I’m home and sick with nasty chest/cough/headache thing. I promise, I have photos and will post later. Hope everyone has a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Merry Christmas! I hope your holiday season is filled with love, laughter and lots of great company. I know that this past  year I have enjoyed "meeting" everyone through this blog. You have made my year simply amazing! 

We’re leaving for my parent’s house in two days and the only things that I have packed is my yarn and patterns I’m taking. Laundry is done, but not packed. I consider that a huge step because normally I’m doing laundry right up until the last minute. My goal is two pairs of socks in nine days. I’d like to at least get started on the third. We’ll see what happens.

I took the dogs out this afternoon and was able to catch Mercury in a full sprint headed toward Calliope.

Finally, I have some knitting to show off. These are just basic stockinette socks with a 2 inch ribbing at the top and an eye of the partridge heel flap. The coloway is called Chalkboard and it is from sKNITches. Jenny came up today to knit and visit and we had a wonderful time. She is working on a gorgeous blanket for her niece in vibrant colors. I worked on these and finished these up just a few minutes ago. I am winding the yarn to take on my trip and am going through sock patterns like crazy so I don’t get bored! However, I’m going to work on a not yet finished Christmas present. Jenny helped me make sense of the pattern because like a dork, I was trying to make it more complicated than it needed to be!  Happy Knitting ya’ll!

For Beth , whom I told that I’d post a larger photo of the bush in the backyard. I thought I had a full lenth shot,but I don’t. I’ll try to take one when the sun comes out again. It’s been pretty dreary here the last couple of days. We are leaving for Louisiana next week and I’m winding yarn to take with me. We’ll be driving to Louisiana (14 hours) then from there to Alpharetta, GA (11hours) then home (7 hours). LOTS of knitting time. Don’t you think I should make a dent in that sock yarn stash of mine? So far, I have the cashmere for that Christmas present. I’m sure that will be one of the first things I work on. I have LSU yarn for my sister. I have Lorna’s Laces in Black Pearl to knit. Ok, so there’s a story behind that one. I stuck that braided scarf in our Sunday School class gift exchange and we played that game where you can either keep your present or take one. Well, my friend Joyce, got the scarf and the note inside that said "This entitles the bearer to a pair of hand knit socks in the colorwary of his/her choice" Well, she has been wanting me to teach her how to knit and she will teach me to sew. So, she got the card, told everyone it was yarn, stuck the card in her bra and said ‘Ok, so if you want it, you’ll have to come get it!" She kept the card and scarf…lol. Anyway, her favorite color is purple so while she was here, I pulled out all my purple yarn, and she chose the Black Pearl. I’ll get started on those so she can have them sooner rather than later. Ok, where else…there is the pair of socks I’m on the foot of the second sock that is almost done. There is two hanks of Socks that Rock that I have our and a skein of Scout’s yarn I need to knit up for another friend. I’ll be busy, but good gracious, with that much driving, or in my case..riding, I should be able to crank out a couple or three pairs, don’t ya think? I don’t want to take any big projects because I want to be able to put them down and not worry about losing my place. I’m printing out patterns to take along for the socks. I have my trusty Sensational Knitted Socks book ready to go and I have a couple of patterns I purchased online as well as maybe one from the new Knitty. Now, I just have to remember all my needles! I know I wouldn’t have any trouble getting needles in Alpharetta, but in the small town where I’m going in Louisiana, I may be lucky if I found dpns at the local Hobby Lobby. Since I knit on two circulars, that would be bad! Here”s a photo of candy canes that are currently on my table. This was part of the 70 photos I took yesterday when I was procrastinating. Oh, and if anyone has suggestions for the Black Pearl, I’d love to hear them!

Click for a bigger photo and look closely at what is in the back of the truck and what the truck says on the side. It could have been worse, it could have been a big old gator!

This what happens when I’m procrastinating and have writer’s block. I counted my sock yarn. That would be 60 pairs of adult socks waiting to be knit. That doesn’t even count the six or so skeins of Koigu that is somewhere in the stash. It’s a sickness I tell ya. My hubby was horrified. He said "You have WAY too much yarn." I said "You spend too much time playing World of Warcraft, what’s your point?"  Plate of tropical Christmas Flamingos. We had our Sunday School Christmas party at our house over the weekend and they were part of the decoration. I put one of these guys in the pineapple upside down cake I made and the person that got it has to host the next social. (Ok, so it’s my verison of a King Cake…I was missing home)

Candy canes on the table.  What I was working on today. I"m sure you can see ‘raffia’ and ‘leather’

This is a flower from a bush in my backyard. I have no idea what it is , but the whole bush is just covered in them. Sorry for no photos of knitting. I ripped out a hat I was working on, so no photos of that. Maybe tomorrow I’l have some actual knitting content. I am anxiously stalking my mailbox awaiting the January issue of Southern Living as that is when Hurricane Sock Party 2007 will be mentioned. I have already had several signups, so I’m hoping we have lots of participants this year!

Several weeks ago, the choir from the middle school Amanda attends performed at the local grocery store to kick off the holiday season. We had to be there about a half hour before she had to perform. So, like every time I go anywhere and I know that I will have to wait, I stuck the most recent sock in progress in my purse. This is nothing unusual, and Amanda is used to see me whip out the knitting. Anyway, we get there and off she goes to meet up with the choir and her friends and I’m standing in the aisle next to the chip display minding my own business knitting on the sock. About that time, Amanda comes up with three of her friends and says "Mom put your knitting up. Is it your sole mission in life to embarrass me?" To which I looked at her and said "Pretty much." and went back to knitting on the sock. Her mouth dropped open and she walked off. I thought it was pretty funny and she knew she screwed up when she thought she was being funny and it came out as smart ass. I thought it was pretty funny. Pre-teens, gotta love them. I guess she’ll think twice about saying something about my knitting in public again!

December Sunset, Bradenton, Fl.