'Twas the Night Before Christmas ...

and all my holiday knitting is done!

Rainbow and I are planning our last holiday gift drop-off later this morning, so yesterday I was on a mission to finish up the hat for my brother-in-law. I was pretty sure I'd manage it, but as I was totally improvising the hat as I went, I really wasn't sure how long it would take. But I'm happy to report that by the time we sat down for dinner last night, it was done:

I'll admit that in any other color it would be rather gnome-y, but I think in this extremely bright yellow (the colorway is Sunflower), it bears enough of a resemblance to corn to be effective. Here's Rainbow modeling it, so you can get the full effect:

I used approximately three-quarters of the ball of Mighty Stitch and size 4/3.5 mm and 6/4.0 mm needles. The basic stitch pattern is a four-stitch-five-round repeat: p3, sl1 for three rounds, then knit two rounds. Once the body of the hat was deep enough, I started the decreases on the second of the two knit rounds. Spacing the decreases out creates the long pointed top. When I had eight stitches left, I finished off by grafting them as for the toe of a sock or the top of a mitten (rather than doing the usual rounded hat top created by pulling the yarn through all the remaining stitches and snugging it up). Though it fits her, it's also plenty stretchy enough to accommodate my brother-in-law's giant head -- although, if I'm honest, I expect that he's more likely to put it on my nephew once he wears it once for a photo.

Rainbow also finished up this hat for her cousin (with some help from me -- I knit some of the body and did the three-needle bind-off to finish it up):

We just have to attach the pompoms to the top corners and wrap it up this morning!

For a third thing this Thursday, did you know that today is Dr. Anthony S. Fauci Day in Washington, D.C.? It's also Dr. Fauci's 80th birthday today (and my goodness, that man is impressive for how much he does at his age!). I have the perfect socks for today, socks that the Mister surprised me with the other day -- at least until the temperature drops and my feet need wool:

If you are celebrating, I hope you and your loved ones have a very merry Christmas! Rainbow and I will be baking some cookies later today to share with some of our neighbors, and we're planning to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast and pot roast for dinner tomorrow (we figured we might as well make the day special!). And though we can't go to the movies this year, we're still keeping the Jewish Christmas tradition alive by getting Chinese food for dinner tonight!