A Fresh Start

The holidays are over! I'm so glad I could make most of the gifts. As I was coming home from the fabric shop Christmas week, I got stuck in a traffic jam caused by people going into the mall!! I felt sorry for all the shoppers

As I said, I made almost all the gifts this year. The one exception was a cookbook that I picked up last fall. I own a copy of the same book, so I sticky noted all the recipes that I made.

Knitted gifts were cowls for most of the guys, a pair of fingerless mitts, and three pairs of socks. The trip to the fabric store was supposed to yield enough flannel for five more pairs of pj pants. I ran short of fabric on the last pair, and was fabric shopping Christmas Eve. I sewed that pair Christmas morning. I live alone and the family get together was on Saturday.

I also knit pair of scrap yarn advent calendar socks. Every day was a different color, with guidance on the choice provided by the designer. One day was your favorite sports team. There were charts for cartoon characters. I don't remember the rest. Each day you knit the number of rounds for that date. It got difficult as we got closer to Christmas. I actually finished on Christmas Day.

Now I'm knitting on my reknitting Masters sweater. I lost weight and it was too big. I'm nearing the

end of the back. Earlier last year I unraveled the sweater and washed the yarn. There is hope that I can wear it this winter. Silly phone camera saved the photo sideways.

I'm also knitting an elephant for my granddaughter.  I converted the pattern from flat knitting to knitting in the round. I almost had a head and trunk that couldn't be stuffed, but I realized in time and there will be a seam on the trunk.

I hope to blog more often. That really is my only New Years resolution.

Well That was Interesting!

I did run out of yarn for the socks, and finished with some black. After all the angst about size and yardage, I remembered that I had used the brown yarn to decorate another pair of socks. with I had put a note with the yarn. anyway they are done and will be given some time in December 2014, either birthday or Christmas.

It keeps on snowing here. I'm ready for spring!

My knitting guild has decided to decorate a Christmas tree for charity next year. They need about 200 hats and mittens, which will be donated after serving as ornaments. I knit a pair of mittens. It seems I can't count. The first mitten was knit on 40 sts. The second on 52. Since this was for charity and I had plenty of yarn, I knit another pair like this. I also finished a smaller pair.

While I was on a mitten kick, I knit two pairs for great grandkids.

I also sneaked in a pair of fingerless mitts for ME before starting my Olympic challenges.

This is a pattern that I designed a year or so ago. I used the same yarn for me, since I had given away the originals. They'll be ready when the weather decides to cooperate.

I'm working on four Olympic challenges. Early in the day I have my Lady Macbeth sweater. I may not finish this, but and hour or so a day makes progress. It would qualify for the Ravelry event WIP Dancing, but I won't enter it unless it is finished.

Secondly, I have a pair of socks: event Sock Hockey. It's a Cookie A pattern which will also qualify for SKA and Solid Socks, I'm working with Knit Companion, which is great for a pattern with a 38 row repeat. It's the socks shown on the cover of her Sock Innovation book. I've done 48 of 63 rows on the first leg.

Thirdly is my Aerial Unwind event. I'm reclaiming the yarn from my TKGA Masters sweater. Lovely yarn. A great sweater! Too big for the body I have now. I found the pattern and will reknit and publish the pattern after rewriting in a smaller size etc.

Fourth challenge is another WIP dancing event. I started a skirt from leftover yarn. This is a Gwen Bortner idea, which I am probably going to have finished by the end of the games. I'm using up lots of odd balls of worsted weight yarn.

I've recorded the games and plan to do a lot of sitting and knitting in the next two weeks.

Sometimes I Hate living Alone

There are many skills I've been learning that used to be delegated to my husband. Last night the power went out about 8:00 with a bang. It's dark out at that hour, so I went to bed. About 1:00 AM i woke up for a bathroom stop and a big truck was in front of my house. The was a light shining up my driveway and a man on the pole behind the garage. I don't think that is what woke me as he was just finishing up.

When the lights came on a few minutes later, I went down stairs to turn them off. Luckily my alarm clock and answering machines have battery backup. The computer shut off, as did the cable box and DVR. I had to reset the clock on the stove and timers for two lights. I stayed up for a while, having gone to bed so early and went into the bedroom to find the timer light on. Changed that right away. Just had to adjust the current time.

The cable box and DVR got reset this morning, and that went well. They have one of those uninterrupted power supply things that beeped when the power went off. Hit the off switch so I could sleep. (It's in the bedroom, thanks DH!) Stove clock is reset. Just need to reset the living room timer, but that's better done in daylight.

I had another challenge tonight. One of the smoke detectors started chirping. They are wired into the house, but have battery backup. I had never changed the batteries. and they are new enough that I don't think DH did either. It's hard to tell which one is chirping as three of them are in the center hall and the sound travels. I couldn't get the culprit to stop, even with a new battery. I called the fire department, but they didn't have any good ideas. It did finally stop.

I also realized that the furnace wasn't on. The house is well insulated, but 60 F is chilly. Something else to reset. At least I'd done this before, but it's still hard to find the switch.

I used to be protected from these frustrations! Even when I know what needs to be done, I often don't know how to do it and have to learn how. Grrrr!

I've been knitting Christmas gifts.Many must remain secret, but I don't think these recipeients read my blog.

I've been knitting up scrap yarn. I also have 3 hats and a scarf on the gift list.

Christmas stockings have generated some interest. I had a pattern request and someone else seems to have a chart, but wanted to know yarn weight and gauge for a snowman stocking that I did so long ago that I cant find much of a record. Luckily, the original customer wants the name changed and just sent two stockings back to me. I'll scan them and make notes for the future.

A Good Start to the New Year

Although I got a cold for Christmas, I'm feeling better now. My youngest daughter Dr. J and her husband were in town after Christmas, and spent New Year's Eve with me. We watched Big Bang Theory all night, drank a little wine, and went to bed. We had gone to the Mongolian Barbeque for dinner with runner girl and her guy. New Year's Day I went to my son's house for dinner. I didn't go back to work until Wednesday.

A bit of knitting happened. I knit a pair of mitts for Dr. J's husband. I made them ribbed, because he didn't think he would wear them, That way Dr. J could use them.



She asked for a cup cozy. I made two of them.








I also knit a pair of felted clogs from the ever popular Fiber Trends pattern. I need to knit more of these in the coming year. I now have the children size pattern, so some of those will be knit as well.

Probably the best gift was one that came late. It was a joint effort and waited for the finishing touch, the stained glass made by Dr. J. It's a box for all the memory things from my husband. I have the sympathy cards, the guest book from the funeral, and a number of other things, like a lock of his hair.







They included one of our favorite photos of him. Also in this picture is a train whistle and a rose from the funeral.









I love the train on the top. It's stylized and really represents his love of steam railroads.











Now that all the gifts are done and delivered, the last gifts went to Florida with Dr. J, I'm on to other things.One of my goals this year is to read 12 books that I already own. I have no particular plan, but I'm keeping a list. I started with The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmermann. In it I found a headband pattern that seemed meant for little bits of bulky yarn. Another goal is to knit 12 different patterns from ones I own on January 1, 2012. This qualifies. The second headband was an odd ball that I got as a designer perk.

I also finished a pair of socks. I have the pattern written, but the photo isn't in yet. I'll go over the copy and publish it on Ravelry. It's the first pattern in quite a while. I haven't quit designing, just writing up the designs.