Happy New Year's Eve!

What a fun holiday season we've had! There was lots of feasting on a Christmas ham. I tried the brandied ham glaze recipe from the December issue of Everyday Food magazine and it tasted fantastic!

The table was set for a romantic dinner =)

And we had ham sandwiches for days and days and days afterwards, but it was so good we didn’t complain about it getting boring.

The dogs and cat got plenty of scraps. Bandit would meow every time he heard the ham dish come out of the fridge.

We had such fun getting the xmas surprises from friends and relatives and various things Jeff and I ordered for each other. I don't care that it makes me seem about 12, I will never be too old for stuffed toys! The Labrador puppy hand puppet is from my mother and really confused Saffy and Silas when I unwrapped it and started petting it.

After the last big snowstorm, Jeff and I cracked and bought a snow blower, so that ended up being our big Christmas present this year. Although there was no snow when it arrived, the snow started right after I took the pics and the ground was white within a short time.

The dogs turned the shipping box into a dog house...

until the snow began falling...

and all they wanted to do was jump for snowballs!



The snow is coming down fast! I wonder if my herbs will survive the winter this year? The rosemary still looks ok. Some years it makes it and other years I have to replace it with a new plant.

I'm not setting any specific New Year's resolutions, just looking forward to my knitting and usual activities after the lovely holiday diversion.

I wish everyone the best in 2010!!

Christmas Day

Silas got fresh tennis balls for us to throw for him.

Saffy got a squeaky chew toy.

Bandit got a new scratching post which he is vigorously enjoying, but I haven't gotten a picture of it.

I got lovely presents including a labrador puppy hand puppet from my mother that really amazes the dogs. They think there is a new dog in the house! Jeff and I got a nice selection of books, dvd's and games. The big present this year is a snow blower, ordered though not yet shipped. That might mean it doesn't snow for the rest of the season, but we will be ready when it does!

Christmas is a great excuse for cooking and there is a ham in the oven now. For Christmas eve, I made my favorite French Onion Soup.

It was plenty filling after overdosing on sugar cookies earlier in the day =)

Best Wishes!

(Scan of a vintage card from my Grandmother's scrapbook.)

Spoiled Doggies

There has been lots more fun in the snow and Jeff carved out a snow cave for the dogs to play in too! They love it!

Mooch

Bandit trying to cuddle up to Saffy...or maybe just trying to steal her warm bed?

Digging Out

Rather a lot to do...

You have to click to see the full sized images for the next two, it's about the facial expressions.

Ow! My back!

Just kidding...sort of...

Ok, kidding, it's not quite *that* deep!!!

I worked on making a dinner to warm Jeff up when he came back in: chicken chasseur, roasted garlic and rosemary focaccia. I love having the oven on when it's snowy outside.

A Real Snowstorm

The dogs haven't seen this much snow in awhile and were pretty amazed!

It was hard work to run in the drifting snow. Long winter's naps followed when they got back to their cozy beds by the warm radiator.

Frosted Saffy!

Looking for his toys under the snow, although tunneling and finding my feet was apparently fun for Silas too!

My fingers were too cold to push buttons on the camera so I didn't change the settings for snow and they are a bit gray!

Snow!

Snow is a bit of a shock after the warm weather we've been having, but it IS December. The dogs were very excited. Even though it was midnight, we had to have a bit of play.

The glowing eyes really crack me up!!!

Why I Don't Have Birdhouses...

...anymore. The squirrels chew them to bits!

I think this one systematically ate every red berry on the yew trees single handed this morning. Here it is reaching for the last few.

Comfort Food

I cooked a vat of Spag Bol this morning...it's soooo yummy! I love when I improvise and get something so tasty!

Imagine it over whole wheat penne with a snowy topping of fresh parm. It got eaten before I got a picture of that =)

Edited to add: Album of our day here, that Spag Bol fueled a bunch of yard work! The dogs weren't much help, but they had a lot of fun as you can see in the pics.

Trying A Trend Today...

...dark green nail polish.

It goes with some Louisa Harding sari ribbon yarn (shade #30) I have stashed for Flamingo!

Stash

I'm working on some ongoing things for the time being, but have lovely yarns lined up for when I finish something! I thought these Louisa Harding yarns looked pretty with the dried hydrangea's I photographed in my yard today.

The yarn is stashed for Sixpence from the Queen of Hearts book.

Phew!

I will have just enough yarn to finish up this version of the shaped lace tee from Knitting Lingerie Style! The sleeves are done in a different dye lot, but it made no difference. I just have to crochet the edging for the neckline, weave in those ends and steam it thoroughly.

I made the sleeve caps shorter this time to avoid the wrinkles that happened when I made the first one and I think it worked out well. Eventually, I'll go back and improve the sleeves on the original...

Black Hole of Yarn

(Almost an FO!)

This little shrug used *3* balls of yarn over what was suggested by the pattern. Granted, I did slightly lengthen the sleeves, but that shawl collar just kept eating up yarn. I thought I was going to run out of yarn a second time, but managed to have just enough. It seems to have been worth the worry and aggravation since the collar is lovely and warm and perfect for days like today that are 20-30 degrees cooler than normal!

I am very happy with how the stripes lined up. I used two balls at a time on the back so those stripes would be about as wide as the ones on the fronts. You can see I didn't quite start in the same place on the bottom fronts, but it's close enough overall. Some of the stripes line up due to planning, but some of the match ups are happy accidents.

Front:

Back:

Now, I have tons of ends to weave in! And, I'll have to shop for a button.

Louisa Harding Obsession!

I ran out of yarn on both my Lace Tee and my Noro Shrug! It was a little traumatic, but emergency yarn mail is now on the way. In the meantime, I've cast on something else, of course!

I've been somewhat secretly accumulating Louisa Harding books and yarns for various projects lately, usually only reporting purchases on Ravelry and not on the blog. (It would take me years to knit all the patterns of hers I like, especially since I have to try to keep up with a few other favorite designers!)

One of the recent purchases was Venezia: Felice Mai Dopo, which I've admired since it was published. I really got it in the nick of time too, considering the Thalia yarn I want for it is becoming very hard to come by, especially in my favorite colors. The bright side of discontinued yarn is that when I do find it, it has been on sale!

The first pattern I'm trying from this book is Florian with my favorite shade of Thalia, named fountain. Although I adore the picture of the sweater in the book, I am making some changes as I go to make it more suited to me. I am working from 2 different sizes, adding some shaping to diminish the A line shape a little and working the entire sweater on the smaller 'trim' needles as I am too loose knitting on the larger ones. I was going to do the boat neck, but my version is telling me to change it to a v neck...

Here is the back so far. I will wait to do the rest of the armhole and shoulder shaping until I catch up with the front piece. I'll do them together so they come out the same.

As you can see in the picture, I am already accessorizing! That is a small Noni Market Bag that I made awhile back and have been waiting to embellish in just the right way. I plan to sew on the bauble I found at Michael's that you can see in the picture and embroider on some flowers with scraps of the Thalia.

I am very excited about the two newest Louisa Harding books, Queen of Hearts and Little Cake. They are gorgeous! It is hard to narrow down my list and order yarn for what I can reasonably make. I'm having trouble finding some of the yarn, so that is helping to slow me down some. Some of the shades are new and not available yet, I think. For patterns in Queen of Hearts, I have found the yarn for Flamingo which will be my first serious intarsia challenge, Sixpence and some of the yarn for March Hare. Other projects from Queen of Hearts I would like to make the most are Five (short version), Lacie, Marmalade, Pocket Watch, Roses, and Whiskers.

From Little Cake, I have the yarn for Maythorn on the way. Later on, I would like to get to Thulston, Pikenaze and Wimberry (vest).

It's good to dream, right?!