Charged.

After all the classes in the fall semester and related paperwork is done, I was in no mood for anything classified as "obligation. "  I knit, knit, knit, cutting housework time and sleep, on these.

Two pairs of Kitten MIttens by Alyssa Lynough, using stashed Hamanaka Wanpaku Dennis double-stranded.  Yellow/brown stripe brothers for me, white/brown stripe with colorful ears and tail brothers for my daughter (her pair is used only for playing, not as hand warmers).  Although double-stranded and thick, it isn't really wind-proof because they are knit single layer.  I learned that Scandinavian/FairIsle colorwork is necessary to resist the windchill.

I like this yarn.  70% Acrylic and 30% wool, machine-washable gently, colorful, reasonably priced.  It's not the softest and loveliest yarn in the market, but a good go-to yarn for school goer's garment.


Finished my "donut" vest.  I reinforced the steeks with crochet.  Highlight was executing the cutting while my friend was watching and making her scream (I have to mention she did so very lady-likely.)  I gave up the bottom rib (too short and too weak) and hemmed it, added a row of single crochet at the folding line.


Two coffee sleeves, just to try a motif (dancing lady) and a technique (intarsia in the round).


A skirt for me, double-stranding my stashed fingering yarns.  Love the pattern. It's simple, versatile, and fun to make.  I'm literally living inside this skirt.  It's a "Mary's little lamb" lapwarmer - follows everywhere I go.


Of course, the colorful skirt made my daughter want hers, too.  It's made of Hamanaka Wanpaku Dennis, bought to make a bean-brothers toy (like this - Ravelry project link) but I was too slow to start and she has outgrown the book.  The  color reminds us of her favorite pokémon, Tsutarja (Snivy) .  She even claims herself as Grass type, because her name (written in Kanji - Chinese characters) contains the grass radicals.
(The paper under the skirt, is her homework from school.)


These legwarmers are still in progress, but I'll finish them in a couple days or so.  The pattern  was in Kurashi-no-Techo, the bi-monthly magazine which has 60 years history.  The contents are so wide-ranged - book review, craft, cooking, to health and sometimes a hard-core educational or environmental debate.  Everything house-keeping, you know.   My mother bought December  2011/ January 2012 issue at hospital news stand, and gave me the craft page.  I wasn't really thinking of materializing it, but as usual, leftover yarns nudged me.  It's a good motif sampler design, so I can change the yarn on any round.

This weekend, my husband and I had our 16th anniversary, which means we have known each other for a little more than 20 years now.  Speechless.
We (Me, my husband and my - our - daughter) went for a two-days trip to Kinosaki Onsen to have a good time and good meal.


There were good inspirations for color and texture, too.




I feel so good.  It's about time for a Spring cleaning!

PS; About the Ambitious gansey sweater I mentioned on the last post?  I brought it for the trip and made progress, up to 8 of 10 repeats of pattern A. Two more repeats and underarm gussets starts.  Looks loose stitch-wisely, but I believe the yarn will plump up after a wet block.

Two and a half month.

I've done all my classes on this Tuesday.  A little paper work (PC work, actually) is left but I got 10 weeks' off before starting to be ready for the coming school year.

Now I can catch up with my neglected knitting projects and, of course, start new projects.

First, I concentrated on finishing these socks;

Pattern; Maple Sugar Socks by Karin Bole
Yarn; ONline Supersocke 100 Sierra color, colorway 01, 72g
Needles; Brittany 5 in DPNs in US #0
It's a nice, warm pair of socks.  The color is much nicer when knit up than in ball.  I had to choose size 0 needles not to change the stitch numbers while making them fit to my feet.  I felt I'm taking an extra knitting time just to avoid calculation, but the result is a good fitting pair.  I think I'll make more "size 0 needles socks" for a while.

I had a good time making up my mind to "THE project" as I finishing the socks.  I thought it's about time to "do that".

About a year ago, after I finished Colette pullover, I thought I ought to do this more.  By "do this" I mean knitting light and warm pullover for myself.  Warm, not-bulky, honest sweaters.

I've done a colorwork, so the next project should be a nice gansey.

Picking up candidates was not a hard process.  I was already eyeing on Jess's Gansey and I had Gladys Thompson's book (Patterns for guernseys, jerseys, and arans : fishermen's sweaters from the British Isles) on my bookshelf.  And then, Alice Starmore's book,  Fishermen's Sweaters: Twenty Exclusive Knitwear Designs for All Generations. (Did you know Amazon says "Fisherman's"?) I put four sticky notes on Eriskay, Nova Scocia, Cape Cod and Mystic.  I was going to "do this" by making a dent in my vast fingering stash, too.  After pouring on the pages (and made photocopies of all these patterns), staring at my stash on Ravelry, swatching and calculating, I finally made a decision. 


Eriskay, with purple yarn.


The pattern requires knitting 5-ply (US sport) into 32 stitches per 4 inch gauge.  I think the weather on the coastal area where the garment originally developed needs those dense fabric, but here in Kyoto, I don't need THAT toughness.  I respect the tradition, but I'd go with what I have and use fingering (Chu-boso in Japanese standards), just getting the same gauge.
Miraculously, I'm getting the exact gauge on the same size of needles.  It's suspicious because I'm a fairly loose knitter so usually have to go two sizes smaller than the patten says.  The yarn is thinner, of course, so it may be no mystery at all, but still.  I guess I'm taking a risk of loose fabric with not-so-clear stitch recognition.  My swatch in stockinette stitches looks absolutely fine and nice, but still.  I know what swatches and gauges do to the knitters.

One more thing I'm anxious about is the sleeve length.  I'm OK with the chest circumference and the length with "small" sizing.  But the sleeves?  No way I can do dishes wearing a sweater with more than 6 cm longer sleeves than my size.  I think I have to change the ratio of decreasing to make them fit to my dwarf arms.

I've started it, anyway.  I have plenty of time thinking over the sleeve length while I knit up the body.


This is my 200th project on Ravelry.  I wasn't paying attention which one was my 100th.

My 201st is this, by the way.


A mug cozy with thick-and-thin self-striping yarn.
It's a simple garter stitch project, with any super-bulky yarn and 4.5 mm needles.  Just knits up in no time.

Here's my recipe;

CO 12 (about the height of your mug)

Knit every row for a while.

Just before the half length of the mug's circumference, start decreasing on each sides as k, ssk, knit to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k.  Decrease every other rows until the width reaches the half of what you start.  

Increase back to the original width.

Knit on until the length reaches about the circumference of the mug.

Make three (or more, or less) button holes by adding yo, k2tog on the places at your whim.

Knit a couple of rows flat, BO.

Sew on buttons.

Make sure the narrow part faces to you when you hold your mug, right-handed or left-handed, by turning the cozy upside-down if you need.  That way your lips will not catch any fuzziness, and you can show off your selection of buttons to public, your spouse, or your cat.

One more thing in my mind right now.
Since I don't have any intension to do machine knitting myself, nor I don't have any friend nor family who does it, a lot of fingering yarn in my stash means a lot (more than I want) of knitting time.  I did very good at not buying yarns last year, but I feel I'm under a heavy stress every time I skip the yarn section of craft stores and colorful websites of yarn company.  I am not sure I can bear this any more.  It was so hard to hit "delete" button in the "your shopping cart" page after I poured over the laptop screen for almost one hour and put 15 balls of worsted yarn when my inner "yarn purchase police" finally fought over my adrenaline.  That happened about a week ago.  I felt sad.  Sad to the bottom.  It was like giving up a bright future as a professional athlete to go back to my hometown and marry to an honest but boring boy next door, not with carrier-threatening injury, but just because we made a promise when we were both 6 years old. ( I'm just imagining. Wild.)

I don't have any space left in my house, this is a cold fact, so I can't go nuts and "buy anyway".  Throwing away the good quality wool yarns is never going to be my solution.  So, I seriously do double- or triple- stranding the yarn to knit, or crochet something calls for worsted yarns, to broaden my choice in patterns and re-joining the flock who buys yarns.  I'm sick and tired of telling myself "no, no yarns for you".
I've already started the research.  I got a bullet.  Wait for a hit.

In the middle

The other day, it hit me that I am about as the same age as my mother was when I recognize how old she was for the first time in my life, like, when I was in the 1st grade.  I vaguely remember talking with my classmates how old our mothers were.  My mom was at the older end, and I remember feeling not-so-happy to have "old" mother.

So, I guess, me right now would be the first image of me for my daughter.  I have no idea how she feels about me being my age.

This idea does not depress me, thank goodness, but nudge me to run more often and watch more carefully what I eat.  Because I know from now on I am going only older and older.  A little effort to slow down that process can't turn out wrong.

Because, to see your own mother to be older is a pain from time to time.

My mother is now having some difficulty standing up for long time or walking.  Her "just sitting and talking" is a sharp contrast with my daughter's constant run/hop/climbing up and sing/finding something fun.
And I see clearly that I'm oh-so middle-aged.  I'm just in the middle of those two women, one in her seventies and one waiting for her 8th Christmas in her life.

This year, Kyoto is having a sub-par "momiji", or autumn color of trees.  It was unusually warm in November, so those leaves didn't have any cue to turn their color to vivid red and yellow.  They just are turning brown now as the temperature going down like normal wintertime.  It's an un-welcome situation for the sightseeing industry which this city depends on and disappointing to the teachers and kids who really wants beautiful leaves for their art project.

But, we know, we all know, that sometimes we have such year.  And the color combination of this yarn looks like a somber reminder of that fact.

Work in progress; Maple Sugar Socks by Karin Bole
Yarn; ONline Supersocke Sierra color, I think the colorway is 01 but may be wrong.
It's thin to touch and curls up horribly, but makes a good sock.  I am looking forward to see how wet blocking works.

Looking, touching and knitting this, I think of "down" year like this year, admit my imperfect self and think of rest "half" of my life.

To light up rather dull scenery outside, I started a new tradition (hopefully) of December.  I am making one small ornament every day, and put it on the...

Craft advent calendar, stuck on the inside of our front door.  The pocket is about 2 x 3 inches, so you got the idea how small they are.  I got the base at 100-yen shop, along with two magnets and the small wreath at the top.  The yarns I'm using for the ornaments are those bits and pieces of leftovers.  That means, this is a very economical project.

My daughter is having fun finding "what's new" when she comes home from school everyday.  It's a joy to me.

duplicate

Thank you, my friends, to send me warm comments about my migraine.  I have not been attacked by any severe headaches.  Just a bit of throbbing in the back of eyes and "heavy head".  I feel I'm blessed.  SO FAR.

This morning, I checked my past posts and noticed I had posted about that pink socks on the one before last.  Apparently, my brain is not working properly.

Rather than I edit out the duplicate, I'll post this;

Pattern; no pattern, just K3P1 rib all the way, and a frilly bind-off using knit-on cast-on every other stitch.
Yarn; leftover from Those pink socks, split in half by weight and used up as much as I can.
Needles; same as Those pink socks, JP #1 bamboo DPNs.

I made this for my daughter, and she loves it so much that I can't hunt them out when I want to shoot a pic. You know a 7-yr old girl.  Wears her favorite all the time but doesn't keep them so neatly.  If I can find any, it's just "a warmer".  I can see them as a pair only on her and when she dashes out to the nearby playpark.

She has been in her "PINK, ALL PINK!" mood for a quite long time, so these days, whatever she grabs off her closet/chest it has a high possibility of having some pink color on it.  That fact makes it easier for her to be so "coordinated" every day, matching anything she wears to her schoolbag, but sometimes makes my eyes blurry.  I secretly doubt THIS might be my sudden onset of migrainous vision disturbance.

And you know what?
I'm making a new pair of mittens, NHM#2 with a little twist in pattern (link to my Ravelry project page, sorry, no photos yet as of date 11/9/2011), in the color of ... yeah, mint green on PINK.

Summer Wrap-Up

A slide show. Sort of.

This summer was the first after my daughter goes to the elementary school. Three months of school life have add more to her already-good ability to enjoy, learn and learn more in new situations. We are very happy parents to have a smart and active daughter, and good teachers for her.

First half of her summer break was rather slow, made mostly with swimming class at her school, homework (She writes! She can do math! Addition and subtraction!! Sob.), counting the number of flowers and watering her morning glory pot every morning.

After visiting my in-laws, we together traveled to Kiyosato, Yamanashi, to escape from harsh heat.

We had great food,

My daughter rode pony twice ( "just make a round" kind)

and made her mind set to "grow up, taller and taller" to ride a "real" horse next time.

Our parental advises are;

-Keep on running and playing outside.

-Eat protein (yes, we actually use this word), and more veggies than protein. As much rice, bread and noodle as you like, but not too much sweet stuff.

-Don't give up your love for broccoli and apples.

-Sleep well. Verrrrry well. You grow up while you're asleep.

Which, she is eager to follow.

She also had good "just Gramma and me" time.

We are sorry the sky was cloudy during the night and didn't have good starry view on both nights. The B&B we stayed have telescopes with whole observatory and everything (It is one of Grandad's favorite places to stay. He is a retired high school science teacher.), but there was no chance.

There was a competitive three-generations match which Grandad won by just one stroke.

I had pretty good time with these;

My husband had a well-deserved soul-cleansing, visiting a major shrine (Suwa Taisha).

Now, my daughter and husband thinking of returning there (she, to ride bigger horse, and he, to visit the main shrine we didn't have time to go this time, and rather secretly, to move to the area one day).

And now, I'm ready for autumn. WIP on the road is finished.

Pattern; Tyrolean Stockings by Ann Budd, in Interweave Knits, Fall 2007, made only the leg part

Yarn; Academy Plum (70% Acrylic 30% Wool), looks like fingering to sports weight, originally was in my mother's stash

Needles; JP #1 (2.1 mm) bamboo DPNs

Note; The pattern is beautiful, love the stitch definition and heathered look of the yarn. Problem is, it's itchy. Sigh. I will have to wear them over long sleeves.

To touch something more comfy, I finished these.

Pattern; Back to Basic by Deb Barnhill, in Knitty, Fall 2007

Yarn; Hamanaka Paume Kusakizome in colorway 73, two balls and a little more

Needles; JP #1 (2.1 mm) bamboo DPNs

Next one is going to be wooly.

round and round

To all who kindly asked about my mother this week.... She's doing OK. Her kidneys are giving up doing their jobs, but she found a new friend named dialysis. My sister, aunt (my mom's youngest sister) and me, and sometimes my brother (he is living a bit farther from the hospital than me and sis) , my sister's grown-up son and daughter are visiting her, doing errands for her.

Thank you, my friends, and I'm so sorry I don't send y'all e-mails personally.

Instead, here's a picture of my on-the-go project.

It's another use-up-leftovers project. I haven't decided yet it's going to be sleeveless or short-sleeved, how its neckline would be shaped (other than it will be steeked), nor how long it would be (tunic or vest?). I'm just knitting round and round, and round.

Week comes, week goes. Mom's doctor looks a leeeettle bit more relaxed.

Oh, and Mom likes this light blue (at the top). GOOD.

Let it go.

My daughter has turned to six years old. I still remember the blue clear sky I saw from the hospital room window just before the delivery. She came to this world in the full blast of Texas sun (of course the room was ACed, though).

This year, our home baker (my husband) was not available (just couldn't make the day off, didn't have to stay extra-time on his daughter's birthday. Not so bad deal as a Japanese office worker.) He, got a piece of artisan from a patisserie nearby his office.

(Am I a paranoia to edit the pic to erase her name on the chocolate plate? Maybe. Maybe not.)

The cake was only 12cm in diameter, so we figured out it's the right size for us, family of three to clear it up on one sitting. It was good. VERY good cake, with a perfect balance of sweetness, bitterness and fruitiness. It was moist, delicate and light.

But still, my husband is determined to bake his own for his daughter next year. His baking is, a sort of, like my knitting. He does it for himself and for the family who appreciates it.

On her 6th birthday, I made up my mind on a difficult issue in my stash/WIP.

It's my Watermelon Cardigan project. I fell in love with it, My daughter saw the picture and said "Cute." I got the pattern and all the yarn I need for the largest size (JUST in case I am not so quick) and made half a sleeve. Then, it started to seem... she doesn't like melons as food. She says it's "too sweet" or "not sweet enough" every time I give a piece for her. She "doesn't like the softness."

A while ago, I asked her if she wants the cardigan, and she said no, she'd rather want a slice of knitted watermelon toy.

Even after it was clear that I can't make the cardi for her anymore, I couldn't do anything on my Ravelry project page or the yarn. Until yesterday, when I noticed that she almost outgrew the largest size in the pattern.

It's over. I'll let it go. The yarn could have a better way to go than a overdued, grown-out sized, not-finished-at-all-even-one-sleeve cardigan. Sad. But a good dicision, I guess. (sob)

Now, it's time to hit Ravelry pattern search. (grin)

Living through

My husband's grandmother, Chiyoka oba-chan, (Gramma Chiyoka) passed away two weeks ago.

She lived a long life - Survived the Great Kanto Earthquake, lost her husband in the World War II, lost a son by an accident during climbing. Had three sons (lost one), six grandchildren (three boys, three girls) and four great-grandchildren (two boys, two girls).

I only met pretty long after she moved in to live with her third (youngest) son (my father-in-law). Only she and I were in the "could you pass me the soy sauce?" league when the family have deep-fried fish for dinner (the other family members likes Worcestershire sauce over soy.)

The funeral was a sad but peaceful one. Families, relatives, friends gathered together and remembered a great lady. All the people there remembered her saying "Thank you." a lot, her smile, and her good appetite. (I remember her happily eating "just a half" of a slice of toast AFTER eating whole bowl of ra-men noodle for lunch. I think she was 85 years old or so at the time.)

We miss her so much.

Before going to her funeral, I finished this pair of non-toe socks.

Pattern; Falling in Love by Anni Design (link is to Ravelry page)

Yarn; Patons Purple Heather 4ply, originally was in my mom's stash

Needles; KnitPicks Harmony DPNs US 1 1/2 (2.5mm)

What are these? Socks without toes? Leg warmers with heels? or Ankle warmers? Anyway, these are Christmas present #1 of 2010. For one of my friends at PTA. The room where our paper works and meetings happen is on the ground floor of the kindergarten chapel (built 80 years ago and made of wood). It is easy to imagine how cold it would be once the summer heat is gone. And I somewhat can't wait that weather.

After that, I casted on Ishbel by Ysolda Teague (in Whimsical Little Knits, which was sent as a part of Janet's care package - Thanks again, Janet!) with light grey lace weight. This yarn was in my mom's stash, too (- hey, I'm doing good on stash-busting!).

This Ishbel shawl is a personal prayer for Gramma Chiyoka. While I knit it, I think of her.

Do (again, if you need) it right

I haven't finished any knitting project for a while.

I'm working on these;

My daughter's jacket/cardigan.

Pattern based on; DROPS 112-38 Jacket in "Alpaca" and Kid-Silk" with long sleeves

I'm using Omega Synfonia in my stash to use up most of them. It's a mercerized cotton yarn I bought at Hobby Lobby long ago, leftover from this colorful snake.

I had such a fun time using this colorful yarns on various projects, but it's about time to say good-bye... I feel pretty bad to keep ten (or more?) partial balls of mercerized cotton. It's not that I don't like it, but.. you know.

My daughter LOVES colors. Rainbow colors. I hope this cardi/jacket wears more than one season. In fact, she grew one whole inch during two month in this summer. I am really trying hard, making the body long and all, but, now, I'm counting on the "grow" of the cardi itself. Oh, the god of gravity, please, please mercy me.

I did the body in one piece, split and joined at the shoulders. I picked up the sleeves, and working two sleeves one time on two circs.

My husband's socks, one done. I'm using Earl Grey by Yarn Harlot, and Patons Kroy sock yarn on Brittany 5 inch DPNs. This combo is so comfortable, so natural, that... I knit the foot too long and had to rip it back about 1.5 inches. I added another light grey yarn to make the toe thick and durable, as of my husband's request.

My mother in law's gloves. I will not really "finish" this project before she tries them on and make final adjustment on fingers (or palms, if needed). These are made for "a perfect fit". I am wondering if her hand is really this big, but I'll not make any speculation.

I made the second cuff almost to the bottom of the palm, and realized I counted wrong. It is "a twist every 5 rounds", but I made it every 4 rounds a few times. As a result, I had to choose between adding one more twist and go on or ripping it back to almost cast on edge and do it right. I, proudly, chose the latter. It's a Christmas present, so I still have time.

All these three project required some ripping and re-doing. I feel proud and really matured of myself, to have done so.

After finishing all these three, I'll cast on fingerless gloves for my sister in law. I think I found a perfect pattern for a mother of three who loves playing flute and wants a pair of fingerless gloves for driving hot summer days and chilly mornings.

Catching up

It's about time to be productive again. The high for today is expected to stay under 30 Celsius (=86 Fahrenheit). As my mom said yesterday (on text message! Hooray for her!), we have survived another summer.

I blogged on Aug.3rd that I got a lovely book "Amigurumi sweets"(changed the title translation). The taiyaki pattern was irresistible, so I just started right away at their home.

It took only a small piece (like 10g or so) of fingering-DK cotton yarn I had on hand and half a day. I gave it to my mother-in-law. She is a good crafter herself. She quilts and sews garments & toys mostly, but doesn't crochet or knit ( knows how to, though. ) We have our own niches, which is really, really good for us both, I guess. Although I am invading her field by making stuffs for my daughter myself, I'm not so comfortable like her with sewing. It's like I'm just learning a language to make myself useful, and she has grown up with that.

Now, about taiyaki. Traditionally, taiyaki is not white. It is made of flour-based batter, have red-bean paste (usually tsubu-an) inside and is cooked up on a mold shaped like fish. Naturally, tan-colored.

Recently, white variation is getting popular. The batter is made from tapioca flour, and cooks up really chewy.

This is real white taiyaki. There's a shop near my daughter's kindergarten, and we gave it a try for the first time the other day.

It was good, but not so great like people's talking. For red bean paste filling, my husband and I like traditional flour batter far better. Custard cream or chocolate cream fillings, more and more often seen with flour-based ones, go better with white ones. May make a good breakfast. But as a snack, I prefer "normal" one.

Anyway, you see how good the crochet taiyaki pattern is. This is what I made (posted again).

My sock knittings were on hold during the summer. I didn't have enough time nor mental energy to pick them up after spending a day with my daughter (we had a lot of fun every single day, for the record). Instead, I was making a few hand towels with cotton yarns which I didn't bother adding to my Ravelry stash page, because I was so sure I wasn't going use the same yarn again. It's not that they are horrible, just not so attractive. They are something that get mixed up and fades out in your memory. And you'll never miss them.

I am slowly making a come back to garment knitting these couple of weeks, at last.

I finished these;

Pattern; Poseidon Socks by Elinor Brown

Yarn; KnitPicks Essential in Gulfstream (as suggested in the pattern)

Needles; US 1 1/2 circulars (two of them)

I knit them one at a time, because I didn't want to have two small leftover balls.

Pattern; Whitby by Nancy Bush, in her great book Knitting on the Road.

Yarn; Bob Sleigh from a Japanese company no longer exists. Sports/DK weight.

Needles; KnitPicks Harmony DPN, size US 2 1/2 (2.75mm).

I started them as my Sockdown! challenge for June, but gave up finishing them before time limit. They knit fast once I resumed, the pattern is just right to have them around (not too boring, not too complicated). I tried adding wooly nylon in a non-matching color to the heel flap and the toe, and I am OK with the tweedy effect. The only problem with this pair is, they itch. I think I can cope with it by wearing them over another pair, by making these "room boots".

I also finished a scarf for my daughter, but I'll blog about it on my next post.

And now, my daughter is back in her kindergarten, I'm having an ICW, intensive cleaning week. It includes we give in and bring in a floor-to-ceiling shelf to the tatami room (no, it's not so classic-looking as the photo on Wikipedia page). We are waiting it to be delivered while I'm picking up every toys on the floor and throwing away some of my daughters "works" (after taking pictures of it), vacuuming the floor... you know, putting back our house in a state it's supposed to be all the summer.

Now on my needles are;

Colette pullover for me. Pic is just a swatch. I started this project on March, and now the body is on hold before knitting sleeves and joined to make the yoke. It's a good bedroom knitting for me.

I also casted on a pair of gloves for my mother-in-law. Like this one;

These work for me so good, to put laundry on the line outside on the balcony in wintertime. I made them with KnitPicks Essential, which is machine washable. I'm using SockEase from Lion Brand, which also is machine washable, for MIL's. I got her handprint when we visited them in May. I'm using Brittany 5 inch DPNs for this project very comfortably. After trying magic loop and two-circs, I found out my favorite is DPNs. For now, at least.

After that, I'll start a pair of fingerless mitts for my sister-in-law.

After that, a pair of socks for my husband (very possibly Earl Grey by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee) with the yarn my dear friend Janet sent me.

After that, well, maybe another pair of socks.

I think I have started counting down the days to Christmas already.