Why I Knit

When deadlines are looming (they are again) and I am sick and tired of knitting or crocheting.... I am going to watch this. I love you Mom.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year!

Mom is Busy!

Hey all! Otis here, Mom is real busy getting ready for the Holidays, so I thought I would check in and show you what's been going on.

Santa came on the Firetruck and the kids all got gifts, and I got really scared.

We decorated the tree in the family room. That was fun and you know what? The water in the tree tastes sooooo good!

I like to lay around under the tree in the knitting room. It messes up the tree skirt, and it makes me giggle that Mr. Fantastic has to fix it a million times a day!

I had my first professional groomer come and that was lots of fun.... the groomer says I was a perfect gentleman and I was so fluffy and smelled like blueberries...... I had to fix that - so the next day, I went out back, dug myself a nice hole laid in it..... and now?

I smell like a man again.

I went to Jared!

As in Jared Flood aka Brooklyntweed, not that annoying jewelry store!! Well, I'm sure the jewelry store is not annoying.... but the commercials on TV are super annoying. I walked into the store rockin' my new Quincy hat (available in Jared's new book) and I wore a skein of Malabrigo as a scarf. Turns out, people loved the skein of yarn for a scarf thing!

Anyway, on Saturday my LYS Knitknack had a book signing and on Sunday Jared taught classes (which I heard were amazing!) Can we all stop at look at how CUTE he is!!! Holy cow and he was so nice and just a regular guy. When I walked into the shop, he was sitting behind a table and there was a lull in the action. The shop was quiet and he look at me and said, "Hi, I'm Jared." Yeah, no duh! So in my most casual, not starstruck what-so-ever voice, I said, "Hello, if I weren't' happily married would you run away with me so we could live on a farm with sheep and knit all day long? my name is Kimberly"

Look at what Meera (LYS owner extraordinaire!!) is wearing! It's the newly competed (did I mention no one is getting handmade gifts from me this year?) Moss Fern Wrap in a larger weight yarn.... Doesn't she look pretty??? Cool thing about it is that it only takes 1/2 of the ginormous skein, so if I were making holiday gifts this year I could make 2 from 1 skein!!! Hop on over to Ravelry (I'm fiberlover) and check out the specifics I did modify the numbers for this one - it took 2 days to make and 1 to block and dry. Great, great last minute gift - well, not really a minute... more like frantic crocheting for hours and hours... but you get my drift!

Finger Work

I know I have been silent..... I know my family has missed me..... I promise I will be back after Dec. 1st.... I have been working my fingers to the bone, to the bone I tell ya, and I have nothing to show for it.... Here is a bit of my other finger work! Make sure to note around 50 seconds how my Dumplin' goes from pure happy, to something different!

And speaking of fingers..... I am officially addicted to butterfingers. It started at Halloween, I had about, oh.... 15 of them (fun sized, that is) and I love them, I know... but I do. Well, after I went through the leftover candy here..... I started to pilfer through my children's candy when they weren't looking. I told them to hide their candy from me because well, I know me, and I would eat it. Turns out.... my children have sucky hiding spaces and to be honest? I was a little bit peeved that my 11 year old chose under his bed. Under your bed?!! Please, his butterfingers didn't have a chance - poor things.

Total 'finger count for today..... 6. Well, now it's 7 because I was writing about them and needed to have one while my video was processing.... Crap.

Happy Halloween

This morning I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for a Halloween party we are going to tonight. They are really good - although I like raisins with my pumpkin much better than chocolate. Don't get me wrong... chocolate and I are really, REALLY good friends, but with pumpkin, it's not my favorite.

While baking the cookies, I thought I would share with you my favorite fall oatmeal recipe. When I eat this in the morning.... I stay full for the most part of the day... bonus!

Pumpkin Oatmeal

makes 4 servings

Make the oatmeal according to the box recipe (for 4 servings, do not omit the salt!) I also make the oatmeal with 1/2 the liquid water and 1/2 skim milk.

When it is finished cooking on the stove add in:

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup sugar (I use in the raw sugar)

Stir together and enjoy!

Fried Turkey Love

This weekend, my friend came to visit us from Florida.... we had such a great time together and the kids picked up right from where they left off. It was cold, so we had a cozy fire and spent a great night together (the Yankee win was the icing on the cake!)

Sunday was a cold, rainy day and my brother came over to fry a turkey. It was our first time and it was a lot of fun - well, anything with my brother is a lot of fun! The turkey was really good and cooked in 50 minutes!

I have started to work on 4 projects for Naturally Caron that are due by Dec. 1st.... If I stay on track, I shouldn't be too crazed (I can almost guarantee I won't stay on track.... it does make life more interesting and good things to write about on the blog!)

The next blog post will have knitting.... I promise!

Ancient Episcopal Proverb

"Puppy who eats knitting spends many hours in crate"

OK, I am sure you are sick of the puppy talk... but to be totally honest? the puppy thing is kicking my butt! I know it will get better, I know I won't have to clean up house messes for much longer, I know the barking in the crate at night that goes through me like nails on a chalkboard will stop, I know I will be able to sleep with my husband again, I know I will be able to design again soon, but for right now all I do is follow around an 18 week old canine and get my basic house chores done (well most of them)

This weekend our oldest Son turns 11...wait I have to take a knee....... I cannot believe how grown up he looks and what a great person he is turning out to be. He is opting to spend his birthday weekend at the beach with his grandparents..... need I say more?