Xmas knitting, planning and thinking

There has been much in the way of furious and not entirely satisfying knitting going on around here. With Xmas two weeks away (eek!) I haven't even cleared a space in the living room to put a tree up, and any baking that gets done will probably be ingested long before it's cooled and theoretically gifted. So the knitting is all the signs of Christmas being around the corner in my house.

Pattern:Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt (in Favorite Socks)

Yarn:Araucania Ranco Multy in the most fabulous

green/blue/brown colourway that I can'teven begin to capture here

(bottom 2 photos closest to real colour)
Gift for my eldest niece but one

Rav link

Christmas is not my favorite of holidays. Nothing particularly against it, it's not like I have a long, painful history of bitter family Christmas's, like some, if not most, of my friends.

Christmas was always very nice for me as a child, if the rest of the year wasn't so much. My family were Irish Catholic immigrants, so Christmas for us was actually what it's supposed to be, visiting with family and the adopted extended family of other Irish immigrants, choir practice, church (lots of church, but there were plays and nativity scenes, and in general much less boring than the rest of the year), lots of food, British candy and goodies sent over from the relatives (I looked forward to my Terry's Chocolate Orange every year), packages of presents and new Christmas outfits. And since it was the birth of Jesus, time of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All Men, kind of time, actually very peaceful and relaxing. I don't remember my mom going crazy over gifts, any bullshit competition with the neighbors, any crazed last minute mall runs (to give her props, my mom was probably done with the Xmas shopping and crafting by June, and had everything wrapped shortly after finishing the Halloween costumes.)

These days, my family is pretty spread out, I've lost touch with most of the other expat Irish families (many of the parent generation have moved back to Ireland, or out to that other Ireland, Coastal BC), I'm a church avoiding atheist and Christmas to most of the people in my life now is, and always has been, all about the mass consumption of gifts. So the meaning that Christmas used to have for me is gone, and all the season means for me now is that crazed consumption (ok, tried to bring the boy to one of our old churches for Xmas Eve Candlelight mass when he was 6 or so, soooo did not work out well. One of these days I'll recount the "Religion Burns" incident.)

One of the ways I try to make Xmas have some reasonable meaning to me is to focus on family and meaningful gifts, things that I think will make the recipient happy, and also have a happy and significant meaning for me. This year (well, last New Year's) I decided to hand make all my Xmas gifts this year. It was a bit of an over stretch for me, as I've been cutting gifts off the list in the last two weeks, but having decided to do this a year ago, and working slowly but constantly throughout the year, I have a bunch of hand knit items that I'm proud to be gifting, and a slightly refined plan of attack for next year. Like not knitting every single thing on the list, I can sew and bead too, and those are waaaay quicker, more bang for your buck kind of crafts. I can then make more stuff for the people lower down on my list (you know, best friends partner, coworkers new baby), without slighting the people I really want to make something special for.

And right now, as much as I'm looking forward to some non-deadline knitting (and I've been knitting on a deadline for about 10 months now, so I'm looking forward to that a LOT), I've already created the worksheet for next Xmas, and bought myself a copy of Knitted Lace of Estonia, to make some really, really special gifts for my favorite nieces. Wish me luck!

Crappy FO pics

Despite the fact that I've owned my camera for, like 4-5 years, I never had any clue what that weird macro setting was for, until I started reading knitting blogs. It's funny to me that most of my friends and co-workers think that my knitting is such an old-fashioned, matronly hobby, but I've actually been learning quite a bit about web-site design and digital photography from reading other knitting blogs and the sort of problems and solutions bloggers have encountered in developing their own blogs.

This is a long-winded way of saying that my FO pics still suck, but I'm now encouraged to learn how to actually, you know, use my camera and hope that the pics will improve sometime soon.

Today's mystery object are a pair of Clown Vomit mitts for my youngest niece's birthday, yarn picked out by the fashion maven herself, who I would have thought wouldn't have been caught dead in something like this. She picked out the yarn, and requested an idiot string attached to them. Did I mention she's 15 and two older, very fashionable sisters. Yeah, I'm pretty stunned myself.

The mitts knit up super fast, once I actually sat down and committed to a few hours of knitting on them. Once again I assumed that a project can get completed through a process of knitting 10 stitches or so, then wandering off to look at new, sexier projects on Ravelry, then virtually shopping for yarn in quantities I can't possible afford.

Funny how this is the cheapest, crappiest yarn possible, the kind of stuff that makes me feel like I'm chewing on styrofoam and that I'd avoid at all costs, but the niece loved the mitts so much. Yeah, there's enough left for a hat. Soon to be seen in the Xmas FO parade (sometime around next Thanksgiving.)

Oh, yeah, details, pattern just roughed up on the fly, cast on enough stitches to fit around my wrist, knit till they were long enough. Details, bah, I defy you, careful details!

Ravelled here.

Much happenings

There has been stuff going one, knitting and not so knitting. Even a few photos taken.

And then there was some H1N1, still lingering in the Boy, who's been going to sleep at about 6pm every night.

So, between Xmas knitting, winter necessities knitting, and more than a few socks, I have a bunch of projects to share. Hoping to get some sunshine this Sunday to take photos (in between my weekly winter Sunday routine of screaming at the TV, Go Steelers!) And then to have a real post to put up.

Ooof

Man, that was a long month. Once again I failed in my effort to post more often, and to post some pictures. It was a busy, busy month. Folk Fest, lots of work, some really stupid committee crap to deal with. There has, happily, been some knitting, and a bit of an epiphany, too.

I've been working on socks, the clap (I'm utterly sure I'm not the only one who giggles a bit at that), Xmas knitting, and the obligatory unnecessary new project (Girasole, who am I to fight the tide?) I have been knitting and tinking and frogging and basically getting really unhappy with my knitting and getting nowhere.

So last night I decide I'm just going to finish the freaking Monkey (link for the three people left on teh interweb who have not yet started this pattern) that I've been working on for far too long, and won't work on anything else till I do. And guess what, nearly done the first sock. Huh, so, committing to a project might actually help me to finish that project. Who knew? This might be going somewhere.

I've got some major project decisions to make soon. I'm going to be spending 3 days at a cabin with my sister. I've got to pack some knitting. Now, my problem here is 3 days in a cabin with my sister!!! And my other problem is most of the knitting I'm doing right now is Xmas knits for my sis or neice (the clap is for her, yes, I'm giving my sister the clap for Christmas, it's the gift that keeps on giving. Seriously, I have a million of these, don't forget to tip your waitress!)

So, I have 3 days, including some fairly long drives, where I can do some serious knitting, a pressing need for something to distract both myself and my sister (I love my sister dearly, but she's my older sister, much older sister, she used to carry me around like a baby doll when I was little, luckily I've got 60lbs on her now, lol), and I have to pick some projects that won't wind up under her tree this December.

So I'm think Girasole, and I'll put off the other Monkey until the cabin. I really, really, really want to bring along 5 or 6 projects, but I've learned something big about myself today, and should probably actually pay attention to it, this time around.

Yes there has been knitting

...but it is so ungodly hot around here right now that I'm not going anywhere the Outside while the Burning Ball of Hotness is up in the sky. So no pics, at least until I can go out in the midday sun and not wilt like a Georgian heroine. Prairie summer heat is like childbirth, you forget how bad it really is until you're right in the middle of it again.

I know some people really like the heat, but I'm a thin-skinned knitter who seems to attract mosquitos like flowers do bees (as an aside, I also attract bees, they seem to be drawn to my hair, making spring not so much fun either), so winter (or, at least, late fall) will always have my loyalty.

It's also so hot, that even socks are feeling to hot to be in my lap, so my natural reaction to this is to start a large, worsted weight blanket--yeah, I got sucked up quickly into the Girasole love going around. I faved the pattern on Ravelry when it was first released, and was thinking about working on it this winter, but after reading all the comments about what a well written pattern and how easy and quick it was (for a lace blanket) and realizing that I already have more than half the needed yarn in my stash (Cascade 220 heather in a light green that I wasn't really liking in scarf, hat + mitten form anyway) and that my local LYS still had loads of skeins in the same dyelot, well, it was kind of inevitable.

I may have had a bit of a sock yarn slip while there, a couple of lovely fall shade skeins in Malabrigo sock (nomnom) and Cherry Tree Hill. I'm so totally loving the way Embossed Leaves (raveled) are knitting up a lovely spring shade of Araucania Ranco Multy, that I'm making for my neice, I want to make myself a pair, an appropriately fall themed colour, cause that's what it'll be by the time I can get around to knitting them up.

Sorry for the text only post again, I'm hoping to get some more photos of WIPs (and, god-willing, some FO's, tho I'm really great at starting projects, not so great about actually, um, finishing them...) sometime soon.

On a personal note, today is The Boy's 16th birthday. So far I think we're going to be liking 16 a LOT more than 15. Fifteen seems to have been his anno horriblis in terms of adolescent angst/bullshit. Not only is he speaking again, but his birthday request was to spend the day at home, with a home-cooked meal, and to hang out with his mama. Awwwww.

Things I have learned from knitting

1. Patience (this should probably be numbers 1 through 806 of this list)

2. Do NOT leave small, breakable knitting supplies lying around on the couch next to me, you hear me, STOP doing that! (sob, broke another of my precious Brittany birch sock dpn's last night.)

3. Not all cats are obsessed with yarn.

4. Some are very obsessed with yarn (relearning this one after living with two very yarn-ambivalent cats for several years. Also obsessed with underpants, but that's for a very different blog.)

5. You get what you pay for.

6. Corollary to number 5: shortcuts aren't.

7. Despite a greater than kindergarten education, I still have trouble counting to ten in a reliable way (a problem compounded if I'm watching tv or reading blogs while knitting.)

8. Despite years of experience I still like doing some things the hard way.

9. I get an unholy amount of pleasure from looking at my completed socks. Will sometimes stop to admire them on my feet several times a day. In public.

10. I love finicky, tiny needle, tiny gauge projects. Who knew?

Well, that was fun

Today I successfully put on my shirt correctly after only 3 tries.  That's the kind of month I've been having.

Blogging should be picking up a bit more, now that I'm not working the stupid hours.  For today, though, I see a lot more lounging.  Over and out.

100 Things, part III

Dos ici

21. I've never seen Titanic.

22. I never plan on seeing Titanic.

23. I have, however, seen the original 3 Star Wars films at least 100 times each.

24. If I could be any animal, it would be an otter. Otters just rock.

25. I have a tattoo on my head.

26. I have 3 cats and am dangerously close to becoming one of those "cat ladies".

27. I'm really a dog person, but can't have a dog, hence the growing cat harem.

28. I have hitchhiked across (most of) Canada.

29. When I was 8 I wanted to change my name to Starr. Yes, with 2 r's.

30. I cringe to think of that now.

Pics!

Managed to finish a few things, most importantly my first pair of socks!

Mirasol Chirapa on 2.5mm needles.  Kate Gilbert's generic sock worksheet followed loosely (very loosely, my first sock from her worksheet fit The Boy's size 15EEE feet).

Made a ditty bag to hold my clap in progress.

Moda Dea bamboo, don't remember the needles.  After finishing the clap, I'm going to felt the bag and line it to make it a bit sturdier and use it for sock projects.

Araucania Ranco solid 106 Monkey on 2.25mm needles for my dainty footed niece (Xmas present.)

The first of another pair of Mirasol Chirapa socks, this time for The Boy, much larger and in a 3x1 rib on 2.75mm needles.

Manitou Passage Scarf for yet another neice for Xmas, in Cascade 220 Heathers Light Gray, on 5mm needles.  I'll be making a (relatively) matching slouchy hat and some mittens to go with this scarf.  Will add on a pair of socks too, since I've been told by sis that all the family will "definitely appreciate" a pair of handmade socks for Xmas.  What have I gotten myself into here?

Still getting a hang of this photographing projects thing.  I've never been a good photographer, and my camera is crap, so getting better equipment and learning how to take a good photograph is on my long-term to do list. 

100 Things, part deux

Part uno here.

11. I learned to knit when I was 7 or so, but didn't learn anything other than a knit stitch, so made the world's most boring and itchy doll blankets and scarves for a couple of months, then gave up.

12. I've largely taught myself to knit using the internet (Oh You Tube, where would I be without knitting videos and every episode of Spaced?)

13. Further on the above, I taught myself to read when I was 3 (not that astounding, my older siblings were all in school and I desperately wanted to do EVERYTHING they were doing, all the time.)

14. My favorite author is JRR Tolkein.

15. Despite all geeky appearances, I have never dressed up in character costume for a comic-con.

16. With my friends, I consider #15 a personal accomplishment (Arcturian Space Bunny being a popular costume among some of my girl-friends.)

17. I have a (nearly) 16 year old son, and this freaks the hell out of me on a daily basis.

18. I love spicy, exotic foods. Favorite cuisines are Laotian, Nigerian, Sechuan and Indian of any sort.

19. I can make moccasins.

20. Despite the fact that my parents only spoke English, my father's accent was so thick that I often had to translate for him when I was a child.

Sock madness

Ok, I admit that for 30 some odd years I have been baffled as to why anyone would want to hand knit socks.  You can buy perfectly good socks, in just about any colour or style you can think of, so why would anyone want to spend hours and hours making something that no one sees or cares about.

And then I made a sock.

The 1st step is to admit you have a problem and are powerless to control it. 

I now have a sock yarn bin.  And 2 LYS within walking distance.

What's step 2?  Who cares, pass me my dpn's!

More Yarn Gluttony

Oy Vey am I in trouble.  

So I now have not one, but two really, really good yarn stores within walking distance of my home, even worse, within biking distance (I have a basket on my bike, double the carrying capacity!)

So after dropping close to $400 at Wolseley Wardrobe, I went down to check out Ram Wools new worker owned co-op store.   Ouch my wallet.  It's all for Xmas, I keep reminding myself.  Except it's not, not by a long shot.

But c'mon, 750yds of Fleece Artist Nyoni for $20? Like you'd say no!  And yes, I'm crazy, I'm planning to make sweaters from this sock yarn.  I'm planning on something really loose and drapey for summer and early fall/spring.  I bought 2 skeins each of two different colourways.  One a very summery blue/green/red close to the skein on the right in that link above (it's darker irl) and one a very bright orange/red/yellow/rust that will be for fall.  Maybe I'll make stoles and shawls out of that one instead, I'll see how I feel in October or so when I get around to it.

And yes, there was more.  They have a bargain yarn wall.  A whole WALL, divided by colourway.  I tried not to go nuts.  Bought some Diamond Luxury Baby Alpaca Lace in Fern to make this, which I'm hoping to have done for Folk Fest in July.  I also bought an Addi Turbo Lace circ and this is making the Clapotis go much, much faster.  Not only the needle itself, but the fact that I need it to make Muir and I can't start on my shawl until I'm done that millstone around my neck, I mean, lovely scarf for my lovely sister...

WIP

Getting some nice progress going on the Clapotis, finally, and have settled down on a plan for The Boy's hat--use up the 2nd skein of dark green Cascade with a light green heather biohazard symbol from this chart. The Boy likes this plan.

Since I have a deep, chthonic, primal need for list making, I'm wanting to write out the knitting skills I want to learn this year:

1) short rows, what are they and how do I get me some?

2) socks--see #1--they seem to be required for socks

3) make a sweater, any sweater, something really basic, this one, probably. I have made a sweater in the past, but that was over a decade ago, for a toddler, and never completely finished, so I feel like I'm missing out on some basic garment construction knowledge

4) lace--damn you lace, I will be your master, someday

5) Magic Sock Cast-On--I feel like I'm not really a complete person if I don't know all of the possible cast-ons, or at least most. Apparently I'm one of those kind of knitters.

6) Kitchener stitch and other grafting techniques. I don't know any. That ain't good.

Yarn gluttony

So I went yarn shopping today.  So I went shopping for yarn for all the Xmas presents I want to make for The Hand Made Xmas Project (it's always in caps in my mind now, and it's always Xmas, not Christmas.)  So I went to my LYS during their spring sale.  

So I went a little crazy, hehe.

19 skeins of Cascade 220 (mostly in heathers), 4 of Malabrigo Worsted, 8 of Manos Silk Blend (yummy yum yum), 2 Araucania Ranco sock yarn, 3 skeins of Miski that I just fell in love with, 2 of Diamond Luxury Alpaca Primo, and 2 of Mirasol Chirapa.  Most of the presents will be made with the Cascade, Malabrigo and Manos.  The rest was just indulgence on my part.  1 skein of Malabrigo, in Lime Blue, was bought just to see how it would look knit up.

And I want to go back for more.  I'm starting to understand the stash collection I've seen on other blogs.  I'm starting to envy and crave those stashes.  There's is so much yarn out there, and I have bought so little of it.  Must... get... yarn...

Pics tomorrow, when the sun is up and I'm knot knocked on my ass with this damn cold again.

100 Things, part 1

So I'll bite and jump on the bandwagon, but I'll spread out these 100 things, cause I just don't know if I can be interesting 100 times over.

1. I was born on Thanksgiving, Canadian Thanksgiving that is, in October, and no pilgrims involved at all.

2. I was born a week late.

3. My older siblings are twins, and a preemie who were born less than 20 months apart (yup, 3 babies in diapers, two of them mobile, my mother was an amazing multi-tasker.)

4. I'm the only Canadian born member of my family.

5. I'm the only French-speaking member of my family.

6. One of my earliest memories is getting blisteringly angry when a Nixon speech interupted Kojak. I loved Kojak.

7. My earliest memory is eating a cherry popsicle with my best friend Johnny.

8. I'm a redhead.

9. My all time favorite movie is The Empire Strikes Back.

10. As a child, I wanted to grow up to be Han Solo (space pirate boo yah!)

Pics!

So I finally figured out how to download photos onto my laptop (and by figuring it out, I mean I finally got The Boy to do it for me, lol.)

I have 4 days off work, starting yesterday, so I very happily sat all day in bed, knitting and listening to BBC radio crime productions (mostly Hercule Poirot.)  Nearly finished The Boy's Dashing gloves, just have the second thumb to work on.  I didn't want to pick up the thumb when I was tired and the light was bad, learned that the hard way from the first on.

Printed out a spreadsheet for Clapotis from Soul Knitting that is absolutely brilliant and really, really helpful.  So I got quite a bit done on the Clap, then dropped a damn stitch and had to frog back about 3-4 rows.  Grr.  I'm hoping that I won't have so much trouble with this pattern once I get past the increase rows.  I don't know why I'm having so much trouble with it.  It's not really a hard pattern, but I just can't knit it on automatic and I'm not used to putting so much concentration into each stitch and row.

I'm really happy with the colour of this yarn, it's for my sis and I think she'll love the colours.  I'm hoping to get it done for her birthday at the end of April, but we'll see.

I'm nearly done the My So Called Scarves I started for Xmas (d'oh!)  I will be giving away the first scarf, but I think I will keep the 2nd one for myself, I've started a Foliage in Malabrigo that matches nicely.  The colour in that photo is awful, it's really a very nice medium pink.

Speaking of which, I have to apologize for the bad photos, but I just really wanted to get some photos up and took these at about 3 am in horrid light.  It's cloudy and crappy out today, but we usually have very bright sun so I should be able to post better, natural light photos of FO's (should I ever have any FO's, I seem to enjoy starting projects, but not the finishing part, lol.)

Hand Made Xmas

It may be a bit early to be talking Christmas already, but I've made a commitment to myself this year that we will have a completely hand-made Xmas this year, so I have to start early.

I've already started my knitting for Xmas, and hope to have it done completely by the middle of November, including gifts and small gift bags I'm going to knit up from cashmere and other luxe fibers.  I'm hoping to do a bit of jewellery making this year, I haven't done that in over a decade, so I'll have to stock up on tools and supplies and will be working on some of that over the summer and fall.

Come December 1st, I want to be starting in on baking and food prep.  I want to do cookies, some soup mixes using organic veggies I dry myself in the dehydrator, and maybe some breads or freezer entrees for the busier people on my list.  Add to that small fabric gift bags, hand-made Xmas ornaments and cards and a few little stocking stuffers of all types and I probably have a years worth of work ahead of me.

I just picked up some Malabrigo worsted to make myself a Foliage hat, and I've just fallen in love with this yarn.  I'm going to make up a bunch of Foliage hats in both worsted and chunky for Xmas, plus a couple of slouchy berets (Ravelry link), then make myself a Rogue pullover in a rich green or maybe red in the Malabrigo.

That sweater will be my reward for losing another 20lbs or so.  I refuse to make myself a beautiful sweater from an expensive wool while I'm 20-30lbs overweight.  The chance to make myself some really nice handknits from beautiful wools and being able to save some money on skeins of wool is a really nice incentive to not dive into that bag of nacho chips.

I Hate Winnipeg

I`m a Winnipeger, born and raised, and like virtually everyone else in this city, I have muttered the title of this blog post more than once (sometimes more than once a day), during our near polar winters.  It`s such a common statement that local band The Weakerthans have written a song unoffically called I Hate Winnipeg (actually called One Great City.)

But reading knitting blogs from around the world, it occurs to me that there may be some knitters out there who might be a tad envious of the 6 month long, 40 below (F or C doesn`t matter, the scale meets up at about -44), colder than Moscow, so cold my eyelids freeze together when I blink kind of winters (seriously, frozen shut!)  I have ample opportunities to knit all sorts of winter gear, and no end of takers for any kind of hand knit I can pump out.  The idea of a teenager turning down a tuque or pair of mittens because they are hand knit or uncool is pretty foreign to me.  I guess there is an upside to living in Winnipeg.

Oh Frabjous Day!

Calloo Callay!

The best yarn store in the city, the one my mom used to go to when I was a kid and she was knitting great Mary Maxim and Buffalo sweaters in the 70`s, the one that moved to the middle of an industrual park and has been virtually inaccesible to me for 20 years, is moving back to the inner city.  And they are moving less than a mile away, next to the Dairy Queen, right down the street from my local grocery and pharmacy.  Across the street from a great girly clothes consignment store and the local Italian grocery.  

So, basically, I`m going to be very happy and very broke for a long time.

On a knitting note, finally figured out the thumb gusset in the round for The Boy`s Dashing gloves, and have finished one.  I`ve got the other down to the start of the cable round and should be finished by the weekend.  

Bought some cheap yarn today to start a Radiating Star Blanket for a co-workers baby who`s due in June or so.  Phentex Chunky, cheap, but still a nice colourway and, most importantly, machine wash and dry-able.  For some strange reason no one had a set of 6mm dpn`s or circs anywhere.  Michael`s only had some really expensive bamboo needles, and I`m not a big fan of bamboo needles, at least not the ones I`ve bought at Michael`s, so no way was I going to spend 30 bucks on needles I`ll hate.  So I bought 6.5 mm, and some chunky yarn to make socks for The Boy.  He`s asked for `soft and big`, so that`s what he`s gonna get.  The yarn is in the other room, and I`m too tired and lazy to get up and check it, so I`ll post about it later.  I do have a pretty good excuse, it as -39 outside today when I went shopping, it hasn`t been that cold for at least a month now, and it`s funny how quickly you forget just how cold 40 below is.  Yikes!

Still working on the camera thing.  Have to find the software for my camera and install it on my laptop (heretofore known as Sheila), and check out how the camera is working.  Hopefully I can have some pictures of my current projects up here within a week.

New blog smell

Because I seem to think that I have too much free time, here I go with the blogging thing again.  My last blog was a homeschooling blog, but since The Boy is going to a brick and mortar school now (for now, fingers crossed), I let that one drop a while ago.  

I gots bitten by the knitting bug again this winter, and I'd really like to produce more than scarves, finally, so I'm hoping that I'll have more than swatches and a few stitch patterns to post here.

Of course, though, my current projects are almost all scarves--2 My So Called Scarves that were supposed to be Xmas presents but working at a restaurant over Xmas turned out to be pretty freaking busy (surprise surprise), so they'll be birthday presents, or early FO's for next Xmas.  One is in Manos in the Caribe colourway, and the other is a baby llama in a pink so pink I'm embarrased to be seen in public with it, but man, is it soft and pretty.

  

Same goes for the Clapotis I'm making for the sis.  She'll be 45 in April, so maybe will make that one quickly, if I can just get it started without making some sort of fatal error and frogging it for the umpteenth time.  I decided to go with a thinner yarn than the pattern called for, a Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Pilsen colourway.

Last nice thing on my needles right now is Dashing for The Boy, a dark green tweedy Irish wool who's name I can't remember.  The wool is pretty scratchy (The Boy doesn't notice things like that, at least, not if he likes the garment, if he doesn't like it, mohair would feel like barbed wire to him), and the colour is really, really dark so it's hard to knit in anything but full sunlight.  Not much of that to go around in the winter, so it's looking like I will have The Boy's winter goodies ready just in time for spring (d'oh!)

The rest of the stuff on my needles right now are the permanent Granny's Favorite Dishcloth that lives on my spare pair of 4.5 mm needles.  I can never have enough dishcloths.  I'm also fiddling around with making some stitch pattern swatches and piecing them together into an afghan next winter.  I've got tons of cheap acrylic worsted sitting around from when I was teaching myself to knit (again) a few years ago, and figure it would make a good blanket for The Boy, one that I wouldn't be too heartbroken if he destroyed it (as he is the Destroyer of All Things.)

Also in my queue of things to do is to either get a new digital camera, or figure out what's wrong with the one I have right now, so I can start posting some pics of what I hope will soon be a giant pile of FO's to show off.