If you never hear from me again....

It'll be because I've been sucked down into the quagmire that is the dirt (MUD) road from my house to the pavement. We've had a couple of really warm days, causing a thaw that is too fast for our road to adapt. If the thaw is slow, the water (melting snow) has a chance to slowly dissipate. Right now it is mixing with the dirt and every time someone drives down it, the mud layer gets deeper and deeper. The frozen ground is way underneath now, and it is becoming treacherous.

I drove Kaitlyn to the corner to catch the bus this morning, because there truly is nowhere to walk. I nearly got stuck on my way back home. I hopped back into bed to catch about another hour's worth of sleep, and actually dreamed that my car got stuck in the middle of the road. Then I drove Jake to the corner and it definitely gets worse every time I go through.

It's bad enough when there are big pot holes to contend with. You just go slow. But it's gone beyond that. You CAN'T go slow, because you will sink. I just have to gun it and hope I make it through. Oh, my poor mud-covered Yarnbox....when will I ever see your beautiful green paint again?

(ps...the year we found this house, there was a similar situation. We looked at the house for the first time in March. Everyone who lives on this road had to park their cars at the corner and walk to the houses...the road was impassable. So we did the same. Parked our car. Our realtor parked his car. We donned our boots. We hiked through the mud to look at the house. We bought it anyway. This is the first time it has been that bad again in the 14 years we've lived here. I do NOT want to have to park my car at the corner, but I fear that may be what's in store. I am actually hoping for some sub-freezing weather again so the mud will freeze/harden enough to drive ON it again, not IN it. UGH)

25 Slick Tricks with Candace

On Monday I went with my knitting buddies Sharon and Kim up to Lexington for a workshop with Candace Eisner Strick. The workshop was arranged for Sharon's knitting guild. Kim and I were the only "outsiders" there. The rest were all from the guild.

It was an all-day workshop, starting at 9am and running til 4pm. We had about an hour for lunch, which was potluck, provided by the guild. What a yummy array of foods. There definitely was a LOT of food.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I can't show you pictures of Candace, her lovely kits and samples, the guild, the food, etc. Please do check out her website though. She has some very unique designs, and the "Merging Colors" yarns are incredible. The yarn is soooo soft and the way the colors blend together in the garments is magical. She had all of the samples that are on her website there for us to fondle and drool over.

Candace is a great teacher, and quite entertaining as well. The day flew by and it was quite a nice experience.

A good many of the 25 Slick Tricks I already knew. There were also techniques I had done before but managed to brush up my skills on those a bit. Still others were shown with a slight change from how I was used to doing them. I did manage to learn a few brand new (to me) things that I will definitely put to good use in my knitting future.

Latvian Braids (very cool)
Invisible Cast On for Ribbing (equally cool)
The One-Row Buttonhole (better than the gaping Two-Row Buttonhole)
Knitting in your loose ends as you go
Converting bind off shoulder shaping to short row shaping to eliminate "stair steps"
Binding off over cables


New Sock Pix!!



The first ones are my "blizzard" socks. I try to have socks going when I am travelling, and name them for the situation or place where I was knitting them. These are Koigu. Toe Up (Queen Kahuna style) with a ribbing that I made up because I couldn't get the Melanie's Twist pattern to work out and I got frustrated.

The second pair are my "lodge" socks that I started almost a year ago when we went to the Great Wolf Lodge for spring break. These have an after-thought heel. It was my first attempt at the ATH and truthfully I am not all that thrilled with the way these socks fit. They are definitely cute (LOVE Trekking!) but having not done ATH before, I was afraid to finish them up, not knowing if they were going to be "right" or not. I decided before I left for Diane's to just kitchener those heels and get them off the needles. I think you can see from the photo that there is too much heel. At one point, I may redo the heels (that's the whole point of making them after-thought, right? So you can replace them if you need to) For now I'll live with them. I definitely learned something about ATH socks. And what I need to do to make the next pair better if/when I decide to use that heel again.

Trish, Diane and Becky's Excellent Adventure

I've been back from my visiting my sister for over a week and am finally getting around to writing this post. I've been busy catching up, and I've been sick. I'm still sick...and I'm sick of being sick! ICK!

So, here's the adventure...

On Tuesday Feb. 20 I arrived in Omaha where I was met by Diane and we started our drive back to Vermillion, SD where she lives. We stopped along the way to have some dinner. Before going to the house, we stopped at Diane's friend Sophia's house. Sophia is the one who lent me a spinning wheel while I was there. She lent me her Ashford Joy. Of course now I want to have a folding wheel. I really enjoyed spinning on that wheel, and I can see where it would be very convenient to have a wheel I could pack up in its carrying case and take along. Maybe camping. I can picture myself in the evening, sitting under the awning by the trailer, spinning away.

We visited with Sophia for a while and finally got to the house. Diane and Becky showed me all the things they've done to the house in the 2 years since I've been there, and Diane showed me some of the things she's knit that I hadn't seen yet. Then Diane says "Sit down...I have something to tell you". I was a little perplexed and curious...she had a piece of paper in her hands. She told me she wanted to wait until Thursday morning and tape this paper to the bathroom mirror and surprise me, but since I had so many plans for what I wanted to do while I was there (spin spin spin, work on my new pattern, work on my website, knit, etc) that she thought they should tell me so I could spend my time there wisely before we left.

Yep, we were going on a road trip. The paper said "Pack an overnight bag...we're going here!" And then there was a picture from the Brown Sheep Co. website.

Now, several weeks before I even knew I was going to Diane's, she said..."You know, the next time you come to visit, we should go out to Brown Sheep's factory." At which point I got on Mapquest and found out it was a 9-hour drive from her house. I basically wrote off the idea, thinking it was not going to happen....being that far away.

Well Diane and Becky had decided that we were going on this adventure anyway. They made hotel reservations, called Brown Sheep about getting a tour, and so it was all set. We were going!

Wednesday Diane and Becky both had to work, so I basically spun all day long. Diane and I had ordered some beautiful hand-dyed Targhee top from Spinny Bunny. I was going to spin the color she ordered, since she's not a spinner. So I got started on that.

Later that evening I spun a single of some natural roving she had (unfortunately she doesn't have any clue what kind it was...I wish I knew because it was some AWESOME roving) and I plied it together with some novelty yarn that she didn't know what she was going to do with. It turned out really cool, and I think she'll probably make a scarf with it.

Thursday I got some things together for the trip...packed the cooler and gathered whatever we needed. Becky came home, we loaded the car, picked up Diane from work, and started our trip. We drove about 1/2 way to Brown Sheep, and stopped for the night.

Before we left, we became aware that there might be some weather issues while we were gone, but at the time, the storm was just forming and we decided to take our chances.

Now, mind you, before I left home, I asked Diane what kind of clothes I should bring, and what kind of jacket, etc. She told me it was going to be around 50, not to bring a winter coat. "Just bring layers" she said. So I had no winter coat. No hat, gloves, scarf, boots. I had a nylon windbreaker, a sweatshirt, some long and short sleeved shirts. Walking shoes and clogs.

Keep this all in mind as this adventure unfolds....

Friday morning we got up and drove the rest of the way out to Brown Sheep. On the way we saw Chimney Rock. We thought we might come back to check it out up close, but that didn't end up happening. We got to Brown Sheep right around 11am. The factory doesn't run full production on Fridays, plus they close the factory at noon on Fridays. So while we didn't get to see a lot of the machines running, we were taken around and given a great tour by Sherry. It was very interesting to see, and to hear the history of the company, etc. When we were done with the tour, we went to the little outlet store, but before we got very far into our shopping, we realized we were starving! So we asked for a recommendation for lunch.

We were led to a great place in town that was in a little bungalow house remodeled to be a restaurant. The atmosphere was very nice....artsy...and the menu was superb. We went back to shop some more. Mr. and Mrs. Brown were there in the shop and it was an honor to meet them!

Diane got a quite a bit of yarn, but I didn't end up buying much. I got a case for my circular needles that has the Brown Sheep logo embroidered on it. I got a few skeins of sock yarn. I picked up some Cotton Fleece for a friend, and some roving for another friend. I still have so much stash from when the store I worked at closed. I couldn't justify buying a bunch more yarn, no matter how good the prices were! We ended up leaving there about 4:30 I think.

Meanwhile, we are hearing stories of the weather that is brewing. It was starting to sound kind of ominous...the "two-headed" storm that was forming. People were telling us "don't go east" and "don't go north". Well, we had to go east AND north. We pondered our strategy. Originally the plan was to stay Friday night out in western Nebraska by Brown Sheep and drive all the way back on Saturday. But because of the storm, we decided to try to get as much driving done on Friday night so we didn't have as far to drive on Saturday when the storm was supposed to hit.

There was much discussion on which route to take. Coming over, we had taken the interstate across Nebraska. It was a quicker route, though it was a much longer distance. If we went the shorter route, we would be on 2-lane roads through very small towns, rather than be on the more heavily travelled interstate. Eventually it was decided we would take the shorter route to the north.

We drove until about 9:30 Friday night and stopped for the night. We passed through towns with populations of under 100 people, some with populations of under 20!!! We were definitely in the sticks! We got up Saturday morning and by the time we left about 1/2 hour later, a light snow was just starting to fall.

It picked up, and within about 2 hours we were smack dab in the middle of a blizzard. The snow was coming down fast and furious. The wind was blowing like crazy. We couldn't see 3 feet in front of us. We couldn't see the road. There was hardly anyone else out in these conditions, so no tire tracks to follow. It was about every 20 minutes that another (big diesel pickem-up truck) vehicle would go by. We were out there virtually alone. It was not looking good.

Then we spotted this sign. We agreed that even in these conditions, we HAD to turn around and get a picture of the sign (specifically for the blog post, if nothing else!)

We were doing a bit of slip-sliding away and eventually got to the town of Ainsworth. This was a "real" town. There were gas stations and restaurants and yes, even hotels. We stopped for gas, and also picked up some emergency items such as jerky, cheese sticks, almonds, water, etc.

Personally, I would have been quite happy to stop right then and there and wait out the storm. I was pretty scared to get back on the road. I was too scared to even knit! My eyes were glued to the road the whole time. I have no idea how much snow had fallen at this time. I just know it was coming down hard, and blowing/drifting like crazy.

At the gas station we were told that further east it was a little warmer and the roads were better, so we decided to go on. I told Diane that before we left, we should call someone, let them know where we were, what route we were taking, etc....just in case. No one really knew where we were and if we fell off the side of the road and got stuck, no one would know where to look for us. The ordeal of James Kim kept flashing through my mind.

So on we went.....

(keep in mind....I have no boots, no hat, no scarf, no gloves, no winter coat) HOWEVER...we now have a LOT of wool in the back end of the vehicle! And crazy as it seems, when we were at Brown Sheep the day before, it WAS about 50 degrees. See? I'm in a t-shirt.

The roads eventually did get better. It was slightly warmer and so the roads were more slushy and there was more traction. The snow eased up a bit and we had several hours of "ok" driving. Then as we got close to Yankton, SD, it started coming down heavy again. We got stuck one car behind a snow plow, and I think that it was a good thing to be behind it than in front of it. We ended up following the snowplow the entire way into Vermillion (at 20 mph). There was about 4-5" when we pulled in, and I think we got back just in time. It was still snowing very heavily, and by the time Sunday morning came, there was 10"-12" out there! And it was the day I was supposed to go home.

We decided that trying to drive the 2 hours to Omaha in this weather would NOT be fun. And since the airline was offering a "weather waiver" for changing flights without a penalty, I ended up staying an extra day (Yeah!) and left on Monday. By then the roads were perfectly dry.

Turns out that on Saturday they had closed 270 miles of the interstate that we contemplated taking, so we could have gotten stranded if we had gone that way too. I have a feeling we would have been through that area before it closed, but I'm not sure.

So, it turned out ok, but it was pretty scary for a while there!

The trip turned out to be 1115 miles from start to finish. Yikes! It was a big chunk of the time I had to spend with Diane, but I have a feeling that if we hadn't gone when we did...it probably would have never happened.

Here are the other Targhee tops we got from Susan at Spinnybunny.com. They are awesome. The colors are great and I am really enjoying spinning them. I am able to spin this yarn really thin. Diane is going to end up with a lot of yardage from the Clematis Vine colorway she ordered (above). She wants to knit a Clapotis with hers. These colors are Tamarack & Spruce, and Roses For You. Pretty, yes? I'm so glad I was introduced to Targhee fiber through my spinning teacher at Threadbear. It is a wonderful wool and I know I will be spinning lots more!

While I was at Diane's, I started with a cough. Luckily I didn't really feel sick while I was there, I was just annoyed by the cough. By the time I got home I could tell it was turning into full blown bronchitis. I get bronchitis a lot, so I know the routine. I got to the clinic and got some drugs. Once I was done with the antibiotics, I started getting a stuffy nose, and the sneezing started. The cough has not yet cleared up. I am a mess! I just want to feel better!

Monday I had a knitting adventure that I will write about tomorrow. And I'll show pix of the socks I started while on our adventure. I actually got to knit on the plane coming home too, so I made lots of progress and had them finished in just over a week. That's pretty good for me.

Snow Day

We got a bunch of snow yesterday/last night and school is cancelled. We are just going to stay in today so I figured it was time to catch up with some news and photos.

Kaitlyn's birthday isn't until the 18th, but we had a party for her 16th birthday here on Saturday. All the nieces and nephews had a ball on the skating rinks, while the adults stayed toasty warm inside. Her boyfriend Paul is having a party for her at his house on Saturday for her friends. On Sunday, her birthday (and my mom's) we will go out to dinner and spend some time with my mom and dad (who just got home from FL last night....home to a rude awakening of a snowstorm). My SIL's birthday is this weekend too, so hopefully we can get all 3 of the birthday girls together for a little celebration.

The party was great, except for one thing...I ended up being on crutches for the whole thing. My knee had been bothering me for about 2 weeks...I've been kind of limping around and favoring it a bit, hoping it would just feel better if I took it easy. Well Saturday, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen in the morning getting things ready for the party, then I decided it was time to get in the shower. On my way up the stairs I heard/felt a POP! in my knee, and excruciating pain followed. Pain that brought me to tears (which doesn't happen often) From that point on, I could not put any weight on that leg at all. Just try putting on a party from a chair. Not easy. I had to delegate everything for the rest of the day/evening.

Mike took me to Prompt Care on Sunday, where we waited over an hour before I saw the dr. He determined that my knee is sprained, but I don't have a torn ligament or anything like that. I got a prescription for an anti-inflammatory which seems to be helping, along with the brace that I have been wearing. I"m still babying my leg though, trying very hard to get it healed up because in 6 days I am going to visit my sister!

I am so excited! On Super Bowl Sunday Mike secretly got in touch with Diane, then got online and made me reservations to fly out there next week while the kids are out of school for mid-winter break. Kaitlyn, of course, is not happy about having to "babysit" Jake while I'm gone, but sometimes a teenager has to have a reality check...such as..."it's not all about you...all the time".

So on Tuesday I am flying to Omaha where Diane will pick me up and we'll drive back to her house in South Dakota. It's quite a drive, so here's hoping there are no weather events to screw things up. (Cross your fingers!)

While I'm there, she will have to work part of the time, so I will spend some time spinning on a wheel that she is going to borrow from her friend for me. Diane doesn't spin, but we both ordered some beautiful hand-dyed Targhee top from Spinning Bunny and I will spin some for her while I am there. We ordered Clematis, Tamarack & Spruce, and Roses for You. If you click on that link, scroll down to see the beautiful colors!

I fell completely in love with Targhee when I spun a few ounces that I got from my spinning teacher a couple weeks ago. It was just awesome! Here is that fiber all finished up. It's so squooshy!



Here is the plied version of the singles from the last post. I didn't know if I would ply it or not, but I think it turned out ok. I have no idea what I'll do with it.



Here is some Shetland that is from my friend Jenny's sheep. I also spun some of a darker Shetland that I am going to ply with this. I ended up spinning the darker one much thinner since it was 2 weeks later (I guess I'm already getting better at this whole process!)so the plied yarn should be interesting. I guess I'll have some of the darker brown left over to make into a 2 ply solid. I really enjoyed spinning fiber that came from animals whose home I have been to.

This Blue Face Leicester fiber came from Jane.


She sent it to me when I first got my wheel. She said someone had done the same for her...sent her some fiber when she got her first wheel, to get her started. I put it aside, wanting to practice first, not wanting to ruin it. It wasn't until I took it out of the bag recently that I saw the beautiful colors that ran through it. I thought it was just black or dark gray. I must say this fiber was prepared so well...there was absolutely no predrafting necessary and it yielded my most consistent yarn yet. I am pretty darned proud of how this turned out.

Until I started spinning, I didn't realize how differently different wool fibers feel and act. I knew Merino was a soft wool, but other than that, I didn't have any experience comparing Merino or Shetland or Targhee or Blue Face Leicester. I was amazed at the sheen and slippery feel of the BFL. I can't wait to make something really special with it.


And speaking of Merino, here is a beautiful Merino that I bought from Threadbear a couple weeks ago and have begun spinning. It's 8 oz. of beauty that reminds me of the desert. (it's a little more brown/rust than what it shows in this photo) I've got about 3 oz of it spun up. Now that I am getting much better at getting my singles thinner and thinner, I am realizing how long it takes to spin each ounce of fiber! I'm curious to see how many yards I get after plying this.

Isn't it purdy?

Spin City

It didn't take long to hook me into spinning. I can take or leave the spindle, but I am loving the wheel!

Last week in class we learned how to ply our spindle-spun singles back onto the spindle. Here's a photo of that "yarn". (I am using the term loosely here)


Then we were shown some things about the wheel, and off I went. I guess the problems I had when I tried before were all due to faulty adjustment of the Scotch tension. Now I get it!

First thing I spun on the wheel was the rest of the natural roving that we were given in class. This top layer is actually not the best...there is some better, more uniform spinning under this layer. But I had been sitting for a while, and starting to get tired, and careless. Still, all in all, not a bad try.


Then I decided to dig into a huge bag of roving I had gotten about 18 months ago (before I even had thoughts of being a spinner....I thought this was going to be used for wet felting, needle felting, etc) A lady had come into the shop saying she had "a barn full" of roving, and was there anyone that would want to spin some of it for her in exchange for some free roving. No one was interested, but I said I would like to come out and see what she had, and maybe I'd buy some. She wanted me to try out some techniques and maybe see if I could come up with a wet felted purse or something.

Well.....she lived a LONG way from the shop....out in the boonies in an area I had never been before. I took a nice long Sunday summer drive and finally got to her house. She took me out to the pole barn, and yes, she had a LOT of roving. The barn was not "full" but there was a huge pile in the corner that was probably 8 feet high at least and it spilled out from the corner maybe another 20 or 30 feet. There were bags upon bags upon bags of roving. My eyes were probably bugging out of my head when I saw it.

I started going through the bags and pulling out things that looked interesting. Her husband handed me a huge plastic bag (way bigger than a trash bag) and I filled it to the brim. Then I asked how much they wanted for it, and they kind of looked at each other and shrugged, and then finally, tentatively said...."$20.00????" I grabbed a twenty from my pocket so fast, hoping they wouldn't change their mind! I got sooooo much roving. Some of it is just wool, some of it is a wool/silk/mohair blend, there is other unidentified fiber too. Some of it had tags on it, giving the fiber content, weight, and a price. It was all straight from the mill.

I guess the husband's ex-wife had a yarn store or some reason to have all this processed fiber, and he got it in the divorce, or she died...I don't remember the story. But there was a sh*tload of it and I wish I had gotten MORE MORE MORE! I recently (before I got my wheel/decided to become a spinner) came across her phone number and address when going through my desk, but I don't remember if I tossed it or kept it. I should try to find that piece of paper again....

But, I digress....

I decided since this fiber was practically free, I wouldn't feel bad using it for practice. It's not like I'm going to run out any time soon.

So I spun 2 bobbins. I was just playing around....Sometimes using one of the three colors, sometimes two, sometimes all three. I like how it looks as singles. But I have a feeling there is too much twist in it. I know plying will help that, but I'm afraid that if I ply it I will loose some of the distinction between the colors...that it will look muddied. I am thinking of spinning the black pencil roving Diane sent me for Christmas and plying it with that, so the colors will be a contrast against the black, instead of fighting against each other.

Thoughts?

Here's a small length that I just let twist back on itself. All of this section was pretty much blended colors so I might end up with something different all together if I were to ply the whole lengths. Who knows....I'm still learnin' !

We don't have class tonight because the teacher is in FL. Good thing, because we got a good amount of snow today and the 112 mile drive (each way) may have been a little bit dicey. Plus it gives me more time to get my homework done.

We were given a hunk of alpaca to spin (yummmmmmmmmy) and also a couple layers of silk caps. That should be interesting. I found a video on youtube that shows how to draft the silk so that was helpful. I haven't done either of those but I have another week to get it done.

Meanwhile, 3 of my 4 bobbins are full, so I ordered these and now I have plenty of storage bobbins. You can't beat the price at .50 each (if you buy 12 or more). So I got 20, and shipping was only $5 so I can fill up a LOT of bobbins for $15. I got them at Halcyon Yarns and they came really fast. I got them today.


I am going to use Mike's drill with something shoved in the chuck to wind my singles onto the storage bobbins so I can do some more spinning!

Of course when I got my Threadbear newsletter yesterday, there was mention of an intermediate spinning class. Aw geez, you know I'm probably going to have to sign up for that one too.........

Catching up misc.

The holidays are over, the decorations packed away, and we are back to the ol' routine.

I received some wonderful knitting/spinning goodies for Christmas. My friend Jane sent me a beautiful spindle and several colors of roving. The colors coordinate nicely so I think I will ply them together (someday when I know how to spin better)



My sister sent me some pencil roving, and 2 skeins of luscious alpaca yarn from Dakota Alpaca Farm in SD, which is where she lives. The fleece came from an alpaca named Ellenique, so that's what the yarn is called. So yummmmmy......


In our Secret Santa name draw for the BeeGees knitting group, Sharon gave me the book No Pattern Knits which I had been wanting.

I have been itching to take a spinning class. The one I thought I would take at Heritage in February unfortunately is going to be held on 2 days that I already have plans for. The next classes there aren't until April.

I didn't want to wait that long, and Threadbear was having a beginning spinning class, so I signed up. It's 4 Friday evenings, and it started last Friday. Threadbear is one of my favorite places in the world to hang out, but because it's 2 hours from my house (112 miles) I don't get there as often as I'd like.

Now some of you might think it's a little crazy to drive 2 hours, take a 2 hour class, and drive 2 more hours home. At night. In January/February. In Michigan. 4 times. Yes...kind of kooky. But I love hanging out with Rob and Matt, seeing all the new goodies they have acquired since the last time I was there, etc.

Luckily I was able to convince my friend Tamara to take the class with me. So I have someone to talk to on the way there and back, and if anything wonky were to happen on the road, I wouldn't be alone. It's fun having a friend in class too. The drive out there and back last week was in pouring rain most of the 4 hours, but it could have been worse. Could have been snow, or the ice we got overnight last night. They are saying snow for Friday this week, but it's only Monday, so we'll see if the forecast changes by then.....

Our spinning teacher, Jackie, is a gem. We learned a lot about the fleece and what's involved in preparing it for spinning. Our homework was to wash one hunk of fleece that is right off the sheep. Then we had to "flick" another handful of wool that had already been washed. Then we are to use the spindle and spin some carded roving which we will ply this week.

Look...I'm spinning!




Not too bad, I guess. I'm getting the hang of it. I'm finding that pre-drafting is the way to go. We will start learning about the wheel this week, and I am really looking forward to being able to use my wheel that I got several months ago. Yeah!



What's on the needles? Well, several things. I am in the middle of doing a new shop sample of my Bloom Shawl pattern for Threadbear in Diakeito Rococo. The color repeats in this yarn are longer than the other yarns I've knit the other Bloom Shawls in, but I like how it's turning out.

I'm also working on the felted Mancala game from Knitty that I promised Jake I would make him.

And a couple of overdue Christmas gifts for my eternally patient, dear friend Maria.

When I get her gifts in the mail I will get back to my new pattern...which will hopefully, FINALLY, be announced soon!

In the midst of the holiday mayhem....

...A birthday!

Kim turned 24 yesterday. She was coming over for dinner after work, so I got up and put some beef stroganoff in the crockpot (her request)...baked her cake (cherry chip, her request)...made a loaf of bread...washed the dishes, cleaned up the house....headed out to do some last minute Christmas shopping....came home and helped Jake make a card for Kim....at which time I thought to myself how wonderful it would be to just. close. my. eyes.

Looked at the clock and saw that it was 4:40! Nope, no time for a cat nap. Went back to the kitchen and started making a huge batch of noodles for the stroganoff. (I love me some homemade noodles...mmmm.....) Before I knew it Kim was there and we were ready for a wonderful birthday dinner. Unfortunately her husband Drew didn't show up for quite a while but we warmed up dinner for him when he got here. Meanwhile my parents came for cake (no ice cream....silly me forgot it during my trip out in the afternoon) and coffee and a nice visit.

Kim got a bread maker and electric knife from us. Kaitlyn gave her a sweater, and Jake gave her a bag of bread flour, some yeast, and powdered milk. So she's all set to make bread! I hope she enjoys her bread maker as much as I love mine.

My bread machine is getting a workout right now. We are in the process of making 6 dozen dinner rolls for the first of our Christmas celebrations on Saturday (the BIG one with Mike's side of the family...probably about 50 of us in all).

I am also going to make the dough for Christmas morning cinnamon rolls in the machine. And will probably make a loaf of bread sometime tomorrow since we are out.

Sunday is our second celebration with my parents, and my brother and his family. I have made a cheesecake for that, and also 2 more cheesecakes that will be cut into quarters, wrapped in foil, and frozen, and this will be my brother's Christmas gift. He LOVES cheesecake, and I did this for him about 5 years ago and he says it was one of his favorite gifts, so I figured it was time for a repeat.

I still have 2 Christmas gifts to finish knitting. One is going to be late, but thankfully the recipient is very understanding of my procrastination. (Hi Maria!) I'm pretty sure I can finish up the other one tomorrow. I have another gift that will be late, but once again....good friends understand (Hi Jane!)

So tomorrow is my last day to get it all done. Then it's 3 days of Christmas. After celebrating in a big way with both of our families Saturday and Sunday, it will be so nice to stay home on Christmas day, just the 6 of us. (Kim and Drew will spend the night Christmas Eve to be there for the fun in the morning, as has become their tradition). We will get up "whenever", open our gifts in a leisurely fashion, stop for breakfast when the mood strikes, and then just hang out. Maybe watch a movie, maybe take a nap.....eat whatever and whenever we feel like it...stay in our jammies if that feels right. We don't go anywhere on Christmas, nor do we have people over. Too many years we were running around on Christmas day and I finally put an end to it. I'm so glad we have turned our Christmas day into a "just us" day. It feels right.

Happy Holidays to you all!

Knit Knit Knit....

....and I can't show you a bit!

That's one thing I dislike about holiday knitting...not being able to show it off here! I am working feverishly, and trying to get as much done as possible without totally burning out. I think everyone I have knit for so far reads my blog, so no progress can be shown. Drats.

I'm fitting in some holiday shopping too, but doing as much as possible online. So many places offer free shipping so why go out in the madness, spend time and gas to get to the mall, when you can sit in your jammies in the middle of the night, clicking buttons, and a few days later the man in brown brings it right to your door? Why indeed. I know some people enjoy the shopping frenzy...it gets them in the holiday spirit. Me? Nah.....I avoid it at all costs.

Not much else to report ... just thought I'd pop in and say HI!

Now, back to the previously scheduled program knitting.

Still working....

Well, the pattern didn't get done in a week as I hoped. I started stressing out about UFCOs (unfinished Christmas objects) so after finishing the BIG Christmas gift, I finished a couple more things I had on the needles and started another. I've GOT to get some of this stuff done, even if it's at the expense of my new pattern. I'm still working on it, but I've had to make a few more changes which means it's a 1 step forward 2 steps back type of thing. I thought by making the announcement on my blog I'd be lighting a fire under my own butt, but it only proved to burn me. Now I'm just looking foolish. Oh well....stuff happens. Like Christmas, and other "life" things that get in the way of just sittin' and knittin'.

I'll get it done..... soon....but I'm not making any more deadlines for myself!

First Holiday FO!

I'm so relieved to have my first holiday knitting gift finished! I just completed it about 30 minutes ago. It has been about 6 months in the making and was approximately 31,000 stitches! I don't know if the recipient will be reading this so I will say no more.

I have a few more Christmas gifts on the needles and several more waiting in line. I hope I can get to them all AND get my new pattern ready. I see lots of late nights ahead!

After a 2 week stay in the body shop, my beloved Yarnbox will be coming home tomorrow. Hopefully good as new. I have really missed driving around in my green machine, especially since I have been driving a gas-guzzling van. Give me those 33 mpg any day!

Watch this spot!

I will soon be unveiling my newest design. Hopefully I can get the sample finished, photos taken, the pattern tweaked and printed within the next week. Yeah!

Almost there

While I'm feeling much better than I was a week ago, I'm still not 100%. But I'm getting there...
I learned along the way that doing too much too soon is never a good idea. I also was surprised to find that sitting and knitting was not really on my mind much early on in the recouperation. I think my mind was a little too fuzzy from the drugs, and I was better just being a blob on the couch or in my bed...watching TV, reading, or browsing around online.

My birthday was good. I got some great gifts. Jake gave me a Detroit Tigers T-shirt (and bought a hat for himself at the same time) We're down 2-1 in the World Series right now, but still hoping we can pull it off. It's been a long time comin'......

Mike, Kaitlyn, Kim and Drew pitched in a bought me a new bread machine. My old one gave out a few years ago and I have really missed having freshly baked bread in the house. This is the one I got. It arrived on Friday, and I have already made 4 loaves of bread and Mike made pizza dough on Saturday. Since it makes a 2 lb. loaf, I could see we were going to go through a lot of bread flour, so we went to Costco last night and bought a 50 lb. bag! Gotta find a good way to store it now. Anyway, so far I've made a basic white bread, cinnamon/raisin, Italian Herb, and Apple Oat.

Mike also got me a pair of tickets to see STOMP on Thursday. It was our third time going, and it was just as enjoyable as the other times. I wish we could have taken the kids, but tix were a bit expensive. Maybe next time.

Diane sent me an awesome felted angora nuno scarf. It's truly a work of art. The base fabic is kind of a sparkly irridescent mesh. Hard to describe, and the photo doesn't really do it justice, but here it is! (the fabric shows through more on one side than the other, so I made sure to show both sides in the photo.)



My friend Jane sent me the Spin to Knit book, which is perfect...given I am just learning to spin. She also sent me some beautiful roving that I can't wait to spin, once I get a little bit better at it. It would be a shame to ruin it (which is what I would do if I tried to spin it now!)

My dear friend, Maria, sent me gift cards to Borders, which I can't wait to go browse the knitting books and see what I can find.

My mom and dad gave me a subscription to Spin Off...yeah!

So, it was a good birthday, holes in my belly and all...

The claims adjuster came to check out my car this morning. He said the check will be in the mail in a few days and then I can take her to the dealership to get fixed. I sure hope they do a good job. I want her back, good as new!!! Poor Yarnbox.....



That's $3000.00 worth of damage! They are going to replace the hatch, bumper and quarter panel. I'm glad, because I was worried about how it would look if they tried to bump it out. I hope the paint matches perfectly. I'll be glad when the boo-boos are fixed.