New Year

Well, it's finally here. 2010. It's going to take a few months of trial and error before I can write the correct year. Happens every year. It takes me to, oh, about mid-March before my brain kicks in that the year is different.
First I want to wrap up 2009, at least on a knitting perspective. I like what I knit this year. Sometimes I can't say that. But this past year I feel like I did like everything. And if I didn't like it, I realized it's OK to frog a whole back of a vest {cabled} and part of the fronts because I didn't like it.
Granted, I didn't finish everything I started last year. I've still got a skirt, a hat, some mitts, socks and an owlish sweater leftover. But I figure I'll get to finishing them when I get to it.
On a personal note, my hubby and I had our 15th wedding anniversary last week. And, frankly, I think, in this day and age, that's a great accomplishment!
So, on that note, I hope everyone has had a successful first week of 2010!

Merry Christmas

The Nativity from Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona, AZ [jan. 2009]

Cocoa and Snowmen, Arizona Style

Mexican hot chocolate and snowmen on a gift bag.

Happy First Day of Winter

Dumplings All In A Row

Grey, misty mountains this morning. There is some snow up on the higher peaks. Just misty clouds now, and I think it's starting to rain.

The three little dumplings all in a row. This is before felting. (For those of you who don't know, these are from IK, Fall 2008.)

After felting.

These were started back in October. I did the brown one first, then the purple, and then the green was done last Thursday and felted on Friday. Since this is the last week of school before the Christmas break, these had to be done by the weekend. I knew it would take a couple of days to dry, and sure enough, this morning they were dry. All three are gifts for my kids' teachers. The purple is for the LittleOne's teacher, and the Munchkin has two teachers this year, a homeroom/math/science and then a language arts/social studies teacher. I like all three, so this year I decided to hand-make something for them. I am going to fill them with cocoa, tea and some chocolate. Something useful for them.
My ravelry page has some individual pictures of the bags before and after felting. I don't know which one I like the best. They all came out good (if I do say so myself)!
Off to the store to finish up all those last minute things!

Something Really Neat

Check out Habit.

Their pictures and the captions/comments about each are really cool.

Ella, Hats and Socks

Poor, poor Ella. She has such patience! The LittleOne had her birthday party with her girls over on Saturday, and they proceeded to use their science skills of static electricity to stick the balloons all over her. Isn't she cute!


Our outside Christmas tree got put up on Saturday as well. We re-did the backyard over the last month or so. It was all concrete and dirt, and we put pavers across the entire back and made sort of an outside AZ room-- we now have an outside living room/dining room.

My new hat! Owls! Owls! The hat pattern is the Who? [rav link] pattern. This is a great warm hat. The little bumps on the side are short rows (an idea taken from Cameron's Cap), to cover my ears. I love this hat! It's warm without being too heavy. I used 1 1/2 skeins of Lite Lopi in grey and made the ribbing longer and the top a little longer, too. (I'll wear it this morning to walk Ella as it's blustery and raining.)

And my socks! Took me over a year, but I finished them! Don't know why! They're socks, small, portable and easy to finish, but took me a long time. The second one only took, like 5 days to finish! Yay! These are spring pools [rav link], but I think in this picture, I look like I have Grinch feet --sort of fitting with the season! These are great. My first toe-up and magic loop socks. Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock yarn, 2 skeins in bright green. I did make them longer, did 4 reps of the leg.

There's my update for now! My kids have only two more weeks of school and then they're off for Christmas break for about 3 weeks! So, I'm going to be running around trying to get all my stuff done and knits knitted!

Now...It's December and Dogs on Thursday

I do have pictures of some finished things (on the camera) that I need to upload of what I've been working on, but for now, enjoy Tully sleeping on my dad's foot. Tully belongs to my parents. They retired this summer, went on vacation, and then came home and got a dog. It's difficult to get a pict of Tully and Ella--they like to play and Tully runs fast. I'll try next time they're together.

I have teacher gifts that I'm trying to finish (three of the same thing), hats that I've made, a pair of socks (these took me a year--go figure), a frogged sweater that turned into something better (at least I hope so) and I think that's it.
So...hopefully I'll be back later today with some pictures of some knitted goods.