Ahh it is over

Please do not take this the wrong way but, Yeah the holidays are over!! Too much stress going on for my liking. When I told Hubby that I was most likely not going to be knitting gifts next year and he was happy. He told me that he hated to see me stress myself out and turning into a Grinch

Anyway everything is back to somewhat normal. There were a few gifts I didn't get to finish but they will be finished soon and everyone understands.

I have lots to post about and today I am going to start with one of my favorite things that I made. It was for my Mommy. It was my first lace and first shawl. It is Keri.

I used Palette (from Knit Picks) in red. It was really fun to knit and well I have a list of lace shawls I want to make. =)

Here is the pic I first post - it is unblocked



Here it is in color and blocked




I have read about the magic of blocking and well I didn't really "get it" until I did it. Wow. You go from this lump of knitting that you really can not see well to this amazing piece of knitting.

=)

LOOK!!!!

Okay I had to do that. My yarn - yarn I spun- is finally finished and plied it. The blue went really nice and fast. It is pretty much even too!. Then I spun the orange and well I figured out that I should not attempt spinning when I am sick,upset or pissed. In other words it is uneven and over twisted in spots.



The colors are pretty true. It is 100% merino from Rhinebeck.

I finished the nephews set.


Hat and socks made out of Swish in Deep Ocean.

I gave the Dragon scarf to Son and he loves it. I took pictures and well this is the one I love.



Love My Kids!!! They always seem to know when I need a break or laugh. In the past 3 days I got a bad sinus and double ear infection, our car went (head gasket = big repair bill) and the cabinet in the kitchen decided to fall on Hubby (he is ok). Well bad things happen in threes so we are done for a while, Right?!

=)

I still believe

Okay I must be nuts to still believe that I will get everything knitted by christmas. There are still 15 things left (this does not include anything that needs sewing or buttons) to do. Now the majority are small projects like hats, but there are 2 sweater that need to be done. One is Mini-Jesse's flames - I knitted most of the body and have started the sleeves. I should be able to finish this one. The Daughter's cardi (Ried was frogged , it didn't work with the yarn)-this is top down and I am almost to the sleeve part. The cardi will push it.

The thing is that well I don't feel right giving one of my kids a sweater when the others are not finished. I was stressing about the chance that I will not have them finished but I have decided not too.

This is my plan. I will concentrate on the smaller items and work on the 2 sweaters when I can. If I do not get the sweaters done that is ok, but no one will get theirs until all three are finished. (heck they may turn into Valentine's Day gifts)

What items I have finished I can not post pictures about (I know that certain people read this blog- on a positive note i will have plenty to write about in January)

Another lesson learned

Hubby does laundry and does a great job too. He knows not to wash any of my knitting. This works great. It only works if I remember to take out my alpaca and wool Keri Mitts from the pocket of my hoodie sweatshirt. Yep I left them in the pocket and threw the hoodie into the wash. Now Hubby doesn't check my pocket since I should know better.

Before:


After:




I can not even get my hand into them a little.

So here I was a little upset and thinking about the pair I made last year. I loved the yarn, have no clue what the yarn was but i do know where I bought it. My LYS. Great store. Yes It is just a little hole in the wall (the whole store could fit in side my living room) but what makes the store great is the owner. She is wonderful. Even when I bring my kids with me and they go crazy, she is fine with it. "Kids can not break the yarn" she says. The store had a very homey feel.

I have been in other store where we were followed to make sure my kids did not touch anything - I have not and will not go back (my kids are well behaved but anyone with kids know that sometimes they do get into things).

Anyway i know that she changes the hours (summer vs winter) and since the last time I got a chance to go it was summer hours) so I checked the website and AHHHH!!!!!! She is CLOSING!!!!. Dec 24th is the last day. Yes there are other yarns stores and the internet but I will miss this little yarn store. = (

Hopefully I will get to go soon. Even if I do not buy anything (yeah right) I would like to tell her how much her and that little store meant to me.

What I have been up to

The one thing that really made my weekend - IT SNOWED!!!!! Sunday I woke up knowing that it might snow later in the day but the weather guys go it wrong. There was about an inch of snow. Everything looked pretty. As we all went about shopping and trying to find a tree we played each time we got out of either the car or store. It totally made my day. Of course I thought about taking a picture but by the time we got home I totally forgot.

I have been knitting (I actually surprised myself with how much I did do)

Here are the Fawkes



I used the left over orange Cherry Tree Hill yarn from Hubby's socks. These were quick (once I restarted with the right size needles). They are a Christmas gift for my SIL.

These socks are for my nephew. ( They will be done tonight) I used Swish on size 6 dpns. Simple 3x2 ribbing. These went really quick.



Same color as his hat and there will be plenty left over to add the ear flaps to his hat.

I also added a few inches to the Son's sweater. I know have to start the sleeves so I can join them together.



I am also knitting a pattern I wrote last year for one of my aunts. I made her a pair of fingerless mitts and I took lots of notes so I could later write a pattern out. A fellow co worker asked me to make her a pair and I thought it would be great to see how well my notes were. She gave me the yarn so I am not sure what it is. It really is a pretty purple.



Some one else I work with showed me a picture of these little knitted hats that go on wine bottles to dress them up. She asked if I could figure out how to make it and teach her how. I did it in about 10 minutes. My daughters like it very much - since it also fits Barbie's head.



In Hubby news, all test are normal and hormone levels are perfect. He will have to be tested every so often to check and make sure his thyroid is working enough. Other then that we just have to keep an eye out for signs of low function.

I want to thank everyone for the emails and comments during this whole thing. It helped, it really did. = )