Egads! It's almost Christmas!!

I remember my great grandmother saying [when I was about 8] that the older you get the faster time goes. I thought, "Crazy old lady." But, man, she was right! How did it get to be June? Similar question raised by Sport recently, "Grandma, how did you get to be 60?" He can count past one hundred now, so he knows that sixty is a BIG number. I told him that I kept having birthdays every year and finally got this many. ...seems the bigger the number, the faster they pile up!

Of all my plans for knitting [or crocheting] Christmas gifts, I've only got four dishcloths done [my "gag" gift for everyone this year.] Or maybe 6...if I don't have to frog the two that are in the same color/dye lot as the environmentally friendly shopping bag I'm working on. I'm thinking I'm going to need to use them. Time will tell!

I've got photos from my dear friend in the UK - DF and her granddaughter in matching Strawberry Creme socks. That will be a separate post.

Current OTN 1: Socks for me!! I'm nearly finished with the leg of the second sock.

OTN 2: I've started several practice pieces for felted slippers for CIC. But, haven't been happy with any and keep frogging. But, I think I've found a pattern that will work for me (a no brainer pattern.) I *thought* that I'd take the Kool-Aid dyed yarns along to work on while mom has surgery tomorrow. But, decided I'd better complete one pair -- including the felting process [which I've never done] before I knit additional slippers.

So, not OTN yet, but will be later today. More socks for me. Yarn from my stash [not shown on Ravelry yet] -- think I'd better go with the "camel" color since I don't know about the lighting in the waiting room, etc. Pattern? Hmmm. Maybe a cabled leg. On size 1 [US] needles. The smallest I've used so far are 1.5 [US], but I want a denser fabric.

OTHook: a shopping bag. Details later.

On the genealogy front: I've been adding info from various paper & computer files into my database. There's a national "family" reunion in Kansas City this month for people with my maiden name - and numerous spelling variations. Some share common ancesters with me, some don't. I think it would be loads of fun to go to the reunion & meet some of these distant cousins, but it's the same weekend as the state convention and just two weeks before my niece's wedding in Colorado.

So, I've been busy making print outs, copies, etc. to send to one of the reunion organizers for their display table.

Oops, the grandsons woke up and one is not a happy little fella. Took them to a baseball game last night so they were up late - probably haven't had enough sleep!

Still need to add a blog & photo of the Strawberry Creme socks on feet. Later.

In Praise of Crochet

I went to my county convention [Dems] yesterday and decided to NOT take knitting with me. I knew we'd be in a junior high auditorium and I didn't want to be elbowing the people next to me - or dropping a needle on the slanted floor.

But, I DID take a couple balls of Peaches & Cream cotton and a crochet hook along - and came home with 3 completed dishcloths!

I have a new, ongoing, project that I've committed to -- dishcloths. And [except for the 3 crocheted odd ones] I'll be knitting them at work. I know! At work! I usually work through my 30 min. lunch break, but have decided to make those 30 minutes all about me. :-)

I'm now spending about 15 mins. eating my sack lunch and browsing online news sources [msnbc, cnn, & bbc.] Then I turn off my monitor & get out my knitting bag. I figure I can whip out one dishcloth a month at work.

The goal is to have about 10-12 of them completed by Christmas - all the adults in the [local] family will get a dishcloth - even the guys. [Photos posted later]