Happy New Year!

Here are a couple of warshrags I've made recently. I don't think I've posted them before and I haven't taken a lot of pics of my work lately. These were fun, needless to say. I also knitted a snowman in white and an airplane in medium blue, but they were both Christmas presents that I forgot to photograph, so they're gone from my stash! Anyway, I'm now knitting a white baby blanket and will hope to get a picture soon to upload. The Baby will be arriving in early August, so, of course, I'll be knitting a lot of baby things!!!

We're just staying home and I'm knitting this evening. Just a couple of old fogies acting old, but we seldom do anything extra on New Year's Eve. A toast at midnight and then probably to sleep. If you read this blog, have a wonderful 2007 and keep on knitting!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
;-)

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful family Christmas with our daughter, son-in-law and son. We also had a DH's family Christmas party on Christmas eve and about 20 of us had a good time together. We did the meal, my DH and myself. Lots of work, but a great way to give a family gift to everyone, especially his mother who used to give these parties. We have missed other members of our families, but have spoken with most of them on the phone.
Our greatest gift this year was when our daughter and son-in-law arrived on Friday night. They told us they are pregnant!!!! We are going to be grandparents for the first time and we can hardly believe it! They are due in early August 2007, so guess what my knitting and other sewing will become almost immediately??!! I've already pulled out some chenille for a baby blanket. It's acrylic and pure white and will make such a pretty blanket. Don't know where I'll go next with knitting, but I do English smocking, too. I know I'll be smocking and sewing for babies, boy and girl. I've offered to help with the nursery sewing, too. Tomorrow morning we're going out to buy her first maternity outfit before they go home on Wednesday. They live about 5 hours from here. We'll have to visit often to see the progress, for sure. Can you tell I'm excited!!??
Merry Christmas and thanks for reading my blog!
;-)

I'm so excited! I received a Christmas present yesterday that I bought for myself. I ordered from Knitpicks the kit including Kat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. The kit included two circular needles in size 1, the book and a skein of natural yarn. I would love to think I could dye the yarn, too, but I think I might just put it away for that possible project at a later date. I have plenty of good, lovely merino yarn with which to knit these socks. I also ordered in the package a pair of circular needles in size 2 and a "Sock It To Me" card. The card is just the sizing for all sizes of feet and will be a big help. I haven't done the circular socks up to now, so this is going to be a fun adventure. I've always knitted socks top-down, with double pointed needles. I'd love to try the toe-up with the circular's, so eventually I'll report here about my new adventure.
;-)

Well..................guess what?! I've been busy with Christmas preparations, so that my knitting and other crafts have suffered. My small, pathetic idea of knitted gifts has been to no avail. I have, however, enjoyed preparing for Christmas and the tree is done. The packages are wrapped! (Except for the few to arrive in the mail, yet!) The house is clean! I need to bake and prepare for the family party on Christmas eve. We're doing it all and have to carry it to Grandma's community room, but it should be fun, anyway.

We met David's great niece on Saturday and she's a real cutie. 6 months old and her name is Layla! If I can get some digital pictures I'll post them after the party on Sunday.
;-)

Discloths done!

This is one of two dishcloths I finished and blocked today, to give to a friend for Christmas! It's a teapot, in case you can't figure it out and it's done in pale green (the color isn't the best today with my camera!) Peaches and Cream cotton yarn.

This is another Peaches and Cream dishcloth for my friend's Christmas gift. I love using the cloths as a practice for other stitches. This entrelac wasn't the easiest and I did have to rip out a few times, but I think I'm getting it, finally! ;-)

Finally blocked and ready to wrap!

I'm so pleased with this scarf. Hopefully Tom will like it, too!
;-)

Another addition to my stash!

I purchased this in Destash's blog and I'm really looking forward to using it for a small decorative shawl for Spring. It's pink and blue silk tweed yarn and I have several skeins, so I can do something really fun with it! It will, however, have to wait for a few wintery things to be done first, along with some socks. I'm almost done with a few dishcloths for Christmas gifts and can hopefully get back to my socks and a shawl that are on the needles. I also have a beautiful sweater on the needles, but I think that one may not be finished until next winter. Who knows?
;-)

More new yarns!

Here are the other two hand-dyed merino yarns I purchased on Ebay. I'm obviously into purples right now, but they are soooo pretty! I'm anxious to get back to my sock knitting, but I'm trying to make some dishcloths for Christmas presents right now. Hopefully I'll finish those soon and can finish the socks on the needles and start something new. I want the nice warm socks, too. I'm really feeling the cold this winter and it isn't even winter, yet! ;-)

New yarns to play with!

Here are a couple of new hand-dyed merinos that I purchased on Ebay. Aren't they pretty?
I've got to finish my first merino socks and then will knit some more with this and a couple of others I bought with these. I'll post them soon! ;-)

Finished scarf

Here's Tom's Christmas scarf. I'm really pleased with how it came out and I think he will like it, too. I have to block it and then wrap it for Christmas. One gift down!! Don't know how many more to go with knitting, but I've done a lot of my shopping already, so I'm a little ahead there.
;-)

No pictures???

I can't figure out why there isn't a way to upload pictures on the blog today. I sure do hope this is temporary for blogger. It's frustrating. I checked last night, too and it was the same. I even took some pictures of a finished scarf for Tom and some of my newest yarns, pre-knitting. Actually, pre-winding, too! I really love the winding. Wish I could do it more often, but I'm afraid that's all I would do for a while if I had enough stash to just wind. Then I wouldn't get any knitting done! Oh, well, I'll have to wait to post pictures for a while, I guess.
;-)

Big Blue

This is another picture of Big Blue. My daughter and son-in-law are his people and he's named for the mascot of Old Dominion University where they both graduated. He and his sister, Katrina, were adopted from the Norfolk SPCA several years ago and they are the sweetest kitties. Blue is the welcomer of the house along with their dogs, Falco and Gabbi. The dogs are German Shepherds and they love the kitties, too.
;-)

No knitting pictures

I still don't have knitting pictures, but have been knitting quite a bit. I've almost finished Tom's scarf. Just have the ends to weave in and it's done, so I hope to finish before the end of the week and will try to take a picture to post. I've been working on my purple sock and am almost finished with the one. I'll start the second one, soon. I've also been knitting on my burgundy merino wool shawl. It's so plain, but it is so easy to knit. No thinking involved, so it is really theraputic when I need no thinking.

This picture is my brother's kitty, Squeeky. She's a scardie cat, but really pretty and when she gets to know you she's nice.

Thanksgiving!

This is Katrina, the little, bashful sister of Blue. They are both sweet kitties and very small, but full grown. I think they are 8 or 9 years old and only weigh 4 and 7 pounds respectively. They were strays from the Norfolk, VA SPCA when Helen and Chris adopted them.
This is Blue! He's our other grandkitty and was so welcoming at our daughter's home for the Thanksgiving holiday. We took a full-sized coffee maker and we no sooner got the pot out of the box than Blue jumped in. He loved it, like most cats would, and stayed in it for a long time. The coffee maker did a great job. Our daughter has a 4 cup coffee maker and we knew with our grown son joining us that we would need more coffee at one time.

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. Helen and Chris did themselves proud with the food, especially the sweet potato soufflee, a recipe from Chris' grandmother. We all ate a lot, but I really think we all were pretty good this year. Healthy eating rules!

I did get some knitting done the past couple of weeks, but will post about that later in the week.
;-)

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

This is how OK sleeps most of the time. It is his chair! We rarely sit there because he has it coated with his fur. The pillow belongs there, but not in the middle, only on the side so he can stretch out whenever he wants. He sits there to watch us and the tv. Watching me knitting and my DH reclining and watching tv. Ok was a stray who adopted us a couple of years ago and he knows how good he has it now. He's a sweet animal, too. We are really lucky!
;-)

Newest project

I purchased this yarn in Williamsburg, too! It is for Tom! A scarf to match a cap he already has. As a matter of fact, we just got home from a trip to Las Vegas and I was able to get quite a lot of this scarf done while we were gone. Airports are great places to knit. So is my brother's house. I worked on my beautiful merino purple socks, too, so I'll soon have more to show off.

Our trip was fun. We stayed with Ward for 3 nights and then spent 2 free nights at Main Street Station. David and I entered a slots tournament and even got to the finals, just didn't win. It was different and fun. Downtown Las Vegas is fun and the Fremont experience still is worth seeing any evening. We like the strip, but it is much more expensive.
;-)

Trip to Williamsburg

Look what I bought at the Twisted Sisters Yarn Shop in Williamsburg two days ago. The red is actually a bit darker than this picture, but it is beautiful hand-dyed sock yarn! The turquoise and purple is a ribbon yarn from which I'm going to make a triangular shawl, mostly decorative.
The shop was full of wonderful things and they offerred a 15% discount to us conference attendees. I was attending the VLA(VA Library Association) annual conference and it was quite fun! Learned a lot and I helped the Scholarship Committee quite a bit, too.
;-)

Dishcloth Done!

I just knit this the other evening and it was really easy and fun! I think I'll give it as a "stocking stuffer" for Christmas to someone in the family.
;-)

Vote! Because you can!

Finished scarf

I finally finished this scarf tonight. I started it last winter, so now I'll be able to wear it soon. It is pretty true to this photo color, made of Flutter yarn, which I knitted on size 13 kneedles. It is really simply done with all knitting. I figured with the flutter finish any other stitches wouldn't be seen. This should go well with my black and kakhi raincoat. It's pretty thick, so it should block the cold and wind well.