The Last Word

 So, I remade the sock toe up so I would know how much yarn was left and reduced the number of stitches according to the directions and..........it looks too skinny.

 I ripped back and recalculated the pattern and left it with the same number of stitches as the foot and...
it was too fat. 

 I decided that a 2x2 rib is better than entrelac on a sock leg.  On to the second sock!

 I am not sure if PuffDaddy understands what the suitcase means but he has claimed it for his own....we are going to spend a week in Georgia, spending New Year's with Bruce, Marsel and family-even Matthew and Caleb have a few days off so we will celebrate Christmas and New Year together!

All the packing has tired us out............on meds from the doctor; should be right as rain soon!

Family First

We enjoyed a wonderful day of each other's company, good food and lots of laughs.

(The green tape on the wall is marking where the fireplace and mantel will be goin in!)

The weather was mild, mid 70's and so we played a lot of shuffle board!  Bill and I did not do our generation proud........

Today, the boys are back in their home and Bill and I are in the sick ward.  Tomorrow we will be celebrating the new week by a trip to the doctor's.

What a social life!

Merry Christmas!

From my house to yours...........

Just Kicked!

                                
I ripped out the entrelac sock, I just prefer to make mine toe up and so I ripped it out and cast on for the toe.  After the foot is done and I am ready to do the leg again, I will try the entrelac again.  There was too much poofiness in the entrelac area compared to the ribbing and the stockinette stitch just before the heel.  It just didn't look right to me.  Once again, I am grateful that yarn is reusable! 

Getting ready for my two youngest sons to arrive this evening, the cookies are made, the shelves are stocked full of snacks and we are ready to savor the weekend.

This was my view while trying to have computer time this morning.........Bling and Nyki had bath time.

JD wanted to see the cool solitaire graphics and PuffDaddy was on my lap asking for a good head rub. 

Kicking It Up!

I am using my newly learned skills of entrelac and applying them to sock knitting!  Once I wrapped my head around the circular differences, it is going well!  This was another one of the skeins from Marsel.  I hope to finish it so that she can wear them next week!  I am really enjoying this knitting.  (I am using a pattern from Ravelry titled Entrelac Socks for Noro Kureyon)

I finished the secret project........wonderful knit with only one skein of sock yarn required (450yds)!

Hitting the Speed Limit...

 Quite a large number of turkeys were enjoying the feast of cracked corn in the feeders out back.

 The frosty temperatures have yielded some amazing color for our trees!

 speaking of Frosty, here is a snowman done Southern style! 

 I opened my birthday presents and cards this morning with help from my felines!  (Yarn, fabric and quilting mag....is there a theme here?!)

 And this evening, I enjoyed some delicious pizza and great company!  (When your own family isn't close, God provides some very special people to fill that need!)

Be sure and catch the lunar eclipse tonight-I have set my alarm to wake up to watch it at 3am!

(The title was a hint at how old I am........but not interstate speed yet!)

Winter Blast

I dug my old quilt rack out of storage just in time to hang a Christmas quilt!  Both are projects from long ago.....

Yes, the freeze has hit us hard.  Tonight should be our last freeze for a while again.  I am ready to have it move on!

We kept the sprinklers on all night to give the plants a little insulation.  Our temperature hit the 22F mark again, which is pretty cold for us!

What do you do when it is so cold outside?  Play on the computer.......

.........knit,

...and wrap packages for Christmas.

This is a gift from a friend.......made by a knitter for a knitter!  Isn't it clever?!  Thanks, Sandy!

The needles have been busy.  We had to go to Daytona yesterday and have the car's oil changed and so I had plenty of knitting time on the way and back.  This is for Marsel; she mails the yarn, I knit it and we are both happy with the results!

I also have some Christmas knitting going on, this has been blacked and whited to hide the colors of the yarn but it looks good in this color, too!  More on this project later........

Suffolk Yarn

Last week I dyed the last of my suffolk wool,

blended and carded the fibers into batts,

Next, I rolled up the batts to ready them for spinning.

The yarn spun up sport weight size and into two skeins of yarn.

I used the last little bit of natural roving from the suffolk fleece and ventured into the world of thrumming!

These are so luxurious to wear because they are light weight, soft and yet so warm!  I have enough to make another pair which I will be casting on today!  It is amazing how warm your whole body becomes because of heating up your wrists.  (If you linger over the physics of warming your wrists, it makes perfect sense but to know this by experience is how the light bulb goes off for me! :')

Spinning Friends

I have found a friend, Elayne, that lives just over a mile from me and she is a spinner!  Not only is that is a wonder but she is also a master knitter.  I see quite a bit of time spent together for fiber adventures  in our future!  Today, we went to the Pioneer Settlement in Barberville for their Florida Christmas Remembered. 

It was very cold this morning but did warm up a bit by lunch time!  I was bundled and layered and just waiting for the sunshine to bring us some heat!

I brought the roving I dyed yesterday and started spinning; it was wonderful to meet so many nice people and share what we do with wool.

 I did add a bit more of color to the roving but not too much.  It spun up very nicely and the colors are the colors of the mountains/sky or even the ocean...a very nice combination. 

In the early afternoon, I met  a  fellow blogger, Loree.  We had corresponded through emails and I had hoped she could make it here and she did! She is looking to move to our area of Florida and we were thrilled to think she could be close enough to join in on a regular basis, too. 
(See the poncho Elayne is wearing?  It is done in the style of a South American mola design.  I hope to get a lesson on how to knit one , too!)

I finished my skein when I got home, 250 yards of fingering weight superwash.  A perfect momento for a great day together.

Knittin' Honey

 I finished the Quant (a free pattern on Ravelry if you want to try it) and used the last of the yarn to make some wrist warmers to match. 

 I have dyed some roving (superwash from KnitPicks) but I think it will need to go into the pot again because there is more white showing than I wanted.  Nice to be able to do a re-do with this.

 I put another entrelac dishcloth on the needles last night and will make the other today!  Very pleasing knit if you are at all tempted, give it a try!

Yeah, I finished the mile long socks for Bill-I even had several yards of yarn left so I can use it for heel repairs if needed!

Icy Not Warm

 It stayed freezing at 28F from 10 on last night!  We ran our sprinkler to try and protect some plants.  I am afraid this queen palm  is in serious jeopardy; it barely survived last winter's freezes.

 The LIve Oak caught the edge of the sprinkler and was quite frozen until late this afternoon.  Our high temps wa only 53F so not the usual bounce back.

 This is the ornamental bamboo in the front yard; we are hoping that being frozen at 32F is protection from the twenties that persisted all night.

 Can you see the thermometer at 8am?  At least the garden was well protected in its little 'house' if not beautiful to behold!

 The pool has been in the 70's lately but 56 is a bit too cold but not freezing, and the plants that we left in the pool area were just fine this morning-that is a relief!

On the knitting front, I am still bitten by the entrelac bug and am working on a Quant, featured on Ravelry and in SpinOff magazine last year, but I am just getting on the band wagon.  I am using the rest of the Christmas ribbon candy yarn for this!

 The cats have been fighting for napping rights in my wool basket, these two will share but

Nyki keeps it all to herself!  (Now that is a surprise.....!)

I have been spinning up all the wool in the basket, more on that tomorrow!

(The temperature is already down to 30F; we are in for another too cold one!)