Merry Christmas!

My church hosted a bonfire and Christmas Caroling last night. They had four huge trucks pulling trailers filled with hay bales. Dear daughter wanted to go, so I grudgingly went along. We ended up having a great time, and I got to wear my hat as it was 49 degrees, but here’s my issue. As we would drive through Lakewood Ranch and would come across people outside, we’d say Merry Christmas and wave and sing, so what do those stuck up snotty people do? Nothing! They don’t acknowledge it, they just stare at us like we’ve just landed from Mars. I don’t know, but I remember from when I was in high school, that when we’d go out, people ACTUALLY CAME OUT OF THEIR HOUSES. I have long said that this area of Florida has to be the most unfriendliest place on earth, and after last night, I believe that more and more. I had the honor of meeting a family from Gulfport Mississippi that were here for the holidays. Thankfully, they already have a new roof on their house and no water damage to the sheetrock on the interior. They had the most upbeat attitude and were exicted to be here as their families are here and the kids are having a great time. I’m glad they were able to come hang out with us for a while at the church. Here’s a photo of the daughter in her Hermione Hat and a scarf that I knit for her.

This is my hat knit out of I "think" Manos. My SP6 sent it to me. The pattern calls for it to be snug like a beanie, but I hate hat hair and since I don’t use hats unless I go to Atlanta, I wanted something a bit looser. I knit it on size 15 Addi Turbos at 70 stitches. And here’s me wearing the hat. It is supposed to be chilly next week while we’re in Atlanta, so I will take it then. It’s on the cool side here today, so what the heck, I might just wear it to lunch.

Here is the back of the Ribby Cardi from Chic Knits. It’s for Amanda and she picked out the colors. The body will be black with pink sleeves. She’s into black and pink these days. This is an etrelac scarf in Mardi Gras colors. I’m not following a pattern as to where to put the colors, I’m just making it up. My birthday in 2006 falls on Mardi Gras Day, and while it might be warm here, I’ll wear it anyway!

Here is my recent acquisition of Cascade 220. The lighter green and the blue I got on my yarn crawl last week through Orlando. I have no idea what I will do with it. I do know that the purple is destined to be a hat for my niece. Probably with pink stripes. Amy asked for an Esther Williams hat, and that will probably be done of the blue or green. This last photo is of some fabulous Koigu from Sip and Knit in Maitland. I have to confess, I was real disappointed in the shop. We had heard wonderful things about it, but all in all, other than the Koigu, we were disappointed. This will be a Multidirectional Scarf. The colors in this are just beautiful. I’m working on the Ribby Cardi and will cast on for the hat for my niece sometime this week. She now lives in Atlanta and right now, her three year old self hates the cold. I made her a hat last year while in Atlanta over the holidays. I think it’s probably to small, so a nice warm purple and pink hat will do the trick. I’ll probably knit up a hat for DJ, her two year old ball of energy brother. Lots of knitting to be done over the next two weeks!

Taken two seconds before Calliope took a jump for it and ran to hide.

I needed another present to add to one that I had already bought, so I ran to Joanns and picked up some Lion Brand BIG yarn. I’m so spoiled with the good stuff, and I haven’t knitted anything on size 19s in over two years, so this was fun and quick. Start to finish, probably two hours. I knit on it off and on through out the day, but total time was probably two hours. Surprisingly, the Lion Brand didn’t feel too bad. It has acrylic, but since this person had toddlers, I figured she could use somthing she could wash. It was knit using a plain seed stitch. It quite heavy, but I could easily seeing knitting an afghan out of this as it would be really really warm.

Here’s a close up of the seed stitch:

Believe it or not, I have pictures! This is the Esther Williams hat from Poor Miss Finch. It should have a crocheted edge to it to give it that retro bathing cap look, but A vetoed that idea. This next photo is fingerless gloves that is made out of Knit Picks Sock Garden in Pansy. And THIS, is my very exicted 6th Grader. She won FIRST PLACE in the Engineering Division for her Middle School Science Fair. We are so proud of her. She took three paper airplane designs out of four different weights of paper to see which would fly the longest distance. The funny story in this is that the night before we were up until after midnight working on it because she had procrastinated until the last week. We would have been happy with a passing grade, instead, she WINS the whole darn thing. She did all the work herself, I just helped her put the data into Excel so she could make a graph. So, now, she’s off to compete at the county level.

I finished Amy’s mistake rib scarf, but I didn’t take a picture before I sent it to her. She needs to send me a photo of her wearing it…hint hint Amy!

I don’t like shopping in the best of times, so shopping during December just makes my skin crawl. Today, I had to run to Bealls (which is kind of like Dillards) to get a baby present. So  I ran in, scored a ton of Clearance stuff (plus an EXTRA 40% off) and decided to use the free gift wrap service because I suck at wrapping.Bad move #1… all the  Beall’s employees move at the speed of molassas in January in New York. Bad move on my part #2 I got to the gift wrap desk and got behind a woman who must have done ALL of her shopping for 47 grandkids there and was using the gift wrap service. Each gift had to be individually wrapped and then she couldn’t remember who it was for once it was wrapped. Every person in line just looked at the woman like she was crazy or insane, or both. I was tempted to had her $20 and tell her to go buy her own wrapping paper and let the rest of us who had only a couple of things to wrap, get on with our lives. She was still standing there when I finally left 30 minute later with another buggy full of stuff. I hate the holidays. On a Knitterly note. I have finally started Amanda’s ribby cardi and I have an entrelac scarf in Mardi Gras Colors on the needles. I have to knit the cardi in the daylight as the body is done in black yarn and there isn’t enough light in my house at night to see what I’m doing with that yarn. The Mardi Gras Scarf is very um…bright. Just like New Orleans My homage to the city. Since Mardi Gras Day falls on my birthday in 2006, I’ll wear it in honor of Louisiana. If you are in Louisana and can get LPB, be sure to watch tonight. They are doing a story on towns with unusual names, and Dry Prong is one of them. My dad was interviewed for this story and will be on tv. I won’t get to see is unless someone tapes it. I still have no photos because the laptop is not cooperatng with my camera’s software. Jen and I are doing a yarn crawl tomorrow in Orlando. FUN in the sun!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

May your turkey be juicy and you get plenty of knitting time today.