Whew, its over!

November's National Blog Posting Month is over and I'm glad. I didn't quite do it everyday, but I think I put in a pretty good effort. I missed one day in November before I knew about nablopomo, and 3 days afterwards. Things will be slowing down in the posting frequency in the next weeks.

I just noticed that I'm on blog post 108! Wow, I never thought I'd get that many. I did my first post on Jan 16th so 1 year of blogging is coming up soon.

The sunset was pretty tonight and I wanted to share pictures with you. This first one looks like it was raining but it was just foggy.

This second picture was actually taken a couple of seconds before the other photo, just on a different camera setting. It's amazing how much different looks.

Friday Fill-Ins # 100

1. My stomach hungry right now.
2. Either chips or hamburger is what I ate the most of on Thursday.
3. The yard at my parent's house is swishy because we've had lots of rain this week.
4. In the sun is where I'd rather be at any given time.
5. The smell of mandarin oranges reminds me of Christmas.
6. Chocolate is what I need right now!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to L's open house, tomorrow my plans include job hunting and Sunday, I want to church, knit, and read!

Getting to know me - Christmas style

I found this on Wendy's blog and thought I'd play along.



Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends, here’s what you're supposed to do. Just copy (not forward) this entire email and paste into a new e-mail that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you......Tips the Season to be NICE!


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper for family, but bags for friends.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I prefer real, but will be using artificial this year.

3. When do you put up the tree? I think I'll put up the fake one tonight (or this weekend), real ones go up 2-3 weeks before Christmas.

4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime during the week after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? Nope

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Not sure of my favourite, but one that stands out is a baby bed for my doll that my grandma made.

7. Hardest people to buy for? My dad (if you know how to wrap "I just want everyone to be happy" let me know.)

8. Easiest person to buy for? My sister (we both love new clothes)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No, but I want one. Maybe this will be there year I actually buy one.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A photo album made from natural materials.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Mickey's Christmas Carol

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Hopefully in November (depends how organized I am).

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Croquettes (dutch food item)

16. Lights on the tree? Of course!

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Little Town of Bethlehem

ETA: Where are you Christmas by Faith Hill is a great one too!

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay at home (well, mom and dad's home, it just 5 mins away).

19. Can you name all 20 of Santa's reindeer's? No

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Never in the morning 'cause we go to church in the morning. Last year was the first year we did Christmas eve, usually it's a couple of days before Christmas.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? crazy busy malls

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Angels

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Stuffing

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? new clothes or yarn (although I don't trust my family to buy nice yarn).

26. Who is most likely to respond to this? Whoever is looking for blog fodder.

27. Who is least likely to respond to this? People who hate memes.

I hope everyone has fun decorating and preparing for Christmas in the coming weeks!

WIP Wednesday

I haven't had too much time to knit this past week, but here's the progress I did make:

Here's the Swiffer Cover:

Below is the beginning of the Green Gable sweater:

Yarny Goodness!

When I opened my mailbox this afternoon it had a big package in it. I opened the package and here's what I found:

I received the first package from my Secret Pal 13 swap! One skein of beautiful teal Malabrigo! I'm super excited to knit with this yarn for the first time. The pattern is perfect for me because it only requires 1 skein (which is all my short patience is likely to allow me to knit). I plan on leaving the skein laying around the house until it's knit because the colour is just so cheerful. I find myself smiling whenever I look at it. :)

Teaser Tuesdays

Grab your current read
Let the book fall open to a random page
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Do NOT post anything that could spoil the plot of the book!!!

This is not my current read yet, but it is next on the TBR list. Also this is not a random page. It's the page that I opened to in the store and it caught my attention and made me hungry!

"Marty cradled the phone between his neck and shoulder as he spread schmears of cream cheese on warm, crusty sesame bagels and wrapped them up in waxed paper. One ofter the other, as the businessmen and businesswoman stopped in on their way to the subway and work downtown, he fixed breakfast bagels. Many of the his customers were regulars whose faces and orders he knew by heart. His favorite customer of all time, however, was having a panic attach on the phone."

From Kate Jacobs' new book Knit Two.

I'm still reading The Red Tent, but hope to get to the above book soon!

Have you ever? Knitting Style

I found this on Tami's blog and thought I'd fill it out.


It is a list of knitting techniques, you are supposed to bold the ones you have tried, italicise the ones you want to try and leave the rest in plain text.



Afghan

I-cord - well, not so much want to try, but will have to try when I start to make my felted bag.

Garter stitch

Knitting with metal wire

Shawl

Stockinette stitch

Socks: top-down

Socks: toe-up

Knitting with camel yarn - Ewwww, gross!

Mittens: Cuff-up

Mittens: Tip-down

Hat - I've made one baby hat and want to make an adult hat for myself

Knitting with silk

Moebius band knitting

Participating in a KAL - sounds like a fun idea, but I doubt that I would knit fast enough.

Sweater

Drop stitch patterns

Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn

Slip stitch patterns

Knitting with banana fiber yarn

Domino knitting

Twisted stitch patterns

Knitting with bamboo yarn

Two end knitting

Charity knitting

Knitting with soy yarn

Cardigan

Toy/doll clothing

Knitting with circular needles

Baby items

Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn - I don't spin but would use someone else's. :P

Slippers - As requested by my sister

Graffiti knitting

Continental knitting

Designing knitted garments

Cable stitch patterns

Lace patterns - I've started a lace scarf.

Publishing a knitting book

Participate in an exchange

Scarf

Teaching a child/teenager to knit - I taught my sister but she's in her 20's

American/English knitting - I hold the yarn with my right hand.

Knitting to make money

Buttonholes

Knitting with alpaca

Fair Isle knitting

Norwegian knitting

Dying with plant colors

Knitting items for a wedding

Household items - dishcloths baby!

Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars

Knitting with someone else's hand-spun yarn

Knitting with dpns

Holiday related knitting

Teaching a male how to knit

Bobbles

Knitting for a living

Knitting with cotton

Knitting smocking

Dying yarn

Steeks

Knitting art

Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously

Felting

Knitting with wool

Textured knitting

Kitchener stitch

Knitted flowers

Purses/bags

Knitting with beads

Swatching - Sadly yes.

Long Tail CO

Entrelac

Knitting backwards - When I make a mistake, does tink-ing count?

Machine knitting

Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn - I don't like self patterning sock yarn.

Stuffed toys

Knitting with cashmere

Darning

Jewelry

Knitting with synthetic yarn

Writing a pattern

Gloves

Intarsia

Knitting with linen

Knitting for preemies

Tubular CO

Free-form knitting

Short rows

Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers

Pillows

Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine

Rug

Knitting on a loom

Thrummed knitting

Knitting a gift

Knitting for pets

Shrug/bolero/poncho

Knitting with dog/cat hair - Ewww, gross!

Hair accessories

Knitting in public



If you post this on your blog please let me know so I can read about you!