Giving Thanks

Well, it's that time of year again. Cooking for hours, eating too much, rushing to finish up my Christmas crafting. And, of course, thinking on all the things for which I am grateful. Here is a short list (in no particular order):

the first full holiday season with my hubby
family that supports me
friends that keep in touch
dogs that lick my hands
an abundance of craft supplies
opportunites, both present and upcoming
plenty of food

Apologies and updates

First, apologies yet again for a long absence. This Master's program is more work than I expected, but classes are going great! I'm working on two really interesting projects at the moment: one on learning theory as applied to knitting and another on the volunteer management system for Army Family Team Building. Very cool stuff!

Secondly, Momo found a new friend! And so did I! Amanda is another Army wife that I met through a knitting buddy, and her 11 month old puppy Lucy is Momo's new BFF. It is such a hoot to watch these two little monkeys play with each other. And, of course, the extra benefit is that they wear each other out so we get some peace and quiet! Harley tolerated their shenanigans, and even tried to get into the fun while chasing the ball outside.

When she's feeling especially lonely and I'm busy knitting or reading in the nap chair, Momo has taken to planting her face between my feet. It's so cute that I can't even get annoyed at how distracting it is.

On the crafting front, it's been pretty low key since I finished the big red chair. Lots of fun little projects and nothing overly ambitious. I've made a few shrugs for ladies on base, and a dear friend of mine commissioned a knitted work: she wanted an obscenely large knitted diamond ring. I am pretty darn proud of the fact that I designed the whole thing all by myself and that it actually came out the way I envisioned! I must be getting good at this knitting thing...
Here's a shot to give you proper scale for the finished product. That's one BIG diamond! And I got to use my new knitting machine to make the band.

The El Paso Knitting Guild had a yarn swap a while back, and I picked up this beautiful bamboo yarn. It's super soft and looks stunning with the way it patterns. But I'm using a size 3 needle and working these fingerless gloves in all rib stitch, so it is taking FOREVER to finish! At least I'm doing both gloves at one time or I would probably never finish the second one...

Just a few years ago I picked up a pattern booklet from Paton's that included felted Mary Jane slippers. I'm pretty sure I bought it just for that pattern. Well, I finally knitted up a pair and they are even cuter than the picture! I had to make a few adjustments, but they are soft and warm and cute and wonderful! And, yes, I will be making many, many more of these. Christmas is right around the corner, after all.

Apart from all the knitting, I also stumbled across an amazingly clever idea: book purses! Who would have guessed, transforming old, hard cover books into charming little purses. I made a practice run with a Lemony Snickett book, then tried it for real on this book about Texas.

It certainly isn't a "throw everything you might possibly need for a two week trip" kind of purse. But it definitely has some style to it. I have a few other old books I snagged from the Goodwill. Let's see how those turn out...

When we moved to El Paso I had this idea that we'd be relatively warmish when most of my New England friends were shivering in their parkas. Sadly, it seems that El Paso doesn't comply with many of my expectations. This morning as I walked the dogs it was a whopping 34 degrees. In all fairness, it's supposed to get into the upper 60s later today. But still. Grrr.