarf to go with the hat...

--I saw the current Knitty and fell hard for Spoke.

--I went to as many holiday parties this past week as I've been to in all previous years combined. There's something about life past grad school and getting holiday party invitations: the two are connected. At one holiday party (celebrating both Christmas and Hannukah), the hostess had stayed up the entire night--not gone to bed at all!--to make eight different kinds of traditional German holiday baked goodies (Stollen, Mutzenmandeln [aka Oliebolelen], Quarkkäulchen, Zimtsterne, and Vanillekipferl among them), and I ate myself silly on Krapfen (it went well with Glühwein). She had also urged everyone who played an instrument to bring it along for a potential jam session. I counted four saxophones and several violins, and indeed, live music was on the entire night. One guest brought the rest of his jazz band; another his a cappella group. The house almost burst with the 100 guests or so present. It was way awesome.

--We ordered and received our custom holiday cards but have written none so far. Experience has taught us that we're likely to be behind with Christmas cards, so this time we opted for a Happy 2010 theme. Clever, the two of us. One can still wish a Happy New Year in February, right? (Goodness, we have 100 cards to write sign.)

--Here's Räuchermännchen next to our modest Christmas pyramid, our concession to Christmas décor:

Have I mentioned we're not having Christmas this year? In recent years we spent Christmas either with my or the Hubs' parents, but this year it'll be just the two of us. We couldn't commit to any plans because we were hoping (and are still clinging to that hope) to get invited to job interviews in December. Since we're not even sure where we'll be over Christmas we don't plan on having a tree. The few ornaments we have (a considerable number, actually, given we haven't had any need for them thus far) are keeping each other company on a baguette serving dish. It works for us!