Christmas Shopping Blitz

I was getting a little nervous about time passing swiftly as we rush towards Christmas, because I have done nothing to get ready. The spouse suggested a quick trip Friday night to The Container Store to look over their stocking-stuffer specials. We left the house at 6:48, drove to the next town, did our shopping, and drove back into our driveway at 7:20. This is a record, even for us. There was little to no traffic during the dinner hour but even I was surprised at our speed. Now that both families have a name draw and a $10 limit, Christmas is not nearly the hassle it used to be.

My daughter is doing the Christmas baking, and I did a lot of the family present buying online, so I think I am about done with the shopping. I have a lot of house cleaning to do, though. I just wish the weather would brighten up, but I should be grateful we are not up to our necks in snow like a lot of the country. We are just whining about a little drizzle and overcast.

Black Friday

This post isn't about knitting at all, but this week has been full of scary adventures, and I am now hoping for some nice boring days. I never do the shopping thing on the day after Thanksgiving because I have worked in department stores on that day, and hoped to avoid being in any store on that day for the rest of my entire life. However, I saw on the Joann sale circular that the flannel was on sale today for $1.29/yd, and who can resist that?? One of my daughters had an accident last night and had to go to the emergency room (she is fine now), so I decided I needed to do something fun for a change as an antidote to drama. I was in the line at the Joann a few minutes before six this morning. When the people surged into the store, I headed right for the flannels and grabbed nine different prints. Then I went right to the cutting table, got my number ticket, and lo, I was number 1! The mob was already forming around the cutting table, so I was feeling really triumphant to be at the head of the line. In addition to the flannels, which are destined to be made into pajamas for the daughters and myself, I got a couple of apron patterns, a flexible ruler, and a free pair of scissors they were handing out at the door.

When I was waiting in line before the store opened, I got to talking to a nice lady ahead of me in line, and she told me that she had already been to several stores. I guess some were opening at 4 am. She had been to the orange home supply store where mobs of people were buying the 99 cent poinsettias. She told me that some people had carts full of the potted poinsettia plants. I don't think I would get up at 4 am to buy poinsettias.

Back To The Weave-It

Knitting is handy when you need a carry-along project for those times in life when you do a lot of waiting around. I have been spending lots of time with an ailing relative lately, sitting in doctor's offices or waiting around the house, so I have several sock projects in a tote bag along with some paperback books. That way I will never be horribly bored which is something I totally hate. I have also picked up the Weave-It again because I can make squares while I am watching TV. The colored squares will eventually be a scarf, and are made with sock yarn. I decided to experiment with a slightly heavier yarn, so I tried out Baby Soft from Lion Brand. I'm trying to decide how to sew them together.
This is how they look when they have single crochet all around, then sewn together like afghan squares. The downside of this method is that there are extra ends to sew in, and it takes a lot longer. I'm also not sure I like the contrast of the lightweight fabric and the heavier crochet.
I'm loving the sock yarn squares, though. The yarn cycles through different colors, so you never know what color the square is going to be until you are done with it.

Knitting Again

I can almost feel the knitting mojo coming back. I have been sewing for months and months with no real desire to knit much, but now that the weather is finally cooling off I am looking at the knitting machine with interest again. In the meantime, I did finish another pair of socks for A.


This yarn is Berroco Sox in Color 1477. The photo shows the colors almost exactly as they are, and I did manage to match the socks to each other pretty well. I used a size 2 needle and 64 stitches for a plain sock, but if I were to start over again, I would use a size 1 and 72 stitches for a firmer sock fabric.

I had put aside the aqua sweater I was making because I was too busy sewing, but now I am gathering up the various pieces and thinking about hanging them on the machine and finishing that sweater. I had knit the body and sleeve borders in a lace pattern.

My birthday was this month, and my daughter, M, is knitting me a shawlette in the most beautiful orangey/yellow yarn, so I am looking forward to using that this winter.

Never Forget

This flag was issued the day after 9-11, and hung in our window for years afterwards. It only came down when we had the windows replaced. It may be old and faded, but we still remember.

New Socks

I finally got started on some toe-up socks using some sock yarn from my daughter. She recently had creative differences with her stash and got rid of some of her sock yarn. I knit a lot of socks for the other daughter, so I added her rejects to my stash. Here's my freebie yarn:

I am using the Wendy Knits book for the pattern for these socks. I decided to learn new things so tried Judy's Magic Cast-On. I really couldn't figure out the instructions in the book so I looked on the internet, and there are several places where you can see a video showing how to do it. It took three tries before I could get the stitches the way I wanted them to be, but now I am almost to the heel.This Yarn is Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks in Color 1767. I'm using size 1 needles with a sock circumference of 72 stitches. I'm not really a fan of the short-row heel so am going to try one of the other kinds. When I use a new kind of sock yarn that I haven't tried before, I keep a record of the number of stitches cast on, size of needles, and number of rows to heel and toe. This way, when I use the yarn again in the future, I have an idea of what works and what doesn't.

A Completed Knitting Project!

I finally finished those Deborah Norville Serenity socks. For some reason these just dragged on and on, but they are done at last. This is the color 'Sapphire'. I liked the feel of this yarn, but I guess my knitting mojo has been gone for a long while now and I had to force myself to finish these up. I think I am just soooo tired of knitting socks from the top to the toe, so I am going to get started right away on a toe-up pair. I have both Wendy Knits books so I just have to choose a pattern and get started.

I have been busy with the harvesting and putting by for the winter. So far I have made pickle relish, jams, applesauce, and hot pepper jellies. The garden did, and is still doing, great this year:

A forest of volunteer zinnias came up in the middle of one garden patch, hiding the beets and carrots, but I just left them there. The butterflies love our yard and so far we've seen tiger swallowtails, monarchs, and of course, those blasted white cabbage butterflies. We planted extra this year because it is such a bad economy, and our daughter was out of work, and other family members were feeling the pinch. The good news is that our daughter found another job, as did my nephew and his wife, so we are feeling very thankful. I wasn't sure how those hot pepper jellies would taste since I tried some new varieties, but I took several jars to my brother's birthday party last Saturday, served them over cream cheese in the usual way with crackers, and since there were only empty serving plates left in a short time, I would have to say they were acceptable. I made regular green hot pepper jelly, apricot/cranberry/jalapeno jello, and pineapple jalapeno jelly.

Here's an August view of 'The Back Forty' which has changed quite a bit since last month. There are very many winter squashes hiding under those leaves. It's amazing how much you can grow in a small suburban yard.

I know that most of the eastern and middle portions of the country are having a blazing hot summer, but here in the west we had a mild summer with only a few patches of really hot weather. Most of the time the nights have been nice and cool. We got a really late start on the yardwork this year because we had to go back to the Midwest in May for my inlaw's anniversary party, so that set us back weeks (though it was well worth it). I was surprised how fast the garden got with the program and started producing. Makes me wonder if the effort of trying to start the seeds in the cold spring is necessary.

Right after we got back from the trip, I found a new stash of vintage knitting pamphlets, so I'll have to get started again with Retro Knit Friday. Just not today.