WIP STORAGE

I'm continuing to organize, straighten up, clean, etc. my office/craft room. I purchased a 7-drawer organizer-type chest with wheels to store my WIPS in. This storage tower is sitting in the closet. The WIP's used to be in a pile on the floor in the corner - some in ziploc bags, some in knitting/tote-type bags and some just loose. Now I'm proud to say, they're all in this cabinet. AND, YOU KNOW WHAT! - I don't have nearly as many projects to finish as I thought I did. I even have room to add more. So this makes my heart lighter knowing what I have and seeing what I have - "small things to amuse small minds"

Winding Down 2009

Well, we've been busy around here today taking down the Christmas decorations. Got it all done and now I'm drinking one of those hot mochas I'm so fond of and reading my Ravelry forums. They're made with the powdered mocha mix and 1 oz (or more!) of Baileys.


Above is what I received from my wonderful hubby for our 47th wedding anniversary tomorrow, Dec. 30th! He searched the internet and found out that #47 is the Book year, then of course, with a little coaching from me, ordered these two books from Amazon. They came this morning, and right away I took them to Staples to have them cut and bound with a nice spiral. Tonight I'm going to spend going page-by-page through them. Tomorrow night we'll celebrate by going out to dinner.

I've signed up to do the Knitting Mama Lace KAL beginning mid-January. Don't know why - I have so many projects I want to do. But I've already ordered my yarn - fingering weight Knitting Mama Franconia - a beautiful superwash merino, cashmere & nylon combo (80/10/10) in pinky-purpley-mauve, to make the Traveling Woman shawl (a one skein pattern).

Our 2 daughters and sons-in-law are going out New Years Eve, so we're babysitting the 4 grandkids. That'll be easy - they're age 7 to 12 and with all the new games and toys they got for Christmas, they'll hardly know we're around.

Ready, Set, Go - Winter Olympics

I received the yarn today to make a fair isle cowl during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC. This is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light in steel cut oats, redwood mix and fern. Looks fabulous.

I joined the Team Sasquatch group over on Ravelry and have my needles poised. I've never done colorwork so this will be a challenge for me, but I have a good knitting friend to help, and also ordered a Alice Starmore book for assistance. This is what the Christmas In The Country cowl looks like. It's a free pattern.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. We went to the daughter's, watched the kids open presents, had a wonderful ham dinner and all in all was a great day!

Count-down Time

Can't believe there's only a couple of days left. I did finally get out the last of my Christmas cards today and got the local grandkids gifts wrapped. Mailed off a package last week to the Eastern Washington kids. Now I jut have to get DH out of the house long enough to wrap his.

I just received in today's mail a skein of NHKnittingMama's Durham 100% merino in the colorway PSYCH. It's a beautiful shade of light peach, tan and a little light pink. I'm going to make the Marmee Lace Cowl - probably starting next week.
Speaking of NHKnittingMama - she's having a contest over on her blog and you can click in the blog to go to her shop. What beautiful hand-dyed yarns. If you order yarn between now and the New Year - shipping is free. If you enter this contest, please mention you heard about it here on my blog. Thanks.

Several FO's

Finished this beautiful cowl - Leafprints by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee "Yarn Harlot". The first time I knit it with a size 6 needle and the cowl was too large and didn't lay right, so I re-knit it with a size 5, and it came out perfect. Still don't know if this is for me or a daughter. The yarn, Knitpicks Andean Treasure 100% baby alpaca is very soft and scrumptious.


Also pictured below are the four scarves I did for the grandkids for Christmas. These are the One Row Handspun Scarf (rav link) by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee "Yarn Harlot". So easy to knit and look complicated. I used Caron Simply Soft for these.

Just 10 Days Away (Soon to be 9)

Time to start panicking, stressing, cursing (gently) and all that other stuff, and more activities keep "coming up".
1. Trying to finish up one last scarf for a grandchild so I can get it sent off in the mail this week.
2. Several women from our church visited the Dollar Store today and purchased stocking stuffer items for 19 childen, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will be attending church this Sunday. The bags turned out pretty cute!
3. Friday night we participate in a community feed for the homeless, so I have to make a macroni & shrimp salad and a meatloaf. We do this every other month and it does humble one, and thank God for our many blessings.
Above: Graham knitting meet-up group!
4. Saturday morning there is a brunch at the clubhouse in our community and my regular knit meet-up group (both starting at 10:00am). Husband wants to go to the brunch, but is not interested in going without me - so guess I'll go to the brunch, eat fast and take off to the knitting meetup! What we won't do for our loved ones. Then that evening we're playing Couples Bunco, for which I have to bring appetizers.
5. Got my photo Christmas cards from Costco, but have to put a message on the back yet, as well as do the cards for friends who aren't getting the photo cards. Way behind on this project.
6. Need to go to Fred Meyer and purchase three giftcards for persons in our church who are struggling this Christmas. I'm the treasurer for our women's group who are doing this, so since I have the checkbook, I get to do the purchasing.
7. Okay - I need to get off this computer and get to work!!!

NAMASTE BAG GIVE-A-WAY

Follow this link over to Knit Purl Gurl for a Namaste bag give-away, but hurry - it ends at midnight EST tonight.

I've really been behind in the blogging department of late, so am showing some pictures here of what I've been doing, both knit-wise and other-wise. First of all, got my Christmas tree up and decorated yesterday and it's looking beautiful.

Following are scarves I've been making for Christmas for the grandkids:



And this is a Leaf Print cowl - Anne Hanson design, and loving the KnitPicks 100% baby alpaca, sooooo soft around the neck and face.

We've gone from a beautiful fall to WINTER. The highs this next week at least, aren't going to get out of the 30 degree range, and down into the teens at night. Definitely time to be wearing sweaters, mitts, cowls, etc.

Today at our Graham meet-up we exchanged skeins of yarn in a little Christmas party game. Was fun and I got a skein of the Knitpicks City Tweed with a pattern to make some fingerless mitts. Have wanted to make some for a while - now I have no excuses. We'll see.

Deadline post-it stop motion

Couldn't resist passing this one along. Enjoy!

Aaaah Such is Youth

This last Wednesday my DH and I were hosts for the weekly Youth Group at our church. We provided the eats (pizza and apples), followed by a talk from the Pastor. Then they made greeting cards celebrating God's creation. I had printed off small (2x3) photos of lakes, mountains, flowers, veggies, trees and all things nature for them to mat and past on cardstock. Their enthusiasm was so wonderful.

We spent Friday through Sunday in the Tri-Cities visiting daughter, hubby and 2 grandchildren. I went to gdau birthday party where there was rockclimbing (for the girls!); went to a place where they had a petting zoo, corn maze, rides, and then the long drive home. We stopped at The Snoqualmie Casino on the way for dinner and a short time of playing the slots - won enough to cover dinner!

IT'S DEFINITELY FALL IN THE NORTHWEST

Today I was sitting in the waiting area of Group Health-Tacoma, WA knitting while I waited for DH to have a procedure done, when I looked out the tall windows to see these lovely trees with their leaves turning. If you look far in the distance you can see Puget Sound. Our temperature has been below freezing of late, and this has caused the leaves to fast-forward to color then drop on the ground.
Another good sign of Fall is I'm knitting dish/face cloths and towels galore for two upcoming Bazaars. One is at our church this weekend, and the other the first weekend in November at our community clubhouse. Bazaars/craft sales are always a lot of fun to attend and see how everyone else makes things and get ideas for yourself. Here are some of the cloths I've made this past week - only takes 2 hours to make one.

BEEN A WHILE!

Those of you who check into my blog are probably wondering if I fell off the face of the Earth. Actually, I haven't had anything to really blog about - mind has gone dead.

I did finish a WIP today - this Neck Cozy knitted out of Muench Touch Me in a beautiful burgundy purchased at a local LYS. All I had to do was sew on the buttons, but it has sat in my basket for 5 months. Unreal. Don't know what my problem was - could have been that it wasn't something I would be wearing during the summer anyway. Now that it has started to cool off considerably, I may be wearing it within the next month or so.

I'm still working on these projects: Rusted Root Sweater in a beautiful purple color

Both the Taize and Mantra scarves:

and have completed another spa set - 2 towels and 2 face cloths in a sage green and cream combo. This is my 3rd set - one in a teal and cream, and another in a cornflower blue and white.


The flowers in our yard are in their final stages of life, but I do have one beautiful "dinnerplate" dahlia - measures 10" across.

With Craft Club in my community tomorrow and a meet-up this coming Saturday, there is plenty of incentive to "get to work" on the above projects!

Online Stuff.........

Just a couple of things that I came across in the last day or two on the computer.


1) A new desktop background from Lion Brand Yarn. here There are quite a few different ones.....I chose one where the whole screen is skeins of yarn - yummy to look at.

2) I was poking around online and found where you can get an online/digital subscription to Creative Knitting, at a few dollars less than a printed magazine. You immediately get the November issue then the next 5 as they come out, as well as online access to the past 2 years of issues and the patterns. You can download all the patterns you want (Adobe PDF files) to your computer. I subscribed and having fun looking through all the patterns - haven't looked at all of them yet.

What To Do Next?

Well, I'm vigorously working on my Mantra scarf (see previous blog). I'm down to just a few yards of yarn, and then will check to see if I need to other another skein. I picked up a shawl pin at our local farmers market last week and am anxious to get this all done and photographed.

I was gifted this yarn from a sweet knitting friend and now I just need to decide on the project. I'm looking at the Rusted Root and also this Knitting Pure & Simple Pattern for a Henley T Shirt. Also excited to get working on this.



Our yard is looking wonderful - here are photos for proof. My hubby has been working hard out there, so he get's the credit.

We've had a busy week around here, what with a potluck both Saturday and Sunday, and then my husband's sister visited for a day or two, and coming up this weekend, we get to have our two newest grandchildren for a couple of days. Life doesn't get any better, but sure cuts down on the knitting time.

LIFE IS GREAT!!!

Sometimes everything just seems to be going right - and this past week or so that's how it's been. Here's my list of "good" things.
1. Our #1 daughter and family have arrived at their new home in eastern Washington so now we'll get to see those grandkids more often.
2. Husband has gained most of his strength back from his bout with cancer and is back to his favorite thing: golf. Even mowing and trimming the front and back lawns without stopping.
3. Our Graham Knitting Meet-up Group had 12 people last Saturday and did we ever have a blast. We're adding two nightly meet-ups, as well as the every other Saturday afternoon.
4. I'm "moving right along" on the Mantra scarf. Up to 26" long now and will go until I run out of yarn - hopefully around 60". See picture above.
5. Went to my first horse race last Sunday with our #2 daughter and family. Big crowd, but kinda addictive and had fun. (picture below)

6. Having wonderful weather - another heat spell going on this week (90+ today), then will cool back into the mid-70's with no rain. Garden is looking good!

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO

As some would say (?) I am obsessed with dishcloths. They're great to take along when knitting in a group - not like my lace scarves I'm working on also. Here is one I just finished, called the Ellomonator, which was the August KAL for a group I belong to. It turned out very pretty and I'll probably be making more of this pattern.

Our weather turned from the 90's to the 60's and 70's and are we ever enjoying it. The lawn and flowers are also loving it. However, it's supposed to be in the mid-90's again next week. So the lawns which have been greening up this past week will be going brown again. This is so unusually hot weather for the Pacific NW.

OCEAN SHORES

What a wonderful 3 days we had at the beach! Times flies by so fast and I only took one picture. Don't know why I didn't take more. (Those are seagulls and other shore birds along the water's edge) The weather was in the mid-60's, which was great after the 90 degree heat we've been having. No sunshine but actually quite nice. We played a round of golf, played at the casino (lost money) and toured around the area. Drove up to the new beach town being built "Seabrook". There are about 100 homes there now - shake siding, "very beachy", with front porches, separate garages on an alley out back. A place that would be fun to live. The photo was taken from our hotel room. I didn't get any knitting done as the lighting in the room wasn't good enough at night, and the days were full with other "stuff".

TO THE BEACH!!!

Hubby asked me tonight if I wanted to go to Ocean Shores tomorrow - it didn't take me too long to answer YES! (maybe a 1/2 second or so). We'll be gone for 3 days to play a little golf, play a little at the casino, knit a lot and just hang out. The room we're getting has a fireplace and a loveseat nearby overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Now you can't get any better than that - and the temps outside are going to be about 30 degrees cooler than here at home, so won't feel bad about spending time by the fire knitting.

I'm taking my socks which I'm going to rip back and change from size 0 to size 2 needles. Both of my lace scarves are going along - Taize and Mantra, both Susan Pandorf designs, as well as some cotton to work some on a spa set (towels & washcloths).

Can hardly wait - see you when I get back and with some photos.

NOW THIS IS KNITTING ADDICTION

You'll love this hilarious you tube video THE LAST KNIT- any of you ever feel like this?

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It's been extremely warm here in the Pacific NW - 107 yesterday at our house. Thank God for air conditioning. I've worked some on my lace scarf, and slowly going on my socks which I seem to tink more than I knit.

Keep Cool!

I'M DOING IT! DOING IT! DOING IT!

That means I'M DOING IT socks!!! As many of my friends know, I've had a hard time getting into socks. I took a class using dpn's about 3 years ago and made 2 or 3 pair, then took a magic loop class a year ago and for class, made a worsted weight pair. With the encouragement of many, last night I finally picked up some dreamy DIC Smooshy I won in a contest and cast on the Tidal Wave Socks and am using the Magic Loop method. The pattern called for a size 1 needle, which I must have in a bag with another project, so I'm doing these on 0size. I'm nearly through the ribbing and ready to start the pattern. I'll take this to our meet up at the local coffee shop tonight. I'm just hoping I can finish these without too much frustration.

Monday of this week we went over to Sequim (where we used to live) and visited with some friends over a wonderful lunch and then back to their beautiful home. Sequim is such a lovely area, and it felt "good" to return. We stayed at the Olympic Lodge in nearby Port Angeles. Nice hotel with a lobby that looks out onto a golf course Now is this a wonderful place to knit or what? I'm working here on my Mantra scarf, which is coming along nicely - only 48 more inches to go!!!

Travel East then West

Well, now that the 4th is over with, all the noise quieted down, I'm playing lazy today catching up on reading my favorite blogs, watering the flower pots all around the house and other non-energy things.

Hubby and I went to Richland on the "other" side of the Cascades early Friday morning and came home last night (Saturday). Our daughter and family from Pittsburgh had spent the week househunting so we went over to help out watch the kids and spend time with the whole family. We had a wonderful visit with them - they found a house and will be moving west in about 6 weeks. We can hardly wait to have them reasonably close by (just around 4-1/2 hours away!). We didn't do much watching of the kids, except for a couple of hours around the pool yesterday. We did go out to Anthony's for dinner Friday night to celebrate their getting the house they wanted. They sold their house in Pittsburgh before it went on the market, so all in all, things are flying high for them.

As we were driving along I-90, I was thinking about the difference between eastern and western Washington. We lived in Spokane for 20 years, so are familiar with that side of the state, but it's a shocker during the summer time. No green to be seen anywhere as verified by this photo below. The temperatures were 101 Friday and 104 on the 4th!!! Now that's hot, but humidity was probably only around 15%, so easier to handle (so they say).
Coming home last evening, we traveled over White Pass, near Mt. Rainier and along the White River. Now this photo will show you why we live on "this" side. Really miss the trees and all the water everywhere.

New Blog Site to Visit

I just went over to the Gardening by Trial and Error Blog. She's having a give-away to celebrate her 100th post. While there read about her trip up to Snohomish to Joyworks which is obviously a must-see shop, and then has pictures of beautiful flowers at plants at Flower World. Now I'm all excited to take a trip north to see all this.

4th of July

With the 4th of July coming up on us, it's time to celebrate the great country we live in. Nearly everyone on our street has their flag flying high out front, and it does one's heart good to see. We're having beautiful weather here in the Pacific Northwest - 80's up to 90's by the weekend. Unusually warm, but loving it. Hubby and I are going to Tri-Cities area of Washington on Friday and come back on Saturday. Our #1 daughter and family are moving back west after a year in Pittsburgh and are we ever happy about that. They are the ones who adopted two foster children and now we'll get to see much more of them. They'll only be 3-1/2 hours away now.
Knitting wise, I finished up the Mini Mochi scarf

Am still working on the baby cardi sweater. Have one sleeve sewed into the armhole, but don't like the looks of my work, so going to take it to the next KAL meet-up for some suggestions on how to make it look nicer.


Also working on the Taize scarf. I don't know if I'm cut out to be a lace knitter, and this isn't a real difficult pattern, but I sure get off count on every lace row and have to tink back and start the row over. It is fun though, and going to beautiful if and when it's ever finished.
I don't believe I ever posted the finished spa sets I made, one blue and one teal. They turned out quite nice and will be sold at our church bazaar in November.