A Glorious Family Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas day! A lot of fun and food from dawn to dusk. I managed to cook breakfast and dinner for about 15.
A summary of the days activities:

7:30 All my sons and friend, grandchild and her mom, came over to open stockings. A very happy time. Grandaughter, 16 mo toddled about, opening her gifts and pulling the ornaments off the tree. She’s loosing her baby fat from all her non-stop activity.

9:00 Breakfast buffet cooked: Menu Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Potatoes Obrien, French toast, Muffins, Juices, Coffee and Egg Nog. Everything was very yummy.

10:00 We opened our tree presents. Youngest son plays Santa Claus passing out presents. Knitted gifts fit recipients perfectly. We vegetated and enjoyed our presents for a few hours. My son gave me a great book, The Field Guide to Knitting and I also received two Zimmerman DVD’s The Knitting Workshop and Knitting Around. My new Ipod nano will allow me to see videos as well as audio podcasts. Below are some knitted Christmas presents I made for friends and family.



This year my husband planned a "12 days of Christmas" treasure hunt for my middle son. He had to search for a DVD clue that lead to a clue. On the 12th day he found his Christmas present. It was fun watching him look for all the clues.
The other night while I was dozing off I decided to listen the Lime & Violet Holiday Podcasts. The music was hilarious. I laughed all the way to dreamland. If you haven’t heard it, you must check it out. It is 50 min and hilarious Christmas music to knit by.

1:00 We had six of us break up into two teams of 3 for the Christmas Scavenger hunt. We had to take pictures of as many landmarks and items within the city, on a list, within one hour and be back to the house. This was a lot of fun. Each team had a member familiar with the city. One was the driver, one was the navigator and one was the picture taker. What a sight to see this 50+ old lady run up the street taking pictures of street signs and Christmas lawn decorations. Although, it was a lot of fun, I kept hoping the house owners would not sic their dogs on me taking pictures. We reviewed the pictures to validate the items on the list and our team won by two items. Our prize was a beautiful gift basket filled with gift cards to the movies and restaurants, assorted candies, nuts and limeaid drinks, which was donated by family members.

4:30 Dinner buffet of honey-baked ham, seasoned potatoes, vegetable, fruit, rolls and assorted desserts, candies and cookies. Greatgrandparents arrived, and uncle and girl friend arrived to share in dinner. After dinner we sang Christams Carols and my middle son played a special Christmas solo on piano. More presents opened and dessert and goodies were yummy.













10:00 This grandma is very tired and ready to collapse. It was a good family day. I count my blessings and God’s goodness that we can share Christmas together.

What’s next? Planning for the New Year’s Knitting resolutions……stay tuned.

Fuzzy Feet

I finished the second slipper of the Knitty “Fuzzy Slippers”. Believe it or not I was about 2 yards short of yarn on one skein and had to use a little of the second skein.

Today I felt them in the washer. I put them in a garment bag with a towel. I added some detergent and hot water on a fast cycle. Every 5 minutes I checked the size until it reached the size I wanted. The slippers came out great. It will probably take a few days to dry completely, but they look very promising for the perfect slipper.
I usually don’t like knitting socks but these seemed to knit up fast. I may try to do another pair before Christmas. The next pair, I may try some stripes

In Search of the Perfect Slipper

I am on a quest for the perfect slipper pattern. With Chrismas in a few weeks, I am wanting to make something handmade for someone. I was thinking this would be a quick project. I bought a few balls of acrylic bulky Mon Dea Yarn Indigo Run color and found an easy pattern.

As I searched the Internet I found an easy looking pattern called “Knitting Pattern for for Short Row Slippers by Beth Stambaugh. I knitted one for a size 7 or 8 shoe. After knitting up one slipper, I didn’t like it. It has the right amount of springiness but I didn’t like the holes in the short rows.

So I searched for another pattern. By accident a came across a Slipper boot on The Knitting Fiend blog by Lucia. This had a slipper calculator that given the shoe size or length desired, it created a pattern, calculating the stitches needed at each step in the pattern. This pattern from the start seemed like it would be nice, but it became very complicated and I realized that this yarn just wasn’t going to bounce and stretch like this pattern called for. My slipper came out a little larger than anticipated and didn’t look at all like the nice snug shapely boot in the picture. Perhaps if I used a different yarn, it would be better? So the search went on.

Well, so far I have two single slippers that I have no desire to repeat and finish making the mates. I was searching under “knit slippers” and found a pattern for Fuzzy Feet by Theresa Vinson Stenersen on Knitty website. I had some Patons Classic Wool and started this pattern for a gigantic anklet that is intended to be felted to fit. Now, socks patterns I have done before so this seems easy, so far. The challenge will be felting it to fit, which I haven’t yet done.

One slipper is done and I am progressing to make the second one. The slipper is HUMONGOUS! For a slipper that I hope will fit a Size 7 foot, I had to make it 12-13 inches long. Right now it would fit a small GIANT! I think I have to put the two slippers together in the washing machine because I want them the same proportion of shrinkage. I am hoping that I will have enough yarn on the one ball to make the second slipper with the remainder of the skein.

Stay tuned......