Christmas in Who-Ville

Our Christmas season has been a little discombobulated this year. We're not spending it at home, and although we're looking forward to going to Texas and seeing that part of the family and spending Christmas with them.... we have SO many traditions that center around our family here, that things seem a little "off."

We forgot to cut snowflakes for the windows - the first time we've EVER forgot- I thought Kaity was going to cry when we figured out what was "missing." We have a tiny, little Charlie Brown Christmas tree - but we still got most of our favorite ornaments on it. We did very little Christmas baking - which is something I REALLY miss. Delivering cookies to our friends is one of our favorite traditions. And, I'm just not going to get Christmas cards out this year.

Even harder, my sister and her family had to leave unexpectedly to go out of state to see my BIL's father, who is very ill in the hospital. They won't be home for Christmas, either - so, now we really feel bad about leaving Grandma and Grandpa this year.

So Christmas is different this year - but that's okay. As important as all our Christmas traditions are - I think this year we learned we may just put too much importance in them.

When we have had to let some of them go for a season, we remembered the real reason for Christmas.

We're like the Who's in Who-Ville, the tall and the small... We know what Christmas is really about - we can celebrate the birth of our Savior in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, AND, we will still be blessed to be with family. We'll be thinking of and praying for our family here... but we are looking forward to seeing our Texas family and having lots of fun and adventure when we get there. I'm very excited just to have six days straight to spend with all of my own little family. With school, and college, and work, things have been busy and hectic this year - a while ago we weren't even sure we would all be able to get a week off - but God is good, and we all have a week off, and we'll be together.

So - with LOTs of excitement, I'm packing up this last bit of Christmas knitting - one last project that wasn't finished in time to make the shipping box last week with all our other gifts - and we're leaving this Friday for a Texas Christmas! These Cashmerino wrist warmers are for Lilly - just a made up 4x1 rib, simple pattern, but they are SO soft, and I'm sure she'll like them. I wanted something she could wear, and still play her flute - these should fit the ticket.

I probably won't post between now and Christmas, so I wish all of you, my friends, a very blessed Christmas and my wish for each of you is that you spend your holidays filled with love and family.

How I Spent My Weekend

The hubby and his guys had a "family day" for their last training of the year. We got to go out and see what they do, and some of how they train, and they set up some of the easier stuff for us to try. It ended up raining toward the end of the day, but everyone had a lot of fun in the morning. The had a "treasure hunt" set up where the kids had to learn to use compasses to find the treasure. They even flew the helicopter in so we could meet some of the pilots and guys they fly with. Kaity and Lilly took advantage of the photo op.

Click on this to see me in action! It was GREAT fun - I impressed myself. What you see here is me on my way back, after already making it to the far side and turning around (the rope is anchored to the truck on the far side).

I even wore my 2nd calorimetry ALL day. It kept me toasty warm in the cold and, later, rain. This one is Noro Kuryeon, left over from something, and I made it slightly narrower than the last one. This one is not so "loud" and I'll probably get more use out of it.

The rest of the weekend has been spent hanging out, watching Christmas movies, more knitting.... then on Friday we're off to Texas for Christmas. I hope to get in at least one more post before we go, and hopefully will have at least ONE more finished project to show.

Peace, Man...

... where are my love beads??

I'm loving this one! This is the great thing about hats/head coverings. You can get pretty wild (think of some of those ski hats you see!) - and it's still okay.

Hmmm, I used to type for a doctor who, if a woman was wearing all black would invariably assume she was depressed.... "the patient was dressed completely in black, including her pocketbook, likely noting a component of depression...." Please, maybe she just liked black; maybe she just thought it was "slimming." I wonder what he'd think of me in this getup?

This one reminds me of wearing a big funky bandana. I wore a LOT of bandanas in high school - still in curly hair denial, trying to just cover it up.

Now, I'm letting it all hang out - well, the hair any way - au natural, hip to the groove...

This Calorimetry - pretty outta sight, right?

This is my favorite so far in the "How to keep my head warm saga." I'm wearing it walking tomorrow morning. They'll see me coming in this one.

Pattern: Calorimetry
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden #87, less than one skein

This took me two nights to knit, but you could easily do it in a day. I'm already casting on for another, for my walking buddy, although we'll have to confer... it may be to much for this little town if we both wear them at the same time.

The Boyfriend Hat

Here's the "boyfriend hat," my second Fake Isle Hat - as promised, modeled by moi..... however forgive the early morning, damp hair, bags under the eyes, no make up shot. Well, it's truth in advertising - this is what I'd look like on an early morning walk. And, I guess I AM wearing makeup - it's just yesterday's leftover makeup. Seriously - when I look like this, whether a hat makes me look like a dork should be the least of my worries!

Still - not too bad, hat wise - I may have to make one of these for myself, what do you think? Can I work it? At least for walking around the block on a cold morning?

This one is made from Noro Silk Garden, #249.... which I gotta say - makes a beautiful fabric. It's a little scratchy and rough when knitting it, but sure ends up nice. Gotta love a one-skein project. The "fake isle" part is some black worsted out of my stash - Brown Sheep I think.

I LOVE this pattern.

Tomorrow- another installment in the "Is There A Stylish Way to Keep My Head Warm" saga- I finished my Calorimetry. I'm thinking this is a keeper. And, I'm thinking my walking partner needs one for Christmas. Considering you can make it in one night - totally doable.

Get me - cranking out the FO's - I impress myself.

If Your Name Is Uhoava Gnu...

.......then stop reading now unless you want a preview of your finished mittens :o)

My knit blog friend from Finland, Uhoava Gnu, and I decided to do a mitten swap.

This is actually the first pair of mittens I've made... they may have turned out a bit big - I hope they fit her! Even though I am excited about receiving my mittens from her, and can't wait to see them... although I have a feeling she may have more use for mittens in her locale!

Pattern - made up
Yarn: Cascade 220, color 9336, with a little added stash mohair for the cuffs.

These were fun to make - I love how the mohair cuffs turned out. I absoutely LOVE the color of this Cascade. In fact, I already have 7 skeins all set aside for my next sweater!

Tomorrow - the boyfriend's hat - it's finished, and it's fabu!!! I'll even model it for ya - you know, in my never-ending search for the perfect hat!

That Girl

Guess what I found this weekend on TV Land..... a "That Girl" marathon. I was in heaven. Before Mary Richards, there was Ann Marie.

Darned if she isn't just the cutest thing. I LOVED this show when I was a kid. I SOOOO wanted to be able to wear my hair in a flip. And those eyelashes! I wanted to be That Girl.

For some reason, no one else in the family wanted to join me in my That-Girl-A-Thon, and every time I left the room the channel would mysteriously be changed.... but every chance I got, I plopped down on the couch with my knitting and watched That Girl.

That Girl could pull off a hat. In super cute, massive eyelashes, squeaky voice, "ohhh Donald" style.

Me.... not so much with the hat. And this hair is NEVER gonna do a flip.

Really - doesn't this look like one of those surveillance photos when someone robs a bank? You do not want to run across this woman in a dark alley, do ya?

So.... the only place you'll run across This Girl is if you're out walking early in the morning and see her with her walking buddy (who, wouldn't you know it, could seriously pull off a good Ann Marie imitation - down to the black hair and bubbly personality.... AND she looks good in a hat. If I was her, I would TOTALLY be Ann Marie next Halloween. I'm mentioning that to her tomorrow. Wait - another reality check here.... she's a bit, ok, quite a bit, younger than me and I'll bet ya dollars for donuts she doesn't even know who That Girl is. Now - that's just sad. Not only that she doesn't know who That Girl is, but that I still look like a thug in a hat AND I'm old.)

Ok - sorry, back to the hat bit. It's cold walking in the morning and I need a hat. Or one of these - like that's gonna look any better on me, but hey, I'm on a mission here - to find a hat that not only doesn't make me look like a dork or, worse yet, a thug.... and maybe even makes me look cute. Ok... we'll just start with one that doesn't make people laugh at me.

The Fake Fair Isle hat up top there is for Lilly's boyfriend for Christmas. Tomorrow, in the beginning of my search for a decent hat, I'm gonna buy me some totally girly-cute Noro and make me one. If that doesn't work, I'm trying the Knitty ear-warmer thingy.

The search for the acceptable, dare I hope even "perfect," hat. Stop laughing - it could happen. And, lucky you... you get to watch the process.

Oh.... I will be That Girl.

Blast from the Past

If you want to see pics of a VERY young me..... check out my dear friend Linda's blog for today!

doncha know, Linda.... I'm sure I can dig up some old pics, too!

The TV Star

Here's my little TV star with Vickie! We had a wonderful, but LOOOONOG day Monday, taping her segment. Kaity was relaxed and had fun through the whole thing. I was so proud of her. She was up there joking with Vickie, who "got" her blog name and started singing along - and Kaity looked like a natural up there demonstrating her project. I hope her bubbly personality comes across on camera.

Everyone at the studio was very helpful and they were all so nice. Our producer, Lorelei, was amazing. She made the whole experience run smooth and was so helpful. She kept encouraging me to take all the pictures I wanted, and kept telling me she was amazed at how well Kaity was doing - the director said the same thing.... they wished all their tapings went so quickly and smoothly.

Through the whole thing I have just been praying that at the end of the experience Kaity would be happy with what she had accomplished, and she was. We had a lot of fun hanging out all day in the dressing room and studio with Hana, the girl who also had a segment in the show. She is 12, and was a kick. The taping before ours wasn't going as well, and ran about three hours over time, so we had a LOT of time to hang out and get to know each other. While waiting you can watch what's going on in the studio on monitors, so by the time the girls went on they had a good idea of how it all went. Plus, we got to sit in on Amy Singer's taping Friday. I think all that time to kill was a blessing in disguise, because when it was finally time for Kaity and Hana to tape they were SO ready to just DO IT, and any butterflies were long gone.

Getting Ready

We had a lots of fun moments - like when Vickie flubbed a line and then accidently let fly with a MAJOR cuss word in front of all her 12-year-old knitsters. She apologized profusely for that one...., and when they dressed the mannequins in the other knits Kaity had brought, hats, etc, and we realized one of the mannequins was wearing leg warmers as arm warmers...., and when Kaity corrected the director's grammar!...

All in all, a very fun experience, and we can't wait to see it "for real." We have no idea yet when that will be... but we'll let you know as soon as we do!

Sneak Peak

We went to Burbank for Kaity's Knitty Gritty rehearsal today. We had such fun!

While I was standing to the side, watching Kaity rehearse with the producer, someone stood next to me, watching, and when I looked over it was none other than Amy Singer. "Hi, I'm Amy Singer," she says.....

Very nice! She was between segments, taping her Knitty Gritty appearance, and was just wandering around with the rest of us. A bit later, she came and sat on the couch next to me, where I was knitting of course, pulled out her knitting, and turned to me and said, "Is that a Starsky you're wearing? I thought I recognized it. It's lovely!"

Wow! That was very cool! We sat there and chatted a bit while she was waiting to tape the next segment, talking about why anyone in California knits when most of the time it's too warm to wear knitwear. Very fun. I was a little star struck.

When they resumed taping, Kaity was done with rehearsal so we got to go in and watch Amy and Vickie tape the rest of the show. Sorry for the bad picture, but it was very dark in the studio unless you were right on the set. We were sitting right behind the director and production crew so we got to watch how it all happened, and could also see the set. Kaity got an idea of how the actual taping will go on Monday, and she's not a bit nervous. Me - I'd stumble over every word, but she'll do fine. I'm so proud of her!

We didn't get to meet Vickie yet, she was pretty busy, but all that will happen Monday and I'll get lots of pictures. Do the whole stage mom bit. We had such fun today, and it was just rehearsal. Meeting Amy was a total surprise, and just added to the fun - Monday's gonna be a blast! I think I'll wear my Icarus shawl - you never know who you might meet!