Rushin' Along towards Christmas

With just 18 days to go, I'm really behind. Of course it doesn't help that I have a cold, fever, etc. so not much ambition to do anything. We did manage to put the tree up yesterday.
Working furiously on some knitted items for daughters and granddaughters (so had better not post here in case they peek!
I don't know when I'll get to mailing out Christmas cards - this may be the year when it doesn't get done.

I went outside and took this picture a day or so ago - isn't it magnificent?

Thanksgiving!

We traveled to eastern Washington, Richland, to our oldest daughter's place. Her husband and two children were so gracious and a good time was had by all. Our younger daughter, husband and 2 daughters rode along with us in our van, which made for good company and a reasonably fast trip (about 4 hours). We arrived Wednesday evening and had some good Papa Murphy's pizza.

Thursday morning some of the group participated in a local 5K Turkey Trot in the freezing cold weather (low 20's), while the rest of us began preparing for the big Thanksgiving Dinner. We had broccoli and cheese casserole, green bean casserole, scalloped potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce and two turkeys - one cooked on the barbecue grill and one in the oven.

The grandchildren had fun in the hot tub in the 20 degree weather with snow all around them.

Some of my time was spent showing one granddaughter (aged 11) how to knit, and another granddaughter (age 7) and one grandson (age 9) how to crochet. The 4th granddaughter already has been taught - so we all sat around knitting dish/washcloths and making crochet chains. It was fun working with the kids and who knows, maybe one or all of them will still like this handcraft and keep it up.


All in all it was a great weekend and we returned to western Washington during mid-day on Saturday. The Pass still had snow on it, but was not too bad driving.
It was nice to get home where the 6' of snow we had when we left had all melted and it was raining.

WINTER HAS ARRIVED!!!

It's been snowing for the past 24 hours, but we only have about 4 inches so far. This is very early for this area to be receiving snow - sounds like we're going to be having a hard winter.


Finished a hat which is destined to be sent to our troops in Afghanistan for them to wear in their "off duty" times. It's made from Sunshine yarns worsted in Bitterroot color.
I'm finishing up a hat for Christmas giving and will follow with a picture later.

Rainy Weather Knitting

We've had lots of rain and once in a while a beautiful Fall day thrown in around here of late. Yesterday it was beautiful, temperature in the 50's and today it's been gray and rainy and this next week looks like the same is continuing (the rainy part, that is).

Good knitting weather though. I finished up one project and got quite a bit done on two others:

My Cozy Thermal Mitts are finished!


And, working on these two hats:

Troop Hat in beautiful Sunshine Yarn Worsted in Bitterroot. This is going off to Afghanistan for troops to wear and keep their ears warm while off duty.


and this Waffle Hat for hubby with beautiful Sunshine Yarns in Edward's Volvo Worsted:

Progress

I've been working on my Cozy Thermal Mitts and just love this yarn and the pattern. This is my first attempt at any kind of gloves/mittens and these being fingerless helps keep it simple. I've already cast on for the 2nd mitt and am sure it will go pretty fast now that I have everything figured out.


You may have noticed the "countdown clock" on the upper right of my blog. There are a number of gals in my knitting group who are all going on the train to Portland, visit a few yarn shops, eat at some special place, and come home the same day. We'll get in a lot of fun, knitting, etc....

Too Many WIPS's

I have a serious case of "startitis". I'm working on my Thermal Mitts

but have received a couple of skeins of cashmere to make Christmas gifts for my daughters, just today received this Luxury Sportweight, which will make another pair of fingerless mitts or maybe "duckie" socks.

and........I have at least 6 or 8 uncompleted projects. Get to it, Darlene.

A Day at the Beach!

We had a beautiful get-a-way at the beach (Ocean Shores) the last couple of days. The temperature was in the low 70's, no wind, full sunshine - couldn't ask for anything better. We did some serious beach-walking, a little casino playing and all in all a wonderful time with our friends.