Goin' for the gold!

We had a busy weekend decorating for Christmas. We're not done, but we do have a good start!

Dave had great fun decorating the staircase.

Our entertainment center is next to the stairs, so it becomes part of the decoration.

The lantern is Dave's favorite new decoration. One of his employees, Vanessa, did a fabulous job of making it festive.

My Christmas tree is decorated to my taste. It looks a little off balance in this picture. I guess I'll have to do some double checking.

This is the view from my chair. I love it!

I finished blocking my Greyson Waves Lace Scarf by Marly Bird. It's now ready for Christmas wrapping!

My newest Frivolity Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #611, Gold. I love my newest shuttle, Midnight Blossom, from Rita Richmond of Shuttle by Design. Do I need more shuttles? No! I just can't help myself when I see a new beauty for sale. I love collecting my little works of art!

Ready for blocking

Jennifer and I each finished knitting our Greyson Waves Lace Scarf by Marly Bird! I finished knitting by half time of the Bears game yesterday, and it took me the rest of the afternoon to weave all the ends in. All I have to do now is block it.

Since I concentrated on knitting and cleaning for the weekend, I haven't had much to show. Daughter Alison drove down to spend the night on Friday. Saturday morning, she and my friend Lilly helped me go through craft stuff in one of the bedrooms and the sun room. We accomplished a lot! Alison found some things she had been looking for, and Lilly went home with yarn and fabric that I no longer wanted. One bedroom is ready for a good cleaning and Christmas company. Dave helped me finish cleaning the sun room yesterday, and we came up with some Christmas decorating ideas. So, the sun room is not quite as neat as it was when Alison left on Saturday, but it is thoroughly clean and ready for some Christmas cheer. We are definitely ready to do some serious decorating starting the day after Thanksgiving!

Today I remembered...

Since I remembered my tatting bag, I was able to complete another Frivolity Ice Drop in size 20 Lizbeth #116, Christmas Delight. I'm going to have to tat a little faster if I'm going to complete all the Christmas presents I want to pass out at school!

I have 13 pattern repeats finished on my Greyson Waves Lace Scarf by Marly Bird. I only have 7 repeats to go!

And so it grows

My friend Jennifer and I are working on Marly Bird's Greyson Waves Lace Scarf. As of last night, Jennifer was two color repeats ahead of me, so I decided to focus on knitting before heading off to school.

What you see is my total craft progress for the day. Why? I restocked my carry-along tatting bag and then forgot to put it in my purse! I did crochet with my high school kids today, but tatting was non-existent today.

I'm taking the Scarlet O'Hara attitude... tomorrow is another day!

Seeing red

Yes, I've tatted another Frivolity Ice Drop in red. I just can't help myself. It looks so festive!

My Greyson Waves Lace Scarf is coming along nicely. Normally, I would prefer a solid color scarf, but I'm enjoying the color changes. It's easy to set goals and complete them, and it's easy to see the pattern develop.

I did switch knitting needles today. I had been using Inox circulars that are probably at least 20 years old. At the time, they were the best knitting needles I could find. However, I've found that the cables on the newer needles are so much nicer to use. They don't kink up, and they cable part is thinner. I've only knit a few rows with the new needles, but I can definitely tell a difference!

Meeting goals

I had two goals for the weekend, and I met them both!

The first was to finish a set of five Ice Drops for my college roommate, Eileen. We've been best friends since high school. We haven't seen each other for years, but when we talk on the phone, our conversation picks up where we left off.

Eileen loved my Doodle Ice Drop pattern, and now the set is ready to mail off to her. Each one is slightly different. Five is my favorite number. Eileen has five spots for Ice Drops, and we are celebrating 50 years of friendship!

My second goal was to finish the sleeves for my knit-along sweater. We were only expected to knit one sleeve this week, but knitting two at a time made it very easy to complete both sleeves in short order. In a week and a half we will get the instructions for assembling the sweater. I'm pretty sure I can figure out what to do, but I'm going to stick with the knit-along schedule just to make sure I don't mess up!

Sleeves

I didn't tat today, but I did get through row 34 on my sleeves!

Just another Thursday

Today I subbed in fifth grade. While the kids were at p.e. and band, I had time to tat!

When I got home, I worked on the sleeves for my knit-along sweater. It's going slowly, but I'm starting to get a rhythm. I have two weeks to finish the two sleeves, and I'm pretty sure I'll have no problem reaching the goal!

Subbing

I subbed yesterday. I subbed today. I'm subbing tomorrow. Luckily, I've been able to carve out a little time for tatting!

I'm still working on Ice Drops for my dear friend Eileen. I do carry tatting with me all the time, but I haven't found much time to tat in the past week for a variety of reasons.

One of the reasons is the sweater I'm working on. Today Marly Bird released the sleeve pattern, and I've decided to be really daring and knit both sleeves at the same time!

This project has been great for me. My mom knits beautifully, and I've always admired the sweaters that she made. I'm a little late to the game. Mom did teach me to knit way back in junior high, but I had one major hiccup when trying to knit a sweater way back then, and it has taken me all this time to try again.

I'm happy that my front and back pieces are the same size, and I am eager to finish My First Sweater!

Goal!

I'm not referring to a goal in sports. No, I'm referring to my knitting goal of finishing the front of my sweater before Wednesday.

It took a bit of concentration with the Easter weekend, but I did it!

I love the drape of the fabric created with this yarn.

I wasn't able to capture the color. It's really slightly lighter than the top two pictures, but darker than the bottom one. I'm looking forward to the next step, knitting the arms. I'll get the pattern for that on Wednesday. Until then, I'll focus on my other works in progress!

Flattered!

My college roommate, Eileen, let me know today that she has room on her lampshade for five Ice Drops. She sent me a picture of what she'd like, and it's my Doodle Ice Drop and the variation in pink. I'm so flattered that she want some more of my little pretties! This one is in Lizbeth Butterfly Breeze, and the shuttle is by Veronica of TattingShuttles on Etsy.

Eileen and I have been friends since our senior year in high school. It's so hard to believe that we've known each other for 50 years! I was maid of honor in her wedding, and she was matron of honor in mine. When her first son was born, Eileen, her husband Tom, and I went to a drive-in movie. I was baby Glen's first date. He is now 46 years old, and I'm pretty sure he's tired of hearing that I was his first date!

I've been eagerly awaiting Wally Sosa's new book. The digital version is available in Wally's Etsy shop. I believe you need to contact Wally directly to receive a paper copy like I have. I'm so pleased that it arrived today. Wally autographed it for me, and even included a bookmark. Thank you, Wally! I love it!

I worked on my sweater some more this morning. I'm now up to the bottom of the armholes! I have 6.5" to go in stockinette, and then I can start the top ribbing. Time to knit!

Progress!

Today was a gloomy day with a mixture of rain and snow. It was a great day for making progress on projects!

The end is in sight for daughter Alison's waffle stitch afghan. It was wonderful to have it covering my toes on this chilly day!

The back of my Marly Bird knit-along sweater is now 15" long. I had hoped to be 5" further along by tonight, but I can tell that's not going to happen. Still, I'm happy with the progress I've made.

This is the eighth Easter theme Ice Drop for daughter Joanne. It might not seem like there's much difference between them, but I do try to make each one just a little different. The shuttle is by Veronica of TattingShuttles on Etsy. Oh, be be artistically talented!

Busy day

Today was one of those days that just seemed to get away from me. I started off the day by tatting an Ice Drop, and then I got to work going through some boxes of craft stuff.

I managed to take care of three of them. Most of what was in those boxes ended up in the trash. There were bits of this and that left over from various craft projects, nothing worth keeping. For some reason, I had kept an awful lot of packaging. I wonder what I thought I would use it for?

In the afternoon I treated myself to a nap, and I worked on my knit-along sweater. I'm really glad I sized down two needle sizes. The fabric has a nice drape, and the yarn is really nice to knit with. It's been fun to see the progress others in the group have been making. Some are way ahead of me, and some are still working on the ribbing. I kind of like being in the middle!

Knit, tat, knit

Yes, I'm dividing my time. I finally finished week 2 of the Tournament of Stitches mystery shawl. I'm really enjoying it, but I sure am slow! Many of the participants have already finished. I'm just getting started with week 3 with week 4 still to come.

Knitting is not keeping me from tatting. I carry my little bag with me every day and tat every chance I get.

However, I have been distracted by another knitting project. Marly Bird is doing a sweater knit-along and I couldn't resist. I've never knit a sweater for myself, and I figure now is as good a time as any. It took two tries to get a correct gauge swatch. I'm using Red Heart Hygge Charm in Eclipse. Can you see the little bit of sparkle in it?