Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving day was wonderful!

Our menu was:

Turkey

gravy

Stuffing,

pecan pie

rutabegas (and this ended my responsibility)

Mac and cheese

green bean casserole

cranberry bread pudding

biscuits

candied sweet potatoes

black-eyed peas

2 pumpkin pies, (one with and one without added sugar)

corn casserole (C's homework found out this was the favorite)

Mashed potatoes with and without horseradish

deviled eggs

eggnog (also known as "snowman juice")

I was going to take pictures of the food, but the turkey took an extra hour to cook and we couldn't wait to dig in. I cannot seem to get that right. This year it was an hour late, last year was an hour early, and the year before that it was late too... and the gravy was lumpy. But P summed it up best:

It may not be perfect, but it is Awesome!

Here is the cook "C" and DD1 modeling her new hat:

(I knit that scarf several years ago.)

Thank you J & C for the most relaxing Thanksgiving day I have had in years. As I said last night C, you can come and cook any time you want to! You are one of the things I am thankful for.

Cute Christmas ornaments

In my Homewood Guild we had a snowflake ornament workshop in October, and I finished 3 ornaments yesterday. I like how they turned out.

The first one is stitched with needlepoint wool. I like the soft look of it. The center one was stitched with Pearl #5, and it looks very chunky. The right hand one was stitched with "Goldrush" metallic. It was a little thick for this use as well.

Here are the reverse sides, with 3 different designs. I just made them up as I went along.

We had a lot of fun during the meeting with these ornaments.

I am excited that Sharon Boggins from Pintangle is going to be running "Take A Stitch Tuesday" (TAST) again next year. Each Tuesday she will post an embroidery stitch and instructions on her blog, and then everyone participating can work on that stitch and variations, and post their results to share. She did it several years ago, and I did not have the time to participate then. Now, since I do have the time, I think I am going to join in. I am tentatively planning on a band sampler.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I am so grateful for family, and for my grandkids (and my home, and good food, and DH... ). The family is all going to be here tomorrow, so it should be a lot of fun. I hope I remember to take pictures.

Knitting

Here is the second one of my Hydrangea blossom. I was pleased with how it felted, until I compared it with the first flower. They are different brands of yarn, so the pink is quite a bit fuzzier, and is still not as small as the first one. It should be felted again, and will turn out fine.

It is going to be a little confusing to keep track of all the flowers for this project. There are 3 different sizes of flowers, and 5 different colors. The pattern calls for 5, 2, 2, 2, and 2 flowers from the different colors, in the different sizes. That gives a total of 39 flowers, with 15 of them being the same color. I am thinking of doing 3 in each color, in each size. That gives 45 flowers in all. They go very quick... less than an hour per flower for the knitting. Then of course you have to sew in all the ends. Here you can see the whole process. The center top is a finished flower after the ends are sewn in, before it is felted, and to the right you see two finished flowers, before the ends are stitched in. Here also you can see 3 of the 5 colors.

I have a knitting dilemma. I have knit a complete repeat of the color in my variegated yarn for my paintbox scarf. The pattern calls for 30 boxes; I have 26. (It is 57 inches long.) I keep hoping someone will tell me "Oh, 57 inches is plenty long enough for a scarf!" I was hoping to get 2 scarves out of these yarns: I have another double-knit pattern called bubbles that calls for the same yarn. If I keep going with my paintbox pattern I don't think I will have enough yarn to do the second scarf. I can make the second scarf a little narrower, so I might not need quite as much yardage to get a good length. So that is the only reason the paintbox scarf is not done.

I am getting closer and closer to finishing my lacy shawl. The biggest challenge for that is finding a big enough place to do the blocking once I bind off. I think I have been working on this for at least 5 months. I think I am going to miss it when it is done. I do have a plan for that time slot as soon as it is finished.