I did it...

Something I swore I would never, ever, ever do....

I bought an artifical tree over the weekend. I swore I wouldn't ever...but times are changing...

Our family tradition involves a yearly trek to the tree farm...where you have four different boys standing next to four different trees...proclaiming this tree is the best....throw in some snow and wind, along with frozen toes and noses.....

Once the final selection has been determined....it is ceremoniously cut down and tied precariously to the top of our vehicle.....

Ahhh...the memories...

Well, I got to thinking about my new cream colored carpet in my living room and the mess of the tree water that invaraible gets dumped...not to mention the pine needles...and once you get pass the first couple days...can you really smell the tree anymore? And...the fact that two of my children are scattered across the state of Minnesota...

After consulting the troops this past weekend...everyone (except maybe mom who likes to hold on to family traditions) was okay with going artifical.

It's a sad, sad day....but...no needles and no spilt water.

So, here we are trying to assemble our tree....





More pictures of the finished tree to come......

More Thanksgiving thoughts.....

Here is what I am thankful for....my boys...

They all made it safely home to spend Thanksgiving with their mother.

Have I mentioned how proud I am of the fine young men they have become?

Happy Birthday Gramma

My Gramma turned 87 years old on November 17th.

She will be amazed when I tell her I put her picture out here for all to see.

She still lives on her own and does very well....we love her lots.....and I am very lucky to still have her in my life.

Thanksgiving

Have you noticed how the media refers to Thanksgiving as "the day before " Black Friday? As if the actual Holiday has no value at all and the only purpose of the day is to prepare and hype up the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Well, I boycotted the whole business. I refuse to shop today. I refuse to get out of bed and stand in the cold (the temperature is down in the single digits) amongst a bunch of strangers to save a couple bucks. I refuse to stand in lines that zig zag across and around the store, arms laden (and aching) for over an hour to check out.

I refuse.

I choose instead to spend my day after Thanksgiving appreciating my home and children. We will eat left overs and maybe watch a couple movies. And knit.

Question for you...

Do you keep a journal of your finished objects?

Do you track the date started, yarn used, pattern...etc?

If so, did you buy it or make it yourself?

I am thinking about doing this just for "shits and giggles" and am looking for some input from all the "experienced experts" out there...

...or is this just another side of my anal nature/personality and nobody else gives a rip?

I have been knitting...

A while back...the beginning of October...I sent for the book Knitting Circles around Socks.



My first attempt was a little frustrating. The book calls for using both 16 and 24 inch circulars. I had two pairs of 16 inch. I thought I could figure it out and tried using Panda Cotton.

Well, the combination of light yarn and not being able to distinguish between which needle was my "24 inch" one (cuz I wasn't using a 24 inch one)...I gave up and decided to actually follow the directions and see where they lead me...

I started over with the correct needles and yarn... 16 and a 24 inch size 5 circs and a worsted weight wool yarn.

Much better.

It took me a while to "wrap" my mind around the process of knitting tow individual socks simutaneously while keeping them seperate.

Once I got going...it went really quick...this is the fastest I have made a pair of socks...of course I am also using size 5 and my other pair was on size 2....




The process is actually pretty simple. The two needles lie parallel to each other in their starting position. The 16 inch needle lies in front. The instep of each sock is on the 24 inch needle and the sole of each sock is on the 16 inch needle.

As you knit one round...you knit sole of sock one, sole of sock two, instep of sock two, and instep of sock one. You need to tug up tight the first stitch to prevent the loose stitch between front and back.

Only part you do individually is when you turn each heel.



The camera flash washed out the color in this picture. They are the true blue in the above picture.

I finished them last night but will not be able to post the finished picture until I get to school to upload it.

I have already cast on a pair in Cascade Fixation and have most of the cuff done.

I want to play around with knitting mittens using the same concept...anybody ever tried it?????

I highly recommend this book and process...easy to follow and quick.

It was a "snowy" drive to work....

In between putting on my makeup, drinking my coffee and texting a few friends...I snapped a couple pictures on my drive in on Friday....

This was the view going 45 mph on I35 on Friday morning. Our first substantial snowstorm of the season.

Lots of people in the ditch...you would think up here in Norhtern Minnesota people would know when to slow down and drive sanely...apparently not so....



....and...just for the record...I wasn't doing any of the above (well, okay, I was drinking coffee)...just snapped a couple pictures to share with you all......

Football update...

Second place champs......

Eight sections in our state for our school size...eight teams in each section...

We made it down to the final game for the sectionals...and...we lost to an undefeated team....

So, football is over for another year. I will miss it. The team did very well for as young as they are.

As I told Nate...they are one of the top sixteen teams in the state for our school size...that's something...and there is always next year....