Harold and The Purple Crayon

One more of my unfinished projects sliding over to the finished objects column. Yippee, the end of the year is almost here and I've made some good headway. I still have 2 ghans in the works, that simply aren't going to get finished this year; a scarf I'm working on for myself (which I plan to finish in time for New Years Eve), and a pair of mittens I need to finish (probably will be the first item in 2010 to be finished). Made one mitten and laid it aside, totally forgot I never finished it's mate.

The credit for the cute name for this preemie blanket for The OddBall Knitters group goes to my daughter who thought of the book when I showed her the purple yarn I planned on using. The stitch I used is Purled Ladder Stitch which is an 8 row repeat. It's soft, as I used Caron Simply Soft yarn. I don't like working with this yarn, though knitting with it is better than crocheting with it. Many love this yarn because it is soft and is classified as worsted weight. Although I don't believe it stays together well, separates easily when working with it which requires one to knit or crochet slower. It also often requires adjustments with gauge because it truly is thinner than most worsted weight yarn. For a baby blanket though, it will be soft. It's now on it's way to Michigan to the next Oddball knitter.

Happy New Year one and all, if you're traveling be safe.

Green Acres

Green Acres is the place for me, ...can't remember the rest of the words to the song. Chim in, if you do. This is, as you can see bright lime green. I am the first knitter on this preemie blanket already headed to the next knitter. With the title of Green Acres, I imagine as the blanket grows we'll see lots of shades of green being used. Kinda fun to start one and think up a title/theme.

I cast on 102 and used a new stitch...well new to me that is. It's called horizontal dash which is an 8 row repeating pattern. I like texture when using a solid color, as I don't think stitch varieties show up when using variegated yarns.

This preemie blanket is for OddBall Knitters who donate to hospitals all over the country for The Linus Project.

Who's counting down til New Years with either crafts or home projects?

Christmas Tree

It takes awhile to get my old ornaments all unwrapped and out of the box in preparation to decorate the tree. One year, I tried to upscale and make the tree more modern/classy, the fam didn't like it. You see ribbons, beads and other upscale tree decorations alot these days. But, my tree is pretty much the same as it has been for the past 30 ish years. Wooden and handmade ornaments. Ornaments my daughter made in school, or some her friends made for her etc. So, here they are before they made it to the tree.
And here's the tree finished. We still use a real tree, all white lights, and the last thing I put on the tree are the candy canes which makes me think of grandpa. He always gave them to us after Mom and Grandma would leave the room. It was fun. They'd be busy baking or cooking and we'd put them on the tree. They'd always act surprised when they came back and saw us putting them on the tree, or eating one off the tree. lol Good Memories.

Do you use a real tree or artificial? What's your favorite part of decorating your tree?

Another WIP turned into FO..count down til the end of the year

This is titled Sunnydaze, cute name but looking out the window right now it's sure not true. It's snowing again here, and it's cold. This is an oddball preemie blanket I finished a few days ago. Each person knits a prescribed section. The blanket travels until completed and is then blocked, washed and donated to an OB unit for project Linus. I was the last knitter on this blanket and so did a little orange lacy edge after completing my orange section. One more WIP converted to FO. YIPPEE!!! Started another one called Green Acres, and will get it in the mail heading towards the next knitter as soon as I know who that is. I'm counting that as a FO (finished object), cause I've finished my portion. Check back for picture on the next post.

Look at this fun yarn, I bought 2 skeins at a yarn specialty shop the other day to make myself a scarf. Mine is looking pretty shabby. Time for a new one. Am anxious to start working with this yarn, it's super yummy soft. Not gonna start it until I get at least 1 more WIP converted to FO.

Working on Works in Progress

Doubt I'll get all my WIP (works in progress) turned into FO (finished objects) by years end; but am making headway. Last night finished a scarf for The Bridge and Beyond. Finished and have ready to mail a scarf for Oklahoma Brain Tumor Foundation (the one pictured here), which is knitted with 2 strands of yarn. The dark purple is Plymouth washable wool, and the light purple (which looks almost gray in the picture) is super soft Red Heart Plus...or at least I think that's what it's called. The wrapper was no longer on that yarn. It looks and feels like mohair; but having used it previously I know it's not. It's very thin and soft. This isn't a charity I'm real familiar with, but am doing this through the group Sharing our Gifts, which I just recently joined.

I've just separated some baby items, and am getting those ready for mailing, where did I put that address? lol...seriously, I cleaned my desk off the other day and it's caused me problems about where I put stuff when I got all neat.

Unending Circle of Life

A friend made this wooden wreath for me many years ago. I really like it. Sadly, I think this will probably be the last year for it. As you can see the lights are going. He strung lots of lights to this wooden frame and we place it on the garage just above the door. There really isn't a good way to replace a few bulbs, and the strings are nailed/stapled so removing them would be a job. A good portion of the red ribbon is not showing up, and now some of the greenery is starting to go. Hope we make it through the end of this season at least.
I thought it time to talk about the meaning, the true meaning of Christmas Wreaths. We place them in and outside our homes. We use artificial and life wreaths. The shape is a circle which represents the unending circle of life. Traditionally, wreaths are made of evergreen which represents everlasting life. Wreaths are often made of Holly branches, or sometimes holly branches are added to the evergreen wreath for decoration. Holly branches have thorns which represent the thorny crown that adorned Christ's head. The red holly berries represents Jesus's blood that was shed for us.

Peace and Love to you all during this special time of the year.

**Anyone know why the gadget to show other posts isn't working?
****Did you read the previous post about Nativities and Memories?

Nativities make for lasting memories

When you decorate your house for the upcoming Christmas Holidays, do memories come flooding back to you. Do specific items you doctorate with remind you of a particular person or a particular Christmas Memory? This small old nativity set belonged to my hubby when he was a child. Many of the original pieces are gone either lost or broken; and others here have been glued and some pieces added; but most of the pieces are the original ones. We always set this up in our daughters room. When I first saw it many years ago, it made me smile as it's the exact same set my Mother had when I lived at home. Somewhere along the line, her set too had some broken pieces, and other pieces were scratched so she painted hers white and silver. So, even though Mom won't be with us this Christmas (a first, since she passed in April), I look at this child's nativity set and think of her.

This larger, and far newer nativity set was hand painted by Dorothy, my Mother-in-law. She's not been with us for a very long time now; but every year when I unwrap each piece I think of her. She was a senior citizen when she painted this set in ceramics and I think she did a fabulous job. The stable was made for her by a gentlemen who lived in her building at the time. He too was a senior. This nativity set is always placed on top of the entertainment center in the living room.

Tell me about your Christmas memories.

Action

If you're near my age you remember home movies, Dad would say "action", everyone would wave and talk and move around. Not sure why everyone talked, the home movies didn't have sound; but for some reason we did. Everyone waved at the person taking the movie, silly I suppose but, we felt compelled to interact with the cameraman.

We've come a long way from the camera pictured above, and that's not really one of the early models. I can hear the ticking now the camera made after it was wound up. lol And the awful bright lights.

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Weighting for Christmas

Waiting/Weighting for Christmas puts a whole new look on those LBS, we've all put on. A little tongue in cheek here.The Adventures of Larry Leptin (psssss, make sure you have your sound on)

Seriously though folks, the 5 rules of Leptin are:

1. Never eat after dinner
2. Eat 3 meals a day
3. No large Meals (aren't you glad I waiting til after Thanksgiving to post this? lol)
4. Eat Protein at Breakfast
5. Reduce the Carbs (ouch that hurt, I really Love Pasta)

My Dad says eat all things in moderation, and he's 83, so I'm thinking he's knows what he's talking about.

Merry Christmas to all

Do you remember?

Do you remember Christmas's of years past? I don't honestly know if I remember this Christmas, or if my memory stems from seeing the picture over and over. If you're close to my age, you no doubt have a similar picture of one of your early Christmas's. The TV console in the background with the round tube. If you're younger you're probably wondering why I'm wearing a little short sleeve dress. All little girls wore such dresses. In those days they didn't (we didn't) wear pants, boys wore pants. We didn't wear skirts, skirts and sweaters where for when you got older; little girls really didn't wear the same things as their mothers just in smaller sizes like they do now. You didn't see little girls with tats, or piercings, they didn't wear black. We all must have kept our houses warmer in those days too. I do remember it being very cold walking to school with our legs out. We did sometimes where pants under our dresses; but those pants naturally had to be taken off when we arrived at school and hung up our coats in the cloak room. I feel pretty certain this little dress was pink and I was thrilled with it; and thus was showing it off.

Do you have such memories?