THANKSGIVING DAY IS GONE!!!

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Hubby and I spent the day at our son-in-law's cousin's place with a wonderful meal, family, good friends and good times. I didn't bring anything home as leftovers except the cranberry sauce I had made, so today I'm roasting a turkey breast and looking forward to the turkey sandwiches we'll have for dinner tonight.

I didn't go out today and do the shopping thing. I'll leave that to the young and the brave.

I've taken my first magic loop sock class at my local LYS. I've done both socks up to the point of the next class which will be turning the heel. It's lots of fun and hard to put it down. I'm using Cascade 220 Quattro in Raspberry Cream - love this yarn.

One of Those Days

My day started out good with our regular knitting meet-up at the Austin Chase coffeehouse in Graham. There were 8 of us and we sure had lots of great conversation going.
I brought along my gloves I've been working on forever, it seems, for advice from the more experienced ladies. They agreed with me that the area bound off for the thumb was too close to the wrist ribbing (and here I was 6 or 8 inches beyond there. Soooooo......I brought them home and frogged them. This time I'm going to try a pair of fingerless gloves for a Christmas gift. There are a lot of patterns for these on Ravelry whch I've fav'd - just have to decide which ones.
I also started a 2-color rolled brim hat today and have gotten a lot done on it. Nothing else is getting done, but oh well. I'm using Knitpicks Swish Worsted and loving the feel of it. I'm not too fond of the color combo I selected (the two colors looked good together in the skein, but not so well in the knitting). But, oh well, it's just for me and I'm liking it.

Found a Great Site

I just found this Etsy shop with some great handmade crochet items and also some neat patterns. I just ordered patterns for the fingerless gloves, Fisherman's cowl and Cabled Bobble Clutch. She's having a 1-year anniversary contest mentioned on her blogsite so if you'd like, take a peek and see some real unique items.

Time is Flying By

I don't know about you, but it seems like time is flying by so rapidly and I'm not getting anything done. Just think, Thanksgiving in a couple weeks and then Christmas will be here. I've been busy with Treasurer duties for our church - which includes taking care of the money for our recent Bazaar (at which I sold 45 dishcloths), and now we're selling nuts for a money-maker for our Women's Group. Also have hosted Couples Bunco and Ladies Bunco at the clubhouse where we live, as well as hosted coffee-hour fellowship today at church. I'm tired of baking!!!!

As for knitting, I'm not doing so well on the top-down raglan sweater for my granddaughter. I started out fine, but am having a problem now with the increases at the raglan seam - can't figure out what I"m doing wrong and may have to frog it all the way back and start over. I did get the mittens figured out and am working on them. I'm also trying to get a set of 6 dishcloths finished to give to my son-in-law's cousin who has invited us to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. Each cloth has a different design and they're smaller than others I've made, so I think I'll get them all completed.
I start a "socks on circular needle" class next Sunday afternoon for 3 classes. Looking forward to that, as I've only made them on dpn's and that was several years ago(5 maybe) and I remember not liking them so well. So hopefully this goes okay.
"Turkey Dinner"
"Pilgrim Hat"
"Leaf"
"Turkey"
"Cornucioua"
"Scarecrow"
"Wrapped for Gift"

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL FALL

I don't know about where you are, but we've been having the most colorful Fall I've seen in years. It's a pleasure to drive around and see the reds and yellows so vivid. Attached is a picture of some of the colors in our yard - I've never seen such brilliant colors. Particularly the strawberries we have planted in a terra cotta "strawberry planter". The leaves are huge and red.

I'm getting frustrated knitting the "Elegant & Easy Cable Mittens" in the "One Skein Wonders" book. Nearly everyone in the class is having problems following the directions, so it's not only me. I think my cable is running up the side of my hand rather than the middle of the back. I'll have to open up the thumb and try it on to find out for sure - if this is the case, I think these will soon becoming socks! There are a lot of fingerless glove patterns out there also, maybe I'll find one with directions that are easier to follow.

Time to Update

Wanted to comment on the recent Holiday Bazaar at our church. I made 40+ dishcloths - each one a different pattern and was able to sell 35 of them - with all the money going to help hurricane victims.
Just got home yesterday from a visit for 6 days to Pittsburgh to visit daughter, son-in-law and their two children. Had a great time and what a beautiful area. Historical houses, brick streets, and lots to see.
As soon as we got home, I dropped hubby at home and went to my LYS for the 2nd and final class on top down sleeveless raglan sweater. I'm making a size 6 for a grandaughter's Christmas gift. Well, I found out I didn't read the pattern properly: "repeat rows 1 and 2 20 times", means you should have 40 rows. Well I only did 20 before dividing off for the sleeves. When starting to do the sleeves I thought they were awfully small and instructor pointed out my error, so know it's a little "froggin" time back a little ways. Oh well, guess that's how I'll learn not to do it again.
Tomorrow it's time to do catch up laundry and work on the sweater some more.

I'm Outside My Box!!

As I said in an earlier blog, I've been a rut with my knitting - but I've broken loose. I'm taking a top-down raglan no-seam sweater class at my local Pacific Fabrics store and having a ball. This will be for my 6-yr. old granddaughter - that is if all goes well at the next class. What fun to be finally making a garment.

I've also got "on-needles" a heavily-ribbed scarf for the homeless and will do a 2nd one when done with that, and still have 5 or 6 rows to finish on my beautiful shawl.

This month's KAL at Pacific Fabrics is a pair of Mittens knitted on dp's, but I want to them on circulars and am having trouble getting the needles apart enough to make the join. I'll work on it some more when I'm calm instead of frustated and maybe I'll get it going.

Off to spend the next two days at our church holiday bazaar - hope we sell a lot of things. I contributed about 40 dish/face cloths that always go over real well.