R is for...

Rest!

It's been a nice vacation. Unfortunately tomorrow is the last official holiday and then we gradually return to normal. I've been reading a lot of year end reviews on blogs, and I thought about it, but figured I'd be better off just catching up, so I can start the new year fresh (at least in blog-land).


The Christmas Knitting:

For the niece and nephew:


For the Brother-In-Law:


For the Sister:





I tried to be sneaky and get their hand sizes (before I had completely decided what to make) and so I had some fun cutting and pasting some art projects.


All of the information on these is on Ravelry, feel free to ask me for pattern information though if you aren't able to access those!

All of these were done and shipped before Christmas. Yay for me! I then kept working on my husband's socks and started working on his slippers again, neither was done for Christmas, and neither are done yet, but that's okay, he knows he'll get them eventually.

I received many wonderful Christmas presents, but I have to show one now... My two daughters knew what they wanted to get for me. They engineered a trip to the LYS with me sitting quietly in the front and not watching them while their daddy helped them shop. I received some beautiful colorful wool to spin from Lily. My sweet husband purchased the matching roving, so I got two! ...and he also picked me up some clear clogs so I can safely wear my pretty socks around the house. My youngest daughter Curly, however, gave me the gift of work. She gave me this:



And then informed me that it was to be a hat for Lily (who had no idea what her sister chose). She's been telling me I need to knit, and today she handed me both balls, and asked me where my knitting needles were, so I finally started... Much progress was made today (as I think I'm starting to come down with the cold husband and Lily had this weekend, so most of today was spent sitting), however, it was a bit big, so some ripping was also done. I am now reknitting as I wait for the new year.



R is also for...
Resolutions.

I had toyed with the idea of Clean Slate 08 (finishing or ripping all projects before the new year). I knew it wasn't Realistic for me though. (see, another R? :)) I am trying to work on old projects, and I am gradually getting there. I will still be casting on little projects here and there, but I am really trying to finish everything up before the third child comes. I currently have:

Husband's homespun socks (so close and yet huge amount of knitting left on the legs)
Slippers for husband (alpaca currently being spun)
Mystery Stole 3 (not ripped out! I'm about 1/3 to 1/2 way done, I need some time to fiddle with it)
Lace scarf (I keep chugging away between things - probably more than 1/2 done, hard to tell - working on it until yarn runs out)
Lily's New Pink Hat (should be done within the week)

I think it's do-able to finish all of these by early to mid march (or at least finish most of them and have major progress made)... but like I said, it's not unlikely I will have a couple other things beginning between now and then - just hopefully nothing big until they are done!


R is also for...
Ravelry!

I just got access to the photo slurper at Ravelry, which means (for those of you not involved in this wonderful website) I can now take some of my older photos which aren't on flickr and have them appear with all of my organizational information. Old projects... some stash... whatever... I'll be playing with that and adding some of those to my information there. It was a blast to play with today though, I already added a couple of projects that were already here on the blog.


Have a great new year!

Q is for...

Que Sera Sera.

I just made a couple of people in my life very happy by making it so my blog feed will go to their reader completely instead of making them click over to my site. Such is life. Merry Christmas!




For those of you on Ravelry - I just wanted to mention a cool swap I signed up for (I know, I said no more swaps until after the baby is born and a little grown, but this one sounded so cool). It's a birthday swap - so they are trying to match people share a birthday (or close if it's not exact). It'll be neat to get another birthday present in the mail, and I can hopefully get it ready and sent before the baby is born. Just wanted to get a mention in, as they are closing it in about a week (the 27th I think?).

P is for...

Procrastinate!

Yeah, that's me. I did the whole month of November - posting every day, and then I take half of December off. I was sick, I got better, I packed my husband off to the other side of the world for a week, we welcomed him home and are still readjusting to normal schedule. I finished Christmas-knitting and have everything mailed off (as of today) - even the cards are all out. We've gotten all our shopping done and now just have to wrap and bake. Pictures were taken of a couple of the super-secret Christmas knitting and will be posted after Christmas. I'm still trying to finish a couple of things for my sweet husband, but without a definite deadline.



P is also for Pal

....I found out who my SP11 spoiler is, through a couple sneaky clues. I'm still waiting for my last package (no rush, no problem) and will post links and such after that gets here.



P is also for pregnant

I'm showing enough of a belly that people are now asking when I'm due (end of March), do I know what I'm having (no, we don't find out, never have - the results of the ultrasound said healthy), do we have names picked out yet (nope, not enough a blog name picked yet, definitely not a real name yet). Yes, the girls are excited; no, I'm not knitting for it yet.



P is also for (knitting in) Public

I think we finally have a local S&B. I've gone 3 or 4 times now and I've missed a couple times that others showed up. Unfortunately the place we've been meeting at is closing, so... next Wednesday we won't be meeting (day after christmas), the week after is the first Wednesday of the month and so will be at a nearby LYS, so hopefully by January 9th we'll have a new place to meet at! It's been fun getting out of the house for just a couple hours (thanks to my husband for enabling) and just knit and drink some hot chocolate and chat.

O is for...

Open!

One of the secret presents was opened over the weekend. My husband had a birthday and opened up a package of a bunch of handkerchiefs I had hemmed and then put his initials on. Curly chose a number of the colors of floss that I used, and Lily even did one herself. Perhaps pictures within the next couple of days?



O is also for off.

This weekend was definitely OFF. Like I said, my husband had his birthday and then took Monday off of work. We enjoyed some time together ice skating (well, I didn't skate... I sat with Curly and watched big sister and daddy skate at a local indoor rink). We also had a very yummy turkey dinner. Oh, and the birthday cake was carrot cake - so good. There's still a bit of left overs in the fridge. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to make great cakes without a ton of extra work. The carrot cake and the chocolate covered cherry cake are both ones I have made multiple times. I keep trying others too... but those two - yum! It was nice to take a break from the daily blogging - it make this weekend feel like a real vacation after a whole month.



O is also for... umm... shrug

I started another mystery knitting project. (The first being the handkerchiefs that I didn't mention at all since I wanted them to be a surprise). I've knit up almost two skeins of knit picks shine worsted today. ...and for those of you on ravelry, I'm in the middle of stripe 10 out of 11! I'll probably finish the stripes before heading to bed, but not finish it off. ...plenty more to do with it before I move on to the next mystery project. Just a couple of projects to do before Christmas.


oh right, I also spun a bit today on a different mystery project. (to my husband: no sweetie, not the slippers yet!)