I love to do that deep cleaning thing . I never do it in the Spring, I tend to do it in the Fall and sometime during the Summer - weird. It is a great feeling.
Love your Fernfrost -
and yes, I agree, Go make some mittens!

I am not doing Christmas shopping this year. It will be a homemade Christmas, and judging by my yarn and fabric stash, this is a good thing.
Good luck to you with your shopping. Personally I think knitting mittens is a much better idea.

Mittens.

Mittens.

Mittens.

Mittens are fun to knit. Mittens are beautiful. Don't you love those tiny little perfect braids, that tricky colourwork that makes you feel like you're just so clever, and that turns out such beauties? Remember the cuffs of those Finnish mittens? Aren't you worth really great mittens, beautiful ones? You shouldn't skimp on knitting for yourself, since who's going to appreciate the time, effort, and beauty of a really great mitten more than its knitter will?

Mittens.

Mittens.

Mittens.

(Psst-- guess what I want to do today?)

Mittens! go for the mittens!

What happened to those beer mug mittens?

My house is not clean and I haven't even begun Christmas shopping. It is raining and cold outside so neither appeals to me. Guess I'll just knit a hat for my father. He asked for one over the Thanksgiving holidays. At least I know what he wants for Christmas.

This is what all that potential comes to? Housecleaning? really? ok, not casting any stones here, just realized I have spent the last 2 months doing the same thing to my basement. I will freely share with you my clever plan for christmas knitting, which is to cast on every single thing I'm making all at once. Genius.

Mittens. But knowing your Christmas knitting list, I'd do the down and dirty ones first, and then get on with the Christmas knitting. A relaxing beautiful pair for you after Christmas. Otherwise, the list will just be nagging you when you're trying to enjoy your mitten knitten.

A clean house! What is that like? We're having some windows replaced today, and I'm going from room to room trying to keep ahead of the installers...finding dust rhinos along the way! (have to move furniture from in front of windows)

Joining in: Mittens.
Re: cleaning, I wish I'd done the type of thing you described each year. We are moving 12/15 and I am immersed in going through every drawer, closet, bin, etc. Many trips to Goodwill and an embarrassing amount of garbage was on my curb for pick up this morning. Let me motivate you to keep up the good work!
Shopping: you go girl.

Christmas knitting....Be selfless!
And I'm jealous of the totally clean house. We moved out daughter out this weekend and then my husband fell and broke his foot. Or broke his foot and fell...It was kind of fun to watch, but don't tell him that! So I'm on my own for cleaning and decorating.

Make your list of things to buy, buy them online then you can knit, unobstructed by all that shopping.... That's my plan. Good luck.

This killjoy suggests returning to Plan A and getting on with non-mitten things, (just knit the mittens cerebrally and give yourself some clearer head time) there will be time after Christmas. Meantime you can clarify what mitten pattern you will use (Spillyjane might come out with something more splendid that you want to try).

This is all to have better karma leading up to hectic Christmas time.

Shopping vs. knitting? Knitting wins every time for me. Unless I'm shopping for knitting. Then it gets a little tougher to decide.

You know.....Rav has a group called NaKniMitMo, which is National Knit Mittens Month. According to them, this knit-along happens in January. So if you needed an excuse to finish Christmas knitting first, I think this is an excellent one.

I'm knitting mittens now. I love the pattern. Northman Mittens. Alpaca lined with alpaca. Warm toasty beautiful mittens.

Damn it woman, give it all up and become a Prince stalker and groupie ... you can knit whilst you hang outside theatre back doors!
Loved the mittens you made a while back .. the beer mittens, they would make you smile in the winter months.
x

you know you want to knit some spillyjane mittens.

or helloyarn squirrel mittens! please knit them. they conquered me and you are the squirrel slayer (figuratively).

Hats knit faster in the gift department. Just saying.

And congratulations on that cleaning! I've been starting in on it myself the last few days. I needed a change of scenery.

I bet Prince held back because of his high esteem for you what with all the press Sock Summitt got and the fact that you are a New York Times best selling author. Maybe he feels as a man he isn't enough to keep you happy and it's best that he holds you at arms length as not to ruin your fantasy of him. To know that your love for him would suffer in any way once the illusion was ripped from it -- how could he deal with that? He couldn't. Hence the coy smile and the sigh of sadness when he turned away.

Despair is so sad.

I think you should knit purple mittens with raindrops on them to symbolize your love.

Given your winters, which make ours look like a balmy summer's day, my vote goes to the mittens too. How will you knit if you get frostbite? Ugly mittens just aren't up to the job of keeping your hands warm.

When you've finished your house, do you fancy tackling mine? :-)

How will your fingers survive the frigid Toronto weather without mittens? I think you better knit a pair up quick like a bunny. Then you could get down to Christmas knitting.

I got most of my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday. Didn't start out to do it all, but once I started, I didn't stop. I even got some yarn for myself. :)

Now if only someone (not me) would clean my house!

I am impressed! I don't have the attention span to do that kind of cleaning all in one day. I did a major de-clutter of most of the house a few months ago, right before I hired a cleaning lady, but that took days. I still haven't taken the stuff to Goodwill. It's all happily sitting in the basement waiting for me to be "really done".

Remember what happened the last time you 'started a pair of mittens'?

(That would be mid-September 2004, for those who want to look it up.)

On the other hand, it was really quite entertaining. Carry on.

I vote for mittens.

(Whispering again, in case I didn't make my position clear last time....)

Mittens. Mitten. Mittens. Mittens.

Pretty, fancy, fussy, deliciously entertaining mittens.

You know you want to...

Mittens.

I am knitting dragon mittens - I cast on the day I heard about Anne McCaffrey (author, books on dragons). They are for when I need to put down the knitted-on shawl edging with 289 repeats. I've gotten pretty far, as the knitted-on edging is... not exciting.

And when I finish them I have yarn aside for another (different) pair - I'm Canadian, I support having LOTS of mittens ;) (I could always start mitten #2 of my pair of Green Autumn (Druid Mittens) (Jared Flood pattern from VK). But that would be finishing things ;) )

I know what you mean. At a George Strait concert, he looked across the other 10,000 people in the stadium, right into my eyes. The world goes on, but George and I will always have The Coliseum.

Re #5: I know it is disheartening when they don't notice such things (sparkling clean house, new haircut, 5 pound weight loss) but in my experience, the ones that don't notice the sparkling clean house are the same ones who don't really notice when the vacuum is entirely misplaced and/or I've gained 5 pounds. For me, it's a worth the trade off.

Kudos, though, on the home makeover. Should make the December 31 end-as-you-intend-to-begin cleaning So Much Easier!

I so need to do that deep cleaning thing...but Little Man is just too little and the house was a disaster long before we moved in and we just added to the mess (this is what I get for inheriting my grandparents' house)...

I keep making excuses.

Maybe one room at a time...or a section of a room at a time. By the time it gets done, I'll have to start over again.

*sigh*

Excuses...

My 'Secret to sanity' - Christmas shopping in October. It seems totally ridiculous to do it two months early, but it really helps when everything else life has piles in later on...

Try it - you might even like it! (and you get to feel everso slightly smug later too!)

NOOOOOOOO

Save your sanity! Save the fancy mittens until after Christmas!

(aka: I'm stuck in The Land of Endless Stockinette with my Christmas knitting, and I really want some company.)

I am nearing the finish line of spending the last month (with my brothers' help) clearing out our mom's apartment. I vow to spend my winter clearing out our house, donating, shredding, tossing, ORGANIZING so that we live in a clean, well appointed house where you can see the floors and baseboards more often than on painting day.

I am convinced that Mom's mantra was "too much is never enough." Gah!

What happened to your beautiful silk mittens knit from the mawata? You should wear those!! :D

Well done. I also cleaned out my closet this weekend and washed duvets. Gave me the momentary illusion that I have my life together.

I vote for the mittens, it could get very cold quicker than you think, you know you wanr to.

Ladies I have the ANSWER.....D P N S Aauugghhh...pull hair !!!
Put a dob of nail polish on the middle of each one, favourite colour on most used ones, each size has it's own colour,Purple for 2.50 Red for 2.75 pink for 3.00 etc. just poke one in the size gauge and you will know what any colour represents.Sorted YaaaaaaY !!
I have 3 pairs of socks on the go and was going crazy with the different sizes needed for each yarn.

I started the Woodland mittens from Knitpicks... the kit was a birthday present. The first pair is going to my niece for Christmas. The second pair is going to my mother. The third pair is going to my daughter....

Me? I wear gloves from Land's End. Maybe I'll get the 4th pair.

Congrats on the massive cleaning project. My husband and I did something similar at the beginning of the school year. The house looked and smelled awesome ... for about a week.

I see someone has already mentioned the silk mittens. I guess they were a gift? Because I woulda kept 'em.

I love the deep cleaning as well, but I can never manage to do it all at one go. And right now I fear I'm behind even on the surface cleaning...

My husband and I cleaned the house today and it looks better, but the question is, can we keep it looking nice? No. And it's just two of us and a giant dog.

I started Christmas shopping today. I am going to go ahead and feel on top of things for the rest of the day.

What happened to your Frankenmittens from 2009? http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2009/10/06/things_going_well.html

Were they a gift?

The fern frost scarf is beautiful -- well worth the extra repeats to give it that feeling of over-the-top luxury.

I envy you the private righteousness that is the house clean the way you want it on Dec 1. You deserve mitten knitting time as a reward!

I got lucky on the shopping this year and drew my uncle's name. One trip to the liquor store, a new single malt and we're done. Everything else (that isn't knitted or baked) - Amazon.

Thought of you this morning when Jian Ghomeshi mentioned attending the Prince concert, and said that it had to be one of the best concerts ever. So, when you are on Q, you have Prince concerts in common!

cyber shopping .... you can knit mittens (or Christmas gifts) while you shop. ; )

Oh, and about Prince .... there will always be potential in that relationship.

This isn't apropos today's post, but is a revelation I had on my 9-hour train ride yesterday.

Recently you had a couple of, shall we say, "cabling issues" when working on your sweater. I was wondering while working on my intricately cabled Inishmaan (one of many intricately cabled sweaters I've made recently) why I never had that sort of problem, and I came to a startling realization: I have an anxiety disorder, and because of this after every couple of rows I go back and check all of my stitches and cables to see if everything's been done the right way. I also check my charts about 10 times mid-row to make sure I'm remembering the pattern correctly. So in the end, yes, I spend a lot of extra time checking my work and, yes, I should probably get a prescription for Ativan, but it sort of pays off in that I have few if any major flaws in my finished projects.

So my advice to you is to cultivate an anxiety disorder in order to avoid mistakes in your knitting. Sure, you'll have nightmares about everything that can go wrong all the time ever (I started to freak out while walking up my stairs, convinced that the cat sitter had somehow forgotten to come while I was away and that I'd be coming home to dead kitties), but it's totally worth it to have perfectly crossed cables the first time around, right?

...

Right?

Shop some during the day and make killer mittens in the evenings.

Christmas knitting is nearing completion unless I decide to add another item. Or two.

Shopped on Amazon over a week ago and, as far as I can tell right now, I only have one more gift to buy. Then it's cooking and baking. Extra cleaning? Nah, that can wait. The house looks fairly good anyway.

I'm sure you have a gorgeous yarn in your stash that would look fabulous as a pair of simply beautiful mittens.

Must be in the air - the house-cleaning thing.

I'd go with the quick and dirty mittens so you can take your time and enjoy something really kick-ass once the commitment knitting is done and off your plate.

Now, mind you, I somehow doubt you'll take this advice... :)

Hi ya - Have to say you've made the rest of us look bad with all that cleaning, but we forgive as we know we should have done it as well. I've been pecking around at it for a couple of weeks, but cannot bring myself to do the base boards or shampoo the carpets. I'd really like to pull out the carpet and get hardwood, but Santa needs to bring a load of cash for that to happen.Sigh....

So sorry you didn't get to sleep wit Prince. It's difficult to have dreams crushed, I know.

Oh, forgive Joe for not noticing - it's just not in a man's make-up to notice whether they live in filth or a beautifully clean home from which you've put your back out and need a chiropractor appointment to adjust. Yes, I speak from first hand experience on that one.

Peace...

as per Presbytera I checked mid September 2004. I vote for a reprose Thrum-a-long for January. It's been a long time.

I think you should go for it and make another pair of Latvian mittens for yourself. Personally, I would really want them, but if I convinced myself to make plain ones and postpone them, I'd end up hating myself and frogging the plain ones and going back to the nice pair anyway. Splurge and go for it!

As an aside, my aunt attended your signing of "All Wound Up" in Portland, OR about a month ago for me (I live in NJ, clear across the country) and got a signed birthday gift book for me. I got it today and I must say THANK YOU for saying Happy Birthday. :D It's great (and, of course, I thanked my aunt. How many relatives would do that?); she loved your reading and might even start knitting! Success!

Make mittens, there is plenty of time for the evil and dreaded Christmas shopping. I'm planning to do most of my shopping on Etsy this year to support the poor, starving artists and stay out of stores where there are hordes of people.

I'm making mittens for myself right now, too. After all, you've got to take care of your own basic needs first. (Although I guess you won't be wearing your new mittens while you knit Christmas gifts.). You deserve the mittens.

If your hands hurt from being cold how much knitting for everyone else are you going to get done?

Forgive Joe, this flaw is minor in comparison to some of the flaws he could have.

Get the Christmas knitting out of the way! That stuff just stresses a body out. I can't tell you how relieved I am to have just about all of my Christmas knitting finished. Then do what I did. Banish all knitting requests till next Christmas. I've knit dozens of things for everyone else and I only have one sweater (two if I would block the second out) for myself to show for it. So now I have a summer tank and a pair of socks on the needles with many more socks and sweaters waiting in the wings.

As for cleaning congrats! I just moved and I'm looking forward to going through everything..once I have 5 minutes to do that, yeesh.

I made mittens in June (or July). They are these wonderfully thick stranded cabled mittens (Elinor's mittens, if you are interested). They don't have the delicacy some of the fancy colorwork mittens have, but they are oh so warm. I loved them when I made them, but I've already used them a couple of times and now I know the love is real!

Ah, one of the many advantages of a small house. You can thoroughly clean it in a day.

I dunno... doing Christmas shopping a little bit at a time means you have to venture out into the craziness more than once. Double-edged sword!

P.S. Plain mittens are just as warm as beautiful Latvian mittens, and less stressful in these hectic holidays!

Starting your shopping today isn't rash... it's a good defensive measure.

Fussy mittens = BIG blog entertainment when you get crushed by Christmas knitting
Quick and dirty mittens = you getting slightly less crushed by Christmas knitting
As your readers lover you whatever you do, maybe save your sanity...
But I will giggle when you choose the fussy mittens.

I vote to quick and dirty mittens to tide you over, a head start on the holiday knitting and then back to your own present after everyone else is dealt with. And a huge Congrats on the house cleaning!!! You rock!!

I would say knit fussy (by fussy I mean the best mittens EVER) mittens for "Erin" and then because that isn't really her "thing" decide to keep them for yourself, as they would be better appricated by you.

I say make mittens, as Christmas knitting will simply consume all of the time you have left between when you start on it and when Christmas occurs plus about a week or two, give or take. It doesn't matter when you start, that's how much time it'll take. Kind of like the measurement warp which is a gauge swatch vs. reality: The time warp of such things is equally surreal. So, get some mittens to adore and pet and WEAR before that insanity starts!

Compromise: Everybody gets mittens for Christmas? Maybe you could bust out a new pattern for "Purple Rain" mittens to cover both of your momentary obsessions.

Mittens!

I feel the same way about Al Pacino and I'm much older than you and should have gotten over it by now

I say mittens. You know that even if you start Christmas knitting now, it's still going to be crazy knit-your-arse-off time on 24th December, so why deny yourself pleasure now?

And would you be disgusted if I said that I had most of my Christmas shopping done already? I love the internets, I would be a total grinch if I had to give the shops more than a cursory glance at this time of year (I can't believe some of the total unnecessary crapola they try to pass off as decent presents).

If you don't find time to make some mittens, there is always the pair that I made! :) They are probably a little chunky for your taste but they are warm and soft!!!
Or just knit some mittens ;)

What about your beer mittens, did you give those away, all that color work?

Hi

My Christmas shopping is done! I'm so happy! Prince on Friday! Christmas knitting not done. And i'm knitting mittens too.

what happened to the silk mittens? or the beer motif mittens?
now I want to make some of those thrummed ones...

Make the mittens.

Purple Rain = one of the best songs EVER written. Just had to say it

I always have a list of things to do, many good intentions. Then I end up knitting instead.
It's a good way to spend the day. Sometimes I'm surprised at how much I've been able to accomplish. So my knitting makes progress and my To Do list gets longer. I think if it makes me happy I shouldn't care.

I was also bitten by the cleaning bug this past weekend! I can once again walk into my walk-in closet...Now this week after work I can sit back and work on crocheting those sleeves I've ripped out twice already...

IOW, go for the mittens!

It seems the cleaning bug has got a lot of people in its clutches! I say make mittens and post the pattern that you use, but this might just be me.

I need a good pair of mittens right about now, there are so many choices to choose from its mind boggling! I just want a simple quick and dirty pair, like the ones that you make. Nothing fancy or elaborate, just simple and warm. Is that too much to ask?

Please post the pattern, I am sure a lot of people will make mittens from your pattern. I know I would!

I've never heard of a good winter cleaning but the way you put it, it makes a lot of sense. I admire your energy after that tour.

Make these. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZqKDYlciv0 It only requires extreme concentration at the beginning, then you can rock and roll. Forgive the fuzzy sound at the beginning and forgive that I made it sound like Judy Becker wrote the knitting book "Beyond Hos".
Shoot, you can't really do these on dpn's.

Kint whatever feel good-for me that is many cast on WIPs that I actually do finish immediately. Give all a copy of your book for Christmas and knit for yourself. Love your blog.

1) Am I a bigger dork for whimpering at the sight of Purple confetti? 2) Knit what feels good. It makes The Blog happy. 3)You're right Deep cleaning is,in fact, deeply satisfying. psst! I don't always notice when DH cleans the garage.
4) See #2. Although I can't wait to see the shawl. It's always inspiring to see your completed lace projects.

omigosh your fernfrost is SO pretty; that yarn looks good enough to EAT!

I think you would look alot like Parker Posey if you wore more make up.
Dont take me wrong here,I think your nice looking enough with out make up.

what about your mawata mittens? won't those get you through until Christmas knitting is done?

I'm incredulous. No purple socks for the Purple one. How did you not consider this. Balled up and thrown I'm sure a pair would have made the stage. You may have been arrested of course. I'm so sorry but I can't help but remember the forgettable Boy George referring to Prince as a guy who looked like he had been dunked in a tub of glue and pubic hair.

Life is too short for quick and dirty mittens.

Now you've got me wanting to make some mittens for myself! (And yes, I think you should make purple ones to remind you of your crush...)

I'm a big fan of doing NOTHING for Christmas (aside from playing Christmas-y music) until the very last week. That way I'm not sick of Christmas by the time it finally arrives; and gift-buying has not time to become an exercise in perfectionism.

I felt really good after my last deep-cleaning thing in preparation for a Christmas open house. Unfortunately that was in 1995. And something tell me your "quick and dirty" is someone else's "once-in-a-lifetime awesome".

Your commenters are all enablers. I think I'll join them --

go for the mittens!!

Yes. Just make mittens. I do love my house when I know there is cleanliness behind, under, over every single item.

I'm having a mitten urge myself. I say go for mittens.

Love to read your blog. Keep on knitting:) Re: Christmas shopping, you may be interested in this as an alternative: adventconspiracy.com

I read in an Amish story once (I think it was "Plain and Simple") about how a certain woman's house was so clean it glowed. I aspire to that, and certainly appreciate a clean house, but it's a goal more than a reality on most days. Doing the kind of cleaning and de-cluttering you describe is infinitely satisfying, no?

After all that effort, you deserve to knit anything you want! And your Fernfrost is perfectly frosty and lovely!

You want to knit mittens NOW?!?

You are already showing signs of the annual holiday knitting insanity.

Perhaps you should knit yourself a straightjacket, instead. ;-)!

It is amazing how much cleaning happens when there's so much to do. The good thing about procrastinating.

When I saw Paul McCartney this summer, I'm pretty sure he didn't smile at me because I needed binoculars to see him. There was a big screen of him, but it would take a huge imagination for me to believe he could see me from that screen.

By the way, just go for the mittens. Keeping your hands warm is essential to effective shopping.

I remember those mittens! I know you're going to knit the mittens first, so I won't even suggest waiting until after the 25th.

I'm feeling so confident about my Christmas knitting (just two more to go, one of which I'm designing myself) that I'm knitting a Hitchhiker shawl to wear to a holiday lunch with my freelancing clients and colleagues. Hoping I can really do it!

Really?! You REALLY only owned one pair of mittens?! Seems odd for a crazy knitter from Toronto to REALLY only own one pair of mittens. You couldn't be procrastinating all that holiday knitting just a bit, now could you? From one who rarely knits gifts, I say if you REALLY only owned one pair of mittens you should forget the gifts and do the mittens. You gave your family the gift of a de-cluttered house--what more could they want? Maybe Prince has the other mitten?

Every year you go crazy trying to finish your Christmas knitting. If you need mittens, make the quick and dirty pair and then get to your Christmas knitting (you aren't just starting, are you?!). You can survive one more month without fancy mittens. Save those for January. Thats what I am doing.

Sorry about Prince. Did you throw some knitting up onstage like I suggested?

Really??!! You accomplished ALL that in one day?? WOW!!! Personally, I do enough to keep the 'Board of Health' away! You do know that your hands will not survive a Canadian winter without mitts, eh?! You know what to do...(:

In one of your books, you asked for any suggestions for places for stash. I realize you might already have thought of this, but I want to be sure to share this idea: Those pillow shams? The ones that you fill with pillows to make them look pretty, but never use, except to decorate your beds? Why do we have to fill them with pillows? Why not fill a pillowcase with yarn, and store it in the shams? It works for me,and I hope it helps others contain (notice I did NOT say control) their stash.

We did a cross check on Thanksgiving, and it appears all the cats in our families have much thicker winter fur this year than usual. If this is also the case in Toronto, you might want to think seriously about making those new mittens!

What happened to the dress up mittens from last year, the ones inspired by Selbuvotter? At least they could keep your hands warm for a day while you do the quick-and-dirty ones. I've been in the same place several times, though I try really hard to remember to knit a new pair in the summer so they will be ready. Mine usually last two Fairbanks winters.

Oh my. I remember reading about the mittens when they were in progress. Which means that I'm following your blog for so long.... Sigh, I'm getting old.

I need to clean my house. I do not like cleaning. I keep hoping the cleaning fairies will come. Or a robot maid. But that never seems to happen, so it keeps getting dirtier and dirtier. Alas, it's up to me. Sigh. Today I will clean.

Maybe do your Christmas shopping right now. Just think how relieved you'll feel when it is all done and there's still two or three weeks until Christmas. Without that nagging at the back of your mind, you'll be able to knit in peace. Yay!

Just did the deep cleaning thing. It is horrible to do but sooooo wonderful once done.

Make the mittens...the rest can wait!

Definitely make new mittens first, it's practical - you'll have them when you need to go the yarn shop to get more yarn to knit holiday gifts.

I fall squarely in the knit a quick and dirty pair (felted will go even faster!) to get you into January and then revisit the issue with a lovely replacement pair. I may be biased though since I'm knocking out the felted pairs left and right currently.

Quick knitting is the only knitting that feels right to me during the time between US Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So, with all the clearing out, do you now have room for that floor loom?

I'm a sucker for a mitten with a Latvia braid. Congratulations on your house cleaning! It sounds like you did excellent work.

My son came for Thanksgiving and we spent tons of time outdoors raking, weeding, edging, and pruning. Then we'd flop indoors and he did computer and I knit. Then we both did some beading.

I shopped in October at the local craft shows and open studios, and I vote for shopping local, but also I love that everyone is knitting stuff for others as gifts! It's so wonderful we have this talent to give of ourselves.

Better to have worn them out then to have lost one. I'd go for a quick and dirty one now, and "drool"...I mean, contemplate which pattern will serve as a replacement after the 1st (maybe hint heavily for a special yarn/pattern for Christmas...though your loved ones are probably like mine and don't believe that you could "need" more!). And then the quick and dirty one could serve as a fill-in for when you don't want to wear the good mittens!

Late Fall/early winter cleaning is amazing, congrats on actually doing it! Yesterday I contemplated hiring someone to do it for me...

I did the cleaning thing over the weekend and started Christmas decorating in the house as well. Why am I surprised every year how little time there is between Thanksgiving and Christmas? After so many year, you would think that I would figure this out!

Want to come to North Carolina and do some cleaning? I can trade yarn and baby snuggle time. Between house repairs and an 11 week old baby clean is a distant memory.

HI LADY!!

..you know you want to!

Wow! Congrats on the cleaning; very impressive! And cut Joe some slack; am betting he was so happy to see you, that the house itself was less important. :-) (At least, that is what a smart man would have said.)

Do you still have your silk-hankie mitts?

I was going to say, by all means knit yourself a pair of fancy mittens! But then I read all the comments suggesting you knit a fast pair now to get right to your Christmas knitting and now I don't know what to say -- do you have an enormous Christmas knitting list again this year? Mine is getting shorter, and I have to say I like that.

'twas Prince's loss, miserable purple fool!

Mittens, go with the mittens. How can you shop with frozen withered fingers? Just sayin'....

I'm glad and envious you got to see Prince. I don't envy you the deep cleaning though.

Didn't you make 2 or 3 of the same hand on those mittens? I don't suppose the one that is no more is the one that you have 2 or 3 extra?

If you went to see Prince, will you be making this:

http://blog.naturallycaron.com/2011/11/22/the-raspberry-beret-pattern-revealed/

Kathy Elsie

OMG, does the time/space continuum kind of bend around your house? It seems I cannot get one room done to this standard, let alone my whole house!

It's great that you saved some confetti along with your ticket. It's not dorky, it's a memory. Put it in your scrapbook for your 'old age'. Perhaps by then, you will have had a torrid and loving affair in your mind that you can relate to your great-grandchildren.

Your purple rain confetti is screaming for a scrapbook page!!!

Actually, it's best if husbands don't notice cleaning.Especially the kind of cleaning that leads to things going to Goodwill. It leads said husbands to ask awkward questions, such as : "honey ? my (ugly) sweater that I bought in college? where is it?"

Of course, since i don't actually know where things donated to GW go, I can truthfully answer " I don't know", but its really much more harmonious if he doesn't think to ask.

Just FYI - you and two books got a mention on Robin McKinley's blog today: http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2011/12/02/mercury-is-retrograde/

dirty mittens: you know you want 'em