last day of the year

My phone rang this morning at 0445. It was work. The charge nurse said that we had too many people scheduled and nobody wanted to take call and did I want to? I practically screamed "Yes!". Hubby and I just got back from our week long alone camping trip last night I was glad to have the day off to settle in, unpack, and just hang out around the house. We went to Hot Springs, NC. Its about an hour north of Asheville. We hung out, made fires, watched movies, went hiking, took a couple of trips into Asheville (and you KNOW I checked out the two yarn stores they have there and scored me some yarn!) and had some conjugal activities. We picked up all our kids on the way home in addition to picking up my neice from my ex mother-in-law's house and taking her home as well. Nemo was glad to be home to play with his kitties and TingTing isn't even mad at me. I finished one of a pair of toe-up socks on circular needles that I did while we were camping. Surprisingly, I didn't do the mass of knitting I was expecting to, but I did finish a book (The Memory Keeper's Daughter) and am over halfway through The Subtle Knife that my kids got me for Christmas. So, I've got some pictures to post. Let's see, there's our camper, the picture of across the river to the Appalachian trail (which you could see from our campsite), Steven, Nemo, our little fire ring, my red dwarf toe up sock, TingTing when I woke her up, and Zoe the Princess of Graynosia looking very annoyed.
Happy New Year to everyone. Have a good time and be safe and don't let your dog drink your blueberry martini!

Today is our solstice celebration (aka our Christmas celebration). The kids got nintendo ds lites and as you can see they were all camped out in the living room engrossed in playing. Also featured is my stepdaughter in the calorimetry I made for her out of patons grace and some hobby lobby yarn. Nathan is posing in his patriotic peace shirt. Also is my mother-in-law in her finished button shawl done in filatura di crosa sesamo. Hope everybody has a wonderful solstice! NAMASTE

twas the night before solstice

Twas the night before solstice..... or at least it is in our house. I finally got all the presents wrapped and they are under the tree to tantalize the youngsters. Instead of making them from "santa" or "mom" or "dad" I made them from "harry potter", "lucy pevensie", "ashely tidsdale", etc. They each have one from Albus Dumbledore that contains a clue to where there present is hidden. (The presents were to big to wrap so I came up with a sort of treasure hunt.) When they find the next clue, they have to do a crossword type thing to find out where the present actually is. Between my Christmas songs and coming up with this, I need to seek professional help.
I took Nathan to Knitch yesterday to spend his birthday gift card. They were so nice to him and so helpful.... especially Nell. She even let him wind his own yarn... and mine! She was so patient with him with all his questions. He walked out of there with some new yarn and some dpns. I, on the other hand bought some blue sky alpaca and some Rowan calmer.
Maybe tomorrow I'll have some pictures for posting..... after our little family solstice/present celebration.

off 'til New Year's

I survived a 12 hour shift at work yesterday. A coworker came in a little early so that I could bust my tail and make it to my son's chorus concert in time. But now I am off until New Year's eve. Yaaaay! We're doing our family celebration on the 22nd (solstice) and then Steven and I are going out of town for some alone time, camping in NC. Nothing but reading, sleeping, knitting, and conjugal activities.
I made a trip down to Knitch the day before yesterday. I was going for some addi turbos and the new Noro sock yarn, but the manos del uruguay called to me as it was fluffily hung over the railing as you go upstairs. A particular colorway caught my eye (autumn) and before you know it I was asking Stephanie to wind two skeins for me. I'm not real sure what I'm going to do with this yarn, mind you. I thought about some socks, but being that washing and caring for Steven's anniversary socks (done in malabrigo) are kind of a pain in the ass to deal with, albeit very beautiful, I don't know that I want to hand wash socks all the time. Nathan's (who just turned 10 yesterday.... happy birthday Nathan!) hat is done partly in manos and looks great, but I'm not personally a hat person (yes, this yarn is for me. Its my Christmas present to myself.... along with they barefoot yarn I ordered to make the gloves out the Interweave Knits holiday edition and the wick yarn I ordered to make myself some socks with.)
Today I get to wrap the rest of the Christmas presents. I need to sew a button on the caliometry (or however you spell it) that I decided to give my stepdaughter. I also need to do some cleaning, but I'm hoping to get some knitting in as well. I started over with a new pattern for Nathan's sock so maybe I'll work on that. I also have a sweater for Steven that's been hibernating while I finish all these other projects so if I feel real ambitious perhaps I'll dig it out as well.

a little tune

Over the weekend, I came up with a plethora of little tunes to pertain to nursing that are sung to the music of popular Christmas tunes. It had started to become an obsession with me. Then, as I was driving today, I came up with a little ditty for all of us knitters out there. It is to be sung to the tune of Carol of the Bells. Hope you enjoy.
Knit one more inch
don't whine
and bitch
yes, this is wool
likely to itch
do a knit row
now do a purl
slip the edge stitch
or it will curl
Oh no, I'll have to frog this
I'll have to frog this
And there's no time that's left
Got to find another Christmas present
Got to find another Christmas present

Hey, where's that hat?
I'll finish that
Where is my yarn?
Can't find it, darn.
My needles's lost
What will it cost
I need it now
Time won't allow
What ever was I thinking?
I was drinking
Now I'm left in a bind
Got to find another Christmas present
Got to find another Christmas present

kittens love shawls

Oh, who am I kidding? Kittens love yarn. Period. I finally weaved in all the ends and sewed on the buttons to the shawl I am giving my mother in law for Christmas. There is a buttonhold on the other side so that the shawl can be fastened and adjusted to the discerning taste of the wearer. When I spread the shawl out on the floor, my cat Zoe felt compelled to pose with the shawl. I believe she was under the impression that I was taking pictures of her and that the shawl was just a background to bring out her loveliness. The yarn is done in Trendsetter's sesamo and its really a lovely yarn even though you cannot tell it from the pictures. Remember, Amy (www.finerskeinsinlife.blogspot.com) is the photographer, not me. She is, however, not much of a blogger. We love her anyway.
I'm attempting to have a bit of a low-key day. I work the weekend and my hat-wearing son has his piano recital tonight. When I went to pick him up from his father's house yesterday, my ex-husband's wife decided to verbally attack me about a bug she has up her butt in front of my children. I told her that I did not want to discuss things in front of the kids, but she persisted, and my humanness got the best of me after a bit and I had a few words to say to her as well. This just provoked her rage even more and at one point she was literally in my face, her nose touching mine, screaming at me call me everything but a child of God. Needless to say, it was a rather exhausting experience that gave me a headache from out of this world and managed to raise my bp to an unhealthy level. I did not get much sleep last night due to the headache, despite the percocet, so I'm rather tired today. I think that after a nice warm bath I'm going to retire to the couch with some dpns and some chick flick until its time to go to Nathan's recital. If you read in the paper tomorrow that a south Atlanta woman was stabbed to death with her own knitting needles, it will most likely be me as the victim from yet another tyrade.

guarding the tree

This is my beloved Ting Ting guarding the Christmas tree. She takes her job very seriously, that is when she's not sprawled out on her back, laying on the futon in the meditation room. I guess that after a day of stressful tree-guarding, she needs to go do some zen meditation.
I finished one of a pair of socks for my youngest son (the cap modeler). It didn't fit. Bugger. I had bastardized a couple of patterns to come up with what it was that he was wanting and it didn't turn out. It was a highly discouraging experience. It made me feel like my 12 years of knitting experience is little more than random acts of knitting. I mean, c'mon, after knitting for this long you would think I knit a sock to fit a kid, but Nooooooooooooo. so, its back to the drawing board on the socks. In the meantime, I'm frantickly trying to finish up some "fetching" gloves for Christmas presents and trying to maintain a normal blood pressure while doing so.

mad hatter

Finally, a post with pictures. I whipped this hat up and my youngest son, who turns 10 in a couple of weeks, claimed it for himself. I found the pattern on ravelry. The yarns used are manos del uruguay and lamb's pride worsted. The lamb's pride has a mock cable twist and the rest of the hat was done in a 2x2 rib.
Obviously, my picture skills do not rival Amy's (www.finerskeinsinlife.blogspot.com) but at least I have proof of an FO.
The hat actually worked up really quickly on some circular addi turbos.
Nathan is my only prodigy knitter kid. He's also a budding pianist! Classical music fills the house as he practices obsessively every moment he has a chance.
I've got a wrap that I'm working on in Trendsetter's sesamo for my mother-in-law for Christmas but I don't know if its going to get done in time or not. It has now reached the status of "bane of my existance" as some projects become as we try feverently to finish them and the never seem to get to the end.
Steven liked his anniversary socks and promptly put them on his feet.
I've been trying to do some online Christmas shopping this morning. We had virtually gotten NADA. I picked up a few small items the other day, but the major stuff has yet to be done.
Oh.... and in the holiday spirit of things, I've come up with a new random act of kindness...... random acts of bagging! Steven and I got groceries the other day and I was teasing him about his bagging skills (the checkout girl didn't have a bagger so he took it upon himself to bag our stuff). I told him he was so good at it that he should do it for the next person in line. He deferred the task to me, so in an effort to spread some positive energy into the universe, I bagged the man's groceries. I think the checkout lady and the man himself thought I was a little weird, but I think overall they appreciated the attempt at a good deed.