Catching up

Abi, Alex, Riley, Beth

To start off I found this picture this morning and it made me smile.  I miss Alex and Beth a lot - and wish they didn't leave me here in Milwaukee all by myself.  This was taken Thanksgiving weekend when we stopped at Alex's house in St. Paul.

Next, have you ever seen a more un-smiley lion?  Kyle refused to smile for any pictures - not sure why.  He insisted on dressing up while I was visiting with Amy the other day.  It was a well needed visit with my local Wisconsin friends Amy and Katie.  Katie's little boy, Jonah, didn't stand still for 2 seconds, much less for a photo, so this is the only one from the day.

Lastly I wanted to showcase my lovely new flowers.  These beauties were on sale at Target for $2.50.  They were just ugly bulbs and they have really taken off - this is only 2 weeks of growing!

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In anticipation of the vacation coming up I'm trying to plan ahead for what knitting to take a long.  You may be surprised to learn that I have not bought ONE SINGLE SKEIN of yarn this month (or this year, in fact!).  Bry probably thinks this is a good thing.

1. Mom's Mittens: Seen above - these are from the new book I got for Christmas - Knitting New Mittens and Gloves by Robin Melanson.  These are my progress photos:

I'm making it with some Wisconsin grown Alpaca that I bought from an ICU nurse where I work.  She raises alpacas on her farm. Windy Meadows is the name of their farm.  This yarn is amazingly soft and I love the natural colors.  The contrasting color will be natural off white from another of their alpacas.

2. Sweater.  This is my second Bergere de France undertaking.  I'm using ShiBui Knits that I bought at Knit Purl in Portland.  Loving their yarn and the color way.  The pattern looks terrific and the pooling (the way the colors group together) is turning out better than I could have hoped.

3.  Another hat.  This is the Jared Flood pattern Habitat and I'm using Jared Flood's yarn Shelter in nice purple color.  I really want to buy some more of this yarn to make some mittens out of.  Bry has the same hat in grey and I steal it to wear it all the time.

I may take some other projects along too - we'll see.  I'm not sure how well knitting is going to go with sand and sun though...... so I'll be bringing some new books along too.  Check out the countdown on the side - we're getting close!