Merry Christmas....Happy Holidays

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and for those who don't celebrate Christmas....Happy Holidays! I hope you all have a safe and happy time whatever you do.
Lots of hugs!!!

Playing Catch Up...

I'm sort of back among the living again. Today I feel a little better after fighting a nasty stomach virus. I originally planned this to post yesterday but was interrupted when the youngest started her round of this dang "bug". She was up and down all night with a sick tummy and now my youngest son is putting in his time. Bless their little hearts. I was really hoping it would pass them by. So far, the oldest two are the only ones not affected. I sure hope this is over soon.

On a brighter note...here's a few of the things I've actually managed to finish during my absence from blogging.

There's actually two of these little bags for some little girls in the family but I don't have a photo of the other one yet...same thing, just different colors. This was done with the pattern Ceron form Toggle Knits. Super quick knit and so easy. Always a good thing. :)

This is the Knitted Snake Puppet Scarf which I think is only available as a Ravelry purchase. It's a pretty easy pattern but I had to think a bit when I was seaming the mouth part...it worked out so it's a safe one for all us blond knitters. If I figured it out...anybody can. :P This is a gift for my little cousin...hopefully he will like it.

This set was done for the newest little cousin. She is about 9 months old now and so cute. I used a vintage pattern for the mittens that can be found here . The hat pattern I used the Cable Baby Beanie from Sweater Babe. I should have done a little pair of cable booties and then it would really have been an awesome set. :P


This is Officer Lemon. He was a gift for the Resource Officer at my youngest daughter's school. He's good at his job and the kids all love him. His last name is Lemmons so the kids naturally decided to call him Lemon...what better gift could we have made for him? lol According the the daughter...he thought it was cute and liked it very much.

These next two scarves I whipped up for a project a friend is doing....The Bridge Project . Sandy is a sweet person and she invited me to join the Ravelry group so I had to get a couple sent to her ASAP. These things will go towards helping a group of homeless people (mostly men) who live under a bridge in Central Ohio. It gets so much colder up north than it does down here in the South and I hate to think of these people with nothing to help keep them warm.


This is my favorite of the two..it was done with Lion Brand Thick & Quick in Butterscotch. I used the Scrunchable Scarf pattern which has now become a favorite pattern. It's almost mindless and with this bulky yarn...man, does it knit up fast! I'm pretty sure there will be more of these in the future. I wasn't too sure how it would look in the bulky yarn but this was a really nice surprise.

The next one I just cast on and knit until I ran out of yarn. This is Lion Brand Home Spun. I bought this so long ago and was planning to knit a little lapghan but just never got around to it. Since Sandy asked for mostly manly colors...this was the first thing I grabbed out of the stash. It also turned out to be a nice surprise. I wouldn't have thought to use it for a scarf but it is soooo soft and squishy. Hopefully they'll both help keep someone warm during these cold winter months.

If any of you have any scarves, hats, mittens or gloves stashed away with no intended purpose or just have a little time to whip out something....knit or crochet...think about Sandy and The Bridge Project. The goal is 100 of each item. She has counters on the blog to keep us updated on how things are going.

I'll try to get back soon and catch you up on what's been happening in our neck of the woods. Hope everyone is well and the "bugs" stay away from you all. For all of you who are getting snowed under....remember we take all the snow donations you want to blow down this way. It had been crazy weather lately.....last few days in the 70's! By Monday....back down to the 40's. You never know how to dress. :P

Stay safe and lots of hugs to you!!

Trick Or Treat Memories

I was going to delete this photo and then I thought....WAIT! This is my brain after all this Halloween excitement. :P Am I ever glad that this is over.

The resident Trick or Treater....my ghost. I have no idea why she wanted to be a ghost but I didn't argue. This costume cost $2...twin size bed sheet at the thrift store. Woo Hoo! She insisted on having a bow on her head but it was a clear plastic bow so you can't see it unless you're up close. It made her happy so that's all that matters.

This was in someone's yard on our route during the night and I thought it was pretty awesome. I had a really hard time getting the photo....couldn't get a clear one no matter how hard I tried. It was pretty busy and fast moving along the road so I didn't have much time anyway.

This is a little better but the Pirate was going back down into the treasure chest at this point so you still don't get the full effect.

I did no decorating this year myself so I thought I would include the pumpkin from a friend's front porch. You gotta have at least one pumpkin. My Ghost had fun and got plenty of candy she doesn't even need so I guess it was a good night. We finished of with some scary movies and pizza...no cooking..YAY!!! I hope you all had a great Halloween. This is hopefully our last one to go out Trick or Treating.

I've finished my snake scarf and I'm working on some cute little cable cuff mittens for my cousin. It's a vintage knitting pattern and it knits up so fast. I have now learned to do cables on the needle. YEAH! Then I am on to a hat to go with her little mittens. After that...not sure. I'm just happy to finally be making some Christmas knitting progress.

Hugs!

La Dentell Belle Continues...

With my Christmas gift knitting out of the way, I can now focus on my La Dentelle Belle Scarf KAL. I feel like I've been knitting this forever but it just doesn't seem to be "growing" as fast as it should. I thought I was a fairly fast knitter but I have to keep in mind that this is lace and I haven't knit many lacy things so I won't be zooming through it. At least now it's finally beginning to get a little longer. I used my trusty Christmas tree to hold it for me while I took a few photos.

A little close-up so you can see the colors...keep in mind it's a work in progress and it will look a lot better once it's blocked. I love this scarf...it's a beautiful scarf....but will I EVER be glad to be finished with it! I had considered knitting up another one but I don't think that's going to happen anytime in my near future...unless I can find a yarn I like that is NOT lace weight. I don't think lace weight yarn and I are going to be very close friends. It just takes too long. lol

I got two gift certificates for yarn shopping for Christmas and I can't wait! One is for my LYS (Thanks to my sister) and the other is for Hobby Lobby (Thanks to my oldest daughter). I am planning on taking my sweet time picking out something special that I probably would not otherwise buy because it costs too much for my budget. I may even splurge and get myself a pair of Rosewood needles. I would love to have at least one pair.

A Tree, Some Dishcloths And Honest Abe.

I thought I would post a photo of the decorated tree since there are some who wouldn't believe it without proof...it took forever to get around to adding the ornaments. I think the tree was up for two weeks just waiting on the final additions. I got tired of it giving me dirty looks so here he is in all his glory. (covered in little snowmen) There's even a little snowman standing just underneath the edge of the tree but you can't see him in this photo. He's in my profile picture right now though.

This is a Christmas gift for one of my neighbors. He owns a few horses and has let my kids ride them. Froggie designed this one and I thought it was perfect for him. This pattern is available on her blog. http://frogiezplace.blogspot.com/
I knitted him with Sugar & Cream in brown...not sure of the actual color name on the wrapper. The wrapper has long since gone MIA. I used a US size 7 needle...not sure of the size on the pattern. Hop over to Frogiez Place and look for Giddy-Up.

This one is for my cousin who is a big kid regardless of his age...which is in his 20's. He has always loved a certain comic book super hero. The cloth is a much prettier, brighter shade of blue. I was apparently having a "crappy picture day" as you can tell by this series of photos and YES! it's driving me insane but I will deal with it. :P Anyway, I think he will be very happy with this one.

I finally feel as though I'm making progress with all this Christmas gift knitting. I got these two finished, have a Nubbins OTN and two more dishcloth dresses OTN for my daughter's teachers. Now I just have to pick out a nice one for her interpreter...I realized that these 3 cloths need to be done first (as in now) because school is out for the holiday next Wednesday. I have until Christmas Eve to finish everyone else's.

I just check with Froggie and this one (My Hero) will be posted soon. Just check back on her blog...hopefully tomorrow and it should be there.

Now, the finale. I would like for you all to meet Abe Lincoln the sock puppet. Isn't he a handsome fella? lol My oldest daughter had to do this as a project for school. She's in high school no less, go figure. His mouth does open but you can't tell it in the photo. Her hand was tired....read A LOT of whining in that last sentence. I think we did an awesome job. Credit for the face goes to my youngest son, Skaterboy the artist. He's a talented kid if I say so myself. I can't wait to see what kind of grade she gets for this one. lol He really is very dignified in the photo. Always a proper gentleman. Honest.

Okay, I "talked" your ears off. You must be tired so I will shut up for now. Don't get comfortable because I will be back.

Slowly but surely....

Slowly but surely, I am getting my Christmas knitting done. I know, by the looks of this pile you would think I have nothing to worry about....these aren't all for gifts. Some of them are test knitted designs that may be given and maybe not. I want to give everyone at least two cloths each so I do still have a bit more knitting to do.

This is the awesome "Nubbins" cloth by Vyvyan of http://inahappycamper.eponym.com/blog
She has some wonderful patterns on her blog, you should check them out if you haven't already. I have been wanting to knit this one for a while and thought this would be a perfect cloth to do for my gifts. It's a good stress free knit and I can use my tons of variegated cotton that I have in my stash. There will probably be more of these to come since there is no complicated pattern to remember and it goes pretty quickly. For this one, I used Sugar & Cream in Summerset.

This is hopefully the last dress I have to do for a while...yeah, right. This (when finished) will go to my other neighbor in her Christmas basket. I just have to do the crochet at the top to finish it off. I used the Sugar & Cream self striping in Country Stripes. I really like the colors and might use the leftover (there was a lot) to make another soda can cozy. Now, do I want to do another Nubbins or what to do next? Maybe another Nubbins and something else...you can't have just one OTN at a time.

Anybody Spare An Extra Set Of Hands?

Not a lot going on....just trying to get into some kind of Christmas knitting groove. I'm almost done with one cloth and only *omg, who knows how many* more to go. lol

I'm also working on charting up another dishcloth design that was requested by a friend. I have to write it out and get it test knitted to see how it looks. Still haven't gotten back around to the Pooh yet. I hope to have another one posted soon if all comes out well. It's being test knitted now.

I finally got the little book I have been waiting very anxiously for today. It's The Magic Loop...Sarah Hauschka's Magical Unvention. It's from Fiber Trends but I found it on eBay really cheap. I looked it over and now I so want to cast on some socks and give it a try but I don't have time. :(


It doesn't look like much...small, thin little thing....just from looking through it, I think maybe I can handle it. The illustrations are wonderful and it explains very well from what I can tell. Having never knitted socks, don't take my word for it just yet. We'll see after I get a pair of socks done. lol

I missed some awesome photos this morning taking the kids to school. The fog was lifting and it was almost eerie...I forgot the camera! DUH! I need two....one for the car and one for home.

Okay, back to the Christmas knitting. I really need some motivation...you would think the little amount of time left til Christmas would be motivation enough but so far....NO. Deadlines sort of take all the fun out of it. Maybe next year, I can get an early start so I can actually enjoy the process. Until next time.....Hugs!