Getting Ready!

Are you all surviving these last days? I'm not doing too badly this year! The tree is decorated (notice we have ONLY green and blue lights - Mark insists . . . ;-) The presents are all wrapped (well, almost - only one or two more to go!) There is some mystery wrapping going on right now upstairs - I've been banished to the kitchen until further notice. The roast beef is ordered and just needs to be picked up tomorrow. The Italian cold cuts need to be picked up tomorrow for our Christmas Eve feast. And of course we have to bake cookies for Santa tomorrow! We may build a Gingerbread House tomorrow afternoon as well. My sister-in-law bought kits for the kids, but her crew is sick next door, so the Rowing Cat did not go over. We have the kit though, and might make it tomorrow if we have time! And NO MORE HOLIDAY KNITTING!!!!

Here are a few photos of Gore Mountain after the big storm we had last weekend. Pretty nice!
Mark will be instructing 4 days this coming week. He may even go up on Christmas afternoon just to escape the chaos that will be family kids Christmas present exchange on Tuesday afternoon . . .



I've been working on a pair of socks originally started by the Rowing Cat ages ago. The yarn is Austermann Step with the aloe vera. It's very nice to work with. Good bus knitting. I must admit to the mistakes I made with this sock though. I'm working the cuff with the pattern put up by Brenda Dayne of Cast-on. It's a wonderful pattern. Simple, simple, simple and I thought I'd just try it on these socks. But this is the second time doing the cuff. You see, the pattern on Brenda's website is written in four rows for straight needles. The second and fourth row are Purl rows. And she makes note that it can also be worked successfully in the round. Can you see where this is headed??? How many years have I been knitting??? And still I did the first row, then purled the second, did the third row and purled the fourth. And it just didn't look right, but I kept on going. For at least 2 inches. Then, as I was looking at it, and looking at it, and looking at it, the light finally went off (kind of like the Grinch ;-) and I realized that because I was working in the round I just had to KNIT the second and fourth rows, NOT PURL!!!! So I visited the frog pond! I still can't believe I did this! It was a humbling experience!

This is some beautiful Romney wool from the Spunky Eclectic Fiber club that I've been spinning. I really seem to enjoy spinning pure wool. And the colors are wonderful. I drafted the first half of the fiber so that I get good stripe definition. I'll just let the second half spin up as is and the result should be very soft and muted.


Today Mark and the Rowing Cat made Grandma's Secret Christmas Candy. I asked them if I could post pictures and the recipe here. You should have seen both of their faces - publish the SECRET RECIPE?????? So, I'm sorry, you can't have the recipe. Just suffice to say that it involves confectioner's sugar and peanut butter . . . .


And this is what I'm left with! Yes, I am the official cleaner . . .


Well, I've been cleared to enter the rest of the house again, so I think I'll go watch the Patriots and get ready for the heavy rain and high winds we're expecting this evening!