Christmas Thanks

Yesterday we had a very cold, very snowy and windy walk home from school.  There was a wind chill of -11 degrees and it was much too cold for walking little ones home.  The wind chill today is in the -15 degree range so there was no school.  Even though right now the sun is shining, it is a cold that seeps into your bones.  It is suppose to dip down more tonight.  And there is the prediction of snow and even more bitter cold for Monday and Tuesday.

We decided to do some stocking up and went grocery shopping and I went to the library to stock up on a few books to see me through, in case we get socked in.

We are slowly putting Christmas away.  I hate to see things like the twinkly lights on the mantle and tree and stairway and the candles in the window get taken down, so they will be the last things to go.  I turn them all on when I get up in the morning to push back the winter gloom.

I still love my mantle decorations

and the red bows on the icy tree.

Everyone still enjoys decorating the little village made out of graham crackers

although it does seem to get a  little gruesome.  What started out as March of the Penguins, ended up as a penguin massacre, but fun was had by all.

I loved how my Christmas goodie bags turned out.  Everyone loved the Lo-Lo bars so much, I am ordering more.

All-in-all, it was a pretty stress-free Christmas this year.  Early planning and keeping on top of things, plus a few days of not having to get the little one from school which allowed me more time for cooking and wrapping, really helped.

Topping it all off, a lovely New Year's Day dinner of 

a mushroom and carmalized onion topped fillet, lobster tails and a sparkling wine.  Perfect!

The Great Palette Knit-Down - A Daunting Task

There are times when I binge-buy yarn (most times).  Before I discovered my wonderful local knit shop, I would spend a lot of time on the Knit Picks site, just buying up whatever appealed to me or what seemed like a good idea at the time.

In 2008 I bought a boatload of KnitPicks Palette, a couple of the sampler packages.   I'm not sure how many there were at that time, but I think at least 50.  At least I didn't buy it now, there are 150 colors!

And there they sit in a clear bin mocking me.  One skein is 231 yards.  Enough to make one sock.  Sigh.

I think the idea was to make a lot of  Fair Isle socks, mittens etc.  That hasn't happened.  So when my husband asked me to make a pair of Christmas socks for him, this is what I came up with.  

I hesitate to use the Palette for socks since it has no nylon and isn't machine washable but for limited wear socks, like holiday themed, I figured it would be fine.  We are now choosing patterns for knitting Valentine and St. Patrick's Day Socks.  Hmmm maybe an Easter or Memorial Day or Thanksgiving themed pair of socks. Food for thought.

I have decided to declare this year the Great Palette Knit-Down.  It means a lot of Fair Isle knitting, but this is something I have wanted to try, probably since I bought all this yarn.  I took out all the yarn necessary for the Palette Fair Isle Sampler Cardigan which Kathy Taylor designed.  I have never steeked so this is going to be the year for attempting that technique.  I also have the yarn for two other sweaters that Kathy designed from her book Fearless Fair Isle Knitting. I just love Kathy's patterns.  She is such a genius.

I took out yarn from the box of Palette to make three other items, which I will post when I start the projects.

That leaves about 30 or more skeins of Palette to find suitable projects.  Plus this is what was left of the two skeins I used for hubby's socks.  How will I use up the small leftover amounts?

Year in Review 2013

I went to my post for the first day of 2013 and find most of the resolutions I have there I didn't follow through on and they seem to be the same old, same old I was going to resolve this year.

Bummer.

Let's see if I can do better this year in keeping up the blog, at least.

Books I read - 70 total books read.  Not quite the two a week I had planned.  My resolution this year is to read at least the same amount and maybe try for a few more.  One thing I did was PUT DOWN books that just didn't grab me.  This is very difficult for me to do.  I always have forced myself to finish every book I start, but giving myself permission to walk away has been a very positive experience.

Some of the new authors I have found and loved are Julia Spencer-Fleming. Rhys Bowen and Alafair Burke.
I have rediscovered Stephen King, not his latest books which I have been reading, but his really old short story collections which are amazing.  I have continued with old favorites J.D. Robb ( which are always wonderful), Lee Child, Louise Penney and Nevada Barr.  I wonder what new authors are going to pop up in 2014.

As for knitting, I wanted to knit a dozen pairs of socks using different patterns.  I made 7 pair with three on the needles now in various stages of completion.  I did use 4 different patterns but not the complex ones, like CookieA or any from the books I have earmarked.

But here is what I did knit:

7 pairs of socks
7 neck things, cowls or scarfs
4 sweaters, 3 for me 1 for hubby.  There were two other sweaters I finished and hated and totally ripped out.
8 bags
2 head things
2 pairs of slippers
6 washcloths
3 bats
and of course the black dragon scarf, which a little girl wears around her head in school like a Ninja.  You got to love her!

While this seems like a lot of knitting, I have so much yarn to get through, it seems like a drop in the bucket.

The question is how do I knit more without injuring my hands.  

I would like to complete more color work knitting.  I actually have the yarn for three fair isle sweaters and several pairs of socks.

Also there are at least three afghans that need to get made.  I have wanted to complete a special afghan for each grandkid and I really think I need to get started on this.

So I am going through yarn today and sorting it out (again), prioritizing projects and seeing if I can really get a handle on knitting through the stash.

TV and Movies- Mostly TV shows.  We were really disappointed in Homeland this year and Downton Abbey's third season finale was a real downer. Also The Killing was forgettable.  The Walking Dead seemed to take awhile getting started, but the final few episodes were well worth the slow start.  New programs that we really got into thanks to Netflix and binge watching were Longmire, Arrested Development, Mike and Molly, The Bridge and we are currently going through Orphan Black two shows at a time.  I have been catching up on American Horror Story.  Hubby doesn't watch with me, but I have caught up with this season and am working through season one. We do like our TV dark.  But then we pop in a comedy half hour before we go to bed just to lighten things up.  Best shows this season?  The Good Wife and The Blacklist. A show we are just watching because we want to see where it goes is The Hostages, could have been good if they could have limited it to maybe a mini-series.  Best recreated show is The Mentalist.  Finished up Red John and it is now reinventing itself.  Awesome!

Dreary December Day

We are not having the biting cold, snowy weather that seems to be gripping the rest of the country, but it is very overcast, about 37 degrees and rainy.  It seemed to be pitch black this morning when I got up, so on went the Christmas lights and the fireplace to spread some cheer.  That is one of the best things about the decorations for Christmas, all the twinkle lights and bright colors keep us cheerful leading up to the Winter Solstice.

My decorating is done, my shopping is almost done and we will get the trees this week.  Just trying to decide how many Christmas cookies I am going to make this year.  Maybe just gingerbread, pizzelles, cut outs and jam thumbprints.

My Christmas knitting is moving right along (and why I do Christmas knitting, I just don't know!).

 Five washcloths done, two to go.

 One slipper done, three to go.

Half a cowl done.  This yarn is flashing and pooling in a very charming way and I think will look really good wrapped twice with a black coat.

More knitting tomorrow.  Hopefully, more Christmas presents finished.  I have a distraction problem whenever I am working on a project that has a deadline.  Every other project in my queue, every other project that I see on other knitting blogs or Pinterest seem so much more interesting and desirable than the one that must get done.

Unknitting: It's the Journey, Not the Destination!

Knitting.  It can be very satisfying and very frustrating, both at the same time.

I had too many projects in various stages, so I pledged to finish up everything before I started any more.  I had one sleeve left on the Dahlia cardigan an aboslutely beautiful cardigan with a really intriguing construction, started in the middle of the lace on the back, afterthought sleeves, a real challenge.

Top picture, it is done!  I tried it on and hated it.  I looked terrible in this!  When will I realize I am not a slinky 20 something and will not look like the model in the pattern picture-ever.  So I didn't even hesitate and took it apart immediately.  I knew I would never wear it and the longer I waited, the harder it would be to take apart. I think this color was totally wrong for the project.  It really was too busy.

I then took out the Tempest sweater (middle picture).  All pieces were done, just had to put this together.  It had sat in the bag like this for over a year, all blocked and really pretty.  I again took a good look at it and realized it would never fit.  Way too small.  Again, not a skinny 20 year old.  I do have plenty of yarn and I still think that the sweater would look good on me so I will make it larger.

You would thing the last project, a pair of socks, would be a breeze after all the sweater trauma.  No, no. The second sock had sat all summer needing just its heel and foot.  But I had forgotten the pattern and the little tweeks I had made to it.  It was a very sloooow process at the heel of knitting and ripping, trying to get the stripes to match.  I think I knitted as much as a pair of socks, with all the knitting and ripping I did to get this pair to match.

I have two other projects waiting and I am almost afraid to look at them too closely, a sweater (which I will tackle next and the Frost Flower Shawl, which is going to be a slow process.  I will try to do one row every day or so, just to keep the pattern fresh in my head.

My main goal right now is to finish Afterlight and that means I will try to be a monogamous knitter.  I have the back done and am almost to the armhole on the front.  Love to have the sleeves going by Thursday's knitting group, but I'm not going to push it.

One of the things I discovered is I really am a process knitter.  It didn't cause me much of a pang to rip out all that work.  After all it's just knitting and now I get to knit something completely different!

Time For New Books

With the cooler weather, kids back in school and publishers getting out their newest books, it's reading time once again.  My plans for summer always include lots of reading, but the reality never comes up to my imagination.
While waiting for the latest Nora Roberts's In Death to come out next week (hurry up Sept 17th) and Louise Penny's latest Inspector Gamache to be available from the library (where I am next in line, yeah!), I picked up some titles that were recommended on the Barnes & Noble blog by Ms Penny.  I started with the first book in the new (to me) Rev. Clare Furgusson series "In a Bleak Midwinter" and am loving it.  This is another series set in upstate New York like the Troy Chance series I happened on this summer.  Wow, two new authors with strong female main characters.  I also picked up "Smilla's Sense of Snow" and the first of one of  Rhys Browns' series "Her Royal Spyness".  I'm really hoping I like this author as she has two other series that sound just like the cozy mysteries that make me very happy!

In the TV, movie viewing we happened upon the "Longmire" series on Netflix (have I mentioned how I could do without cable but never Netflix on demand?)  We plowed through the first season (I think its called binge viewing) and thought we could get the second season on line, but other than the last few episodes or buying them on iTunes we are just going to have to wait.  This is very tough, as we both really enjoyed it.
But the new season is starting this month, so I'm sure there will be plenty to watch.  More than we actually have time for probably, as we only  watch about 2 hours per day.  Shows have to be mighty good for us to spend our TV watching time on them.  I guess that is why I like Netflix,  we are able to find shows that we missed on the network, not have to watch commercials so spend only about 20 or 40 minutes watching.

When complaining about the lack of vegetables in our garden this year, I forgot to mention the raspberries which are plentiful and delish!  We do have to try and beat the bees to them, but this is a potion of what my DH picked yesterday. Enough to eat and freeze.  That's after enough last week for raspberry pie and breakfast eating.

Not a great picture, but here"s Frankie sunning herself on the lounge chair.  Silly dog!

Happy Place

 I love this time of the year.  So full of possibilities.  Even though the summer flew by and we didn't have as much swimming time toward the end of August as I would have liked and we didn't seem to get to do as much as we thought we would, it is good to have that crisp air in the early mornings and the bright yellow school buses taking the kids back to school.

The garden, as you can see in the pictures, is still full of color.  I planted, I think,  almost 100 gladiola bulbs.  I did stagger the planting in order to have color a bit longer.  Not sure how many have come up, as I have been picking them for a few weeks and still have quite a few still growing.  The mix of sunflowers is adding lots of sunny, happy to the back garden.  The Autumn Joy sedum finally got replanted in the right spot and is full and changing into its purple fall color.

The vegetable garden was not too good this year.  Eggplant need hot weather and so do the tomatoes.  the winter squash is doing just fine and I think we will be harvesting enough to take us through the fall and early winter.

We have plans to rework the right side of the back garden.  These were the only beds that didn't get redone this spring.  Plans are for more of a butterfly garden in one of the three 8x8 beds.  We have our eye on some milkweed in a field and I want to get some of the seeds, I also have a few pots of bee balm that I grew from seeds to replant, once we have all the debris cleaned out.  I would like to have a raised bed in one of the other spots for herbs and greens.  It needs to be built up so that the family of rabbits that have lived under our shed for the past 20 years can't get to the veggies.

Fall is the perfect time to do the heavy lifting that these projects need.  Hopefully we will get it done.