Snowed in Again!

Yes, we are getting blasted again on the downeast coast of Maine. 14" on the ground and still coming down. I'm nursing one of those head colds where it aches behind your eyes - you know the kind? So a snowy day was just what I needed. I've been drinking this Lipton's mandarin orange flavored green tea. It's in these really cool triangle shaped tea-bags. I highly recommend it with a teaspoon of honey! And DH made some homemade chicken noodle soup mmmm-mmmmm good!

I did manage to block the scarf I made for DH. He is really not a scarf person, but asked me to make him one during the last snowstorm. He wanted red and all I could find was this kool-aid dyed knitpicks bare wool yarn that was sort of red. I added some dark olive green paton's wool that I had and did a simple 2x2 rib.

Now, for some Nyquil and a good night's sleep. Maybe it will stop snowing by the morning - but if it doesn't....I've got a good book to read and plenty of yarn!

PVC CHAMPS!

Whoo Hoo! The Sumner HS Varsity Cheerleaders (remember the girls I made the hats for?) came in first in their division championship competition! Now they go to the Eastern Maine Competition in two weeks,and if they come in the top 6, they go to the Maine State Competition in Augusta. There were some excited girls (and families, friends, and relatives), especially when they were met with a police and firetruck escort when they arrived back in town! The adorable one in the middle front row is my granddaughter. Well, yes, they are all adorable, but she is just too cute!




And here she is with her biggest fan.

I'm an ISFP

That's what I am - Introvert, Sensing, Feeling, Perceptive. I went to a Myers-Briggs Workshop today. If you've never done Myers-Briggs - it's a personality test. An ISFP is an "observant, loyal helper; reflective, empathic, patient with details, gentle and retiring; shuns disagreements; enjoys the moment".
Just once I'd like to be an ENTJ - (Extrovert, Intuition, Thinking, Judgment)- " Intuitive, innovative organizer; aggressive, analytic, systematic; more tuned to new ideas and possibilities than to people's feelings". But no... I always come out as an introvert - "Lord, help me to stand up for my RIGHTS! (if you don't mind my asking?)

So, what does this all prove? Absolutely nothing - except the kids got to go home early today, and I got to sit though another non-productive workshop! And, no...I didn't bring my knitting - but I wish I had. I could have just retreated to my introverted corner of the world, told everyone to stay away from me, and happily knit away.

More FOs and Something to Cheer About

Another Fidget (bet you can't make just one!), made with Plymouth Boku (two strands held together).



And a Calorimetry, also made with the Plymouth Boku, single strand.
And, something to Cheer about. Jordyn's cheering team had their first competition today and came in 2nd! Here is Jordyn on the right - going up.....
And up they go. The pictures are lousy - the lighting in the gym makes it impossible to get good pictures. These girls are true athletes and my heart was in my throat every time they 'flew' or flipped end over end. Didn't help that this was the same gym that Jacob broke his arm in playing basketball last week!

Extended School Vacation

We got an extra day off today due to not being able to get out of our houses or get the school buses on the roads! It has stopped snowing, but there is a lot of the white stuff out there. This is what greeted me at my front door - it's over my head. I'm using the extra day to ORGANIZE! I'm actually at the point where I can see the top of my computer desk!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A very Happy and Healthy New Year to all of you! My fist FO of 2008....A Fidget! I found this pattern on Ravelry and love it. It can be made with bulky yarn or two strands of worsted weight and is quick, easy and warm, which is just what I need for the weather we have been having.
I'm going to make more of these.



New Year's Day picnic anyone? I think I'll pass on that one. I have a leg of lamb defrosting, a new sweet potato recipe to try, and a nice warm house to have New Year's dinner in.

Vanilla-Glazed Sweet Potatoes
3 lb.sweet potatoes
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
3T. orange juice
1 T. vanilla extract
1 t. salt
1 t. orange zest
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 c. chopped pecans
Boil sweet potatoes in water until tender; drain. Cool slightly, then cut into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange the slices in a greased, broiler-proof 13"x9" baking dish, overlapping slightly. In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add brown sugar, orange juice, vanilla, salt, orange zest and pepper, stirring until combined. Heat, but do not allow to boil. Remove from heat and brush sauce evenly over potato slices. Broil 6 inches from heat until golden, about 6 or 7 minutes. Sprinkle with pecans.
Makes 6 servings.

New Year's Eve Snowstorm

We are getting blasted with another snowstorm today - must be a foot out there already! It's a good thing we have no plans for New Year's Eve - just a quiet evening at home - a welcome treat after the hectic week just gone by.


Here is a peek at a few of the special gifts I received this year - a cross stich done by a friend - love it!
This beautiful necklace from my DH.
A digital picture frame from my DD - best of all, already loaded with great pictures.
On the knitting scene I received a gift certificate to Knitpicks, The 2008 Knitting Calendar, and on the mystery scene Robert B. Parker's new Spenser novel, Now and Then from my oldest son, plus the NESN Red Sox Champions Again Video (funny - I got him one too!)
All in all, it was a good Christmas (aside from Jake's broken arm!) - mostly because it was spent with the people I love best!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

'Twas the Day After Christmas

Well, a couple of days after Christmas actually. It was a good Christmas - always good when the family is all together. On the day after Christmas My DD, SIL, and their two girls drove down to NYC for their quarterly scoliosis check-up. They are both wearing soft-core braces, an innovative new treatment for scoliosis, combined with exercises and chiropractor adjustments, and the closest treatment center is a 9 hour drive away in NYC. My grandson decided to stay home so he wouldn't miss his basketball game the next day .....a decision he was to regret, as you can see from the picture below! Only 20 seconds left in the game - and a 200 lb. player on the other team slammed into him (I think football may be the less dangerous sport, at least they have protective equipment on) We took him to the ER, and had his arm xrayed and splinted, (a three hour ordeal) and made an appointment with a specialist to have it set the next day . His parents, who had planned to spend the night in NY, headed back home, took him to the hospital the next morning - and here is the result - in his school colors no less. He is looking at the bright side of things - it's his right hand - won't be able to write (he thinks!), and he won't have to do push-ups at basketball practice anymore. It should be off in 6 weeks and healed in plenty of time for baseball season.

Merry Christmas

A Very Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Merry Christmas to Me!!!!

Just look what I received in the mail today - not one, but two Whoduknit Holiday Swap packages. They both arrived perfectly timed on Christmas Eve, and I was overwhelmed by both of them. I opened Barbara's first (we swapped with each other), and could not believe all that was in it - couldn't even get it all in one picture. There were ornaments - wooden ones, a beautiful embroidered felt bird, a cute

nutcracker, and toy soldier. A kit to make a beaded medicine bag, some Plymouth cotton yarn, body wash,lotion and lip balm, candy, coffee, a beautiful fabric decoupaged serving dish, The Knit It Holiday issue, and the book, Shrouds of Holly by Kate Kingsbury, which I can't wait to read. And some great recipes I can't wait to try.

I am really overwhelmed by Barbara's generosity - thank you so much Barbara.





But there is more!

Next I opened the package from Karen - and once again was overwhelmed! And once again could not fit everything in one picture. There were little notes on each package - lots of fun.
There was a container of Ginger Snaps, and some Cinnamon Plum tea - which was inspired by the book she sent - A Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich - Visions of Sugar Plums (how clever is she!) a recipe for Lebkuchen (German Honey Bars) a pop-up magnifier to help with that small print, an adorable keychain sock blocker with a pattern for making a mini sock to put on it - and some Opal sock yarn to make it with! I think that will turn into big socks for me though! There was also a cute mini stocking that I have turned around the wrong way in the picture - it has a star on the front of it.

And, if you look closely, under all of those goodies is a Trader Joe's bag - I never have enough project bags!
Thank you so much Karen - again, I am overwhelmed by your generosity!

Two Days Until Christmas

Two days left and I'm still
knitting - The Blanket Buddy from the One Skein Wonder's Book.

Still wrapping - this book is for Jordyn along with some yarn and needles. Still cleaning, haven't even started baking yet. Tonight we are having friends over for dinner. Tomorrow I have to pick up my oldest son, who is flying in from Austin, at the airport (a two hour round trip) - it's 2 p.m. and I'm not even dressed yet!Believe it or not there are still more gifts to put under the tree!
So why am I playing with my digital camera and posting on my blog? Because I love you all and just had to wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!!!

Thank You!

Thanks for all of your birthday wishes! To answer some of your questions - yes, the meal was a delicious as it sounded! And, yes, there was some chocolate - Moosetrack IceCream! I didn't think I could possibly have dessert - but somehow managed!
Today I received a gift certificate from my sister-in-law to Knitpicks! I was dumbfounded because she is not a knitter and really doesn't know a crochet hook from a knitting needle so I had no idea how she knew about Knitpicks. A phone call solved the mystery. I had mailed her present in a knitpicks box that I had received an order in (really - I didn't do that intentionally!) and she got the address off it and ordered the gift certificate. So now I am pouring over the catalog deciding what to order.

It's My Birthday

We survived the snow storm yesterday. The power was out most of the day, but came back on at 9 o'clock last night. I thought I'd get the day off for my birthday - but the snow stopped and the power came back on and school was not cancelled - bummer! The roads were still pretty horrible and I think school SHOULD have been cancelled!!! I guess a lot of parents thought so too, since we only had 8 kids in our class today.

Having a birthday a week before Christmas pretty much sucks! But I'm at an age where it really doesn't matter anymore - just grateful for one more birthday LOL. My DH gave me a big basket full of Bath & Body products, which is really luxury, since he is usually much more practical than that, (think kitchen appliance) and my Daughter gave me a yummy terry cloth robe - so soft and comfy. My sister gave me the 2008 Knitting Pattern a Day calendar - can't wait to browse through that, and my other sister gave me a beautiful leather bag. But best of all, my DH is cooking dinner - some sort of pork flambe dish, Latkes (potato pancakes), and roasted asparagus - he even has the dining room table set with candles!

So...Happy Birthday to Me!

Snow and Love

We are being bombarded with a Nor'easter today that is supposed to last into tomorrow. Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm thinking a nice gift would be a snow day! I have wrapping, decorating, and maybe even baking to do and could sure use the day.

And the love....a thank you note from the cheerleaders for the hats. I taught a lot of them when they were in Kindergarten and First grade, and although I shouldn't admit it, taught some of their parents too, including their coach! So it was an act of love to crochet the hats for them, and they returned it! That's the way life should be!

Package from Norway

Out of over 100 participants in the Christmas Around the World Swap, would you believe that my Norwegian friend Vigdis got my name?
How great was that. I received my package today full of goodies from Norway.
How cute are the little hat and mitten ornaments - and how much patience does it take to knit something like that? More patience than I have! Then there was some candy, a snoman ornament, carved wooden spoon ornament a tiny folded star - some beautiful pewter ornaments:













And look at this adorable Norwegian Gnome! He will have a special place next to my computer.

And some Norwegian yarn and pattern book to make some full size versions of the little ornaments...and it's in Norwegian! Guaranteeing that Vigdis will be hearing from me often to interpret the pattern!
Thank you so much Vigdis -
it was a wonderful package from a wonderful friend.

SNOW

No snow? Here is some for you!http://www.riversongs.com/christmas/snowball.html

AND THE WINNER IS...............

Rachel! who is anti-technology. She wrote, "I very rarely watch TV (only a show here or there online), I despise phones (I don't like to be accessible), I have to deal with the computer but outside of blogland, it's only out of necessity. I'm happiest when I'm living in the woods doing research, miles from any type of gadget, electricity, etc." Congratulations Rachel! Send me your mailing address (grammieknits@yahoo.com) and I will mail off your prize.
And, once again, thanks to all of you who entered my contest and shared your weird habits with me (and the world!) It was so much fun - I'm already thinking up another contest!

You Are an Angel

A truly giving soul, you understand the spirit of Christmas.

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

Brrr...It's Cold Outside

We've got a couple of feet of snow on the group and temps in the teens. But I did finish the hats on time and the girls wore them in the parade.

300th Post Contest

I'm overwhelmed by the number of responses to my contest - 101 to be exact! I had no idea there were so many of you weird people out there LOL. But seriously, thank you all so much for sharing your weird habits with me. This has been so much fun! Some of you made me laugh, some of you really scared me! But I am enjoying reading every one of them, and following the links to your blogs to 'meet' you. It will take me a few more days to go through them all and I will try to comment on each of your blogs (if I can find you). I'll announce the winner next weekend so be sure to check in then. Again, thank you all so much for taking the time to post your comments and sharing your idiosyncrasies - it really has been a lot of fun!

300th Post Contest!

This is a Sticky - scroll down for new posts.

This is it - my 300th post - all about ME! So, of course, I'm having a contest. If you read my blog you know lots of weird stuff about me so to enter the contest leave a comment telling me one weird thing about you.

And, If you link my contest on your blog, you will get two chances to win. I'll leave the contest open until Dec. 1 and make it a sticky until then so it will be easy to find. The prize:
This Knitting Needle Knitting Bag from Bag Style, two skeins of Paton's SWS Soy Wool Stripes, 24-Hour Knitting Projects by Rita Weiss, a pair of Bamboo knitting needles....and, there may be some other treats hidden in that bag!

C IS FOR...........

C is for...Cute! (bet you thought I was going to say chocolate!)

C is for...Crocheted Cap(grammiecrochets too!)

C is for...

Cheerleaders (my 14 year-old Freshman granddaughter (not the one on the right - that's Tori) made the varsity cheering squad - go Jordyn!!!)

C is for ....Christmas Parade (the cheerleaders are marching in a Christmas parade on December 1).

So where is this post heading? Well, when the Cheerleaders
saw Tori's cute hat, they loved it and thought it would be great if they all wore one in the Christmas parade next Saturday...so guess who is crocheting 16 hats this week? The pattern is from 24-hour Crochet Projects by Rita Weiss. I'm using Red Heart SuperSaver (this is worse than you thought, isn't it?) @ $2.29 a skein and I can get four hats out of one skein. It's taking me less than an hour to make one and I've finished four so far. Think I'll make it?

well, okay - C is for... Chocolate, which I will reward myself with each time I Crochet a Cap!

Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I'm grateful for 43 years of marriage, three children, three grandchildren, my sisters, my friends, my co-workers, my students, yarn, books, the Internet, chocolate, red wine, the Red Sox, digital cameras , dishwashers, microwave ovens, and you my blogging friends who live in my computer. Though I've never met you in person, I'm grateful I've found this wonderful community of knitters who are so free to share their creative ideas, help solve my knitting problems, and are perfectly comfortable telling me weird things about themselves! I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving and hope that you have a long list of things to be thankful for too.

Chocolate

So I'm at the check-out in the grocery store and the cashier comes to this box of chocolate (which I bought to put in a swap package) and the conversation between her and the bagger goes like this:

Cashier - ooohh look at this box of chocolate.

Bagger - grabs the box and says - wow! My girlfriend would love this. She says chocolate is good for you.

Me - Put the chocolate down!

Cashier - Every woman knows that chocolate is good for you. (the bagger is walking away with my chocolate)

Me - come back here with my chocolate!

Bagger (reading the label) - this is really good for you because it's dark

chocolate.

Cashier - Of course it is good for you - if we didn't have chocolate we would have to hurt people.

Me - Can I please have my chocolate!

Bagger finishes bagging my food and I have my eye on the chocolate.

Me - That chocolate better be in the bag when I get home or someone is going to get hurt!

Cashier rings up the total and I swipe my credit card and sign for it.

Me - Where is my chocolate? I check the bags and find it in there and get out of there fast!

Now - after all that - the box of chocolate will not fit in the flat rate box I am filling up for my swap pal! What am I going to do now - don't tell me I am going to have to eat it all myself! At least I know it's good for me - after all the cashier and the bagger both said so!

Merry Minis

Here are some of my finished "Merry Minis"

An Inside Look

Thank you for your kind words about my Christmas Rose Gift Bag. Some of you asked what the inside looked like (since I said it was a mess) so I took a photo - and much to my surprise, when I looked at the picture I could actually see a pattern in all of those strands - maybe I did it right after all????

I knit up a few of Carol Bristol's Merry Minis and felted them this morning. They still need some embellishing - buttons, miniature knitting needles, etc. but I think they are adorable. And..I'm using up all those little balls of leftover yarn that are taking up room in my stash, therefore making room for more stash!

Dandy's 500 post contest

Vicki at Purple is a Fruit is having a contest to celebrate her 500th post! Go on over and enter. And...this post gets me closer to 300 and my own contest!

Christmas Rose and Merry Minis

I finished my Christmas Rose Gift Bag from Handknit Holidays. Looks pretty good from the outside - but...the inside- well I just don't know about that. Maybe I should line it.

I'm also working on some Christmas ornaments - Merry Minis from Carol Bristol Designs.

The are so cute and a great way to use up all the leftover wool yarn I have from felting projects.

This is post #295 - be looking for a contest when I reach post #300!

Three Day Weekend

I'm really looking forward to this three day weekend (one day gone already!) Last weekend was busy and I see that I haven't posted since. My sister and her DH came up from NJ for the weekend. On Friday night we celebrated my DH's 65th birthday with a small dinner party at our favorite restaurant. Saturday, Hurricane Noel made a pass through Downeast Maine, leaving us without power for 15 hours. On Sunday, I went to see "Clue, the Musical" at our community theater. It was great! Each night that it played there was a different outcome, and the audience got to play along with clues given after each scene. The night I went it turned out to be Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with a wrench - and I did guess it!


And some knitting content - I finished two pairs of felted ballet slippers for my sister's granddaughters in time to send them back down to NJ with her, along with the other presents headed that way.

I also knit this "Knot a Scarf" from some beautiful ribbon yarn that my Irish friend Fiadhnat sent me from Ireland.

Treats

Some Halloween treats for me - the new Knit Simple Holiday 2007 magazine, with some really cute knit Christmas balls, and an adorable sheep afghan in it and a new One-Skein Wonder book - 101 Designer one-skein Wonders. As with the first one, I want to knit just about everything in it.

And DH's birthday present - what else!

Happy Halloween

From the Statue of Liberty

And Little Red Riding Hood, who did not go near the big bad wolf!

2007 World Champions!

CONGRATULATIONS BOSTON RED SOX

2007 WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!

Switch Knitter

In spite of all of the years that I have been knitting, I have never learned to knit Continental style - I'm a thrower and I like it that way - gets rid of a lot of aggression! Another thing I've never done is Fair Isle or stranded knitting, always preferring to cross-stitch the design on a plain stockinette background. But today......I have become a two handed knitter! I'm making the Christmas Rose Gift Bag from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and after reading up on some Fair Isle techniques decided to give it a go. One suggestion for two color Fair Isle was to knit one color with the right hand and one with the left hand - yeah right! But it didn't hurt to try, and it wasn't long before I was throwing one color with my right hand and knitting continental with the other. The two colors don't get all twisted up, the design repeats enough so I can carry the yarn across the back, and I'm reall enjoying this! I have no idea if I am doing this correctly - but here's what I have so far.