Here come the holidays....

I've had the itch to blog for days now, but I left my camera in Wisconsin over Thanksgiving! What to do? I can't show off pictures of my recent projects, and it's driving me crazy. Grandpa is sending it in the mail though, so hopefully I will have those photos soon. And to satisfy the blogging itch, let me regale you with my sewing schemes for the holidays.

First up, Secret Santa giftee! Ah shoot. I can't post that here, since my family makes up most of my readership. All I'm gonna say is

I  hope that's cryptic enough to leave everyone guessing. And here's a link to another gift idea, but if you're family DON'T CLICK ON THAT! Oh the temptation. As the person who organizes Secret Santa in my family, I have an email in my inbox which contains the master list (sent to me by the helpful website, boogspace.com). So far I have resisted opening the message. We'll see if I get all the way to Christmas.

I'm also hoping to knit a few things as presents this Christmas. Remember this stupid freakin project?

That's the Honey Cowl which I've been working on since last January. Okay, it's not stupid. It's really beautiful. It's just that I progress at the rate of about 0.5 cm/month, and I've had to unravel it about four times due to mistakes. I think after the last time I unraveled it, I read this post from Tasia over at Sewaholic.net. What does she have to say about this pattern? "Simple." "Easy." "For knitting in front of the tv." I just about reached through the internet and throttled her. Okay, maybe that's hyperbole. She's very nice and talented and her cowl is very pretty:

Thankfully, after picking up the project once more, I finally found my rhythm and I've made steady progress since. Once I was able to decipher the pattern in the stitches, it went quite smoothly. That's the trickiest part of knitting I think. If you don't know what a knit or purl stitch looks like when it's on your needles or in the row below, how are you supposed to know what to do next? And in a pattern which depends on you staggering your stitches, like this one, just one stitch out of place will ruin the whole thing. Despite all my frustration, I think I would definitely use this pattern again. Especially since I've realized that after all this hard work, I'm not that fond of the color and I think it would look better on my roommate. She'lll probably receive it as a Christmas gift, and she better be thankful! It's only a year in the making, after all.

And since I'm a glutton for punishment, I would also like to knit something for my mother-in-law. But what can I finish in three weeks instead of 12 months? Any recommendations? Ooh! Isn't this neat?

Bandana Cowl by Purl Soho on Ravelry

But that's probably more my style than hers. How about this?

Noble Cowl by Emily Kausalik on Ravelry

So pretty. I think a cowl is best because it will be quicker (hopefully) and also because the headband option is out - someone else knit her one recently. Your ideas are welcome.

Okay, enough of that selfless stuff. Let's talk about stuff for me! As Christmas draws closer I'm drawn to all the lovely dresses out there that I probably would only wear once. Oh well! It's the holidays! Here's my inspiration...

Emma Watson from Teen Vogue photo shoot

same shoot, more photos at Diary of a Fashion Junkie

 Are you all gasping in admiration? It's okay to be jealous of someone younger than you, in the case of Emma Watson, since she's classy and all. I don't spend too much time pouring over pictures of celebrities and finding things to covet, but when the top picture was featured on Coletterie  I fell in love. It was from their fabric series, this particular one being about brocade. How hard do you think it would be to recreate that skirt in the top photo? Anyone know a good pattern to work off of? I'm loving the idea of a full skirt and a separate top. Maybe... this one from my vintage pattern collection?

I really like the top view. Maybe as separates I might get more wear out of a holiday top and skirt. I'm hooked on brocade lately, as you can tell from my other inspiration photo:

Sadly, I don't know where I found this photo. I think it must have been ModCloth, but I couldn't find it there  just now. There are other pretty examples though.

Well, that's enough from me. Anyone else want to share their holiday inspiration?