Almost Time for the Big Day!

Three days till Christmas Eve and four until Christmas Day.....can you believe it? Where has the time gone, I ask the same question every year and each time it seems to have gone faster than the year before. As for my blog posts, there haven't been many of late, but I've been very busy just like all of you out there reading this.

In between all of the shopping, wrapping, cleaning, cooking, card sending, etc., believe it or not, I've found time for some knitting and crocheting. I didn't get to do all I had in the back of my mind to complete, but all in all things turned out quite nicely. Above is another picture of my grandson's stocking which I'm really pleased with. I used Cascade 220 this time rather than an acrylic yarn and it really made a difference in the way the finished stocking looks.

I also completed the leg warmers for my mother as one of her Christmas presents using a hand dyed merino wool from La Lana and I loved the slight marling of the colors in this yarn. It's also very soft and warm which I know she'll like. I'm just hoping they fit her legs because I think I should have used larger sized needles. I knit them on size 6 and if I make another pair, I'll definitely use size 8's.


Finally, I joined a CAL on Ravelry to crochet the 'Divine Hat' and although this proved to be quite a challenge with the front post and back post doubles, it turned out rather nicely in the end and will be adorning someone's head this Christmas (although she will go un-named for now).

Please know that I wish each and every one of you a warm, happy Christmas filled with much love, joy, and good health, and naturally, lots of fiberly goodness in the New Year.

Christmas Projects

I've been working on several smaller projects for gifts such as the hat and mittens set above. Although the colors of the two look entirely different, that just goes to show how pictures can distort the true color of something. They're both knitted from Cascade 220 in a deep red and yet the hat looks much lighter. These are for my soon to be two year old granddaughter to keep her warm as she's such a tiny one and so precious as all three of my sweethearts are, of course!

I'm also in the process of knitting leg warmers for my Mom (who never ventures onto the internet so I'm not spoiling the surprise). I'm using hand spun merino from LaLana and it's in autumnal colors which are really very subtle yet lovely. The first one is about halfway finished and then one more to go and I know she'll be thrilled because she's always looking for a new pair and can never find any that she likes.

As for a few other things, I have my linen shawlette which is a gift for one of my sweethearts out there but since a few of them sometimes read my blog, I can't say who right now. It's a lovely shawl though and I know the recipient will be very happy with it.

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is one week from today and we all know what that means! Time to start shopping, decorating, wrapping, card sending, and last but not least, cooking and baking. I hope it's nice and cold and even a white Christmas would be soooo welcome this year (at least by me). I always have a safe and snug feeling when the time changes and the cold weather starts to arrive and it's during these few months that I get a lot of knitting and crocheting accomplished.

The Christmas Stocking

Here is the finished stocking for my sweet little grandson....and done with just a little over 2 months until Christmas, can you believe it? I used Bernat Softee Bulky yarn for this and size 8 straight needles for the leg portion and then switched to dpns for the foot. I kitchenered the toe and was very pleased with the decreases used in this particular pattern (Yankee Pattern). I know that his Mom & Dad will be able to fit lots of presents into it......which they'll just love, seeing as how they have 2 other children's stockings (which I knit in the past few years and are pictured below) to fill.

Completed Projects

Here is the hat I knit for my grandson and I know it will keep him nice and toasty. I used size 6 dpns and Jojoland Melody yarn which I discussed on a previous post, in case you'd like to know where to go and look it over. The pattern is Turn a Square by Jared on his blog, Brooklyn Tweed.

I really liked the ease of following his directions and the way the decreases turned out, although I think I may have made a couple of mistakes on the final decreasing before the last eight stitches. In spite of that it turned out well although, I'm not happy with the purl bumps that present themselves once I turned the ribbing up. If anyone knows how to eliminate that particular problem, please comment and let me know....I'd be very thankful.




As for the other completed project, DRUM ROLL PLEASE, I finally completed the long overdue linen shawlette. Talk about a labor of love.....I nearly went crazy waiting for the 2 skeins of linen to finally run out....they wanted to last forever and I was ready to jump ship on more than one occasion plus I found out that I don't care for knitting with linen so that's why it took me over a year to finish the shawl. I hope the recipient (no names mentioned as it's a Christmas gift for a loved one) will love wearing it as it is quite comfy and not bulky, yet very warm and it melds to the body and stays put.

On the 'paying attention' to my health front, I've been walking every other (I know it should be every, but I HATE it) day and closely watching my carb intake, my portion sizes, etc. and I'm very happy to report that I've lost 4 pounds already so I need to update my weight loss graph asap. I feel good about the small changes I've made and vow to stick with them as I endeavor to add a few more changes to the mix over the course of time.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes!

I've long been guilty of not making my health and welfare one of my top 3 priorities and today is no exception. However, after talking to my mom who always has much wise advice, I think I'm overdue with paying much closer attention to my health, my exercising (recently, my lack thereof), the foods I eat, etc. and naturally, all of this takes the big T.......time. Now, why is it that many of us females do not think we're worthy of taking the time we should for ourselves? We see it as being selfish if we're not always putting others first. I know this is true because I've been thinking that way all of my life and yes, it won't be easy to make a few long overdue changes, but I'm going to give it my all and will hopefully be the better for it. To have a positive outcome can only benefit those in my life as I not only feel better, look better, and have more energy, but I'll also be pretty pumped about the changes I've been able to implement, even if they are slow in coming. The main thing is '"it's never too late to make these or ANY changes".

One of the blogs I really enjoy reading is The Happiness Project. The articles are thought provoking and I really like the idea of making happiness a conscious pursuit because it can be very easy to fall into the gloom and doom type of thinking especially these days with the bad news worldwide, day in and day out. Anyhow, reading these posts for awhile definitely has had some effect on my decision to concentrate on 'paying attention'' and honestly being aware of things each day no matter how small, or how ordinary. There is an honest beauty in the ordinary everyday happenings and I miss too many of them in the hurry-itis I've developed over time.

So, here and now I set my modest goals to begin each day with more awareness. That will be my goal for a week or two and then I'll move onto others such as those mentioned above. I will post both my progress or lack thereof, letting you know just how I'm doing and how I'm feeling about my efforts, in case you might be interested. Posting it here somehow makes it seem more real and it's good to actually have to 'fess up' even if it's only in cyberspace.

As for knitting projects, here is a picture of my progress thus far on a Christmas stocking for my grandson (he'll be a year old in January). I'm using acrylic yarns but they're very vivid in color, don't you think? I've also begun a hat for him using Jojoland variegated worsted (pictured below) and size 5 dpns. I ordered 4 different color ways and it's interesting to see the colors develop as I knit this hat. I'll probably use the other colors for hats as well. I still haven't managed to get a picture of the pink speckled Opal socks I just made for my sweet granddaughter but I will, I promise.

I ordered this yarn from Knitting Software and I just love these people, namely Carole, Noah, and Leah. They give great customer service and will help you with anything they possibly can, plus they offer a wide variety of knitting accessories, DVD's, needles, etc. I also own Carole's Sweater Wizard, Sock Wizard, and Math Wizard, although the only wizard I can think of is Carole herself...she is constantly outdoing herself with each of her creations. No affiliation, honest, just a very happy customer.

P.S. (October 5) I started walking again today which is the first time I've done so since the beginning of June so I'm feeling pretty good about beginning once again. Now that the weather is finally cooling off (although not cool enough for moi, LOL), I can get outside and do my walking........then when it gets too windy or snowy, I'll jump back on my trusty treadmill, at all times armed with my gifted MP3 player (from my fabulous son and daughter in law). Am I blessed or what???

Another Gorgeous Sunset

I'm posting this to try out some of my blogging capabilities using Flickr. I know I'm just tapping the surface but it's exciting to see what can be done. There's a plethora of opportunities open to me, but I need to study them and see how things work. First of all, I can check out if this post actually goes from here to my blog.

P.S. Houston, it's a GO!