But there's holes in it!

     These little sweeties, I bought for Maisy's room because she was already my little sweet pea :) I keep them in the living room now, where I can see them all the time.

     Ok, so you're gonna think I'm really bad now...  Besides Paul's sweater and my glove cuffs projects, I've started yet another; I realized I was going to be without a hat for the winter!  I must admit that I did consider purchasing one.  That would be silly though.  I have so much wool to use and so many patterns to try!  And so, I'm using a pattern I got from my Knitting Daily email as part of a 7-free lace pattern pdf.

                                                        Lace Fountain Hat



I'm using a completely different yarn than the pattern calls for so I altered my pattern slightly to accomodate this variegated yarn instead.  I can't remember what it's call or exactly what it's made of but I've had it for quite a while and am glad to finally use it! 

Skylar was helping me prepare the picture files for posting and she had to say about this one: "oh, I guess you're not a very good knitter 'cause it's full of holes..."
Ha ha!  Funny girl! 

Skylar and her grandmother, celebrating Linda's birthday



...and trimming the tree!



more s&p

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yessir, yessir, three bags full!  One for my master, one for my dame, one for the little girl who lives down the lane...

These cute S&P shakers were a recent gift to myself; I couldn't resist!  Besides, they also fit nicely into my sheep collection.  Yup!  got one of those too!  Don't worry though, I'll go through each of those when I'm done showing you all of my S&P's!  (insert silly grin here)

So, I know I've already started Paul's sweater and then I added the glove n' cuff project....  but I just realized that I don't have a decent winter hat.  Well, not one that will adequately match my new winter jacket, so, I had to start that too...  So the new order of things goes: hat, gloves n' cuffs, paul's sweater.  Of course none of these new projects will help me finish any of the 50 or so other projects I haven't yet. 
And, tomorrow is my first day back to work since we lost Maisy, so although I'm quite anxious, Paul and I are both looking forward and ahead with hope :)
We thank you all for the love and support! xox

Paul at the park... 

salt & pepper

About, oh, I don't even remember when, I began collecting salt & pepper shakers.  Some of them were gift, and some were gifts to myself, none of them being very expensive (except for one pair and I'll get to that one another day...) 

This particular pair is special because it was given to me by Paul, the day after we lost Maisy.  He bought these little guys at "Passages" in Moncton and they're just so sweet...

I've also been working on a Christmas gift project using inexpensive micro gloves and all of those yarn scraps I have.  I hate to call them scraps because they're all so beautiful and special to me also.  Many of the yarns I'm using in this project are small balls or skeins I've purchased only one of because they were either one of a kind or very expensive!

Here's a picture of some of my stash....

And here are a couple of project pictures....

Stay tuned for more s&p pictures soon!! xox



First Snow...

This year's first snow arrived only a few hours early and I enjoyed spending most of the day watching cars try to get up the hill opposite my kitchen window.  It was almost a year ago when I lasted posted about preparing for Christmas.  This year has been quite different for my family and myself.  We've had some ups and a few downs but I'm knitting again and that's all that matters to this blog! 
I decided, after having posted last December, that I was going to wait until I got the camera I wanted before resuming the blog.  A couple of weeks ago, Paul and I, with Mom's help, purchased a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera with lots of bells and whistles.  And guess what.  It's red!
And so, here I go again with yet another new project.

 This V-Neck, with cap-shaping in the sleeves, will be perfect for Paul to wear while he spends most of the winter shoveling our 35-foot driveway.  The Manly Sweater is from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n Bitch.  The pattern calls for main body color with contrasting bands in 2 other bold colours.  However, I chose.... rather, Paul chose that it be in one colour only.  Actually and to tell the truth, Paul chose that it also have a large black widow spider intarsia-ed right in there!!  I led on like it was going to happen long enough to knit the back and up to the arm hole shapings in the front... 

                                                                

 I'm using Paton's Classic Wool, single ply, in dark grey.  One good part is that the entire sweater, in 4 parts, can be knit on one set of needles.  I'm using a bamboo 24" circular in 4.5mm (or #7).  The sweater has a fun ribbing of Knit 5, Purl 1 repeat which gives it the interesting wrong side view seen below and the smooth stocking stitch right side with the subtle parallel Purl rows....  sigh...

 I'll be finishing the first sleeve and then have to move on to a more URGENT Christmas project but should be able to return to Paul's Manly Sweater before too long if all goes well. 

And, if all goes well, my next post should highlight said Christmas project! 
HAPPY SHOVELING!