From ours to yours…

Wishing you all the best for Christmas and the coming New Year!

Everything is all wrapped up and ready to go. It’s going to be a quieter Christmas for us this year. Dave’s Mom is spending it with her siblings in the big city. My brother’s family is tied down with work/family commitments on their end, so we will do something with them in the New Year. If the weather holds, Mom and Dad will drive here tomorrow and we’ll enjoy a nice turkey dinner with them.

In the mean time, there’s not much for me to do, so I’m putting my feet up to do a little knitting.

Lemmy and I decided to crack into that big skein of handspun mom gave me for my birthday. We decided to make the Across the Generations Shawl.

So far, there’s not much to see.

I’ve got the centre square complete, and I’m ready to pick up stitches all around the outside to start all the pretty lace. The square does not really look big enough to me… but I’m trying to let it go. I know it will really loosen up and stretch out once it’s wet and blocking. Sometimes you just have to have a little faith.

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I hope you’re having a wonderful Christmas Eve.

That quilt I left with Mom to finish…

… was that great big scrap quilt I put together weeks ago. It started as a leader/ender project, using up a pile of 3″ squares to make all those 16-patches. Then I made a pile of black and white quarter-square triangles, and put it all together to make a nice big, colourful quilt top!

Mom did an all-over flower stitch for the quilting. And I did something super silly… I made the top too big for the fabric I bought for the backing. So Mom had to do a little improvising…

Happily, her scrap collection is just as big as mine, and she was able to throw together some blocks to stretch out the backing just enough to make it work! So this quilt is interesting from both sides!

And I’m happy to announce, it’s in the shop!

Yep – the shop is back open! Obviously, if you order now you won’t get it by Christmas… but you could treat yourself just the same!

On Friday, we got a nice little dusting of snow. Not a tonne, but just enough to cover the ground and make things feel a little more Christmassy. Dave and I spent the evening out, getting the last little bits we needed for our dinner on Wednesday, and then came home to rest.

When we woke up the next morning… it looked like this

And it just kept coming down all day (I’d say we got between two and two-and-a-half feet). I decided it was a good day to do a bunch of the little things that were piling up around the house. But first, I had to go out and shovel the paths in the catio so a certain someone could do a little birdwatching.

His brothers won’t step a foot out when the snow is this deep, but it doesn’t bother Lemmy one bit. Once I got his paths down to a walkable level, I decided to do a little birdwatching myself.

I could hear the jays, and spied a cardinal, but in the end, the only thing that stuck around were the Juncos.

Remember how I said Juncos are ground feeders? Well one reader noted that they know someone who says they feed at their feeders.

And yesterday, I got to see it too.

This little guy was enjoying quite a feast of sunflowers as the snow was coming down. There was a pair at my other feeder too, gobbling up the mixed seed.

Sadly, my camera battery died on me so I didn’t stay out there too long. But I had more than enough to keep my occupied inside.

Last week, Dave and were feeling a little stressed, so we skipped out on Friday afternoon and headed down to Chatham to do a little thrifting. There’s about five or six places within a very short distance of each other there, so we can cover a lot of thrifting ground very quickly if we coordinate it right.

We had just walked in the door of the first store and I instantly spied something I just had to bring home.

Yup! Kitty lamps. They were just $5 a piece. They were missing their shades, but we found some to fit for just $2 at the next store.

Here’s a closer look at the detail on these beauties!

Aren’t they a hoot?

I have to find the perfect spot in the house for them. I’m thinking they may go on top of the antique hutch. But right now the Christmas tree is up there (thanks to Lemmy), so it will have to wait.

“Why did you put the tree with all the fun
shiny things where I can’t reach it????”

When I was a Mom’s I had two quilts to finish, but I didn’t get the second quilt quilted at Moms because by Sunday, I was just feeling a little burnt out. It was a big quilt and it would have taken me all day to do. And then I’d still have a three hour drive home. So Mom offered to quilt it. Instead, that Sunday morning, Mom helped me put together a little Christmas something for our Post-office ladies, and the lady who runs the town convenience store. We see them quite often so I like to have a little something to give them at Christmas.

Last year, I made mug rugs and put together boxes with a cup, some fancy tea and some biscuits.

This year…

I decided on these baskets, to fill with Christmas goodies.

I got the idea from a Reel on facebook. It was very short, and short on instructions, so Mom found a tutorial on Youtube and away we went. We started with 16″ squares, but you can use any size.

It’s not hard, but it is a little finicky at first. And it’s a lot of fabric to push through the machine after it’s folded. But each one got better as it went along.

We picked up some goodies on our shopping trips, and now they are ready to gift next week.

I had one last present to knit and with Christmas creeping up, I chose something I knew would knit up fast. A bulky-knit hat.

The pattern is Snow Day. It’s a freebie, and a very simple pattern. The yarn is Bernat Wavelength in the oddly named Orange Sodalite colourway. Because while there’s plenty of blue like sodalite, there’s not much orange. It’s more red and burgundy.

And that’s the last present, all wrapped up. I’m ready for Christmas. Are you?

It did not take too long to finish what was left on the second of my embroidery block

The little orangey-coral colour at the base of each flower was supposed to be a French Knot. But I couldn’t get them big enough to fill the space on several of the bigger flowers, so I did a satin stitch instead.

And that gave me a little practice for doing the bigger satin stitch flowers on Block 3.

I only got a few done before having to pack it up for the weekend, but I’m pleased with the results so far.

I finished up the Mercury socks on my birthday and now they are wrapped up and under the tree.

To recap:

Yarn: Alley Cat BFL. Colour is Oak

Pattern: Mercury. It’s a freebie. It’s a pretty simple lace pattern that’s very easy to memorize. I didn’t carry it down the foot as the pattern calls for. I made the change for two reasons. First, I wanted it to go a little quicker. Second, I figure the recipient will prefer it that way.

Whether you do my mod or not, it’s a good pattern to add to your sock collection.