Gifted... Part One

In the spirit of the season, and an attempt to get into that season, I have been working on some hand-knitted gifts to exchange with my sister and her family this week. She and I decided that we wanted a simpler, less-commercial celebration of Christmas. a Tomorrow evening we are exchanging gifts and my contributions toward that end are displayed below.

A quiet evening of pizza, our four kids and the men with us is bound to be much more enjoyable than a wrapping paper ripping frenzy, which always seems to happen when the whole family gets together.

So, on to what I've made. For the boys, including my brother in law:

Family Ribbed Hats, from the book, More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.

Red is for Aaron

These hats are stretchy and warm, and made of Lamb's Pride Bulky wool.

Blue is for Nicholas

Again, I used Lamb's Pride Bulky.

Black and Grey is for the Brother in law. He'll use it for shoveling, and the occasional trip out sledding.

This hat used Shepherd's Shades by Brown Sheep, which contains no mohair.

My sister wanted a totally different hat; one that would keep her warm while walking the big Golden Retreiver who shares their lives. She is receiving Thorpe, a wonderful earflap hat. Both of my kids also have this hat, courtesy of me.


Back to Lamb's Pride Bulky for this one. The trim is crochet, and their are long braids hanging down from the earflaps. Thorpe is a free pattern on Ravelry, if you are a registered user.

More on the topic of "Gifted" in the days to come, because I have been receiving some blessings from some special knitting friends!

Silliness

It's not just me that loves the snow!



I apologize for the crummy cell phone photo, but that's what I had on me at the time.

Right now we have about 3"-4" of snow here in NW Ohio. If you know me, you know I would love to have what the East Coast has been pummelled with this winter. So would Bruno and Coco! They sure don't act like they will be 10 years old in a couple of months.

Remember, winter and snow are temporary. Find the fun and silliness that come with them!

What's New?

So, besides the New Year, what's new?

I have a few FO's I can show you!

Since 2011 started, I have completed the following projects already... Okay, I admit the first one is cheating, since I started this pair of mittens in mid-December. They were intended to be part of Mayhem's Christmas gifts.



Next up, a hat for Bill. I used the leftovers of Berocco Ultra Alpaca that I had from Dad's hat. It's soft and warm, and knit up quickly.



Sticking with the winter accessories, this next hat will be gifted to a friend next month. My pal Chris, whom I've known since junior high, currently lives in L.A., but remains loyal to Ohio State. He'll be back in Ohio in February, and requested a hat in (blech, phooey, gag!) OSU colors.



I've dubbed it the "Ugly-ass hat," and decided I'm a very good friend!

The kids and I think that Bruno is having an identity crisis, or has aspirations of being a sheep dog. He's taken to carrying around this:



and sleeping with it, too!



We're in the middle of a January deep-freeze, but had happy mail yesterday. Our new swim suits for the cruise arrived! Hooray for Lands' End Overstocks!
:-)

Secret Knitting and Sacrifices

A certain middle-schooler that lives at my house every other week is obsessed with purple. Her coat is purple. Her backpack is purple. Most of her clothes are purple. Are you seeing a trend here? So last week, when it was Dad Week, what did her dad get her? A white hat and white gloves. Ugh! This is a young one who, like her momma, has a love for the fluffy white stuff that falls from the sky. She plays in it, even when there's only a dusting on the ground. You know what that means; dirty gloves/mittens!



How do you keep white gloves clean on ground like that??? (And see Bruno? he's spotted a squirrel up on the lines above him! mmmmm squirrel!)

Being the type of mom that I am, and knowing that wool mittens are the best winter weather gear for playing in the snow, I've cast on a pair of, yep, you guessed it, purple woolen mittens. Even though my darling Mayhem is a cookie-cutter image of me, and we share the love of snow, we do not share the love for purple. More than once I have threatened to friends that I am going to stab my eyes out with my dpn's before finishing these mittens, and I fear I may not finish them in time for our Christmas celebration on the morning of December 24th... not because I can't, but because the purple is killing me!

Darling Mayhem knows nothing about these mittens at all. I have been working on them at night, or when she is at her dad's, or in the car while waiting to pick her and her brother up from school. I just reached the point of needing to put the thumb stitches on hold for mitten number one, so the hard part is done; keeping track of the gussett increases. I feel safe showing you a photo, because Mayhem would have commented here by now if she were a reader of this blog. (She is not one to keep quiet, trust me!)

Pardon the crummy cell phone photo, please. As you can see, I was in the car, but not driving, I promise.



I am using this pattern - Alex's Mittens (on Ravelry) which is a roomy pattern and well written. I knit it before, for Bill's younger son for Christmas a couple years ago.

So far this December we have had only a dusting of snow (.7 inches) which made the dogs ecstatic (me too!), but we are expecting 5" tomorrow afternoon and into Monday morning. *happy dance* That will be good knitting time for me for finishing up mitten one and getting number two knocked out of the way. Then it's on to another gift project. A dear friend of mine who lives in Los Angeles has requested a hat in OSU colors. GAH! More stabbing out of the eyes.
Sheesh. The sacrifices I make! ;-) GO BLUE!

Baby it's Cold Outside

It's been really cold here lately, barely reaching 30 degrees most days for the past 10 days or so. You know, the kind of days where you don't want to go outside unless you really have to. Combine that with the gray skies and the early darkness that sets in, and you have a hibernating Karen.

So what have I been up to, you wonder? I did some Christmas shopping online (thank you, Amazon!) and then I spent 3 days sleeping off a cold/flu kind of thing. I used so many tissues that I thought the front of my face was going to peel off! eeeew We all have to be healthy for December 19. That's when my entire family is gathering at my parents' house to celebrate Christmas. With my dad being sick, we can't take any germs!! And ALL of us have to be there. Period.

When I wasn't sleeping I started re-reading the entire Harry Potter series. The kids and I had been to see Part 1 of The Deathly Hallows at the movie theater right after Thanksgiving. That inspired me, along with some friends doing a mini book club, to read the series again. The books are so much better than the movies!

I have also been doing more knitting since my shoulders are better! I can knit for longer periods of time and don't have pain, so I am actually finishing things. Not anything big yet, but my endurance is increasing, and it's so encouraging. I have been released from PT as well. Hooray! So, knitting? I am working on a secret project for Mayhem for Christmas involving very purple yarn to match her coat. I detest purple, but like all middle school girls, she looooooves purple. So purple it is. Bleah.

Last night I finished a hat for my Mom for Christmas. At Thanksgiving she was saying she would love a warm hat.


I'm almost done with Book 5 - see how the hat matches the book?

This hat took me two evenings, maybe a total of 3 hours (including the finishing) to knit. It's knit with Berocco Sundae, a bulky yarn on size 11 and size 13 needles. It's a pattern from my LYS, but if you search Button Band hat on Ravelry, you will find similar patterns.



Other than that, I am job hunting, Christmas shopping (frugally), and waiting, rather impatiently, for some snow to arrive here in T-Town. It seems that it has fallen all around us, and in places that don't normally get snow, but none here!

The kids are with me this week, so we are tidying up and getting the Christmas tree up by the end of the week.

Do you have snow? Is your holiday shopping done? Are you knitting gifts for the holidays?

Where Does The White Go When The Snow Melts?

Haven't you ever wondered that? Snow is white, and then it's gone. Where does the white go?
The temps have been in the mid-40's the last three days in a row now, and that means the 30.7" of snow that dumped on us in January is rapidly disappearing, prompting my silly question. I would love an answer, if anyone has one.

This morning I heard birds chirping in the crabapple trees outside my bedroom window and I (honest, I swear!) saw robins at the park today while Bill and I were there. Thanks to the newly bare ground, we also saw 15 or more deer on the move, happily grazing on whatever the melting snow revealed.

Ice floes were moving down Swan Creek and fortunately, no ice fishermen were stranded on these little pieces of ice. (This story was carried on the national news and also on The BBC.)

Patches of bare ground were visible today, and the sun was warm. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the little red schoolhouse at Wildwood Metropark. Even school looked cheery today. (Did I say that?!)

And look! More knitting! Growing tired of some drink coaster's at Bill's that don't absorb anything, I decided to stash dive and use up some aran weight wool that was just sitting around. I used size 11 needles, cast on 20 stitches, and knit 32 rows of garter stitch.

The coaster that is all orange is for on B's computer desk.

They're bright and cheery. Even better, they're absorbent and pretty much indestructible. Bill loves them because they are simple and practical. Oh, and he loves them because I made them just for him.

Oh Deer!

Saturday morning I took a walk in the MetroPark nearest to my house. As I usually do, I lugged along my trusty Nikon. We had the ice storm, remember? Who knows what I would see! Temps were dropping into the single digits, but I walked four miles, and took many pictures, trying to capture the beauty of the ice storm. Instead, I found something much more beautiful.

Peek-a-boo. Look at the base of the tree.

See the other one at the back right of the photo?

This field was full of deer, at one point I counted 18 there all together. Counting the 5 in the clearing before this field, I saw 23 deer!!

Then, just before getting back to the car, (very, very cold) I found this chattery, chubby fellow near my car. He didn't look cold at all!

Wishing you, and those you love, peace and happiness!

NOW it looks like winter!

Wanna see some snow photos? C'mon, sure you do! I promise that I will show some knitting photos after this. Seriously.

The view looking down my street, Feb. 14, 2007. Notice the street has not been plowed.


Looking at the house, after shoveling the driveway. Can you find the kids in this picture?



Three days off school has us all going a little crazy. My district was still off today, but the kids' dad had to work. I drove them over to his school during his lunch time and let them "have lunch" with Dad, which really meant "run around the school gym like maniacs and burn off energy."