Christmas Goodies

Whew - I survived another Christmas! Here is our "eerie" Christmas photo. I'm not quite sure how I managed it with the camera, but it's interesting!


Here is a picture of the completed hand warmers for the Rowing Cat! She loved them and has hardly taken them off! The "I'm making a pair of socks" ruse worked - she had no idea! Her friends at school are going to be jealous of these if they thought her "Amethyst" hat was "cool"! She even received a compliment on them from one of the ladies at the yarn store this morning!

And now for the most amazing news! For Christmas I received a very soft skein of llama yarn from Saratoga Llamas. That in itself is tremendous, but it's the paper underneath that is the real gift!

My husband is giving me 6 hours of spinning lessons with Lin Woods from Saratoga Llamas!!! And, at the end of the lessons, he is going to buy me a spinning wheel of my choice! How great is that! I was so surprised and still can't really believe it. Just the fact that he went by himself into the yarn store to ask about spinning and then continued, by himself, to Saratoga Llamas to talk to Lin is amazing! And the best part is that Lin has her students spin on each of the wheels that she has, so by the end of the course, you have an idea of the brand/type of wheel you feel most comfortable with. I could not think of a better present! (Letting him sell his used scull and buy a new one this spring was worth it!)



Mark worked at Gore Mountain on Christmas Day, so I was inspired to finish the shawl I have been working on for 4 years! The Rowing Cat almost fell off of her chair when I showed her the finished product - she's been bugging me about it forever! Of course, as soon as I put it down on the chair the cat decided it was the perfect location for a nap . . . I have to check and see if I have enough blocking pins, and if I do I'm going to block it this afternoon. Stay tuned for some lace magic!

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by Stephanie to list "6 Weird Things About You."

Here are the rules:

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you." People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly.In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog.


1. I don't like to make phonecalls. Email is great!

2. I like the TP to roll from the back, not over the top. I'll change it if the roll is put on the "wrong" way.

3. I don't like to dust under the bed - where does all that stuff come from???

4. I go around the house turning off lights - drives my husband CRAZY!

5. I can bend my left pinkie finger almost all the way back to my wrist - very weird.

6. I always have at least 3 books going - one for the living room, one in the bedroom and one at work.

And I tag: Anne, Knitting Knirvana, Midnight 2 Sticks, Rain and my Secret Pal!

Some Holiday Knitting!

The Christmas countdown has begun . . . The tree is up and trimmed. There are presents under the tree (mine and Mark's)! None for the Rowing Cat yet - she is very upset about that :-) I do, however, still have wrapping for her to do. Tonight we'll be making my family's peanut butter fudge recipe. Of course I had to make a quick Price Chopper stop this morning before work to pick up the forgotten Butterscotch Morsels . . . Upon completion of the fudge, the Chrismas candy war will begin. Mark's grandmother made Peanut Butter Christmas Candy every year and he is the one in the family the recipe passed down to. It is a mixture of peanut butter and confectioners sugar. It has always been too sweet for my taste, so we argue every Christmas about which recipe is the best! The Rowing Cat falls on both sides of the fence as you can imagine!

We watched The Christmas Story this weekend! What a fun movie! The Rowing Cat had never seen it, so it was really a treat - I had forgotten how funny it was! This will be on our holiday viewing list from now on.

We also found out that Mark has to work at Gore Mountain on Christmas Day. This will mean getting up insanely early and opening half of our presents before he has to leave and then opening the rest when he gets home. This will be somewhat crazy! It also means that I'll be responsible for properly cooking the Christmas Roast - YIKES! This is going to call for lots of spiked eggnog! The Rowing Cat and I will spend the afternoon next door at my brother's letting the little ones open family presents. Another YIKES! But I'm hoping for some quiet knitting time to bring back my sanity - is that too much to ask??


Here is the start of my EZ sweater - the seamless pullover - page 66 or 68? in my copy of Knitting Without Tears. I must admit though that this has already been ripped out. I thought I would like to do a turned hem on it, but knitting the hem together did not go well. So out it came. Which turned out to be a good thing because I discovered that my gauge was off. If I had continued with this, the sweater would have been HUGE! So, I'll be casting on again with a smaller number of stitches and will just let the stockinette roll happen on the bottom!



These three are scarves I brought in as Holiday gifts for my co-workers! I think they're just fun little treats! Also very impressive to the non-knitter! Definitely going for the WOW factor at work ;-)




And I found out that our cousin Lexie, sister of Anne has gotten engaged!!! Looks like a summer trip to Montana - twist my arm!!

Getting Ready!

Here is a picture of my Secret Pal roving spun up ready to go into the cooking pot! I really like the colors. I've cast on for an Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater knit in round from Knitting Without Tears. I'm using an off-white Cascade 220 for the body and will use this yarn for contrast on the yoke. I think it will look great! But lots of stockinette to get through . . .

Here is the yarn all wound up and ready to go!

And here is a scarf I'm knitting up with the Briar Rose yarn I purchased at Rhinebeck. I love the colors - greens and blues. I'm using a Lily Chin cable pattern that I have used before. It was inspired by a post on this great blog: http://www.verypink.com/parasceva.htm

I think this will be a Christmas present for someone!

We had great news this weekend - Mark is now an official Ski Instructor at Gore Mountain!!! He went to a two day instructor course and was one of 25 out of 60 participants chosen for a job this winter! He'll be able to keep in great shape for next season's rowing competitions!

If you have a chance head on over to our Montana cousin Anne's blog and give her a big hello! http://eweknittoo.blogspot.com/