Christmas wrap up

With Christmas being in the middle of the week this year, it seemed to go by in a blur. Even so, we had a fantastic Christmas. The husband and I had agreed not to buy each other gifts this year (although I did manage to surprise him with seasons 2&3 of the original Star Trek that I picked up for a song months ago). We both have most of what we want and its hard for him to get me the knitting stuff I want and for me to get him the vintage toys he wants. So we gave each other the gift of a shopping spree. I got EZ's Knitting Around DVD set, Harry Potter & the OOTP DVD, and the books Teach Yourself Visually Spinning and the Harmony Guides Knit & Purl. The family gift exchange was great. Everyone enjoyed their gifts. My sister gave me the Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD (one of my absolute FAVORITE series. She also pointed out you can go here and get rifftracks for recent movies. I'll be checking these out for sure.)

The most special gift I got was a scrapbook from my mom. She made scrapbooks for both my sister and I. It was so touching I couldn't even look at it without choking up. I have looked at it since then and it's wonderful. Chock full of memories. I will treasure it always.

Wheel update: I heard from Bob yesterday and got the tracking info for the Minstrel. It's schedule to be delivered on Wednesday (although I have my fingers crossed they'll bring it on Monday, it's already in Pennsylvania so the possibility is good). I've decided I want to use a Danish Oil finish on it rather than stain and polyurethane. I checked at the one hardware store in town, but they only had the Danish Oil in Natural and I've got my heart set on Red Mahogany. And for as precious as this wheel is to me, I'm not going to just settle on something. There's another store in town here I can check. And there's always Lowes or Home Depot. Bob suggested Antique Oil, which Ace did have. So if I really truly can't get the Danish Oil I want, I might go with that.

November snow

So dad and I went to the feed store Saturday to stock up on birdseed for the winter. Apparently, not a moment too soon since this is the scene I awoke to this morning. It's November 19th for goodness sake! The weathermen were all calling for rain and a few flurries. We got an inch of snow. Very wet sloppy snow. Weird but very pretty.

I've been knitting up a storm, but as usual for this time of year, none of it can be posted here until after Christmas, hee hee. Well, not quite none. Here's the felted clogs finished.These are going to my husband's aunt for Christmas. Check out the bottomsThe faux suede works like a charm! I "soled" the bottoms of my clogs and it's made a huge difference.

I finished the Melly's Cousin BagSo cute. I've gotten a ton of compliments on it. It's a bit on the small side for me. Only my bare essentials fit in it. So I hopped back over to Sharon's site and picked up the Ali Bag pattern. She has it shown in a red colorway and a grey colorway. I'm leaning towards blue with green and purple pipes. I'm still looking at yarns. And since it's going to cost at least $50 for the yarn, it will probably wait until I've finished Christmas shopping.

Sadly, there's been no progress on Mr Greenjeans. I really need to finish my Christmas knitting so I can get back to working on it since I would love to wear it for Christmas. And then there's this...Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Heavyweight RAVEN KORPPI!!! SQUEE!! I'm not a total STR junky, but I do adore their color sense. So a few weeks ago a reminder popped up in my email that said "STR Raven". I couldn't remember what the hell I set the reminder for, but I had put a link in the reminder and it took me to Blue Moon's site. There was nothing there about Ravens. So I hopped on the Ravelry Socks that Rawk group and found a RAGING discussion about when the Ravens would be up. Turns out they had some sort of trouble and the update didn't go up until evening. I happened to be there when the yarns started showing up. It was AWESOME! And the whole group spirit on Ravelry at the same time made it feel even more like a party. So what are the Ravens? Blue Moon did this whole line of colors based on black. Go look. It is PHENOMENAL. And the pictures don't even do the yarn justice. The colors are intense, almost iridescent. I WILL be getting more of this gorgeous stuff. For now, I had to content myself with one skein. It's going to be mittens. I couldn't hide this something this fantastic in shoes! So it's my carrot on a stick right now. I have to finish my Christmas knitting and Mr Greenjeans before I can start the mittens. Well, maybe just finish the Christmas knitting. We'll see how long I can hold out!