Christmas Knitting and Turkey Canning

I was having a really hard time doing gift knitting. I came back from the beach with the turkey carcass and leftovers. We had one more dinner off of it that Sunday night for our gaming group. Then I popped it into two pots and started cooking it for broth. I had pulled off the excess turkey. Realized that I had leftover carrots and celery as well as a pressure cooker. Pulled out the pressure cooker, rounded up jars and lids and then started canning turkey broth and turkey soups.

This was the first batch out - notice the color difference?

This is the second batch out. Not sure why the broth looks so 'milky', might be less fat?

So ended up with lots of broth and enough jars of soup that I gave some to family as part of their Christmas gifts. Those along with jars of jam helped so I didn't have to knit as much! I did give some pre-yarn crawl knit along items as gifts. Worked out well for me that way!

This left me with knitting some hats for one niece and three nephews. Logan got a couple of books and Cole got a stuffed toy and a bunch of socks. His dad, my brother Scott, said that he really needed those too. A week's worth of fun socks to wear may not be really really exciting to receive, but parents ultimately appreciate it!

Bailey's hat:

Pattern: Making a Memory

She said she liked it. I'll have to see if I can get my sister, Tanya to take pics of her wearing it. ;-)

Garrett's hat, the Half-Pipe, I had planned to use the Berrocco Alpaca, but The Knitting Bee doesn't carry it any longer. Since the pattern calls for using two strands of DK together, Trish and I decided that using an Aran weight would work. I didn't want him to worry about washing, so got some 220 Aran Superwash in a nice Charcoal. I need to get a pic of him wearing it, just have him opening up the package at Christmas:

He's wearing a hat, so hats are good. ;-)

We had dinner with my dad and sister and brother with their families after Christmas, but before New Year, so still in the ball park. Here's Keefe with his hat:

I'm chewing, just a second! Pattern: Ola!

Nice big smile!

 Little brother Cole, liked the hat so much that he put in a request for one 'just like it'. He's three. He asked, so he'll get a hat. Not sure when I will see him next, because he's not always at family events. I'm also almost out of that green, so it may be in a different main color but same blue.

Adam got a Turn A Square Hat in a variety of colors. I think he likes it. He was wearing it for awhile. So it wasn't an on to make me happy, then right back off. I figure he can wear it under his helmet when he's four wheeling with his dad and grandfather.

Again, I was knitting this hat just an hour before giving it to him. I'm so burned out on gift knitting. Maybe if I saw things being worn, I may be more excited to knit and gift things to people?

I did chat with Carina at 12th Night. I still have the qiviut I spun for her. Confirmed that yes, she does want a cowl out of it. So found a pattern that I think will be nice, just need to get it knit up! First though, I really need to knit something for me!

Flurry of WIPs, trips, etc.

Last week was all about the cold. My head was so muzzy that knitting was next to impossible. I tried multiple times to get the La-La-Love-You Cowl to work for me. It just wasn't happening.

I was able to ply the Cobbler singles. It's still sitting on the bobbin because I have only four coats of the finish on the oak niddy-noddy. Brandon says I need a few more coats for smoothness. I'm going to try to steel wool it and apply a coat before bed. He did say that it is usable though.....

Thursday my mother came down by train after visiting sister and family up in Snohomish. She met up with her DH who was attending a conference here in town over the weekend. William and I met up with her on Friday for lunch downtown at Rockbottom (wouldn't recommend them btw, wandered over to VooDoo Doughnuts so that she could buy the guys some. Then went up Alder to get to Knit/Purl and found a little Swiss chocolate store - Teuscher Chocolates of Portland. Mom bought us each a chocolate and picked up some for herself. I had the pistachio praline - yummy milk chocolate. Definitely going to have to go back for more!

While at Knit/Purl I found out that mom can't wear wool - of any kind. So the Purple Mistery Cowl that I had just finished, isn't going to her but I guess the sister up in Snohomish.....

We met back up with her and Aunt Mary on the MAX line and headed over to the Chinese Gardens. I had called Judy, Brandon's mom, and invited her to join us on Saturday and turned out it was in time to meet us there too. Here's a link to the Picasa album of our visit if you'd like to check it out.

After we got done at the Chinese Gardens we walked a few blocks over and had lunch at Kell's. Great Irish food and Brandon tried his first pint of Guinness. Refueled we then headed over to Saturday Market for some serious browsing. I think we found a picture to decorate around in the hall bathroom too, but we'll have to go back when that booth is open.

Sunday I tried out Tudora and had it work out for me - yea! Here's what it looks like so far:


Trying to get all those projects that I "thought" I could get done, I cast on today the Razor Shell Scarf. I'm going to use the Purple Mistery Malabrigo Lace leftover from the Cowl:

Since I still had leftover Olive worsted, I debated on casting on for a Calorimetry head cover but decided that I wanted to do the Celtic Cable Neckwarmer instead, this is one full chart repeat:

I had hoped to start William's "Where's Waldo" hat later in the week. Okay, I was going to wait until Friday to start it. Brandon and he insisted that I start it tonight. Since today is William's 19th birthday, I acquiesced and also cast that on tonight. There is a pattern available for it, but I didn't like the directions. So went back to a hat that I've done several of and know how to adapt to work for this design, the raglan hat. Here's what I have so far:


ETA: The cold is down to the sniffles, a few coughs and lots of sneezes still. William started his version of it late Saturday, thus postponing a visit from his other grandparents on Sunday. My dad has week lungs from when he was in a house fire as a child.