Knittinggarden

This has been an adventurous year for me, knitting-wise. I've tried new techniques - knitting with beads, mitred squares, steeks, spinning on a drop spindle, to name a few. The report is positive - I learned new things and enjoyed the experiences. Some things took longer than others to learn, lots of them aren't perfected, but I'm very pleased with the experiences I had this past year. (Note: I'm only referring to knitting and spinning here, in many other areas this year is one best forgotten. I say this while hoping that my kids' college funds will magically regenerate themselves before they're out of college!) So I will share a few photos and wish everyone a happy, safe, healthy new year. Buddy sings when the Princess plays his favorite song. I need to get a video of this soon.... The kids all got jammie pants for Hanukkah. Aren't they cute? My last FOs of 2008: Sorry for the photo quality. Darkness and hurried photo-taking make for dark and impe...

I like snow as a novelty, but if I wanted to walk around with snow up to my knees, I'd move to North Dakota. Hello, this is Seattle...... Today it's finally warming up to the mid 30s, so the heavy snow sitting in all the big fir trees is starting to melt and drop. Sometimes the limb drops with it. I'm going to stay inside the house. Here's the snow on the roof. It's tile and steep, so no one's going up to shovel it off. Collegeboy and the Princess agreed to pose. Buddy has to leap around like a rabbit. He likes it! It is pretty, I have to admit it. Time to shovel a little bit of the driveway! Buddy, did you catch that rat yet? The sun came out for awhile one day. But not for long.

Here in Seattle, we normally have very moderate weather, but not right now. In keeping with much of the country, we are living with snow, ice, and cold temperatures. In fact, I'm looking at icicles hanging from the gutter outside my window. They're quite pretty. And right now, I'm looking out at snow; falling from the sky in small, gentle flakes, blanketing the trees, shrubs, and driveway. I like it. I don't have anywhere I have to go tonight. The Princess is gnashing her teeth since she'd like to be with her friends and unfortunately for her there's to be no more driving today. This is what I've been looking at the past few days: I love the powdered sugar look of the snow on these seeds, which are still hanging on the strawberry tree. I've been working on some knitted gifts. I finished the first a few days ago and presented it to its recipient. She seemed to like it. Aran Scarf from the booklet, Knitting Scarves Yarn used: Misti Cotton Needles:...

Too many ideas, not enough time. Too many beginnings, not enough endings. You can see where I'm going with this. I've never really gotten frazzled by the idea of holiday knitting. There haven't been that many people who've requested hand-knit items and I sure don't want to go to all the trouble to have my hard work underappreciated. So, unlike the lovely and talented Yarn Harlot, I don't tend to get into a frenzy. Until now. I'm threatening to frenzy, just a bit. Here's the scorecard: I decided to make a few items for gifts. I won't be too specific, but I had planned a couple of weeks ago to make three things. They are in progress. Then the Princess "sort of" asked for a scarf in Seahawks colors, since she works at the football games and it's getting really cold. So I put other things aside and made her scarf. Then I got caught up in the Noro scarf craze, and found some Cash Island on closeout. It feels a lot softer than the ...