Last FO's of 2008, On to 2009

I think I am the only blogger in the whole entire world who did not post a "Good Wishes" type entry for the holidays. But I sure enjoyed everybody else's. I watched lots of great YouTube Christmas Carol videos, saw tons of holiday picture montages, read a good bit of New Year's Resolutions, and laughed over The Panopticon's "12 Days of Christmas" with Delores the randy Sheep. Me-I just sat on my lazy bottom and knit. And for once I actually have pics of a finished object. Of course I had to wait until someone else took the picture, download it onto his computer and then send it to me.

That someone was my dearest brother-in-law, who with his wife(hubby's sister)came from Chattanooga for dinner the day after Christmas. It is the first time they have been over to our new house. Heck, it is the first time they had ever been to our house at all. In 32 years. But now that we are much closer we all vow to make up for lost time. Now maybe we will visit, oh, maybe every 6 months?? We are such a close knit family and all!!

But I did make one heck of a great Christmas dinner for them. I had appetizers. Fresh strawberries, blackberries and 2 kinds of amazing cheeses. We had a soup and bread course. With homemade breads, rustic brown and french. And Curried Pumpkin soup. Well with out the curry cause I forgot to make sure I had some on hand. Then it was the smoked turkey they brought, killer Au Gratin potatos and roasted Balsamic Brussell Sprouts. Oh-and I forgot to say wine. We did have wine. I would say it was good wine, but little did I know that under the foil at the top, instead of corks, they had screwcaps. It is hard to call a wine with a screwcap a good wine. But we made up for it in quantity. Dessert was a homemade Cranberry Cheesecake that did it's damnest to not come out of my ancient springform pan. But the food gods must have known that if I am making a once in a 32 year dinner, nothing should go really wrong.

In between courses, we took walks over our property and up the road to see the view. Richard(DBIL) is doing our landscape plan. I love to grow things, but I have absolutely no idea of how to make things look good. I have no flow, no vision, no clue. But Richard does and I pretty much twisted his arm to help me out. So we photographed, measured and drew out the whole property and hopefully within a few more days, we will have a plan on paper to start implementing.

So while the camera was out he took pictures of Ken and I in front of the house. It just so happens I was wearing my latest finished project-My "February Ladies Sweater". I wasn't sure when I knit it that I would like using the Nashua Creative Focus yarn because of its inherent fuzziness. But you know, it worked up just fine. My only regret is making the sleeves about 4" to long. They come almost to my wrists and they really need to end just below the elbows. I could probably take them out and reknit the cuffs. But you know what?? I am not. I will just wear it like it is and when I knit it again, I will make adjustments. But it is warm and comfortable and well worth the time I put in knitting it. Wish I could say that about every garment I make.

The first project of 2009 is my Gathered Pullover from the IK library. Right now I am in the middle of the cabled area on the front. I have both loved and hated this project at one time, sometimes only minutes apart. I love that I dyed my own yarn, from native black walnuts, hated that it is not dark enough, Loved that I got gauge the first time I tried, hated that it was way to loose looking. Loved when I recast on with smaller needles, hated that I had to take it back out cause I let it twist when I joined in the round. Loved that the sweater will not have cost a fortune to knit, hated that the yarn is not the very best quality, with little breaks coming way to often. Love that it is an easy pattern with lots of stockinette, hate that I can't knit for long without arm pain. Hopefully I will have more loves than hates when all is said and done.

I also managed to get pics of my finished indigo Firestarters. This was the first time to use this base yarns from Catnip Yarns. It is a very soft 100% wool superwash sock yarn that dyed up so very pretty. I could not wait to get these socks done and on my feet. To bad that the first time I wore them they showed serious signs of wear over my big toes on both feet. So I will have to save these for delicate wear and make sure those dagger toe nails of mine are always well clipped before donning said socks. Still they are very pretty. Even if the blue still crocks off just a bit turning my feet a very worrisome blue color..

There was one place in the neighborhood that I did not have a photo for in my last post. I talked about it, but I still had not grabbed the camera any time I was headed in that direction. So DBIL stopped and took this photo of the large billboard right by the side of the parking lot. I tried to convince him to wait til dark so he could also take pics of the christmas lights at the adult bookstore that is also at our interstate exit. They look like fireworks exploding. I love those lights!! It is so much fun living a mile from such interesting landmarks!!

So now for my New Year's wish for all of you. I can only hope that everyone will find peace in their hearts, joy in their lives and happiness in every thing that they do. And that no matter what the differences, that they can lay down together and take a nap like my 2 beasties!!