Holiday Craftiness

I hope that everyone had as fabulous a holiday season as I did!! Apparently, I was a very good girl this year, because Santa brought me everything I wanted. Michael got me a purple iPod Nano, the entire series of Star Trek Deep Space Nine on DVD, and a set of Harmony Interchangeable circular needles. I was all kinds of nerded out over the holidays!

Aren't these needles beautiful? They're already my favorites by far!


I haven't really been working on a lot. My new position is keeping me very busy. There's a lot to learn and get used to. I had to find something quick and easy to knit with my new needles though so I chose to make some cotton dishcloths. They turned out ok. I really like the green striped ones.



here are some pictures of a bag I made as a gift. Here it is after I sewed the seams together and put the straps on, before I felted it.


Here it is after washing and drying it. See how much smaller it got?


And here it is after I embroidered a few simple little daisy stitch flowers on it. Overall, I think it turned out pretty well. I see lots of stuff I would have done differently, but it was still well received by the person I gave it to and that's what matters.

Next on the list is a baby blanket. I think.

Gobble, Gobble

This year I have had a ton of things to be thankful for. As always, I have an awesome husband. For example, he had Wednesday off. I came home from working late and what did I see when I pulled into the driveway? Michael had put up all of our outside Christmas decorations. He also organized our guestroom and pulled out all of our other Christmas decorations. That's just one small example of his awesomeness. There are a million others.

In addition to Michael I am also thankful for the work opportunities that have come my way in the past year. Last December, after being at my current job for 6 1/2 years I figured that any promotions I got would have to come from finding a new job, but a new career pathing program was established. Last January I received a promotion and a 10% raise and the guarantee of eventually being able to move up more.

In the past week and a half I've gotten even more good news. Last week, I was called into my big boss's office. That, no matter how great my work is, always puts fear in my heart. He quickly put me at ease, though, when he asked me to take my current supervisor's place after she retires. Her last day is December 19. I was very surprised and shocked...and over the moon happy, not to mention scared and nervous. I've never been a supervisor before. Given the current economic situation right now I am very surprised that I will also be getting a raise to go along with my new promotion.

Then, last weekend, my father told me that once I get my last student loan paid down to under $5000, he would pay the rest of it! I never expected to hear those words out of my father's mouth. That cuts my remaining amount of time paying F*ing Sallie Mae off in half.

And then this morning I realized exactly how many friends I have. I was on Facebook trying to send Thanksgiving wishes to everyone, but with over 130 people, it was just too daunting. Granted, some of those people on my friend list are aquaintances, but many of them I grew up with or I've learned so many things from and would do anything for.

There's more that I'm thankful for, but it's late and I need to go to bed soon to gather my strength for shopping tomorrow.

In other news, I cooked my first Thanksgiving feast today. I made way too much, but it all turned out so good. I'm quite pleased with my turkey in particilar. Last night when I got home from work, I made a brine with 16 cups water, 1 cup bourbon, 1 cup salt, 2 bay leaves, handful of peppercorns in a big bagand let the turket soak in that until I got up this morning. Then I took it out of it's brine, dried it off, stuffed it with onion, celery, garlic and carrotts, trussed it up, seasoned it with a mixture of salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, slathered it with some softened butter and baked it at 375 degrees for 4 hours. It was so juicy and flavorful!! YUM!!!!

Craft wise I haven't been doing so hot. I just haen't been able to find the time. I get up in the morning knit a few rows, go to work, come home and I usually so tired that I fall asleep before I can get started. It's pretty frustrating. I still haven't gotten that darn bag finished that I making as a Christmas gift. I'm going to make it though, even if I have to pull a few late nights on the weekends. Sleep is overrated, right?

Vote People!

I'm interrupting my slack ass crafting for an important service announcement.

Go Vote!!!!

Even if you don't vote for the candidate I want to win (Go Obama!!), it's important to exercise your right to do so.

Halloween Night Knitting

I have been a bit under the weather the past few days. First with what I believe is/was a sinus infection which is settling into my chest. Since I have asthma I try to be very careful anytime I have congestion in my chest. Anyway, the moral is that I haven't really felt a whole lot like knitting or really much of anything.

Last night was Halloween, though. I love Halloween. I love seeing the kids, handing out treats...everything. I love hearing the comments from the kids when they see that we don't give out candy (except this year I gave out a little). This year's offerings included little plastic bugs and snakes, stickers, play-doh, spider rings, vampire teeth, noise makers and fun size snickers and twix. Given how I felt though, my heart just wasn't in it this year.

Michael and I got our pumpkins set up and our cauldron of goodies and we made ourselves comfortable in our rocking chairs in the front yard as soon as it started getting dark. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. We usually have kids coming by as soon as it gets a little dark. This year it we didn't get our first visitor until almost an hour later than normal. I was bored with the waiting, so I went inside and got my knitting. I had plenty of light from our front door light and it helped keep me warm. I got a fair amout ot of work done sitting there seeing all the little kiddies come by.

My favorite: The kid who was calling out "Trick or Treat, Smell my underpants!"

Old Stuff, New Stuff and Future Stuff

OK, here are the last pictures of my Bad Ass Knittin Bag and the felted bag that I entered in the fair. I promise I'll stop whoring them out now.






I made Michael a hat. It cost me a whole $2. You've got to love a good sale!

Here's a picture of what I'm working on now. It's going to be another felted bag. The body and straps are going to be brown, with a band of the off-white around the top. I'm also thinking about doing some embroidery on it too. That's going to be a christmas present for someone.

And this is going to be my next embroidery/sewing project. It's going to be a late christmas present for my friend Heather, who works for the SC Dept. of Archives and History. She does a lot of disaster recovery and planning for agencies throughout the state.

Just like my knitting bag, Michael is designing the pattern. The design isn't finished, but this is a good idea what it's going to look like. I think the finished design will have fire, a flood and some bugs (and a different font for the Disaster Queen).

Good Things CAN Happen on a Monday. And Hats.

Today I got some good news. I found out around 11:30am from my blog-friend Carrie Penny that the results had been posted for the judging on the SC State Fair website. Screw work I was checking that website to see how I did!

My felted handbag won second place in Any other knitting not listed category.

My Bad Ass Knittin Bag won first in Handbag, Embroidered category. However, I think it was the only entry in that category. I'll still take it and I'm proud! They didn't have to give me anything for either one!


In other news I'm learning how to make hats on double pointed needles. At first I was intimidated and even a little scared/nervous. I mean, those needles are really pointy! What if I poked myself in the eye or made a shish-ka-hubby? It all worked out though.









I'm happy to report that no husbands, cats or dogs wer harmed during the knitting of these hats. Michael says he feels like I'm trying to give Hermione a run for her money knitting hats for the house elves.

New Endeavors

This afternoon Michael picked me up and we went to drop off my fair entries (yay!!) and then he took me out for lunch. I'm glad to have it done with and delivered. Now I want the fair to be over so I can pick the bags up and use them!

I'm currently trying to learn something new. Yesterday, my knitting buddy at work showed me a new method for casting on and how to knit on double pointed needles in the round. I was scared and intimidated to get started last night, but no eyeballs were poked out during the making of my useless practice cylinder. I'm going to practice some more and then I'm going to try a hat. Then once I conquer that, I'm going to figure out socks.