Holiday Weekend

I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a good day on Thursday.  We lost power at 9:30pmon Wednesday at my sister's due to this:

Luckily I got up early on Wednesday and was there before it started snowing.  It was pretty but treacherous.  Thank goodness they have a generator because they did not have power back until late Saturday afternoon.

This was the view out of one of my sister's windows. The snow was wet and heavy causing a lot of broken branches and downed power lines.  Operating off a generator was interesting.  We fried our turkey as usual and luckily everything worked out well.

This is a photo from one of the times the generator ran out of gas and before my BIL refilled the tank.

I headed home on Friday so that I could attend the tree lighting in town on Saturday.  This was my first time being around for it and it was cold, cold cold! 

I walked down and left right after the lights went on.  Many stayed to chat with Santa and ice skate at the pavilion in town.

It was a nice start for the holiday season. My decorations are out and I'm paging through magazines for the perfect cookie recipe!

Sunday Summary

I don't have any cross stitch progress to show you but I have made some crochet headway on both my wrap and Special Olympics scarf projects.

I'm just kind of making my own pattern for the scarf using half-double crochet.  I an not a fan of the red and orange together so I decided to band them together with the green and have been happier with the way the project looks.

And I managed to put a few more rows into the wrap pattern while I was doing laundry this weekend.  I'm only working two days this week so I hope to get time to work on both projects during the Thanksgiving holiday and over the weekend.

After a very cold and windy week, we had a wonderful, sunny day in the 50s so I took advantage and spent quite a bit of time outdoors.  Beau and I took a very long walk and then I vacuumed my car and switched the floor mats for the winter weather version.  I hope wherever you are, you enjoyed your Sunday!

Special Olympics Scarf Project 2015

A small article (it was likely the picture of Red Heart yarn that did it) in one of the local papers that come free in my mailbox every week caught my eye and had me reading about a project for the upcoming winter Special Olympics that will take place in January.

The goal is to receive 500 scarves for the participants to wear during the games.  There are specific colors to be used and today, my box arrived from Joanne Fabrics.  I'm by no means a fast knitter but I do hope I can get at least one each done and mailed out in time.

This link will take you to the flyer that lists the specific colors they are asking for.  I'm sure it would be even more special if they received scarves from outside Maine.  Hint, hint, hint!

Growing on me

I've been able to devote some time to my cross stitch project and it's starting to grow on me now that I have more colors put in as Laura commented.  I think the fact that it's over one also charms me.

In addition to growth on this project, I started another yarn project.  My fingers were itching to start something new so I dug through my stash and decided to start this very simple crochet shrug I'd downloaded from Lion Brand a few years ago.

I bought the yarn it called for in the color way shown so I'm using Lion Brand Tweed Stripes in the Woodlands colorway,  It feels really good to be working from stashed yarn that's been in my yarn storage for at least 4 years! 

It's the perfect project for watching TV as it's single crochet in the back loop until you reach the given size and then it's just seamed together.  Perfect for watching The Voice tomorrow night!

I hope you had a great weekend and that your Monday is a smooth one!

Needle has met thread and fabric!

Well, I finally picked up my needle and did some actual stitching on Sunday.  I was very productive on Sunday and that extra hour meant I had no excuse for not doing some work on what I hope will be a Christmas present - this year.

Here is where I started.  This was supposed to be a graduation gift but I'm moving a little slow - as usual. 

And here's where I left off on Sunday evening.  Not bad progress.  I'm using DMC and stitching over one on some 30 ct. I had in my stash.  I don' t love the colors but I was in a hurry to get going and just used what was called for rather than dig through my stash to find something I liked better.  Now as I look at it, I wish I hadn't been so lazy.  However, I'm not frogging over one so it's either going to be finished as is or I'll scrap it and start over. 

I also took a picture of my PS All Hallow's Eve which obviously didn't get completed in time for Halloween this year as I had planned.  But there's always next year!

I should stitch on it some more this evening but my fingers are itching to start a new knitting project.  If I manage to decide which one to start, I might have something to show later this week.

Winter has arrived

This is the current view out of my office/craft space window unfortunately.  It won't stick but it still has a psychological impact.

It's a good thing my knitting needles have been busy.  About a month ago, I visited Casco Bay Fibers in Freeport for the first time to look for some yarn for a hat one of my nieces requested.  I found a beautiful gray in Cascade 128 but also fell in love with this tealy-green yarn from Skacel called Simplinatural by HiKoo. 

The shop had a sample Lowbrow Hat and Cowl made up and I made the mistake of feeling and trying it on.  I didn't realize the price per skein until I hit the counter but by that time, I was sold.  This was a great yarn to work with and the two pieces are cozy and perfect for the weather.

Just yesterday afternoon, I finished the cowl to match the hat I completed earlier.  And the cable knit hat I made for my niece didn't take the second skein I thought it would so I knit one for myself for dog walking.

I hope you remembered to set your clocks back an hour.  I'm going to take advantage of the extra hour to do some cross stitching which as been in very short supply around here lately.