Christmas in January

Yes, we celebrated Christmas last night, kind of. My friend Rachel hosted an ornament exchange/cocktail evening/dinner at her house last night. We really had such a good time! I finished my ornament yesterday and here it is...



It was so funny, someone opened it and everyone was like "umm" and then when they found out I knit it they were like "Oh so cute!" Ha! I got a really cute snowman ornament from my friend Jill to add to my tree.

So I'm realizing how bad I've been about reading since I began knitting. I haven't read nearly as much lately - as of right now I have finished ONE book in 2006. Ugh! And the book I read was "A Million Little Pieces" so I feel like I have to read something non-controversial now. My book group picked "The Kite Runner" so I started on that one. I noticed that it does say fiction on it so there's no question! Honestly I wasn't surprised by the fact that AMLP wasn't all true. I mean between the root canal and the fact that he was recollecting events in such detail as he was detoxing I was skeptical. I did watch when he was on Oprah last week and although I don't feel like I was "duped" I was really annoyed by James Frey. He just sat there and barely said a word. He really should have had more to say. At this point he should have just come clean and said why he "altered details".

Done and done!

My daughter's sweater is finally done! I have been wrestling with it for 4 months and finally have it completed with a few minor changes. First, I could not for the LIFE of me figured out the buttonhole row and after frogging that row 10 times I decided the sweater would be button-free. Funny thing about that is that when I tried the sweater on Kyra the other night the first thing she did was pull it together and try to button it! I was in tears laughing so hard at her attempts! The other thing that changed was the collar. It should have folded over but I got so sick of the ribbed trim that it is now a short collar. Sooooo, without further ado here is the sweater...



So now that I'm free of that sweater (at least until I attempt another one) I'm off to new things. I had a trip to the LYS yesterday (Wool and Company in Geneva) and picked up a skein of Cascade 220 in charcoal. I already have two skeins of Cascade 220 in Garnet and I'm going to make the Two Old Bags kitchen sink bag with them. It'll be my foray into the felting world.

I also picked up a skein of green Cotton Fleece to make my son these adorable little dinosaurs. Aren't they cute? He loves dinosaurs and since I made Kyra the sweater he's been asking what I'm going to knit for him. I just bought the one skein and I'm going to give the brontosaurus a try first.

Since the whole DPN thing clicked for me I've been fascinated with making socks. On whim I picked up a ball of Lion Brand Magic Stripe sock yarn and now I'm making the first sock with them. I'll post a picture another time, I just realized the ones I put on the computer are fuzzy but I think I have a better picture on the camera downstairs.

Last note: my sister learned to knit! She recently took a class with her friend and she's making a scarf! It's looking really good and I'm so excited that we have yet another thing in common. We're very close anyhow and now we can knit while we hang out!

Okay, gotta go get ready for the day. We have a playdate this morning with my good friend Mollie and her little girl!

Lesley

Irish Hiking Scarf

I just realized I haven't posted in a while, probably because I've been wrestling with DD's sweater. I think I chose a pattern with too many new things to learn and right now I'm pulling my hair out over a ribbed border with buttonholes. I've decided to just make both sides ribbed and buy snaps to sew on. I'll leave the buttonhole lesson for another project!

Here is the Irish Hiking Scarf I made my mom for Christmas.



I'm really happy with how it turned out and my mom seemed to like it too!

DH has requested that I knit him an afghan. I have the Ombre Alpaca Blanket in mind but the yarn cost would be $200+. Being a newbie knitter I have not spent anywhere NEAR that amount for yarn for a single project. I keep trying to tell myself that we'd have the afghan for decades to come and that it's probably not worth the headache to seek out substitute yarn. I think this whole DD sweater fiasco has me spooked or something.

Well, the holidays have passed once again and a new year has started. I'm trying to be better about using our treadmill (v. cliche, isn't it?) but the kids keep getting up at 4:30-5 a.m. so it's been hard to get the fitness program started! I'm ready to be a healthier person and that means some habit-changing. No more eating the kids' snacks and no more laying in bed til they wake up! I need fruits and veggies and exercise :D

Okay, that's all for now, hopefully I'll have DD's sweater done soon!