Survival

I feel like I could use a few days to recover from the holiday. There just seems to be so much to do when we get together with my family and the time is so short. We like to play games, video and card as well as other games. It can get pretty loud and crazy at times depending on which game is on the table. Always lots of fun and an abundance of food. My SIL likes to bake so there was a wide variety of goodies including fudge, pie and a variety of cookies. I think I will wait to step on the scale for a week or so. The handmade gifts were well received. I was a little worried. My MIL liked her shawl made out of Malabrigo. This was the first time I used this yarn and now I know of which the resst of you speak. I hope I can afford to make a sweater out of it sometime in the near future. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of it. I did get a picture of the hats I made for my nephews and brother.

I have one more to make and that is the 2 colorwork pattern which is a first for me. It is coming along quite well. I am a little proud of myself. Next up, I will try to tackle cables. I made the mistake of letting Bud's girlfriend go through my patterns and pick out a sweater she would like. She picked a zip-front cardigan with cables. It is probably the most difficult pattern I own. It is very cute, but I hope I can accomplish it. Of course, she also picked to have me do it in black. UHGGGG! Nothing like a challenge right?! I guess I won't be done with Christmas presents for a while yet. Well, I better get back to knitting. I'll post more Christmas pictures next time.

Presents......Done!

The Christmas shopping is done. Most of the extended family are getting handmad gifts. That didn't leave much time for me to think about knitting for the boys. I don't think they will be too disappointed. I do plan on making them all something after Christmas. With the way this winter is going, there is still plenty of knitting weather left. We have had nothing but snow and wind every other day, I swear! Needless to say, I hadn't bought a single gift for them, until yesterday. I made a trip to town with a list in hand-that hubby and I had agreed upon-and got it all done in a little over 2 hours and with one stop. Yes folks, that's right. I only went to one store. Walmart. I would love to support the small town shop owners, but I can't afford them most of the time and they don't have what I want. I couldn't even find a pair of winter gloves for Mr. T anywhere in our small town. That is just ridiculous. It's December people! I was pretty proud of myself and Mr. T liked what I bought, even if he wasn't thrilled about me going a little over budget. But seriously, $20 was for taxes alone and then I spent $20 on him and replace my snow boots that lost a zipper pull in the storm this weekend while I was taking care of chores. They are fake Uggs and are distressed silver. He thinks they look funny, but he's a guy and not that up on current fashion trends. Plus, they were cheap($12). Of course, that left the wrapping to be done, all by myself on top of doing all the shopping, by myself. Granted, I like to shop, but I don't like to wrap so much and hubby really dislikes gift bags. That is all done also and I am glad. I think the boys were beginning to wonder if they were going to get anything. They were extremely goofy last night. Since I did all of that, it leaves the housecleaning to him before his mother comes next weekend. We'll see how he does. I work a 12hr day today and then the boys and I head to my sisters early tomorrow while hubby works. No time to clean if I had to shop and wrap by myself. Sounds fair to me.
Everyone travel safe for the holidays and enjoy the ones you love!

Gusty with Gusto!

I was supposed to work the entire weekend, but Mother Nature had different plans. The winds are really starting to get to me. Today was bitter cold on top of things, but I finally made it to work late this afternoon. I did get some pretty pictures of the snow that I will post when I get them downloaded. There were pluses and minuses to be stuck at home. I was able to finish my Christmas presents and get them wrapped, but I have to use 25 hours of my vacation time to get my full paycheck. On top of that, the heater in my SVU can't keep it warm when it is below zero. I wouldn't have never gotten out of our driveway if it weren't for said SUV, which I love other than the heat issue and the low gas mileage. I guess there are trade offs with everything. I am glad to have my presents finished. That leaves tomorrow for cleaning the house. So much fun!
I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas andHappy Holidays and I will, hopefully, have pictures to show of the handmade gifts when I return after Christmas. Stay safe and God Bless!

Winter

This is what it looked like at my house yesterday. Other than it being freezing cold and blowing like a banshee, the snow that was falling was beautiful. The flakes were so fluffy and HUGE. I don't mind the snow, it's just the cold and the wind that makes it miserable. Today is above zero with much less wind, but I think tomorrow is supposed to snow again and the temperature will drop.

As far as knitting goes, I just finished a scarf for a friend for Christmas. It is the Chevron Scarf from Scarf Style. They have some really cute accessories in this book. I recommend checking it out.

I hope you can see the stitch definition. It is hard to capture black yarn accurately. I wanted to use a really nice yarn, but the budget didn't allow so I found a nice acrylic, yes I used acrylic, called Love This Yarn. It was less than $3.00 and comes 355yds to a skein so it took just one skein for a decent length scarf. She is a shorter gal so I think this will be just right. I have been trying to make as many gifts as possible for this Christmas. It has added a little stress, but I have to finish knitting one hat and add some fleece to the inside. I will hopefully have a picture of my 3 nephews in their Thorpe hats at Christmas. My oldest- he'll be known as Bud- said that they needed a tassle on top, so I will be adding that, hopefully, this weekend along with their linings. I hope I get everything done and wrapped in time. I do need to knit one more, the patterned one, but that one doesn't have to be done until after Christmas. I wish I had more time. Don't we all.

Good luck getting all your presents done in time for the holidays.

BRRRRR!

That says it all. I don't think the temperature reached zero today. My car doesn't like this cold weather and I felt like a popscicle by the time I got to work. My car just can't seem to warm it up much when it is that cold. It doesn't sound like it is going to be much better the rest of the week and they are talking snow tomorrow. Yesterday we just cuddled up in the family room and lit the fireplace. I love sitting in front of a blazing fire when the wind is howling outside. I felt sorry for my hubby (let's call him Mr. T) who had to go out and take care of the horses and chickens. We didn't even let the horses out of the barn this morning because they really don't have any shelter where we keep them in winter. So they got to spend the day in the cozy barn until the boys got home from school and then they let them out for a couple hours, until Mr. T got home from work. I have to work a long day today (8:30 a.m.-9p.m.) so I am keeping my fingers crossed and saying my prayers that the beast starts when it is time to go home tonight. It is not happy to sit outside all day in this frigid climate. I was going to try and figure out how to download pictures from the camera so I could add some to my post, but the computer seemed to be running extremely slow and with the boys home, I am lucky to get 5 min. on the thing. It is easier to just wait until the rest of the family is gone. That will be tomorrow. I have only the next 2 days to get the house clean, presents wrapped -after they are finished-and maybe some cookies backed before the kids and I head to my sisters for Christmas. Mr. T has to work so we will celebrate with him and his mother the weekend after Christmas. I don't know if the house will stay clean that long. Hubby said he would help and he does have that friday to tidy things up while we're driving home and before his mom comes on Sat.

I did get the scarf knitted for a friend that Mr. T works with. I forgot to see if he remembered to take it with him this morning. I did get a picture of it along with the Thorpe hats for my nephews. Pictures to come I promise. My mom so graciously loned me one of her digital cameras to use through the holidays. I'm still trying to figure everything out on it, but things are going well. Hopefully I will be able to get the computer to communicate with it and not have to ask one of the boys to help me. We'll see. Check tomorrow's post to see how I did.

Weather

Things have been a little bizaare on the weather front lately. Earlier this week we had a little snow. All pretty and white but I hate having the commute to work. I drive roughly 30mi one way. Yesterday morning the temperature was a whopping 10F, which is a little chilly for this time of year typically. By late afternoon it was 35. This morning they were talking about the possibility of rain. By the end of the week they are talking lows in the single digits. I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind. I prefer things a little warmer with just a light dusting of snow on Christmas Eve. The freezing cold can stay up north if I had my way. It is tough to get the horses to leave the barn in the morning when it is that cold and of course the dogs don't want to leave the house in the morning either. We have to purposely ignore the scratching at the door to be let back in or they wouldn't stay out long enough to complete their business. I promise I will get some pictures on this blog soon. If you are like me, a little color is nice to have with the reading. Like I said yesterday, I am still trying to figure this all out. I'll learn.

Stay warm!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog. I have been a blog reader for quite some time and finally decided it was time to enter this blogger world. I hope that I have enough to share that will keep you interested. I am not very computer literate, so bear with me in my travels through this world and as I learn all there is to learn about blogging. I'm sure I will be having to ask one of my boys how to do things quite frequently as they are much more knowledgable than I am. You will be hearing about them quite a bit, i'm sure. My oldest is 18 and a senior in high school. He tries my patience the most, but has a kind heart and is not always aware of the stress he causes me. At 18 he doesn't think I should worry about him so much. That is not something us mothers have much control over, is it? My other 2 boys are twins and they are 14. They are identical but their personalities and interests vary quite a bit. We never treated them as "twins". They have always just been "the boys". I think that has taught them to be individuals. More about them in future posts. I live in South Dakota with my husband and several pets. You will be hearing about our dogs and horses on this blog and I have been pestering my husband to start a new adventure and obtain a couple of alpacas. This stems from the knitting side of things of course. Who wouldn't want to raise their own fiber I say?! I think that is long enough for introductions. I will try to upload some photos and things to help introduce myself and the many projects I have going on right now. Busy time of year and I am trying to make as many of the Christmas presents myself as I can. This is causing a little stress, but hopefully we'll all pull through.