No really....I'm busy.  Not completely crazy busy but busy enough that blog posts have fallen off the end of the proverbial "to do" list.  So to quote one of my favorite movies...

 "Let me 'splain. [pause]   No, there is too much. Let me sum up."   (Triple extra points if you guess the movie.)

So hold on here we go...


 
DD#1 took up fencing.   (It looks so cool that ....Argggh, someone hand me a foil, I want to channel a pirate!)


We picked out and decorated our Christmas tree.


We all participated in our church's Christmas Pageant (Have you ever seen a cuter sheep?)


DD#1 turned 11.  Happy Birthday and nice job with the cake!


It got cold -- really cold.  That's Fahrenheit people!

 
Happily, I knit  (that may be a significant understatement) so there are lots of snuggly  accessories to keep everyone warm.  The Star Wars hat and mittens are new -- more at the bottom of this post.


We had a bit of a miscommunication here as to what "Leave the mixer on low speed" actually means.  Further illustrated by self-explanatory picture below.








And DD#2 practiced diligently and passed her solid yellow karate belt test.  (I'm so proud!)

And, of course, there was knitting.  Although as much of the knitting for the last month was for Christmas, I can't put up pictures just yet.



That's a rainbow of Maine Morning Mitts by Clara Parkes.  As I get silly happy just watching the colors change and 1 skein makes a pair of mitts, it's almost a perfect project.  I say almost because as much as I love the colors in Noro Kureyon, the yarn itself is not the best quality.  It has an extremely short staple length and is bit scratchy so I wouldn't use it against any other skin other than hands.  And there is always at least one knot in the skein which doesn't sound that bad until you're counting on a certain progression of colors.  A knot interrupts that to great frustration. 



I made a couple of boy hats for our "hat tree" at church.  This is Rib-a-roni pattern  by Jane Tanner, free on Ravelry.  I liked the pattern for donated hats because it is so stretchy.  These hats will fit a variety of head sizes because, unlike my family, heads do come in other sizes other than rather large.   The yarn is Vintage by Berroco which has some acrylic in it so it's washable (good for donated items so no fussy care directions)  It feels just a bit slippery which took a bit of getting used to.  I like to knit with 100% wool because it has some "tooth" to it.  Pure wool has the ability to grab a bit at the needles and to itself. 


And this was my Thanksgiving weekend creative outlet and I'm admittedly rather proud of it.  It took some charts of R2D2, figured out the gauge of my yarn and went to town with colored pencils and a graph.  DearSon has approved of it and will actually wear it, the ultimate mark of approval from a 4 year old regarding hats.  (The yarn is Wool of the Andes from KnitPicks.)


Merry Christmas, everyone!