We had snow today

We weren't planning on snow today. Last weather report I heard we were supposed to get some rain. I kind of wondered at that when I saw how long the frost on the grass was hanging on. Then I was knitting on the couch and through the curtains noticed some white stuff going by. So went to check it out. Sure enough big fat fluffy flakes were falling and because the ground was already cold, immediately set about sticking and accumulating. So here's the progression:

 

 

 

 

 

Normally the tables/chairs/BBQ are not out there. We won't talk about why they still are out. ;-)

The boys decided that today would be a great day to go snowboarding and had left before it started snowing here. They left the mountain at 5:30pm and I got a text message saying they were back at Luke's house at 10:30pm. A long day for them, but they're still young. ;-)

We haven't received the rain that was supposed to come in at 8pm to clear things up. Our mystery will be what we find in the morning. Is it going to stay cold enough that we'll wake up to the snow still here? Melted over night? If there's snow, most likely my spinning will be canceled for the day. We'll just have to wait and see. Hope all your loved ones are safe at home!

Received hand knit - extra special

I can't remember if I mentioned that I received a pair of glittens from my grandmother or not. I did. ;-) She's 86 years old and she confided in me that she knitted a dozen pairs of these. I think she said that a friend had come back from South America with a pair and she liked the idea so she decided to make some. Only problem she had, she couldn't find a pattern for the mitten flip top, so she had to make it up herself. *She made it up herself!* Okay, it basically is a toe idea but still.

Three of the fingers are all the same height with the forefinger longer. Kind of makes my hands feel small, but she has longer fingers. ;-) They fit nicely though.

Here they are:

I think they may be out of a Berroco yarn - it has the look of the Pure but I can't find a matching color (aubergine is close). Maybe the Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (010)?

I know that these will be in my coat pockets for the rest of the winter to keep my hands toasty and I'll remember that they're extra special because grandma hand knit them!  On my side of the family all of my blood related grandparents are dead. Grandma Eileen is truly my sister Tanya's grandparent. I was raised with her as Grandma Eileen though, so she'll always be one of my grandparents.

(Aunt Mary & Grandma Eileen)

Kind of like Aunt Mary, Grandma Eileen's daughter, I was able to show her all about Ravelry. She seemed excited by it. She wanted to know where I had gotten the patterns for the ornaments I gave them. I thought it would be easier to show her Ravelry instead. ;-) She really loved her Razor Shell Scarf I gave her. Linda, stepmother number two, was floored by the Burnside Winter Twilight Mitts I made her. I don't think she's tried much colorwork in her years of knitting. She definitely knits sweaters though! Jeanne, stepmother number one, also loved her NMH #12 mittens and immediately saw the Norwegian influence. Sister Jennifer now suspects that it will take seven years before she has a weeks worth of hand knitted socks. ;-) It really is awesome to have the hand knits appreciated by the recipients!

Got them done

I knew they were going to be a quick knit and if the whole socializing with family not seen in a year and having to take my turn driving, I might have been able to get these leg warmers done for Kaisha in time for them to be wrapped and under the tree. Instead, all gifts were unwrapped, breakfast eaten and I was busy knitting up until the late lunch/early dinner. They are a perfect fit and the right length. I think they would have done well with pom poms but I haven't invested in one of those makers and wasn't going to dig through the boxes for one a lid to make one out of. So I knotted the end of the i-cord and called them good.

Kaisha's leg warmers:

My stepmother up north is a knitter and I guess she was hoping to help encourage my knitting because she gave me this HUGE basket filled with yarns, a set of needles, a couple of crochet hooks and lots of free patterns from Berroco and Lion Brand. The range of yarns are a couple of nice grey wool yarn from Pengouin, a couple of Noro called Ginrei-A - 58% mohair, 21% wool, 11% nylon and 10% polyester in blues, purples, and pinks, a total of 175 yards that I'm not sure what to do with. There are three or four balls of cottons that will be nice for making up some dish cloths or hand towels. Then there are the balls of unknown yarn, strongly suspect they are some type of Lion Brand Wool-Ease but no identifiers. It helps to realize that the colors are pretty generic that I can knit gifts for people that are untrustworthy for hand-wash items. There's the three balls of orange-yellow mohair that I'm not sure what to do with, but I'll give it a whirl at some point. The big old dark purple Homespun will need to find a new home. The basket:

Then there was the bonus to find out that Judy shopped my wish list at Knit Picks and just bought the whole list - totally blessed! I have a few pairs of circulars, blocking wires (Michele - if you didn't get them as a gift, they are nice!), some handpainted sock yarn as well as black sock yarn and enough fingering weight yarn to make a sweater for myself! I had also asked for the Craftsman Afghan, not because I particularly like the colors but because I wanted another knitted blanket for the couch, maybe this one can be for the dogs and I can keep the Lizard Ridge from their bodies. ;-)

I tried taking photos of the yarns, but the flash was washing them out and not enough good light, so I'll have to take photos of the yarns and redo things on Sunday.

For now, I'm off to bed early to catch up on some missing sleep, then one more family visit tomorrow.

Merry Christmas! Anyone not get enough sweets? Come visit - have plenty of cookies, fudge, and candies. Still need to make those Muddy Buddys too. (I will *not* gain weight this season!)

Hitting the road

I need to finish getting ready for the trip up to Snohomish to see my sister's family and the stepfamily I was raised with. We'll drive back down later this evening, sleep, get up early again and go over to Judy's for the Hawes family get together. We'll spend the afternoon there and be home again. Saturday afternoon we're scheduled to be down in Salem for my dad's side of the family get together. I have hopes of seeing Cole for the first time, but not holding my breath.

Judy's French Press Slippers were finished in the late hours last night. I left them drying overnight with the black puff paint on the bottom. I think if I do these again I'm going to try to do them with a wider sole. I have wide feet and these don't feel like they fit my foot. Since its not my foot they have to fit, not terribly concerned. I'll take a better picture of them on Judy's feet - with her permission of course!  Until then, here they are:

I hope your holidays are safe and happy! 

ETA: Judy's feet had the same problem with the sides being low as I did with them. Over felting? Not high enough sides? I'm going to next try the House Slippers pattern out of the Knit 2 Together book. I can use up some leftover Cascade 220 and still do some cute stuff to make them special. If you're on Ravelry and still want to do the French Press Felted Slippers, there is a person in there that has adapted the pattern to be picked up, so no seaming.  

I have hats!

The Thorpe hat was a learning experience. I've done top down hats before, but its been awhile since I've worked with chunky yarn. The first one I did with worsted doubled so that I could get the chunky. It came out fine, a little heavy feeling. I then tried to do the hat with just the strand of worsted yarn and thought I needed to really increase the size to have it come out. For some reason I didn't check until the very end. The hat ended up HUGE. It was loose on Brandon's big head - hey he says its big, so its okay for me to say it is. ;-) So I switched and did the next hat in the series and did the stranded hat, it worked out better being doubled. Then it was back to trying to get the hats to work as worsted. I kept to the size US 9 rather than trying the US 7 and things worked.

The hats:

 

 

 

 

Some fudge has been made and a batch of the peanut butter cup candy. Along with the cookies, set with the sweet stuff I think. There are a couple of cake type recipes that I'd like to do, but they may be for New Year's.

I'm testing out the French Press Felted Slippers pattern. Rachel tried to get them to come out and had something that resembled a baked potato for her efforts. I'm definitely not as fast as the Yarn Harlot in making them, or her friend that claimed to be able to do them in 90 minutes. I'm not saying how long they took me to knit up. I have all the pieces knitted and tried to seam up one and ended up with something looking odd, so need to re-evaluate the project - when I don't have a migraine. Yes, one of those evil things showed up Monday night and has yet to vacate the premises. If I can get them to work, I'll buy my own copy and then hopefully the pattern for children that she has planned.

I knitted the large size, because I'm not sure if Judy wears an 8 or 9 and figured better to have a little room than not enough. Well and Rachel had said she knitted the 8 and it looked really small. I have a front loader machine so it will be fun trying to get them to felt.

Let's not count the days......

As usual I'm juggling the items that I'll have completed for Christmas. I had planned to do several items, but they've been changed to other things. I've also postponed receipt for a couple people until January. I may get them done in time, but I don't need the pressure. 

I did complete both of the reindeer socks for my BIL:

 

I was finally able to get over to JoAnn's to look through their button selection. Found some shell buttons in a pack that work perfectly. They are a mother of pearl, but I put the outer shell out. Sewed them onto Cole's Cardigan:

Last Friday it took a couple of attempts but I was successful in making a batch of Divinity before the humidity came back to our area. Divinity fails this time of the year usually, so this was a first attempt in twenty years. I forgot to tell William though that he couldn't just eat all he wanted so I have half of what I hoped to have for dividing up for family. ;-)

(sorry about the flash, but the only way to get the picture to come out.)

I've started the Thorpe hat series. Keefe's is done and I've started Garrett's, his will be the stranded version. I'll do ones for Adam and Logan that will be the 'plain' version - possible stripes like Keefe's. I also have yarn for one for William's friend Luke. He may have to wait until after Christmas to get his though. ;-)

Keefe's minus the braids:

Last week we the really cold weather and Friday morning I was able to get a rare picture of Norbert and Nessa sleeping close together. They sleep on the same couch, on the same bed, but rarely next to each other without a body part of mine between. 
(The hair on Norbert's left ear is slowly growing back out, but makes him look lopsided.)

More hats in my future for the next couple days, cookie baking at Judy's on Saturday. How is your race for the holidays coming along? Have you negotiated mentally gifts to be given? Putting in late hours to get the ones planned done? Are we all insane? ;-)

Pom'd

The consensus of the votes were for pom-poms. Rachel even brought her pom-pom maker with her to spinning Wednesday. After spinning I got a couple made before picking up Brandon from work. We popped over to visit his grandfather (his health is failing and we don't expect that we'll have him this time next year) and do some computer work. So I entertained him with the pom-pom maker. By the time I arrived at Knit Night at Haggen's, I had four little pom-poms and could return the maker to Rachel. A few minutes work to sew them on to the ties and we have:

Can you see the frost on the table?

Here's an idea of how cold its been this last week, the pond:

I've been working on socks for my brother-in-law John. He has a family history of getting fun items at Christmas so I know he'll appreciate the humor behind the socks. He's also had wool socks on his wish list for as long as I've known him. So here's a good portion of one of the socks in progress:

 

At spinning I finished up the purple Spinner's Hill - Corriedale-Finn-Ramboulliet. After weighing them I didn't evenly divide so will have to balance it out with the plying. I went ahead and jumped into the Portland Punch. Its lovely to spin with.