Holiday stuff

The first snow of the season!! Doesn't it look pretty.Last Friday evening it snowed and this is what my yard looked like Saturday morning :)




On Tuesday, Frisco's Christmas gift was delivered. What is it with cats and cardboard boxes? He just has to check it out.









Frisco is getting a bathroom upgrade for his Christmas present. :)





Wednesday night was my knitting groups 2nd annual Cookie Swap! We each had to bring 7 dozen cookies because there was suppose to be something like 35 people there. I have no idea if 35 people were there or not, but it was a good time and I came home with some great cookies. I have been so good too! I haven't eatten any of the cookies yet! I'm being a tad lazy this year, since I'm not going to be here for Christmas. I'm taking most of these cookies home to NY with me so that Mom doesn't have to bake. She's having the family over for Christmas dinner so that will be enought cooking for her. I will also pack a small tin of cookies to take with me to Chicago for Mr. X. Oh, I baked Triple Chewy Chocolate Cookies, and can I just say OMG they are rich! I got the recipe of a friend of mine who loves to bake. I can only eat one cookie and I have to have a HUGE glass of ice cold milk to wash it down.

OH! I finished my cardigan just in time to wear to the party!!





I also received my Winter Wonderland Swap package this week from my pal in Las Vegas! Check out the cool things she sent me!! I love the snowman ornament. It won't be in the tree this year because I'm not putting up a tree since I won't be here over the holidays. I know, depressing. Never really feels like Christmas to me without a tree, but if I'm not going to be here to enjoy it then why bother?? Anyhoo, check out that yarn! That color it sooooooo me!! Thank you Alexis!!

Too many things on needles!

I know I said I would get updates posted on Thursday, but you all should know me by now! I'm a little late when it comes to bloggin'.

First up is the Moss Bark Shirt Sleeved Cardigan. It's all sewn together, but I can't seem to get the collar band right. I may have to rip it out and knit it again. Finally a piece of knitting that I can wear!! I have been making things as gifts for year that aside from 2 pairs of socks, I do not have anything that i have knit for myself! I want to get this collar right so that I can take this on my trip to the Windy City on Wednesday.


You all know I made the Fairy Blanket for niece Jules. Well she has an older sister Gabbi and I promised her that I would make her a blanket this year. So, here is Gabbi's Ocean as I have dubbed it :) The pretty blue-green teal colors of a clear Caribbean ocean *not that I have ever seen one YET in my life, but one day* At first she told me blues and I thought - perfect! I have several blues in my stash! Thank goodness I didn't start right away, because my older sister went our shopping and found a beautiful comforter for Gabbi in the Teal and Seafoam green colors you see below. I was shocked when we found the exact matching colors in yarn!! I am on round seven on this crochet project. I should be working on it more that I have been, but Christmas is still 57 days away *HOLY SHIT!!* OK, so I better get to hooking or I'll still be crocheting this blanket come Christmas Eve!!


Apparently, Frisco is trying to claim this blanket as his own. What he doesn't seem to realize is that Gabbi is bigger than him and solid muscle. She's built like a brick house just like my father. Man, I wish he had passed on those genes to me instead of the boobs!

This skein of yarn was a gift from my friend Stacey for helping her out with a group on ravelry and for my limited tech savvy skills when it comes to graphics. It's a skein of Sheila's yarn, KnitsWithSticks, in, at the time, her newest color! The colorway is called Woolly Bully in purples and greys. Sheila knew these were my colors too and tempted me with a skein of this at one of our Wednesday night S'nB nights. Stacey saw my reaction to color and bought one for me, and then Sheila dyed a deeper color skein for me since she knows I like the darker colored skein. Aren't friends great!!

I love her yarn and this colorway so much that I just had to cast on with it. Since I already had 4 pairs of socks on needles, I decided to make a lace scarf with it. The pattern is the Tiger Eyes Scarf. These colors are perfect!! I'm farther along then this photo,but I don't have an updated photo yet :)



OK, so remember that Christmas list I made up of what I was going to make for everyone? yeah, well they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions! That list will be changing - A LOT! I guess I was a little over ambitious when I created it. Now I'm thinking I'm going to make my family all new Christmas stockings. I have no idea how long my Mother's had the ones she's been using, but it's about time for new ones. So, I cast on and I'm about 1/3 of the way down the leg of this stocking.



Here are the socks that I've been mentioning. First up are the Red Dwarf socks. Ever watch that show on BBC?? Smeggin' hysterical! I can't seem to find it on my cable guide though :( I was going to purchase the DVD box set of the show till I saw the $140 price tag. Not right now!! I just realize I goofed when I was knitting up the toes, but oh well. These are just for me so they don't have to be perfect, just as long as my toeseys are warm!



I have also been fondling this Jitterbug yarn since the night I bought it at the Elenganza Midnight Madness sale. So, I went ahead and cast on the Falling Leaves socks. Because the yardage of Jitterbug is so skimpy, I went Toe-up, 2-@-a-time. I am lovin' how this yarn knits up. There's a bit of pooling going on. What I think is funny is that because I am doing 2-@-a-time and knitting from both ends of the skein it's pooling on the top of one sock, but on the bottom of the other! Well, there will certainly be no mistaking these are hand made! I just sooooooo Lu-huv this colorway!!



Rember these Horcrux Socks??



Well, they now look like this! I went to go try them on again before I started the heel flap and they were too small!! *CRY* So, to the frog pond they went, rip, rip, rip and cast on a second time. That's OK though. They knit up pretty fast, but I doubt I'll be wearing them on Halloween this year. Oh well.



My last pair of socks are the Classic Sock for my dad. These have been on my needles forever! The yarn is so thin and the direction call to cast on 96!! But, I have knit the heel flap, turned the heel and just about done with the gusset! Now I'm worried that I might not have enough yarn!! The pattern called for 1 skein, so that's all I have! The leg was suppose to be 9", but I stopped at 7". I still don't know if I have enough to finish the feet though!! YIKERS! These will be Dad's Christmas present along with some Benny Hill CDs I found for him.



As much as I love Sheila and the yarn that she dyes, it can be very dangerous for me to be her friend! *laugh* I want to make this Children's Neck Down Bolero Jacket for Baby M when I go visit Mr. X. I couldn't find a colorway that I really liked for this pattern, so what does one do when they have a friend who is in the dying business? Well DUH! I asked Sheila if she could dye some of her DK weight yarn to the colors I wanted. I know that pink and lavender are really good colors on Baby M, so I pointed out the shades that I liked from the colorways that she already creates and asked her to mix those specific shades of purple and pink together and this is the gorgeous yarn that she created for me! This is yarn is sooooooooooooooooooo soft!!



My knitting group was having a class/KAL for this Bolero jacket, so I signed up and Sheila had my yarn all dyed up for me by Wednesday. I swatched and was ready to go! The pattern called for a worsted weight and the smallest size on the parttern was 2T. Baby M is only 10 months old, so asfter talking to Sheila, and very experienced knitter, we though a think weight yarn on smaller needles would do the trick. Hence the DK weight. I cast on and followed the pattern for the 2T with the DK weight yarn. By the time the class was over I have knit up to the point of the sleeve divide. When I took a look at it, I knew it was going to be too small. When I talked to Mr. X last night I asked what size Baby M was in and he told me she's in 18 months already. So, to the Frog Pond went all the knitting I had done today and I will need to recast-on one of the larger sizes. I think I will knit as far as the sleeves again and then wait to try it on her Thursday night before I try and finish the whole thing. If I try it on her on Thursday I should be able to finish it by Sunday.

While I was on the phone with him, he maded the suggestion that I knit her a new hat since all the ones I had knit for her last year are too small. He suggested a dark pink. Can you believe that I don't think I have any dark pink wool in my stash! *GASP* So, I just might have to drag Mr. X to a local yarn shop up there and he can pick out the perfect shade of pink and I'll whip up a hat while I'm out there :) Hopefully, I won't hear too much groaning out of him when I drag him there *giggle*

You know it's funny. I can get the feeling that people appreciate the things I make for them, but sometimes I can never really tell if they truely appreciate it or just being nice. Of course when people ask me for things, I know. So, if felt good when he asked.

Friday night I went out to dinner with my friend Stacey and then we hung out at my place. She brought me these sock blockers that she made!! Aren't they adorable? I keep telling her she needs to open up her own business and sell these!

We went to Five Guys for burgers. YUMMY!! Talk about a hamburger that's good enough to give you a heart attach - no joke! Which is why I go there VERY infrequesntly :)



We had a really good talk and she gave me a lot to chew on.

Stacey,
Thank you so much for the talk/advise on Friday night. You are so right about what I should do and about the fact that I'm scared to do it. Of course, knowing and squealching the fear to do it are two completely different things. Maybe we'll have to have another chat when I get back.
*HUGS*

Thank Goodness the Two Week are Over!

Sorry I haven't been around much the last couple of weeks. School has started back up and I have been trying to readjust my sleep pattern to accomodate a 5:15 AM wake-up call to be out the door by 6:15 AM to be at work by 7AM. Very hard considering last year I was waking up at 7AM to be at work by 8:30 AM. Really, 5 AM is for the birds! On the flip side though.... No more Crazy Sally! No More Crazy Sally!! *does a little happy dance around her office* So far, so good here at high school :)

What a difference the atmosphere is here compared to my old school. I actually walk in with a smile on my face and my shoulders relaxed!! I did not realize just how tense and stressed I had been about work while I was still at the other school. The 2nd factor that really hit it home for me was my Advil Migraine. *I know you are all going - HUH??* I had kept a large bottle of Advil Migraine in my desk draw because I am prone to migraines and Advil Migraine is my first line of defense when I feel a headache coming on. Anyhoo, I didn't get much sleep the other night and started getting a headache while at work. Without thinking, I reached into my drawer to pull out my bottle, only I hadn't brought any in yet. Luckily a co-worker had some Aleve on him and I was able to get rid of the headache. I emailed myself a reminder at home to bring in some Advil Migraine. When I got home I immediately when to go get my home stash to throw in my school bag. That's when it hit me - BOTH my bottles at home were empty! I tend to keep one bottle upstairs in my linen closet and one bottle downstairs in my food pantry. There were days that I would come home just so stressed out that I needed my Advil right when I walked in and then would lay down on the couch with an ice pack on my head.

Now, since I had the surgery over the summer I didn't have a single headache and I knew I hadn't had any Advils since the end of school. So when I had a whooping TWO whole pills left in my house, that's when I realized just how CRAZY that woman made me!

Anyhoo, the change over to high school has been good so far. I get the destinct impression that the person that left was not very friendly when it came to dealing with students and staff. It seems like if I smile, keep the media center open and allow kids to check out books that would be a HUGE improvement. That kind of releaves some stress off of me in that I don't have to kill myself making improvments all at once :)

On to knitting news... I have finally finished all the pieces to the Moss Bark Short Sleeved Cardigan (Ravelry link). Each piece has been blocked and now I just need to sew it together and then do the collar edging and wahla it will be finished!! I love, love, love the color/yarn combo on this!

My Juliet is not doing so well, sadly. I had gotten all the way through the 5th repeat of the lace pattern and tried it on only to find that the weight of the yarn stretched the garter stitch pattern at the top so much that it stretched all the way down to my waist!! So, rip, rip, rip all the way back through all that pretty lace and several rows of the garter stitch. Try number 2 - I made it through 6 repeats of the lace pattern, tried it on and just didn't like the fit on the shoulders. Too big!! So..... rip, rip, rip it all the way out!!

Next up is the One Row Scarf (Ravelry link) designed by the Yarn Harlot. I'm using stash yarn *yeah for stash busting!!* called Dance. It's a cotton/acrylic blend. Very soft but I went crazy finding needles pointy enough for this yarn!! It was splitting so badly on my other needles. I have no idea where these plastic red ones came from, but they are nice and pointy and puuuuuurrfect for this yarn!



A while back the Columbia Sip 'n Knit group put in a large order with 100purewool.com. I have been wanting to try out their 3-ply yarn and to check out some new colors, so I ordered a few single skeins and with one of those skeins I'm making a scarf for the Red Scarf Project.



Next up, I purchased a bag of this Noro Silk Garden from LittleKnits to make a cardigan for my mother for Christmas. Aren't those colors purdy! I immediately cast on for her sweater, but had to put it on hold to make a Christening gown for my sister's baby. We're having her baby shower on September 27th so I HAVE GOT to finish that gown first! :) Pictures of that will come later on.



And of course I can't sign off without a picture of Frisco. I think he was a leach in his former life. I can't sit out the couch without him coming over and laying on some part of me!