Christmas Knitting Begins

The craft fair went well I think. I was surprised that I sold all of my "expensive" knitting. The nice stuff, the good stuff, the stuff I was secretly hoping to take home with me for ME! Yup, that all sold. And sold fast. Even though I had the fingerless mitts I wanted in the back row, kinda hiding, they were snatched up in the first half hour. All the simple, inexpensive hats and scarves I made did not sell. They won't be wasted though, I'll keep a couple for our own hat basket at home and the rest will go to my church's warm and fuzzy gift wagon.



The biggest surpise I think was that very few of the ornaments went. I thought having things priced underr $8.00 would make them simple gifts for teachers etc. nope. Only a few sold. But that is fine as well. They will become MY girls teacher's presents and family presents. So nothing lost. And I like them, so I'm sure a few will end up on our own tree.



The biggest news I have is I've learned to drop spindle. I took a course at All About Yarn and I'm very happy with the result. I worked last night and spun up half of the 4 ounces I got of roving. My spinning has really improved. However, my plying has not. That is my big hurdle at the moment. But what I may do is go ahead and sping the rest of my roving and take it to help night on Monday at AAY and my teacher is there so maybe she can help me figure out what I'm doing wrong. But I fear I really REALLY like spinning. smile.....now where can I stash ROVING!



Most of our family is coming to our house on Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to it. And more than anything I'm looking forward to a break from my hectic schedule. And finally FINALLY I get to start my Christmas knitting.....I think I'm just going to do 2 presents, a fair isle pair of mittens for my nephews finacee and a pair of fair isle socks for my mom. Seems to be a theme. I think that is pretty doable in a month. We will see if I'm up late on Christmas eve, weaving in ends!

I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday.

Pennies for Bella

I read a blog today, The Knitting Wannabe, (http://knittingwannabe.com/) and she had a story of a little girl who needs help. Her blog is much more eloquent than I am, but if you choose to donate some money to Bella's family, you have a chance to win some pretty darn nice yarn. I know the economy is scary, but if we all help just a little, maybe it will ease some pressure on Bella's family.

Santa's Workshop

As you can see I finished working on the Christmas ornaments for my craft fair on Friday. Give me beads and a hot glue gun and you better be moving fast or I'll slap you full of beaded glory. The girls helped a lot. They would plop on the glue, their favorite task, while I poured beads over the areas and risked several skin layers while I pushed and pulled and prodded the beads into different places amidst the hot glue puddles. But all in all, I think they turned out nicely. I have 27 of these done, about 15 wooden ornaments I painted and then used beads or glitter on as well.

I liked making the ornaments, it is something new for me. It will be interesting to see if they sell or not. If they don't they are fine gifts for the girls' teachers and for other family members at Christmas. I'm good with that. The same with my knitting. Anything that doesn't sell I donate at church, so others can get to experience the joys of hand knits. It makes me feel good anyway.

I've been fighting a cold and I may be losing. And I get to go to the dentist tomorrow. Yup, I know how to party.

Mom and I are looking at flat screened tvs, who knew there were so many options. Hopefully it will be picked out and installed (read hang from the wall) before Thanksgiving. That is our goal anyway.

I'll take pictures of the craft fair and let you know how everything went.

Crafty Weekend Ahead

Once again it will be crazy busy for us this weekend. My craft fair is next Friday, leaving me 6 days of working time left. Tonight I will work on more ornaments. Tomorrow Anna and I are painting at our church, finishing our shift at noon, home to pick up mom and Emily, off to get lunch (Chinese Buffet I think) and a hair appointment for mom. Then the rest of the afternoon and evening will be spent finishing the ornaments. Give me a hot glue gun, beads, and glass ornaments and I'm wicked good.

Sunday I hope to knit the mate to one mitten, or I will have to hope I find a one handed person interested in buying a lovely mitten. The same problem exists for a kid sock, I have one 90% done, down to the toes, so I will need a one footed toeless person in need of a striking blue sock.

So between now and next Friday morning I need to finish 20 ornaments, 1 mitten and one sock. And work full time, take a 4 hour CPR course THURSDAY night, take care of my girls and sleep. Yup, I can see that all working out oh so well.

Stay tuned....

Winter

Winter is fast approaching...today I drove in to work with snow whipping around me. I even remembered to put the snow scraper in the van. (yes that was me last year, scrapping with a plastic card, not this year!) It also means it was time to bring out the basket of hats and mittens and scarves...we tossed a few mittens/gloves from last year. Nothing knitted, but the kind that works well for snow ball fights....or snowman building. Hopefully we won't have to use them for those two things quite yet. But we are ready. In the scarf box I found one of the first scarves I knit.

Please forgive the picture, it was taken last year, lovely office carpet don't you think? but talk about an amazing scarf. Kid Silk Haze....the softest, lightest scarf that I love to wind around my neck and burrow into while walking out to the snow covered car...creams, lavender, and deep purple....crazy choices, but I love them. The scarf is a keeper.

I have a craft fair next Friday at my old law firm. I enjoy gong back, visiting with old friends, hopefully selling enough to make it a fun Christmas for my family. I've got both knitted things, hats, mittens, scarves, and this year I tried working on ornaments. I bought wooden ornaments at Michaels, some glitter, beads and paint, and I have a regular Santa's workshop upstairs. Both my girls have helped. Anna made a great panda ornament. Panda's are her thing at the moment. Emily is the best glitter spreader around....I'm sure we will be finding glitter in the carpets months from now. I think tonight I'll finish working with the wooden ornaments and expand to adding beads to plain colored glass balls. I'll see if they sell. If they don't, we have gifts for cousins, teachers etc. Nothing will be wasted. I have donated the hats and mittens that don't sell to our church who gives them away to families that need some help. Best thing I can do I think.

Emily has had a couple doctor appointments re her surgery and upcoming cleft surgeries. My girl is one brave and tough cookie. The next couple years may be tough ones, but she is going to come out stronger. It is hard to explain why though to a six year old. I love my girls.

Election Day

Surprisingly enough we did not have to wait in line to vote. We were in and out in less than 15 minutes. I'm glad the election period is over, no matter what, I'm tired of the political ads and how many of the races have devolved into nastiness. I'm ready to move forward. Either way it is a historic election.

After talking with our doctor, I'm having my youngest scanned re Melamine issues. Emily came home from China a little over 4 years ago. However, notices are popping up in the adoption community that several kids in that age range have shown up with some issues attributed to Melamine. So one more test for my child. At least it is an easy one. Not expecting any problems, but want to be sure it is noted in her chart at least.

My knitting has slowed to a crawl it seems. And I need it to move along...holiday knitting is fast approaching! I may need to revise my list, but I still mathematically believe I can do it. Stay tuned....I've been up before at midnight sewing the last stitches or quilting the last section of various gifts in the past, so I'm thinking knitting will be no different. smile....

Halloween

My girls had such a good time on Halloween. The weather here in Minnesota was unusually mild. So they were actually able to go from house to house with no winter coat on over their costumes. It was Anna's last time for trick or treating, so we went all out on her costume....I absolutely loved her hat...reminded me of Professor McGonagal. And Emily just loved her little vampire costume, although I thought it had a disco bent to it....in any event they were thrilled and much candy was had by all.

I went to TWO yarn shops this weekend. I know, I know, I said I was knitting my Christmas gifts from my stash. Well I decided on what socks to make my mom and they are Latvian and so I needed some specific solid or semi solid yarn to do the fair isle cuff section. So I went to the LYS closest to my home. I go there once in awhile, but it is not my favorite, but since I was going to be in the same parking lot to take my girls to see High School Musical 3, I thought I would try and hope they had the colors I wanted. Well no such luck. I literally have more sock yarn than they stock in their store. I went once before looking at their sock yarn and mentioned that I belonged to a sock of the month club, and the owner was surprised since wouldn't it get boring after awhile. sigh...so after leaving, my girls thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

The second yarn shop was hit on Sunday after I took my oldest daughter out just the two of us to celebrate her 11th Gotcha Day celebration. 11 years ago on November 2, I was in a tiny crowded room in Chang Sha, China and a smiling, laughing little girl was placed in my arms. So we celebrate every year on their Gotcha day.....I truly was blessed when Anna was given to me. And again a long 7 years later when again I was given a little girl named Emily. My family was complete.....but I digress....I ran into my favorite yarn shop http://www.amazing-threads.com/home.htm, two minutes before closing and Bobbi very graciously helped me find yarn that will be lovely for mom's Christmas socks.

I'll try to take pictures of my choices when I am home with daylight...with daylight savings changes not sure when that will be. So stay tuned...