Now Christmas is done

2nd DS & DDIL left for WI this morning. So that means Christmas is really over. :(

I'm always a bit teary eyed to see them go. It's a bit of a trip to see them. It takes them 9 hours to drive but it takes us 11 so we can't just jaunt over and visit. (I say the difference in the amount of time is the big age difference between our bladders.) We had a wonderful time while they were here though and that is the important thing. I'll concentrate on that.

I've got a huge bunch of UFOs that I have to work on. 3 pair of socks. 2 for me, 1 for DH. I didn't get 1st DDIL's scarf finished for Christmas so that should be done asap. As a easy gift, I also wrapped up 3 balls of yarn and a pattern for DH. I'm going to make him a scarf also. We do have a lot of winter left though so I do have time. But if I procrastinate too much it won't be good. Oh yeah, I've got a shawl for myself started that is waiting patiently to be finished and I also have a baby afghan that is only 1/2 done. Uff.

As of right now, though, there are end of the year bookwork that has to dealt with so that's my agenda for the next few days.

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve!

Merry Christmas!

Have a little fun!

Enjoy the day.

Make a little music.

And have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas knitting WIP

I just received the mink/cashmere yarn from Great Northern Yarns yesterday. Nice stuff. I think the blue is softer than the red but time will tell. It's nice to work with and when I rolled it into balls there was only 1 knot in the red. It's getting a nice halo as I knit with it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it!

The red is going to be a scarf for 1st DDIL. The blue is a scarf and maybe a hat for DH.

The huge Fuzzy Feet are for 1st DS (who has size 13 feet!) and they aren't blue but grey. The camera and I aren't the best of friends lately. The yarn is Patons SWS. Some that I had gotten before they took it off the market. I love that stuff. Why do companies do that!?!

Maddie obviously had something very intersting out the window at the time of this shot but when I put the camera away she was instantly interested in the red yarn. I've read on Ravelry that cats like the mink/cashmere yarn a lot. It will be put away in the closet with a doorknob so they can't get to it!

Progress being made.

As you can see I've got the tree decorated. And it's been that way for a couple weeks already! The rest of the house is decorated too and also all that we are going to do outside is done.

So on my to-do list the decorating can be checked off.

Most of the shopping is done.

DH & I dug out the tripod and took pictures of ourselves on Friday evening. It was a bit of a struggle. I couldn't get the smiling part right! But we finally got one or two that works so now I've ordered Christmas cards and should get them one day this week.

No wrapping done.

No baking done.

No housecleaning done.

A little knitting is being done. I've got one Fuzzy Feet slipper done and the second one started for 1st DS. I'm waiting for the mink/cashmere yarn to arrive to knit a scarf for 1st DDIL and also one for DH but I doubt his will be a Christmas gift...depends on how fast I knit!

The piano will be repaired and tuned tomorrow, maybe some more shopping on Wednesday and Thursday will be a color and cut in the hopes that I'll look better for the holidays! ;)

But for now I've got to get ready and get to work.

Fog plus cold temperatures equal....

A bunny was here.







































Sunrise.








































































Hi!

I'm still around....just being lazy!

There will be regret later. And wishing I could get this time back. But for now I'm being lazy and doing very little towards the upcoming season. I know what I should be doing.... Knitting. Baking. Decorating. Shopping. Wrapping. And then there are the standard things like bill paying. But, for now I'm just hanging out with the cats and doing as little as possible. Later there will be frantic knitting, baking, decorating, shopping and wrapping. Oh, and don't forget housecleaning. (yuck) But, I'm just chillin'.

Maybe this year I'll do things differently. Maybe today even I'll get the bug and really start a Christmas project and get something checked off my list. Or, maybe not.


Here are my co-conspirators in laziness:

Teddy














Maddie













And I'm blaming this weather for my state of sluggishness:




Snowiness again. And very cold.











Augh, my sister just called and reminded me of one more thing to do....Christmas Cards. I'm doomed.

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Completed!

I got it done in under a month.

Happy Dance!
















It was done with size 7 circular needles.

7 skeins of Peace Fleece yarn in Patience Blue.
The color is more like the picture in the previous post.

The pattern is Cottage Comfort from the book "Button Up Your Top Down". Ravelry links.

It's going to be toasty warm and cozy.

I loves it. :)

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

If I get this done by the 23rd I'll have done this sweater in a month. Can I finish it in a week? I think I can....

Crossing my fingers!

Blue Jay hunting

Teddy & Maddie doing their cat thing. Bird watching/hunting.

Their tails were really twitching back & forth.

This blue jay is either brave or is a bird brain! ;)

At the very least his stomach won out over any common sense...

Saturday Sky and yarn on sale!

We are having a much longer Indian Summer than expected. It is wonderful. We have missed forecasted rains and have had warmer than average temperatures. Harvest is racing along and maybe there will be a fair amount of fall's work done also. It always makes spring go so much faster.

And look at this haul! This week at Michaels there is a sale on several different yarns....2 for $5. I'm not exactly sure how or why I got an odd number of them. Maybe it's because I got them yesterday. 13 skeins for Friday the 13th? Anyway, I'm really excited about this. I am thinking about making this rug or this cat bed or this cat bed and this yarn will be super for these projects. Oh, and the blue is possible for a pair of Fuzzy Feet. There is a fair amount of Peace Fleece lurking around here too and I'm sure they'll play nice together and make one or two of these projects.

Update on my blue sweater. I'm doing the ribbing on the bottom and then will only have the sleeves left to do. I'm tickled pink! :)

Veterans Day

I remember the friend I lost in Vietnam. I think of all the men and women who have died. And all the others that have been wounded and maimed both physically and emotionally. How brave they all are. How selfless. We need to remember and honor them.

Sunset over soybeans

I took this a couple days ago. The sunset was actually quite a bit more colorful...the sun was a pretty peachy orange. But, you know, a cell phone can only do so much.

Soybean harvest is moving along now. We had our Indian Summer today and maybe tomorrow. Usually it is a bit longer than that but we'll take what we can get.

So the warmer weather combined with no rain for at least a week and we should be able to finish up the soybeans, edible black beans and corn. What a relief that will be. And this is a first....we have enough people working that someone can work in the combined fields putting on fertilizer or just cultivating to be ready for next year. It's a good thing.

At noon today deer harvest, oh, ah, I mean deer hunting season started. I wish everyone lots and lots of luck. There are so many deer that driving at dusk is quite a hazard. I've hit my fair share of deer and really don't want to again.

This warm weather really isn't what the hunters want though. Cool to cold is good so that if they get a deer they can hang it outside and it will stay cold until they can get to processing it. I guess someone is unhappy with the weather no matter what it is.

Dropped stitch....Yay!

I think the blue sweater is coming along pretty good. Of course, it's the only thing I'm working on right now! All scrunched together like this it looks like it would fit DGD and she's only 4. I'm nearing the 364 stitches that is the point to put the sleeves on waste yarn. Only a couple more increase rows to go.

I did have a brain cramp in the button band though. Thank goodness I caught it as soon as I did. I had knit a row when I should have been purling. So I got out a trusty crochet hook, threw in a lifeline and held my breath that I could actually do what I planned.

One at a time I dropped a stitch off the needle, pulled it down to where the mistake was, inserted the crochet hook and picked up the stitches again. Only making purls where it had been knits before. It turned out. So a dropped stitch can be a good thing in the right situation. Usually they just make me freak out! :)

BOO!

Bwhahahaha!

Happy Halloween!

Unusual?

There's been a change in what is being cooked around here since the weather got colder. It started with scalloped potatoes and ham made with heavy cream. (I got a bit of a stomach ache from that one!) Then there were a couple soups, some baked beans with hamburger and a batch of smothered meatballs served with boiled potatoes. The kind of food that puts on a layer of, dare I say it, fat! to help keep you warm during the long winter. Every season brings different foods to go with it. But occasionally there are things that you've always done and are good whatever time of year it is....

Today I was rummaging through the cupboards trying to satisfy a craving and realized I had regular plain potato chips on hand. Now this isn't a cold weather food....just a crazy thing that I used to do when I was a kid. Potato chip sandwiches. Ah, pure heaven.

I used to eat them on white bread but now I'm so healthy that I use whole grain bread. ;) You gotta use lots of butter/margarine and really smash the potato chips so you can fit in lots of them. You eat them standing over the sink to catch all the crumbs that are sure to drop.

My dad also had a sandwich that he ate any old time that the mood stuck. That was an onion sandwich. Raw onion sliced on white bread. He sure liked it. I've never tried that one.

When we had fresh bread, which was every Saturday since we baked bread every Saturday morning, Daddy would eat it with fresh cream (we had milk cows so it was always available) and sugar. Rip the bread in pieces. Put it all in a bowl and eat it. For supper. Just that. Nothing else. I'm always a bit amazed he lived to be almost 91 considering some of the things that he ate.

I don't remember Mom having any unusual food that she ate, although some of the Norwegian specialty food is rather unusual. And she really like those things.

There is a mush made of cream, butter, sugar and flour and simmered 'til the butter floats to the top. It's served in a bowl and topped with sugar and for those that like it, cinnamon. This is called rommegrot.

There's fish called lutefisk. It's cod soaked in lye. The story I heard is that the Swedes were trying to poison the Norsks and put lye in the fish to kill them. Well it didn't kill them but they liked it so they kept making it and it's become a tradition. It's served with melted butter. Even our little local grocery store carries it during the holidays.

There are wonderful sweets that are just to many to tell all about but if you can see the trend here, they have butter in them!

So it seems I've rambled on too much but food is on my mind. I need to start something for supper. It won't be any of these things I've mentioned though...DH is from a mainly German background and isn't fond of any of these things!

BTW, I really enjoyed that potato chip sandwich. :)

Saturday ramblings

Leaves as far as the eye can see. I should be raking. Nah. Don't wanna.












Saturday sky. Grey again.













The swatch.



Yes. I actually did a swatch. And washed it. And measured it several times. I did cheat a little. There are 3 needle sizes in that little swatch! Hope that doesn't come back and bite me.






The cardigan collar. You can really get a lot done with fat yarn and fat needles!



I really like the color but it is fading onto my hands. And the swatch bled a little into the water when I washed it.


Maybe this isn't the best for a hat for DH if I have enough leftover yarn. He's smooth on top (bald) and he might look really cold if the blue hat fades onto his head! ;)



Farming update. They were able to combine part of a field of soybeans late yesterday afternoon and late into the night. I think we went to bed about 2 am. I hope they can do some more today but there is rain in the forecast for days....











And now for your viewing entertainment.....Teddy sleeping. With his front feet and back feet pointing in opposite directions. And his head and neck doing a 180 from his body. Ouch.

It's a good day :)

Look what came in the mail today! Enough Peace Fleece in Patience Blue for a cardigan for me and hopefully a hat for DH. Aren't those mini skeins cute?? I must admit they are a bit smaller than I expected but still adorable. I got them mainly to see the colors in person but I also have plans for them. A couple could be some stripes on DH's hat and all of them could be used in a bigger project if I ever get to it. I'll tell you more about that later....

I'm using the pattern Cottage Comfort from the Cabin Fever book Button up Your Top Down. (Ravelry links) I love sweater patterns that are "no sew". When you're done knitting all you have are a few ends to weave and buttons to put on. Viola! I haven't decided on a pattern for DH's hat. He's got a big head, (Really. I'm not being mean!), so it'll have to be big sized and would be best if the ribbing folds back. It gets pretty cold around here. Maybe the Cabin Fever girls have a pattern that would work for him too. They are from Canada and know cold too!
















I know it's not Saturday but the weather is wonderful and the sky is too so I couldn't resist a couple pictures. Oh and BTW, the snow melted!

"What the Heck?!?"

Little robin red breast seems to be saying, 'What the heck is going on?'. Yup, we've had more snow and it isn't leaving. It should. Nobody wants it. It isn't welcome. But it just keeps staying. It's like the visitor that doesn't realize it's time to go.

We've got soybeans, pintos and black beans, and corn to harvest. The corn can be done with snow in it but the beans grow too close to the ground to get harvested with snow laying in them. It is getting to be freak out time in this part of the country.




















As soon as I finished the Upstairs Shawl on Sunday I started these socks for DH. I knit him a pair before but they are pretty big on him....he likes his socks on the tight side...anyway he asked for a pair that go higher up the leg too. So the only way to do that and not have to worry about how much yarn you have left is to do a toe up. Something new to learn!

This is a different cast on than what is usually done I think. I didn't have any size 2 circular needles for the Turkish cast on so I kept hunting for something different. This one is, cast on 12 stitches, knit a row and then pick up 12 stitches on the other side. It's a bit ridged but I had DH try them on and he said they didn't feel bad. And these will be house socks and not worn in shoes. So far so good!

The yarn is Jitterbug and I have 2 skeins so I should be able to get those socks quite aways up his leg. His foot does measure 11.5" from toe to heel though, so the foot will take up a fair amount of yarn too....

~ 48,090 stitches later....FINISHED!

Teddy says "Doesn't it feel good to be so close to being done?" I say "Yeah!"

BTW, this is as close to the real color of any of the pictures that I've taken.

I gave it a good soak in Soak.

I thought blocking might be time consuming and difficult but this was a breeze.

Dried and released from the blocking wires.

All it needs now is to be packaged up and sent .

The info:

Early birthday gift for 2nd DDIL. Hope she likes it! And more importantly...uses it!

Pattern: Upstairs Shawl (Ravelry link)

Dye Dreams Sox Luster. A little over 2 skeins. Color: Brick

Size 7 needle to cast on and cast off.

Size 5 needle for everything else.

14 repeats instead of 10.

Unblocked size 13.5" X 49".

Blocked size 18" X 67".

The yarn is very soft. I learned to live with the striping/pooling.

The pattern is super easy. I'd make it longer another time though.

Yippy Skippy. I'm done!

It started snowing a couple days ago when I took this picture. It hasn't melted and has been coming a bit more each day. It's awfully early for snow. Uff.

If I get busy, and I really should, I could finish the Upstairs Shawl today. And maybe even soak and block it too. It'll be the 1st time I use the blocking wires I got from Knit Picks. I don't think I really have enough T pins but will make due with other pins I have around the house. I'll post pictures and info as soon as I have them...

Have a good Sunday.

Is it still out there??

We have had grey damp rainy weather for close to a week now. I'm just wondering....is the sun still out there? I'd love to know that someone has sunshine somewhere...
















While I had the grandkids here I did vitually no knitting. Just a little bit on the Pansy sock. But the last couple days I've gotten back to the Upstairs Shawl. I've switched skeins yet again, hopefully for the last time, in an effort to control the pooling a little. The only positive thing is that it's pretty consistant and looks like it was planned that way. I just need to decide now how long to make it.

It's amazing to me how little the pooling shows in this picture. It's so obvious in real life. Only because I know where it is can I see it in this picture. I've decided not to sweat it. It is what it is and I'm not going to try to change it at this point. I've decided that I need to look at it as a positive rather than a negative. The color differences make for a more interesting looking shawl. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!