I sent my ornaments for the swap off today, and BOY does it feel great. Now I just have to face the fact that I have 6 1/2 knitted christmas presents done, and um... 7 to go. Unless I wimp out and buy things for some of those people. Why oh why am I so unreasonably ambitious??

I also have 2 1/3 squares done out of the 80 I need for this awesome blanket I'm making. Pictures will come soon.

Whew! It is wonderful to be home.....

Well! I'm going home for Thanksgiving today. I'll be back Saturday night. How bout I leave you with some random photos to look at.

Okay?
Okay!


Cat+knitting=double awesomeness


My classroom the morning of the 1st day of school. It will never be this clean again. Oh... well, maybe it will be this clean on the first day of school NEXT year.


My dad driving in snow last winter when we went to Oregon for my cousin's wedding

Happy Thanksgiving- eat yourselves silly!

My ridiculously obsessive knitting is about to slooooow down. Steve starts his 19 or so hours of travel in just 3 hours. (Hurray!) Of course... that means that I won't be knitting an entire scarf in a night like I did today...

Ahem. And I knit the scarf 3/4 of the way LAST night, before I realized it was going to end up too short. So I ripped it out and did it again! This time... an inch narrower, with size 13 needles instead of 11s. It is now long enough for Gramma. Oh, and the yarn is this darn expensive stuff, but feels gorgeous. (dual present from my brother and I- he is paying for the materials, I put my blood, sweat, and tears into it)


Anyways, the yarn is Noro Transitions, made from...
55% Wool
10% Silk
7% Cashmere
7% Angora
7% Alpaca
7% Kid Mohair
7% Camel

Camel? Goodness!

Tony is helping me knit.

Just finished dad's xmas scarf! Now the question is: do I make another gift scarf from the yarn I've already bought, or should I go buy yarn to make washcloths or towels for presents??

This morning I thought it was Sunday, and I was trying to remember what I had done on Friday. I was so excited when I realized I still had two more days of weekend left. Score!

So... I went shopping and bought stuff with my friend Jenna. Which is exactly what we did yesterday.

Total haul:
3 t-shirts
2 pairs of shoes **sale!** (one) (two)
1 pair of socks **sale!**
1 pair of really thick cream tights (sale?)
4 pairs of knitting needles **sale!**
1 set of double pointed needles **sale!**
1 sheep tape measure for mommy's xmas stocking **sale!**
4 balls of yarn **sale!**

Uh, the **sale!** markings are to make me feel better. Actually.... yeah. Sales.

You see, I had to buy one of the pairs of shoes and the tights so I could wear the brown dress I bought a while ago now that it is cold. I wore it to a breast cancer benefit evening at the yarn store last night, and got complements from three people. Crazy.

just what i need...

the cat now knows how to open cupboards.

Well, I now have four finished ornaments, and all of the knitting done for the rest of the ones I need for the swap. I feel very accompllished, especially since today we just got the names and addresses of the people in our swap group. Horray!

Also, report cards are done, just need to be printed and signed. Things are good....

Done with one!

Knitting and watching crime dramas. Yes, this is the life. Much better than doing report cards like I should be... Oh, notice my fancy Lantern Moon knitting needles? Ahem. Thank you daddy, who said he would buy me any needles I wanted...


A few trees. They're all curly and don't look very good!


Ahhh, blocking. You wet the stuff and pin it into the shape you want it to be. When they're dry, they magically stay the shape they were pinned!


Let's see. I embroidered some stars, sewed on a tiny bell, macramed a loop to hang it from, sewed the edges to the edges of another knit tree, and stuffed it.

I think they'll all be different. I need to make 11, plus however many I feel like doing for myself and/or other gifts. :o)

Thanks to Michelle, I found out about this awesome ornament swap. Cake+pie is organizing the swap, along with another blogger.

I started working on my ornaments last night. They are little knit christmas trees, from this pattern. I'm stretching myself a bit, but not too much. I have to do a few things that I've never done before, but the ladies at my local knitting group helped me out last night. I have 8 knitted trees blocking right now (enough for 4 ornaments), plus one more that i finished but don't have enough pins for. I'll post a few pictures of the process once I've gone through all the steps.

Oh, Michelle... I'm planning on making an extra and sending it to you. I'll have to get your new address. :o)

I need a craft room. Oh my goodness do I need a craft room.

I didn't say that Steve is in Ireland, did I? Ireland! While I slave away in the salt mines and write report cards...

Unbelievable that we are almost 1/3 of the way through the year. My aunt always said that it takes forever to get to Christmas, and after that the year just flies by. It felt that way the first two years I taught, but this year has seemed so short already.