Anna's Shawl

Well, Christmas has come and gone and so has New Years, for that matter. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year!

In our home we go straight from Christmas to a string of birthdays, with the first being Anna's on Dec 27. I try to make items for people's birthdays, so I am not so crunched at Christmas, but of course, with so many birthdays being between Dec and February, I am kind of crunched anyway. But, it is OK and I love to knit, so we muddle through somehow. LOL!

Sometimes my knitting comes from a pattern already written and then sometimes the pattern I use is my newest design. Which is Anna's Shawl? A new design. She asked for a black shawl and I must say, she put it in a way, that didn't put any pressure on me. She just asked that if I wanted to make her something sometime, she would like a black shawl. Yipppeeeee! I had a shawl idea in my head, but hadn't taken the time to start making it. Most of the time when I am designing something new, I make it at least twice, sometimes, 3 or 4 times. So far this shawl has been 2 times. I used the Ashford Tekapo yarn. It is such a great yarn to use.

The Last Projects

Well, here is a snow tree. I know that is pretty silly, but living in TX, and having grown up and then lived alot of my adult life in frigid and snowfilled climates, I do miss snow. Of course, this year many folks, all over the USA, are saying, "You can have it! It is only December and we have had more than our share." Well, we probably won't get any snow that sticks around for more than a day, and the most we have had, since living in TX is 5 inches at a time. But, since we don't have snow plows and most don't own a snow shovel or even know what one is, 5 inches can pretty well stop the community from functioning. So..., I decided to turn a small 3 foot Christmas tree into a snow tree. The snowflakes are hand crocheted by my daughter Rebekah and me. Then, of course, there is a snowman on the top. As for lights, there is a strand of lighthouse lights. You see, I have a fetish for lighthouses too. :)

In front of the tree stands a grand ginger bread boy, that is hand knitted and he has peppermint buttons and a great scarf. He is one of my last Christmas projects. Also, there is a red mitten, size 2-4 on the tree, and the beginnings of the second. The mittens will be done by Christmas day.

The stocking is hand knit and felted, by my mom's work. Isn't it beautiful??

More Snowmen

Sometimes, do you wonder if cell phones are a plus or a distraction? I do. However, today they were a plus for me. It was the Christmas party for my spinning group. I didn't get to go, because I needed to stay home and nurse a sore leg. :( However, Laurie called me from the party and I was able to take part in the gift exchange! It was so much fun, to almost be there. Laurie and I both have the same service provider for our phones, ATT and so, we can talk without using any minutes. It was such fun to be there over the phone and get to participate in the Chinese Auction. Thanks Laurie and everyone of the Texas Twisters for making me laugh today!!

Here are some more of my snowmen. The one above with the red hat and scarf was made by my friend Deborah. Then I made the one behind it with the blue hat. If you look closely you will see a snowman in a blue canning jar. There is also fake snow in there, with the snowman. That one was done by Cathy.

The bottom picture includes a moose. I know, I know, it is not a snowman, but it came all the way from Alaska to live at my house, so he likes being with the snowmen. Reminds him of home. Then there is a snowman with a star. My mom thought, since I live in the Lone Star State, I needed to have a snowman holding a star, so she gave him to me. Good idea, Mom!

Weather and Slippers

Here are some slippers that I finished making last week. They are done in the freeform crochet technique. You use different yarns and start by crocheting a small piece. Then you crochet other small pieces onto the original piece with different yarns. You crochet in a way that you are able to cover the space you wish to cover. When finished I sewed these to the mesh top of the slippers.

Today we are under a winter weather watch. Yep, that's what we are doing. Watching the weather. Yesterday, was 79F for the high, which is totally unusual for us. Then today, the high was about 31. It was 30 when I arrived home. Needless to say, we had a cold front blow in over the night. I thought in honor of our weather I would show you a portion of my snowman collection. These are on my mantel. Two of them are handmade. The one all the way to the left, I had knitted and then felted. The third from the left I had received in a Christmas gift exchange. Also, like my Shepherd Sheep?? I like sheep too and collect them. These are great ones.

Santa Comes To The UPS Store

In my other life, I work at a The UPS Store. My boss is my husband, which is really nice. He is a good boss. Since it is getting really busy for us now, Santa came to help us out today. This is such a fun time of year, that we called the North Pole and asked Santa to come and help us. He said, "Ho, ho, ho, sure. I can be there on Dec 13. Ho, ho, ho!" He really came and he helped us too.

He directed traffic.

Helped the UPS driver to get boxes out of the store.

Santa even took the time to pose with the staff for a photo!

Thanks to Santa for making our day more fun and putting smiles on our customers faces! (Well, the cookies and pizza helped too)

Don't Faint

After not writing too much in the last couple of months, I am writing 2x in one day! I have been tagged for meme by my daughter Rebekah.

Here are the directions: Just go to your 6th photo folder on your computer (or external hard drive, or memory card - pick one!), post the 6th photo, and hope you can remember the details to share them. Then tag 5 others.

Well, when you do this, you don't know what you will get. I did go to my 6th folder and opened it, and found many folders in there. So, I opened the first folder and took the 6th picture. Years and years ago, when I was starting my spinning wheel supply business, my younger daughter, Anna, drew my logo. Here it is. But, you know, I have never named these two. They are the nameless duo. Any suggestions out there???? They are girls. I still use this logo and it is copyrighted.

I am supposed to nominate some blogs. Hmmm. How about my mom's work , fibergeekery, serenity-farms , born2bcrafty.

Blue Gloves

These fingerless gloves are one of my most recent projects. They were lot of fun to make. Well, they would've been alot more fun, had I followed the directions. I decided to make two at a time on one circular needle. It started out just fine and then I got to the blue part. I know, I know, I was only 1/2" into the project and having issues. Well, the issues started, when I put them onto the long needle to work them in the magic loop fashion and the directions read, "you will be working these gloves inside out, so you can knit them instead of purl them." If you can see the the detail, the purl side is the public side. If I didn't knit them inside out, every round would've been purled. Now, because there is the button closure, there is a definite left glove and right glove. AND because I am doing two at a time in the magic loop, I wasn't working one glove and following directions for that glove, but trying to interpret different directions for 2 at a time. Then to make matters worse, the directions were written as such: on needle one do this, on needle two do this and on needle three do this. Well, after a while of sitting and staring at these gloves and the directions you would've thought I would pull them off the needle and put them on the three needles and knit with the 4th. Any sane and smart person would've done that. But, no, I was determined, at this point I was going to conquer. When I finally figured out which was the right glove and which was the left glove, I labeled them, literally, using paper and safety pins and went to work. They were quick to make and came out lovely. They are a gift for my SIL's niece.