Emptyknitster

Hubby worked on Christmas again this year. So The NorDak Family decided to celebrate the 25th with the other side of the family and come to Montana on Wednesday. The Chick and I lounged all Christmas morning, Hubby's nephew dropped by and then we went down to the fire station and had a lovely dinner. Hubby's good friend, McKinney, will be changing shifts this next year and so this is possibly the last time they will be working at the station together. When the family arrived the 26th the kiddos couldn't wait to open their gifts. They were excited about the future wagon train trip but even more so when they found out the cousins will be going as well. The kiddos were especially happy to see their Auntie! Our days were filled with Uno and Ticket to Ride. Grandpa took the kiddos out one day to sled. When they were back in the house for hot chocolate The Tiger reported they had all taken one "really fast" ride down the hill. His Mom said how she'd li...

KNIT!!! Pattern: Nalu Yarn: Skein Colorway: Tuscany Amount: 34 grams (really!) Needle Size: US Size 3 These were a fun and fast knit. California Dreamin' Gurl and The Chick Who Flew The Coop both had their eye on these mitts as they were being knit up and happily I can provide both with their wish! These mitts took very little yarn and are lovely.

Recently,  Franklin Habit wrote a post about some old magazines that were a standard in his family home. It brought back a Christmas memory I had forgotten. Every year I looked forward to the Christmas issue of Family Circle to arrive in the grocery store. Hubby and I were broke college students and newlyweds and this magazine virtually guaranteed I would find an inexpensive Christmas gift for some family member. One year I knit Dad golf club covers from a pattern in the magazine. They were gold covers with brown purl rowed stripes to show what wood it was. I didn't play golf and I wanted Dad to have a great gift. Four covers were okay but he had many more clubs and isn't more always better?? Dad laughed so hard but used all the covers with much teasing from his golfing buddies. I also knit my brothers ties from the magazine. In fact, a tie was my first commissioned work. I still have the pattern for the tie in my pattern collection.

It's going to be a white Christmas! Many Christmas' ago, Hubby brought home a Santa hat. He thought our little girls would love to play with the red and white hat until "the big day." I suggested we hang the hat on the coat rack Christmas Eve and let the girls play with the Santa hat every Christmas after.  We never thought it would be so effective! Christmas morning we waited and waited for the girls to gather around the tree - finally we decided they had slept long enough and put on Christmas music and began to make lots of noise around the house, hoping to wake them from a sound sleep. The girls came running up begging us to be quiet. They explained they had been awake for hours but were hesitant to get up because earlier in the morning they had spotted Santa's hat and thought he was delivering the goodies. They didn't want us to scare him off before he left the intended presents! The next Christmas the girls carefully put the hat back on the...

The recent trip to San Francisco was taken on a very reasonable flight. SO reasonable that I could only take one bag onto the plane. Even with the limited space I absolutely couldn't travel without a knitting project. Socks are a knitting traveler's best traveling companion. Normally I use my knitting to keep busy and a way NOT to have to engage in conversation with others. But, this trip I met the nicest lady at the airport while waiting to board. She was a new knitter and painfully knitting her little niece a pair of slippers. She introduced herself and we had a wonderful visit, we quickly found that we had many things in common. She was impressed with the socks and amazed that I finished the mid flight. I do believe that if Glen from Madison, Wisconsin, lived here we would become good friends. Knitters are a wonderful bunch of people! Pattern: Honey Badger Socks - with a Socks On A Plane beginning! (But The Honey Badger don't care) Yarn: Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauber...

Last weekend I was in rainy San Francisco. The Wednesday before I was to fly down I was gifted  with a cold and laryngitis - again, the second time this school year. With some quick reflection and a little math I realize that I have 700 pupil contacts a week and I'm sure that they aren't all healthy and germ free. When I started my teaching career every year for the first five years I was sick by the third week of school - Open House night was always timed right in the middle of my cold, cough and laryngitis. So I guess it is reasonable the when serving that many bodies a week I will have to boost those immunities. When, over lunch hour, my cold turned into laryngitis I paniced! I had been so looking forward to my trip to see The California Dreamin' Family! I wrote up Sub notes and decided that I would stay home Thursday and Friday, not talk to anyone, and hope for the best, After all the cold would be almost a week old..... By Friday I was better but not even functioni...

I justified learning to spin by making a pact with myself: If I learned to spin I would also have to knit the handspun into items. Although I haven't spun as much as I would like I did have some yarn to knit up. Right now there is so little yarn is each amount I spin I have to knit small projects... Pattern: Beartooth Mountain Mitts Yarn: Hand spun Amount: @ 250 yarns Needle Size: Size 6