I made this pillow for my mother in law. They love Christmas at their house and I thought a nice pillow would fit in well.

I found the pattern free on line and I believe it was a Crabapple Hill pattern but I can’t find my source. The ornament was embroidered first and then appliqued to the background. And then the background was embroidered. The pattern called for the rickrack and it makes the pillow, don’t you think?!

I was really in the mood to embroider after both of my surgeries this fall so this was the perfect project. I also embroidered  a pillow for my sister, but I forgot to take a picture and will try and get her to take one.

For Vivienne this Christmas, I decided to make the Dumpling Bag. This was a free pattern from Knitting Daily. I like Knitting Daily but they have evolved from mostly informational daily emails to just trying to sell you stuff. Occasionally they offer a good tutorial and a free pattern or two. This was one of them.

This is a felted bag and I used Cascade wool. I bought the yarn up at Close Knit on Alberta and they were very helpful. They had made the bag as a store sample and found that if you embroidered it before felting it like the pattern called for, the embroidery didn’t show up very well. They recommended waiting until afterwards so you could really see the embroidery. I went with their suggestion and was happy with the results. It’s a funny little bag and I know with felting you have to take what you get, but I wish the opening had been a bit bigger. I think it will be good for holding a yarn project or maybe going out somewhere special. Loved the variegated brown yarn.

More to come……………….

These are lemon ricotta cookies, recipe care of my friend Cyd. I’ve also made pecan pie squares, cream cheese brownies and Heath Bar cookies. We now have a bazillion sweets in our house!

I’ve put some decorations in Liza’s old room so it looks festive too.

And in this cold weather, I’ve been wearing one of the first sweaters that I ever knitted. It’s a wonderful hand-dyed yarn and is very soft wool. Keeps me warm on these blustery days.

This afternoon is the secret santa party at Happy Knits. I’ve excited and nervous. I always stress over whether the person I have will like her gifts. I’m taking my camera and will try to take some pictures. There is sure to be much merriment there.

I’ve been very bad about remembering to take pictures lately. Our Christmas party was Saturday night and I only took three pictures, Three! That’s pretty bad. I will try to do better. Merry Christmas!

So here is a picture of a sweater that I finished knitting in the spring but didn’t post about then.  By the time I finished knitting it, it had gotten too warm to wear it so I put it aside without sewing the buttons on. I pulled it out a couple of days before Thanksgiving, got the buttons on and wore it to dinner. Since then, I think I’ve worn it three times. It’s super cute and comfortable and really warm. It’s called “Juliet.”

I would highly recommend following the links on ravelry and reading all about the changes people made with this sweater.  It’s knit from the top down and after the garter stitch section at the top, you increase to get the correct number of stitches for the lace pattern on the bottom. I did not increase as many as they called for in the original pattern. Too many knitters commented that the bottom section of the sweater was too full, so I increased less in order to have less lace repeats.

The other problem with the original pattern was the armholes. Many knitters commented that they were too tight. There are a couple of ways to fix that and I ended up adding stitches with the cable cast on right under the arm before moving on to the bottom section.

The yarn I used was Cascade Venezia and my friend Cyd gave it to me. She had bought it and decided it was too chunky and asked if anyone at the knit group wanted it. How lucky was I? Many thanks Cyd. This sweater will be keeping me warm for many winters to come.

Amazingly, the man who hit the car stopped and gave our neighbor all his information; license, registration, insurance info and phone number. We live down the hill from a very big curve that is banked wierd and we’ve had at least 10 accidents on this street since we’ve lived here. Most are hit and run. It renews my faith in the basic goodness of mankind that this man chose to stop.

So I’ve been dealing with insurance people and mechanics and everything is moving along well. It’s just taken time away from more enjoyable pursuits.

Thursday was knitting day and everyone came over to my house this time. I love having people over in October because the house is all decorated for Halloween. You KNOW how much I love Halloween. I’ve posted lots of pictures of Halloween decorations in previous years but here is a new one.

This haunted village was a kit from Martha Stewart. I got it a couple of years ago and finally finished it last fall. It’s up on the dresser in the guest room and I love how it looks with the light coming in from the side.

Whenever we meet for knitting, everyone brings food. In honor of Halloween, Jeanne brought these great cupcakes and cookies. Aren’t they awesome?!

Jeanne’s daughter made the cupcakes and they were delicious. The cookies are basic sugar cookies formed in a finger shape, and the fingernail is a sliced almond painted with food coloring. They so make me smile.

And finally, Lynda is taking a class at Holly Hill Quilt Shop called Wednesday Woolies. They make small projects out of wool. This past Wednesday, they made these two cute things and Lynda stayed up late that night finishing them so she could bring them to put on our table.

She says she’s going to stain the stands because they look too new, she just didn’t get to it yet.

I’ve been working on a couple of new things for Halloween but nothing is quite finished. The stitchery is almost done. Probably just an hour of work and I’ll be done with the last embroidered block. I’ve been sewing the nine patches that go in between the blocks and they should be finished tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get the top done by the 31st but it definitely won’t be quilted until next year.

I should have a couple of smaller projects to show next week. Coffins and skulls and a spooky banner. Wait and see!

Janet made her special chocolate chip cookies. They are the best I’ve ever eaten.

I could not resist eating both. Delicious and pretty too.

Lynda has recently retired and she is on a crafting bender. I can’t believe how much she gets done. Lynda and Viv have gotten hooked on these knitted bracelets. I think they are terrific and I want to learn how to make them and I don’t want to learn how to make them all at the same time. I’ve got so many projects to finish and I just can’t afford to get hooked on something new.

Lynda made the purple necklace and bracelet to wear to a wedding and they look so nice. It is wonderful to hang out with such talented women.

Here are both of them with their Heart to Heart Beaded Scarves.

The pattern is available for $6 on Ravelry and I might overcome my lace anxiety enough to try this one. It’s long and narrow and I think it’s very wearable. I wonder with some of the bigger shawls when you would have the occasion to actually wear them.

This is Cyd modeling Viviennes’ Vernal Equinox Shawl. OMG, doesn’t this look hard! I can’t even fathom attempting this one, but it sure is beautiful. The yarn is even more wonderful in person.

This is Viviennes’ Goddess Knits Spring Mystery Shawl. It’s called Flora and is available for $8 at Ravelry. I can’t imagine tackling this one either but isn’t it gorgeous? And I love the added beading.

Here is Susan modeling Cyds’ Grand Tour Shawl. She used two different lace books and made this up herself. She knitted some of it in Europe and some of it in Mexico, thus the name. Susan sure looks like she likes it doesn’t she? I wonder if all the shawls made it back to their correct owners?!

Look at all this wonderful food.

Janet made the enchiladas and I must say they were divine. Susan made a great lemon cake with strawberries on top.

Friends, food and laughter, what more could one ask for? !

Here we are on the train from Bruges.

We also went in search of yarn to bring home. I had researched yarn stores in Paris and all the blogs I read agreed we had to go to La Droguerie.  And they were right, the whole experience was a real trip. You could just look at samples of all the merchandise and when you decided what you wanted, you had to wait at the counter for a clerk to help you. The clerk would go in the back and wind up the amount of grams or meters that you wanted. We watched for a quite a while to figure out what we were supposed to do. Then I managed in my limited french to ask for the yarn, pattern, trim and buttons that we wanted. We both got yarn to make a fun little summer cardigan. I managed to take this picture before seeing the sign telling people not to take pictures.

Here’s my yarn and trim from there. I can’t wait to make it. Of course, the instructions are in French so I’ve got some translating to do first.

I would have been more than happy to come home with just the one project from La Drogeurie, so we weren’t actively looking for yarn during our trip to Bruges.  We just happened upon it and of course we had to indulge.  We visited this cute shop where we both bought some antique buttons and Kristy got two skeins of yarn. They also had some scarves,  hats, and bags that were made by local artisans.

Then we found the mother lode. This cute shop was CRAMMED with yarn. You could barely walk in there for the bags and boxes on the floor along with all the stuff that was on the shelves. The owner was a very sweet woman who obviously got a kick out of us. I ended up buying some sock yarn and some gorgeous worsted weight to make the February Ladies Sweater. (also a free download on Ravelry)

Here’s the loot:

Kristy bought some sock yarn too even though she has never made socks before. But we both figured it would be wonderful to have socks made with yarn we had bought in Bruges. It will be a long lasting, fun-to-make momento of our trip.

Peggy got the cards and matching envelopes from The Paper Zone. She cut out some strips of fabric, laid them down on top of the card, trimmed them to the correct length and sewed through them all on her machine. I think she was inspired by a pattern in a book but I’m not sure which one. Tell us in the comments Peggy!

This is the inside of the card:

I am definitely going to copy this idea because these would make such great gifts. And so fun and easy to whip up a set of four.

The other wonderfulness from the other day came from my good friend Vivienne. She got a spinning wheel several months ago and I’ve been giving her a really hard time about it. Things like: “how can you take on another craft”, “there is so much great yarn out there I can’t believe you want to spin your own”, you get the picture. And then she goes and spins me the most wonderful yarn for my birthday.

It’s sock weight and about 300 yards.  It is so beautiful, look at those great colors. I’ve been searching Ravelry, looking for just the right shawl pattern for it.

Another crafty thing I just finished were these two bags. They were gifts for two friends of mine and are fun and easy to make. As I was finishing the second one, it occurred to me that I should have taken pictures and done a tutorial. I will have to make another one soon and do that for you.