Secret Xmas Projects

So, I'm back from the holidays and I brought back some fantastic gifts and a not so fantastic cold. I'll have pictures of my favorite gift after I retreive it from my brother's house later this week. Until then, I thought I'd unveil my secret holiday knitting projects.

First, there were the Funky Monkey's. Both made from the Two Old Bag's Mr. Ben pattern.
This one is out of one of the Kaffe Fassett Regia sock yarn and had embroidered eyes so they couldn't be eaten off by a little boy who still likes to put everything in his mouth. It was much loved at Christmas by my nephew who immediately hugged him. It was too cute!

The second was for my neice and was made out of Trekking sock yarn with Pearl Button eyes.

I love them both.

The second gift was a hat for my brother to replace the one I made my brother years ago.

Other than that, a great christmas was had by all. I'm looking forward to the new year and sleeping late this weekend. Yeah!

Twas the night before I left for home and all through the house,
The dishwasher was washing, clean dishes tonight!
The bags were packed by the door with care
In hope that the cab would soon be there.
The blackberry was tucked all snug in it's holster
While e-mails accumulate all through the night
While I in my jammies, no spouse to be a bother,
had just settled in for a tivoed show before bed.

When out in the parking lot, their arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the couch to see what was a matter
Away to the sliding glass door I flew like a flash
To Twist the rod and open the blinds.

The parking lot lights, on the blacktop light
Gave the appearance of midday to all the tired apartment dwellers
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
A fire engine, an ambulance and 2 police cars

With a very loud siren and lots of firemen
I knew in a moment, this was serious.
Out of the engine, the flew like a flash
Sirens, and shouting, the called as they came

....it's midnight and I've lost the ability to think...

My bags are all packed and I'm catching a plane tomorrow night. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

Hats! Hats! Hats!

What does one do when you think you've "finished" your holiday knitting?? You decide to knit hats for other people. Yep, 4 and counting... I'll post in the future, but those over on Ravelry can see them.

In other news, I also bought myself a Nintendo DS. I've wanted one for over a year, so when I was buying gifts at Best Buy, one magically came home with me. Imagine that??? Ever since then, I've been playing Brain Age 2 and Super Mario Bros. Will need to get more games.

Is there anyone out there that watches The Big Bang Theory?? I have to say that Monday's episode was the best that I've ever seen. I laughed so hard I cried. I saved it on my DVR to watch again. Love it. Sheldon definitely deserves an acting award for that episode.

I have 1 more hat to knit before I go home. I need to do laundry and clean my house and I have 2 days. What are the odds I'm going to get this done??

Ummmm...now I need to learn how to crochet...

So, I'm making a hat from my favorite book of hats for children, Itty Bitty Hats. It's the Painted Turtle hat. If you'll scroll down, you'll notice that it's an orange hat, much like this one below, so beautifully knit by me...
With the addition of cute crocheted turtles, which unfortunately mine doesn't have yet. I was trying to read the directions for crocheting them. Please note, that my crochet expertise barely lends itself to a single crochet along the edge of a sweater or somthing else. I'm going to have to play around with this and see if I can figure it out and if all else fails, take it to knit night and see if someone will take pity on me and help me. :-)

I had a great weekend. Saw two movies, both of which were better than I had expected...Quantam of Solace and Transporter 3. Both with handsome leading men, which a penchant for taking their shirts off. What could be better??e I think that was my quota of fighting action movies for now.

I also made 8 dozen pecan tartlettes. 6 dozen were for a cookie exchange and, of course, had to have extras to give to my brother and test out to make sure they tasted okay. I'm taking the cookies from the exchange to the office tomorow so I don't have them here tempting me. I've tried a few tonight and they are way too yummy to keep around for just me.

I'm not a joiner

So, everyone wanted some pictures and I finally located my camera. This is a stocking that my grandmother had knit for me when I was a child. It has a santa on one side and a christmas tree with wooden toys and babies attached to it.

My mom made a new stocking this year. It's a shopping snowman and it's totally me.

I came to another realization this year. I'm not a knitting joiner. I've joined KALs and the minute I join a KAL, I lose all interest in knitting whatever it was I was so excited to make in the first place. Well, apparently it also applies to sock yarn clubs. Last year for my birthday I joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock club and here are all six skeins lying together in a row...

...which can only mean one thing....I haven't knit a single solitary pair of socks from the sock club all year long... ARGHHHH!!!!! I love a couple of them and only seriously question what I will do with one colorway. I would have probably bought a couple of the colorways on my own, but something has been holding me back from knitting them, much less knitting them in the accompanying patterns. It was fun to receive yarn and anticipate what might come in the mail, but I think I will forgo this year since I didn't knit any of them last year.

Several people have asked to see the sweater, but alas, since I might have purchased a few things while in St. Louise...like a new winter coat, 2 sweaters, a shirt, 2 pairs of shoes and the glass pieces...I had to make some unfortunate decisions about what would and would not fit in the suitcase... I even had to leave my half finished Tangled Yoke Cardigan in St. Louis as it wouldn't fit in the suitcaseeither. OOooops! I thought I had them with me when I posted last night, but after unpacking the suitcase, it wasn't there.