5

the number of fingers on one hand
the number of toes on one foot
the number of people in our family

how many days left until Christmas.... ACK!!!!!!!!

What a great weekend... Friday night was the MoCo dinner dance.. the theme was China. Culinary mix of Chinese and American food. Entertainment was Chinese dancers. DH gimped on the dance floor with me for a bit.. what a trooper.

Saturday brought playing Santa... finishing up the last minute shopping. I must be crazy. Next year, I swear it will ALL be done online!!!!!!!

Although I found a nice JCrew sweater at the thrift store and it was the right color tag so it was 75% off.. bulky 100% wool.. should yield some nice stuff :) and a set of Crate and Barrel 7" discontinued Christmas plates new in the box for $5. I may gift them... very cute. There's a set on ebay for $30.

Saturday night brought the Boksan's party. Thanks to our awesome friend Heather we were able to go. She had the kids over to her house.... our 3 and her 2 to play for a few hours. The hostess at the party gave out wine this year as a gift.. and her sister made little cute cozies for each bottle. caps and capes some bags, som with caps and scarves, one had a santa suit on. All knitted. VERY cute!

Sunday, ah the day of rest. Not quite! DH left for church early and I got up shortly thereafter. I ordered more gifts online, made chocolate pretzels with the kids, peanut butter kiss cookies, wrapped teacher gifts, made a gift for the GS leader, helped decorate the tree, and made this Eucalyptus wreath for my mom to give my SIL.

I hope she likes it. She didn't want mom to spend a lot... I understand now why they're $50 and up... never again!


Also have some knitting to show:

Pattern: Maggies Mitts
Needle: US3
Yarn: Recycled Abercrombie and Fitch and 100Purewool
Colors: Smokey Black and meloncoton (think Flyers)
Recipient: Mr. Beaman

This is DS2's classroom teacher's gift. Also from recycled sweaters. I bought the little red balls at Target in a container that looks like a round ornament. There were plenty in the container for the GS leader's wreath and a larger one for us to hang here at home (just need to get the balls on it and a bow!)

Now to address the Christmas cards.. I've had them for a week. DH sent his to Argentina and did no more :-/

And I have a few more things to make... some things for the girls. They're on their way, just need some extra time... and more cookies of course!

let it snow

but let us get in for part of the day tomorrow.... I can't afford to have a day off, I need to see kids to still prepare for the concert. DH told me tonight that I should have started earlier... guess he was right. But I'm in deep doo doo if there's no school. I'll still need to go in to do some things and I hate to think of driving 35 minutes in crummy weather.


Here is one of my wreaths with just a bow, hanging on the door. I gifted this to a dear, dear friend that we were visiting over the weekend.



Last night I finally made the bobbles for the little pointsettia that I stuck on another felted wreath. It looks pretty good. This will be part of the gift for DS1s teacher. I plumped up the bow as well and much prefer the looks of this one. Must. make. bows. plumpy!

The pointsettia is made using a free pattern from Knitting Daily. I actually first saw it advertised in Interweave Knits 2008 Holiday issue. It's from the A-little-something-special.pdf that includes this flower, a bag, a snowflake, a in-progress bitty sock & hat ornaments and a cabled globe ornament. I made mine in red kitchen cotton and the bobbles in yellow cotton scraps on US3 dpns. Easy knit... the hardest part is putting it together!

DH had to buy something on ebay today. I was at school when a guitar closed for Santa to bring to DS1. I called him with 10 minutes to spare and talked him through it. YAY we won the auction so I think there will be one very happy little boy come the morning of the 25th.

DH's gift came yesterday. I found out AFTER it had been ordered. I'm saying no more.

Off to deal with kiddos then prep for school. have a great evening

and this is what there is

This lovely orchid was from the parent's of one of DH's students. The student was giving a recital and his high school music teacher brought corsages for the important women in his life. (Her husband grows them... incredible I know) At any rate I was supposed to go, but DS2 came down with a fever, so I stayed home but was still gifted with this gorgeous flower.

We had our department meeting yesterday. I'm still waiting to see what comes of it. Lots of time and work over the weekend to get ready for it. I think it went OK, but we'll see if the little man keeps his job or if that wasn't the purpose. I like the new super though. My impression of her felt good!

On the home front...tonight we finished the wreath we started on Sunday. That included dyeing three sweaters to make it. It's the bottom one.

Combined with the other two it almost is reminiscent of Mickey Mouse.





It all started out like this. Quite the mess I know, but I think the result is really cool. I'm envisioning a bunch of these as teacher gifts!















Now the pictures are pretty heavy. Just so you have an idea of how much I've been deconstructing.


60% lambswool, 20% angora rabbit and 20% nylon


100% cashmere


100% cashmere


85% silk and 15% cashmere


85% silk and 15% cashmere


70% lambswool, 20% angora rabbit and 10% nylon


48% wool, 22% viscose, 16% nylon, 9% angora rabbit, 5% cashmere


75% merino and 25% angora rabbit


All of these with the exception of one were long sleeved women's sweaters so they've yielded quite a bit of yardage :-) Guess I better get busy knitting now!

less important things

I've been harvesting yarn like crazy this weekend. Really feeling quite lazy of late. I have 100% cashmere, a blend of 85 silk/15 cashmere and 3 different blends of lambswool/angora rabbit hanging in the downstairs bathroom drying. lovely fibers reclaimed from thrift store sweaters :-)

So last night DD and I started the felted wool wreaths. I found the link here and decided to try ones that were all green. I'll decorate them with red felt flowers and a red ribbon. But that step has yet to come (stole the green idea from my cousin... thanks sarah!) I needed more green because I didn't care for the army green mixed in with the regular green, so we dyed some more sweaters today with food coloring.

All of the sweaters were purchased at thrift stores mostly on half price color days. I didn't get the steal on the rings from Joann's like Sarah did, but really, I can't complain about the cost of these gifts. DH says the jury's still out for him on whether or not he likes it. What do you think?


Just a word of caution. You need to be careful with those rotary cutters. I think this is the 3rd time I've rolled my finger as well. I also really can't be trusted with scissors of late. My poor fingers.





I leave you with the stack. That gives me another idea for a different twist with this idea! Hopefully we'll have enough for a smaller one yet. They are so fun and easy to make. Try it with your kids!