Holiday Package

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. All of our family was in attendance with the exception of our youngest son and our daughter-in-law. Her father is very seriously ill and they need to be with her family during the holidays.


Good food and company.


















The college daughter was transported back to college yesterday in all of the holiday city traffic hoop-la. It was a mess! Instead of the normal 5 hour round trip, it took 9 hours. A very long day.
She will return in 19 days and I made a package of the final countdown to exams and Christmas break.
This is the count-down calendar.





There is a package for each and every day. Each little package is to help her through the stressful days of studying for finals.
She was thrilled when I presented this to her and I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed putting together the package:).

How was your Thanksgiving Holiday?

May the Great Spirit's Blessings Always Be With You

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

He missed the memo........

Apparently Mr. Bettis and his owner did not get the memo about my yarn.

I was unaware the husband set a tote of my yarn on the table. He missed the memo that my yarn absolutely cannot be within Mr. Bettis's reach. And yes Mr. B can set his head on the kitchen table. Look out Thanksgiving dinner (eyeroll).
Mr. Bettis missed the memo that he is to NEVER paw, slobber or otherwise destroy my yarn. Not that it would matter, I don't think he'd pay attention anyway. He also chewed a plastic hanger to bits. I have no idea where he found that one but he and his owner are in trouble. BIG trouble!

Here he is on his loveseat taking a nap. Gee. I wonder why (eyeroll).


I purchased new covers for the couch and loveseat. There's no way I'm buying new furniture with him in the house. He weighs 140 pounds and I can't get him to budge so he has taken over the loveseat. He paces the floor and stares if anyone is sitting his loveseat. Anyway back to what I was saying about the covers. The oaf wouldn't get on the loveseat because there was a new cover. I should've covered this one a long time ago and maybe he wouldn't get on the furniture. I laid the towel down and he jumped right on it. Big Baby!

p.s. He has no idea that Santa Paws is watching.

A ramble of sorts

The college DD was home for the weekend. Hubby picked her up. The trip was a 7 1/2 hour trip to and from due to the city traffic. I won't mention any more about traffic except to say I don't like traveling city traffic. Period.
The homecoming game commenced and our team won!! YAY!! Playoffs are next and if they win those then they're statebound.
While she was here she gave this book to me as a belated birthday gift. She saved her pennies (she's a poor college student, you know:) and found this book at a bargain in the campus book store. She knows I enjoy Christmas books. Cost never matters to me. My most precious gifts are the ones that have been so carefully thought out.
As if I don't have enough knitting to finish before the holidays I wound this skein of Araucania worsted to make a pair of pop-up paws for a gift. It is a blend of wool and alpaca and is so very soft.

All is quiet here for the time being. I have to wonder if this is the calm before a storm of some sort. The holidays are fast approaching and we're getting ready in this household:).

I Did it!!!

I did it!! I honestly did it! Drop spindles and I have never had a good relationship. We fought. A few not-so-nice words flew from mouth as the spindle would go flying across the room. So I put my spindles in a nice basket and went to my wheels for easy efficient spinning.
Out of the clear blue sky I decided I was going to repair the relationship with my spindle again. It was a tough go in the beginning but lo and behold we worked together and finally created a "masterpiece." (perhaps setting aside my name calling had something to with it:).

The above is a result of the beginning of our relationship and as you can see it shows how rocky it has been. However, it's a continuous "string" and that's all that mattered at this point. I navajo plied the yarn and I love this little skein of "string." I will keep it and not knit anything from it so I can reminisce about "our" relationship.

This is the second spindle of yarn. Like any relationship as you move along it gets better and soon I was in the swing of spinnning.

This is just a comparison of the handspun on the spindle and my wheel. I'm pleased:)
I also navajo plied the newly spun yarn on the drop spindle. On the left is a sample of navajo plied yarn from my trusty wheel. The right is the navajo plied on the spindle. I know it's a little lumpy but the spindle and I are happy that we have rekindled our relationship. Much like relationships in life, there are bumps and lumps along the way but if one puts forth a good effort they become beautiful "masterpieces" of Life.
So I'm tossing a challenge to a few of you out there who have given up on your spindles. Give it a whirl, you just might rekindle a beautiful realationship with your spindles and create a masterpiece of Life.

Spinning Wheel goes round and round.......

In 1980 the need to spin became an obsession for me. I found an antique walking wheel on the back porch of an old local store and the owner sold it to me for a cheap price. I taught myself to spin which was not an easy task by any means. There was very little spinning information available but I managed (or should I say, struggled). New wheels were born over the years and I want you to meet one of them. It's a Country Craftsman and was purchased in 1991. Unfortunately they are no longer available. The gentleman who crafted these beautiful wheels retired in 2003. I have two of these but this one is my favorite. I have no idea why, we just seem to get along well.


I have purchased masses of fleece along the spinning trail and was even known to pack a lunch, put the kids in the car and go for a ride looking for sheep farms at shearing time. Nothing like taking your kids to a stranger's door to find out if they were willing to sell a fleece. Trust me, I begged and managed to snag a few during those excursions:).
The spinning bug has recently invaded my knitting time and I've been spinning away. The red skein is romney, the other two skeins are unknown. I navajo plied the two on the left. Now to find patterns for these three.

Way back when (in the 90's) I spun and knitted a few items for the family. Here's a pair of well worn fleece stuffed mittens.

The yarn was dyed for the pink pair of socks. The pair on the right is a spun corridale.

The pair on the left are a border leicester fleece with a shetland sole. The pattern is Elizabeth Zimmerman's design. As you can tell they're large to fit hubby's Fred Flintstone sized feet. The pair on the right are for me. They're thick and warm. Perfect for cold winter days.

There's a sweater hidden around here somewhere that my youngest son requested when he was 12 yrs old. I took him to my favorite sheep farm on shearing day and he chose the fleece that he wanted. I must find that sweater.

Okay, Anita, is this enough info? LOL There's an inside joke going on here and I'm going to ask for your help. Anita requested these pics and I requested gingerbread men stitch markers. If you haven't seen her new apple markers check them out and put in a request (better yet, demand) for cupcakes, donuts and of course gingerbread men.........hee-hee).