Time Crunch!

I keep lying to myself and saying that I'm ready for Christmas. As far as buying presents, I am ready. I'm not ready as far as my knitting goes! I still have to finish the back panel of my sister's purse... plus since I have no real pattern for it, the cables I added to the back panel are making it thinner (by almost an inch on each side...) so I'm worried that I won't be able to block it enough to stretch it, but we'll see. And of course I'm using crappy acrylic so there's little stretch to it as is. I still have to stitch that together and line it.

Then I have the baby blanket! I finally started the decrease. I was supposed to get to 190 stitches before I started decreasing, but I got tired and it looked pretty big... so I started decreasing I think around 180. It's close. This one doesn't have to be finished by Christmas, but I'd like to be able to give it to my boss and his wife for Christmas if I can.

We also have a bunch of people retiring this year including our receptionist. I'd love to be able to give her slippers or a quicknit scarf or something but I just don't have the time! Her last day is tomorrow, and I have to work my second job tomorrow! She will be here on Christmas Eve. We always have a big luncheon in the office every year. So maybe if I finish the bag and the blanket this weekend I can throw together something quick? I don't know. We'll see. AND I still only have about 3 inches of Olivia's scarf done. I feel so bad because I haven't been working on that AT ALL. Now that I know that cables are so simple, I might start this scarf over with an actual pattern.

Technique Checklist

Lately I've been trying to challenge myself with my knitting. I did my first ribbed scarf (still waiting for pics on that... I shipped it to Ireland before getting a good picture) and tackled a few other techniques as well.

Cables-check! I tried it with a scarf for a 2 yr old... still working on it (it's only like 3 inches long right now). I'm also doing a purse for my sister that I'm kind of winging, and the back panel is this cute adorable cable pattern that I yoinked from a scarf pattern I found on google called plaited cable scarf I just added five stitches on each end to the garter border since my purse is 55 stitches.

Fair Isle-check! That purse? The front is a quote done in fair isle.

Long-tail CO-check! LOVE this cast on! Super easy... super fast.. very neat looking. Much neater looking than the single knit cast on. In love with this. Must show my sister, because it's so much easier than anything else I've tried.

Reading charts-check! When I tried the fair isle, it was just easier to have a chart, so Sara taught me how to do that. Much less scary than it looks.

Still on my list of techniques:

• intarsia

• sweaters... I have a little baby sweater I might CO for my boss.

• magic loop. everyone on ravelry raves about it.. i'm curious

Anything else I should tackle?