So Close!

This has been a busy and productive weekend. And look - I'm working on the last of the Christmas gifts I had decided to make at the end of last year, for family members this year! Actually, this picture is from Friday, and since then, I have finished this sock to where you start the toe, and am more than halfway through the foot of sock #2.

I am calling these Fly Eagles Fly! Socks, as they are in the team colors of the Philadelphia Eagles. They will be a gift for my niece Julie's husband, Keith, who is an Eagles fan. You may recall that earlier in the year, I made socks for two other nieces' husbands in the colors of the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Ravens.* I'm pleased with how these are turning out, and hope to maybe finish them tonight - or tomorrow night at the latest!

By the way, look at these socks - cool, huh? I may have to give these a try sometime. Meaning, not any time soon, as there are other things I would like to get to first. But I'll file the pattern away, and someday be completely surprised to see it ...

I also got some little projects done/put away, and some things organized for the next few weeks. And believe it or not, I even cleaned! Yep, I got the third floor cleaned up and it looks pretty good, I have to say. Let's not try to guess - or remember - the last time I cleaned, OK? Everyone will be better off, trust me.

Others were worn out from the holiday long weekend:

You know how it is - when you are used to sleeping 22 hours a day, and you only get 20 hours in, it can be exhausting!

*Never, ever will you see me knitting socks - or anything - in the colors of the Dallas Cowboys. Just so you know.

Wrapped Up

Well, we had a great Thanksgiving Day yesterday. We stayed put, watched parades, ate too much, drank wine, watched the Eagles win (why couldn't they play like that all season??), and then even though we ate too much, we both had a big piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream and a cup of tea. Very enjoyable. And there are still some leftovers, hooray!

I also finished knitting the item below, and blocked it overnight. This is the Herringbone Neck Warmer (free pattern), and once you get the hang of the herringbone stitch, it's a really quick knit!

I signed up for Back-Tack 4, a really interesting swap that this year has the theme of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. At least one of the items you send has to be hand made, so this is what I chose to send. My swap partner, Kaitlyn, said her favorite color was orange, and this yarn (Sheep Shop 1) has a lot of pretty reds and oranges in it.

The buttons are ones that were in one of those little "Extra Button" envelopes that you get when you buy clothes. They belonged to a jacket that I no longer have, and I think they are perfect for this. I'm glad I found them, since a) the package goes out tomorrow, and b) I had no other interesting buttons that weren't singles. Hopefully the recipient will like it. I'm really pleased with how well it turned out. I think I will make another one for a gift, since I finished this in four days, while also working on, and doing, other things.

Details:

Pattern: Herringbone Neck Warmer
Yarn: Sheep Shop 1, colorway G049; 1 skein
Needles: US size 11
Started: November 24, 2008
Finished: November 28, 2008

And so, tomorrow morning, this happy package of surprises will be on its way to Arlington, Virginia.


Back soon with more show-and-tell!

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Uh-oh ...

This cannot be good ...

Plenty of Nothin'

It's a good thing today is Saturday. Because I barely made it through yesterday, and had absolutely put up with as much of the end of the week as I could. If today had been Friday, I would have had to call out sick and therefore upset the delicate balance of the universe at work where they think that it *may* be OK to call out sick if you are literally in a bed in intensive care with tubes coming in and out of you all over the place.

But it is Saturday, so I have been able to just relax, knit, watch TV and movies, and then watch Notre Dame snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. In spite of that last thing, it's been a pretty good day. I have been able to engage in my coughing fits in privacy, therefore not bothering anyone else, or making them think I'm infectious. (Well, a couple of times the Garden Kitty was startled and had to run downstairs, but I don't really count that.)

Yes, I still have The Cough That Will Not Stop and Has Now Caused Me To Pull a Muscle So That It Really Hurts When I Cough. The rest of the cold/bronchitis/crud/whatever has cleared up. So my plan for the coming week is to see if I can get in to see the doctor again. Because I don't get to see enough doctors on a regular basis ...

Moving on.

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes to The Tim. He was quite pleased. We had a very nice day together on Tuesday (both of us took the day off), with birthday cake and presents in the evening. Then last night, we celebrated again with Karen and Sebastian. So I think it was a successful birthday event. Now for the next four months, The Tim and I are the same age. Which means he will have little to say about it, since calling me old would make him old too. And we can't have that!

So I saw two things in the newspaper today that intrigued me. First, the story about Jimmy Carter being banned from visiting Zimbabwe to investigate human rights violations. I find it amazing that Jimmy Carter would be banned from someplace. I do, of course, understand what Zimbabwe is doing, but still - Jimmy Carter??? Banned??

Then the story about the glitches in the new system in the space station that will recycle urine to provide drinking water for astronauts. Ew. Once again, I understand why it is being developed in the first place, etc., but still - ew.

Other than that, all that's left is this:

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