On the 7th Day of Vacation

I had a perfect day. I slept in. The sun was shining. I was alone! Everyone else was at work.

I popped Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell CD in the player, cranked it up and decided to tackle the blocking of one of Carol's Clever Little Shawl.

As you can tell, it didn't happen! I don't seem to have any pins that will hold down the points for blocking. So, that did not discourage me, I just moved onto something else.

Decided to sit and catch up on another Stash and Burn Podcast. That got me into trouble. They sent me to Ravelry (the time sucker) and before I knew it, I was joining another group. That is where Linda caught me.

We had a great phone conversation (I cannot believe how tuned in to each other we were). It was a great pick up to an already great day.

Finally, I got into taking my tree down, took a shower, got dressed and plopped myself down with a book!

The tall guy and Baby Boy B came home from work....and I was still giddy as to what a great day I had. Sometimes you just need that!

On the Sixth Day of Vacation

was pizza and celebrating with friends from work. And reading. And absolutely no knitting.....and the realization that the 12 days of vacation are half way over!

Time to get serious.

On the Fifth Day of Vacation

I discovered how handy these pattern tamers could be for holding my spot in a knitting book. When I bought them back last Summer, I thought they looked liked a good idea for following charts.

The first time I tried them, I wondered if I had made a mistake. I sat them aside until this weekend, when I needed something to hold my spot in the book. Voila! Not such a bad idea.

I did not knit at all on the fifth day, instead I caught up on some much needed magazine reading. That now complete, I started swatching the Debbie Bliss after midnight, which technically is the sixth day.

We had a sickie in the house on the fifth day. I hope it stays confined to that one!

On the 3rd and 4th Day of Vacation

I watched t.v and knitted. I love these Marathons on USA. Friday I spent the day watching House and Saturday I spent the day watching NCIS. In my jammies until I absolutely HAD to get dressed to grocery shop and then celebrate my mom and my nephew's birthday. I see a trend here!

Through all of the great t.v. I got to finish Rachel's Jacket on Day 4. It needs some blocking and I will be on the search for a perfect button to close it when I venture out.

Actually, I have about four things that now need blocking. I should really get to that this week while I am off as well.

Who would of thought a week ago when we were in the deep freeze with ice freezing the parking lots like ice skating rinks that not a week later we would be having tornado warnings, 60 degree weather and rivers overflowing?

Now, I'm not complaining because I am glad to see the stuff gone! But, it sure did look a little gray on Day 4.

But, I stayed dry and had my knitting. I was going out to Dunlap for soup, but felt a touch under the weather so I stayed home. I think it was just my stomach telling me I had been eating way too much sugar!

On The Second Day of Vacation

It was a different kind of Christmas. Since the kids were home on Monday, we celebrated like it was Christmas then. My mom came down for lunch with the three of us and I ate myself silly.

I'm becoming a monagomous knitter these days. Even though, I want to cast on with the Debbie Bliss Tweed, I am knitting away on Rachel's jacket from Cheryl Oberle.

Thats my new yarn scale I'm holding there. It already has come in handy.

On The First Day of Vacation

I worked on Rachel's Jacket from Cheryl Oberle's new book Knitted Jackets. This one is going fast and I love the feel of the mohair yarn.


While knitting I downloaded some new podcasts for on my iPod. And watched the video of the wedding and reception that the kids gave us for Christmas. It was fun to watch it.

On Monday, when the kids were here, we opened presents and I got just what I wanted. Speakers for my iPod. It is come in quite handy on the first day of vacation.

Day 1 was perfect. Stayed in my jammies until almost 4:00 when we had to get ready to go to Christmas Eve dinner at the in-laws. What a great day!

Merry Christmas!

Twelve Days

Not of Christmas, but of vacation. I don't have to go back to work for 12 days!

What will I do? Since I cleaned really well last weekend before we celebrated Christmas with the kids and family, I don't have to do that.

So, I have plans to knit and knit and watch some DVDs -- some of them movies, some of the knitting and just catch up on some things.

Now, there are also plans to eat. It seems about every other day I'll be eating somewhere, sometimes twice a day...here's my unofficial rundown.

24th, Tonight, Christmas Eve with the in-laws.
25th Tomorrow, Christmas Lunch with my mom.
27th - Soup at Knit Four Together in Dunlap (weather permitting) at noon, later that day, celebrate my mom's and nephew's birthday
29th - Pizza and get together with some girls I work with at noon, later that night celebrating a friend's daughter's 21st birthday at Goodfella's with beer and pizza
1st - New Year's Day Fun and Knitting


January 2nd!!!! Done....start preparing for going back to work and Weight Watchers.

It's going to be a great 12 days!

Just Another Wild Hair


I did not get the intended stocking done for DIL, but I did make four of these little stockings for the ladies in Accounting. I wasn't going to do them, but then had a wild thought that I could use up some cookies and candies (in little packages) that we received as a gift. That and a couple of them gave me a little something and instead of just saying thanks, I felt like I should do something for them.

What the heck and they were kind of fun.

DIL didn't mind that she had a temporary stocking

Happy Hanukkah!

It's Beautiful


But damn, it's cold outside (high of 6 degrees). I am staying in today. I have a list. I'm cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, yarn room and vacuuming the house. The kids from Memphis will be in very early Monday. They will stay for about a day and leave tomorrow night for Quincy. Then home Tuesday night. Baby Boy A has to work at 6 am Wednesday. It makes me tired just thinking about it!

We'll celebrate tomorrow at noon with the grandparents at our house. We celebrated last night with my neice and the tall guy's sister's house. This is going to be one celebrating Christmas!

We're off tomorrow to celebrate, back to work on Tuesday and then I'm off til the first week of January. This is gonna be nice. Lots of knitting on my schedule!

Keep warm everybody!

It's Been A Long Day

Spent the entire day at the hospital with MIL. Waiting, trying a couple of different possibilities of stockings for DIL for Monday. And watching the weather. The endless wait for a doctor to come in and the endless wait for promised sleet and ice.

Finally, the doctor came, released her to go home, and thank goodness no ice and sleet until about an hour ago. No stocking completed either, but I have narrowed it down to the just the purple yarn and am back with my original plan. Now, I just have to complete it by Monday. Hopefully, we won't lose power with this stupid storm.

Not sure if I'll go to work first thing tomorrow morning. I may sit it out until the weather warms up. So that would give me some time to work on the stocking. For now, I'm going to bed, I am tired!

Back To


Finally, I have some things to blog about besides the weather. Oh, there is weather to report, but that can wait, I have knitting to report. Finished the little hat for my great niece for Saturday. Wasn't real difficult, but still I can check it off of the list.

Also, can't show you what it WAS in this bag, but lets just say it is also finished. Now, if the weather would just cooperate for Thursday night and the Radical Knitters then I can show you what was in the bag.

One more Christmas thing to knit and it is for Monday and then I can go back to ME knitting!

I Couldn't Resist!

I don't know if the book is any good or not, but the cover jacket front and back made me buy it.

"SoCal's newesthotspot isn't a bar or a club, it's the beachside knitting shop at Malibu & Ewe" It clearly has a knitting theme and of course my other fave - the beach! I hope it is worth reading. I'll let you all know and will share when I am finished.

Tomorrow, I am off to some shoppin...I hope to have the knittin friends done by days end.

Sorry I'm Busy Knitting

Nothing to show, nothing to report, just busy knitting some last minute presents.

And wearin my sweaters since it is starting to get cold again!

More later

Visions of Gift Giving Is Dancin In My Head

19 days til Christmas, 14 days til the kids are supposed to be here for a quick Christmas. And I am just now thinkin of all the cool things I could knit for the daughter-in-law.

Why? Because finally, things should be calming down and I have a chance to think. I don't have my tree up but I do have the rest of the decorating done. The Girls Holiday Bash is over for another year. Although work is still busy, I should not be working 11 hour days now. It should settle to about 9 hours instead.

I'm off to Dunlap today to pick up some yarn for another Carol's Clever Shawl (love those things) and a couple of other things that are on my list.

It's cold here in Central IL and just a snow shower here and there are predicted. Winter is here and OUT come the sweaters to be worn!

Memphis Knitting

As always I packed too much knitting for the Memphis trip, but here is what I did accomoplish.

Who would have known how long it takes to knit 7 inches? This was my car knitting down and back (when not sleeping). But when it is boring garter and you have 160 stitches to go back and forth on it takes a bit of time

I'm finally on the downhill stretch on it. I am on the sleeve and then just have to do the icord around the fronts and neck. I hope to have it finished by the weekend.
This hat I have already torn out, I think it was just too big for a two month old. And I am not so crazy about the pink Debbie Bliss color. Love the cashmerino, but just think the pink is kind of dull and dark. It just looks dirty to me.

The one thing I did finish. This is also from the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Pink. It is the Squash hat from 101 Designer One Skein Book. After I finished it, it seemed to me a little small for a head that is going to grow over the next few months. She would not get much wear out of it.

So, instead I am going to give it to a co-worker for her new granddaughter to be.

Back to the drawing board on a winter hat for the two month old.

Whats This Stuff?

Not exactly what I wanted to see on the last day of November. Does this mean we are going to have 30 snows for the season? When I heard a Winter Storm Watch I was surprised. I thought it was just suppose to be some slushy stuff.

The weatherman was telling us that some areas around us got 6 inches. I guess I should be grateful we just got a bit. I'm not quite ready for this!

We're Back!

It was a great trip. This was the kid's first Thanksgiving in their new house and was full of new experiences for them, my mom and for us.


A first time for Baby Boy A to cook the turkey and carve it. He did a pretty good job on both. Of course, he had a little help from his dad on determining whether it was done or not. His brother spent the night at their house so I am sure he also helped in getting it all set up outside for cooking too.

Have to give the men credit where it is due.











The two of them are perfect together. She is quite the baker and made the pies as well as the mashed and sweet potatoes.

And she knows the way to her mother-in-law's heart. She checked to see what time Yarniverse was opening on Friday to see if I could make a trip there before we headed out. She's good, I think we'll keep her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Off To Memphis

Tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning, we are off to Memphis to spend Thanksgiving with Baby Boy A and his wife. Baby Boy B and my mom are going with us. This is the first time in a LONGGGGG time that we have been gone for Thanksgiving. We are all looking forward to it.

Do you think I have enough projects for the trip down and back?

New Books
On a whim, I went into Barnes and Noble to see if they had the new Cheryl Oberle jacket book on Saturday. I looked at several of their books and pulled out Cheryl's without even really noticing it. I started to put it back and realized what I had in my hand.>This is a fantastic book and there are several I want to make out of it like right now.

Like this one out of the pink mohair and tweed Cascade 220 I have been toying with for a couple of months. It originally was going to be a simple cardigan, but I think the tightness of the gauge was going to make it a really heavy sweater. This one from Cheryl's book is perfect I think. I am just whipping up a swatch first and then will decide where to go from there.
While perusing the books I came upon this Debbie Bliss book too so as an early Christmas present to myself I bought it too. It has a great coat in it and a couple of neat sweaters for future knitting purposes. Not for right now, but maybe later.

Remember Last Saturday

I was quite pleased that I walked out of the yarn shop with nothing! Remember that? Well, not so much this week. I went over to Dunlap to get some baby yarn.
Which I did. For Lila Rose for Christmas for a sweater and hat. And yarn for an immediate hat!. These days babies are so snuggled into their car seats and put into warm cars that they don't need much in coats. But, when we were up there a couple of weeks ago, the poor girl had a borrowed hat and was not very girlie at all. And Auntie Pen did not have any girlie yarn.

I have been looking at a couple of sweaters out of the Debbie Bliss magazine for sometime. And not being real imaginative on color and wanting to do this for someone, I had an ah ha moment. I have a daughter-in-law. Who likes purple. So I ordered this Debbie Bliss silk yesterday for this sweater.

I don't have to have it done for Christmas, so I ordered the yarn to be knit later. Now, I can hardly wait til it comes in. But, it will be a couple of weeks with the holiday and all.

One of the others that I have been repeatedly looking at is this sweater for me from the Debbie Bliss magazine. I had some birthday money and so I finally decided to order it for me. In the green. It was a toss up between the blue and the green.

Since I just finished a blue coat, I thought I do a change and go with the green.
The color card shows a little lighter green than the in the picture and I am hoping that is the case with my yarn when it comes in.

In the mean time, I got a thing or two to knit for Christmas so I had better make the most of my couple of weeks and get them accomplished.

This Is Unusual


Yesterday, I got both my Knitters and Interweave Knits. I thumbed through both starting with Knitters. Normally, after the thumb through of Knitters, I toss it in the pile to file and grumble about what is in it.



Then I turn to Interweave Knits and oooh and ahh over what is in it and make a list of what I would like to knit. Not this time. It was just the opposite. This time Knitters will get a second look and I'll just go back to IK for the articles.

Even the ads seemed to look better in Knitters this time.

On My Mind

This Pea Coat is still on my mind. Now, I know that winter is setting in and if I bought the yarn for this coat, I would not be able to wear it til Spring, BUT....

Wouldn't it be great to have it actually done in time to wear for Spring? I am thinkin real hard about this one. But, first I have to finish the sweater I am working on now.

Aren't you proud of me?

A Week Of Birthdays

I think my birthday is over now. It took about a week of celebrating with lunches, dinners, cakes and partying.

And really cool gifts.

It was a great week! Thank you all.

Red Letter Day

I went into a yarn shop on Saturday and came out with nothing!!! Yes, I said nothing. I must be coming down with something.

I did come home and worked a bit on my Noro Silk Garden Scarf. I like working on it. It is kind of cool waiting to see what colors will come up next. It is going to be a great Memphis car project.

Burning A Hole

I told myself that I would stay home today. I NEED to clean my kitchen and bathroom. I NEED to block the two Carol's Clever Shawls and the coat. The weather is supposed to be crappy. But---

I got some birthday money and it is burning a hole in my pocket. I want to knit something out of the Debbie Bliss magazine but it can really wait to be ordered when my Alpaca comes in at Dunlap, maybe next Saturday then I can go out there.

BUT, Morton is closer and I need to see what is new over there. And I don't think Dunlap carries Noro Silk Garden and I think I need a third color for a scarf I want to do. But, I really want to go to Dunlap.


I know as sure as I am sitting here that I am going to a yarn shop today! It is kind of like a Saturday ritual for me. As much as I go to Dunlap these days, they should hire me!

New Books


For reading and knitting this week. The first is Franklin's book. What a hoot! It is a fun read and his cartoons are a good laugh.

I seem to be collecting these one skein knitting books. This one has several things I want to knit. The only problem is most of them are yarns my local shops do not carry so I will need to investigate the yarn weights on them.


I ordered this book at Stitches in August. Elaine Rowley showed me the technique in Chicago. I can hardly wait to try it out. It might me a great project to take on the road to Memphis at Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, where is this month going to?

To Fringe or Not To Fringe

Finished on the way back from Aurora from my great-neices dedication. Now, I just need to fringe and it will be ready for those cold winds and my long gray coat.

Time to start some sox as my traveling/lunch project!

The Tale of Two Sweaters

I am working on two sweaters at once. Quelle surprise? Both of them I am afraid are going to have similar fates. You see, I am not sure that I will have enough yarn for either of them. In both cases, I bought all my local yarn shop has.

This raspberry number has two yarns combined. Cascade 220 Tweed and Mohair LaGran. I am kind of rewriting the pattern to adapt for the much larger gauge than specified in the pattern and the need for more sleeve width.


With this little stripe number, I bought just enough yarn! None to spare.

So as I plod along on both of them, I am knitting with baited breath to see what the outcome will be. I am living on faith and a prayer.

Another One Is Done

My second Carol's Clever Shawlette is done. I actually finished it more than a week ago, but so much has been going on that this is the first I got a chance to brag, I mean blog on it. It still needs to be blocked as does my coat, but at least for now this is on the finished list.

It is knitted from Alpaca With A Twist. I was hoping that it could be knit out of just one huge skein, but it took a little more than that. So it is a good thing Karen and I split a second skein.

And finally, the election is over! What will the news report now? I am sure we will have a few days of post election interviews, but I for one am glad it is done. Now, we can get back to our regularly scheduled programs.

Have You Been Shoppin Lately?

Yesterday, I went out to our little mall and did a little shoppin/lookin. All kinds of possibilities out there in ready to wear. These pieces are just being begged to be reproduced at my hands.

I just could not get over all of the possibilities. I just had to blog about them. At somepoint, I have to try one or two of them, but not at the moment. Too many other projects are awaitin in the shadows.