The Scottish Lamb

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Two Little Red Mittens

After Norma's post the other day I used our TV time this weekend (which was a lot due to the storms that blew through) to knit a couple pairs of mittens for The Soaring Eagle's Project.  I had some Gjestal Naturgarn in a beautiful bright red left over from this sweater I knit for Joe.  Funny... for Joseph's sweater I toned down the color with some brown dye but it was a perfect bright red for mittens.  They'll be winging their way to Rachel later today if the ice melts a bit.  I used the patterns from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. After knitting the larger pair I knew it was going to be close to get another pair out of the skein so I cast on a small pair.  Here's what I had left:

Also started pulling out old UFO's.  This is the back and one front part of Chick Knits Ribby Cardi in Elann's Highland Wool.  Pretty boring picture in gray but, for Kim, there it is.

Due to the ice, the boys have another day off of school today.  Joseph, however, will be spending the day doing a book report that was supposed to be due today.   He never brought the book home so we made him pick out one he finished recently so that he had something to turn in when they go back to school tomorrow (hopefully!).  Trust me, he's only smiling because he knows I was taking his picture.  Hoping to nip procrastination in the butt by Junior High.

Jeremy is supposed to fly here on Thursday.   I'm a little worried because it looks like another big storm is going to hit Indiana that day.  Ugh.  We'll all be SO disappointed if he doesn't make that flight.  We're all dying to get our arms around him and have him home for a couple of weeks.

Ice, Ice, Baby

We got hit by quite an ice storm last night here in New York.  The boys had a two-hour delay.  Too bad we didn't know about it before everyone was up and ready.  Lucky slipped when Dan took him outside this morning so that's how we knew to check the roads.  It was some nasty stuff but made for some pretty pictures!  Of course the rest of the week calls for rain.  blech.

I keep forgetting to post the picture of  the socks I finished with Kim's yarns.  I think this colorway was called Boysenberry?  Kim??  I know it was some kind of berry.  Gorgeous stuff all the way around.

Also finished another gift for my grandfather.  A nice warm hat.  I used Elann's Uros and that same sock yarn that I used in his socks (trying to be thrifty, couldn't use the sock yarn for anything else). You can get the free pattern by clicking here.  It's very basic but I figured I'd save someone else doing the math.  I did the decreases at the crown by alternating ssk and K2tog so that there wouldn't be swirls.  My grandfather just doesn't strike me as a swirly kinda guy.

Jeremy comes for Christmas in a couple of weeks.  I CAN'T WAIT!!  We haven't seen him since he came home on R&R from Iraq almost three years ago.  He's doing so great in colleg that we're treating him to a night at a great B&B in the Catskills and two days of lift tickets.  I can't wait to see his face when he opens his stocking on Christmas morning.  He loves to snowboard and I told him I didn't know if we'd be able to make it up there or not but to bring his snowboard because there's actually a small slope right on West Point.  Bwahahaha.  I love surprising people.   Just hate being surprised.

Mountain Man Socks

Need a quick Christmas gift?  I have an idea for you.

This is a very basic, simple pattern that I came up with for my grandfather that I'm calling Quick & Thick Mountain Man Socks.  You can download the pattern by clicking here.

I used two strands of yarn together.  One strand of Elann's Peruvian Pure Alpaca in Black and one strand of a very fine German sock yarn.  It came out to 5.5 sts per inch.

We put our tree up on the first and I forgot to share my favorite ornament with you:

It's my little knitting lady from my favorite Christmas Store in Germany.

Joe is quite the crafter.  It was his favorite part of German Kindergarten.  He's always coming and asking me for the stapler and tape.  Last night I found this on the tree:

For as ornery as that kid can be... I think he just may be the one of my four boys that ends up a priest.  He can be very sweet when he wants to be and he's always the one that says grace at meals and worries about what time it is when it's almost time to go to Mass.  I found these pictures on an old website I used to keep.  This was Joe at about six months old in late 1999.  I knit it from Debbie Bliss' Nursery Knits.  I found the teddy bear buttons in a shop in Germany.

Knitter's Advent Calendar

A friend, Kelly, from the Elann chat site passed this gem on. THANK YOU, KELLY!

You've GOT to check it out:

Very Cool Knitter's Advent Calendar CLICK HERE

I just updated Lucky's progress website with new photos and a new video for the Rescue Group:
http://scottishlamb.typepad.com/casa_flores