Ohhhhh....This is Going WAYYYY Too Fast!.........

In about 5 - 6? (I try not to look at the calendar from this point on)weeks, we'll be in the throws of the Christmas season.  Christmas!!  What the hell happened here??!  I'm not ready.  I'm not getting ready.  I don't want to get ready.  This could be a problem.

Well, that's not all true.  I have a tote filled with gifts I've been accumulating over the past couple of months.  And I do have a LOT of handmade crafts of all kinds in storage for just such an occasion....that being that I'm bogged down, don't want to go out and shop, don't know what to buy, don't want to spend the money when I have totes...that's right, totes, plural..... FULL of handmade crafts.

Anywho.....enough about that.  Spinning and knitting have taken me over!  I know I'm an addict, but this has been full on!  Hence, the lack of posts for the past month plus.  So, one day a month ago, I was perusing my magazine and book collection.  Low and behold.....what I thought was just 1 Aran pattern book became 2!!

Honestly....I don't remember buying 2 Aran books.  Of course, the one was purchased some years ago....maybe 8.  I either bought both of them or the Irish knitting fairy has been very good to me.

So I found a new pattern; one with all twisted cables intertwined.  Just what I was looking for!  And there it was!  Not just one, but a whole book of new Aran patterns.  Well.....that just called for knitting a scarf immediately with one of them.  Long story short, (HA!) the scarf is done.  But then I started thinking, how about a hat?  But to do the vertical pattern wouldn't work.  BUT....how about the cables lay on their side, around the head, and then I knit a 1" rib on one length (the forehead) and pick up the stitches at the other side and continue in a stockinette crown?!  This looks like it might work. It sounds like a LOT of work.  Almost done with the cables, slipping the first stitch on each row for an easier pick-up.  I'll have pictures if it turns out.

I had to break down last week and super clean the house.  Hadn't been done since the beginning of September.  Nothing more than a little dusting, vacuuming, clean kitchen and bath.  I couldn't tell the "dust bunnies" from the wool.  It was getting bad.

I just finished spinning 2#s of the most delicious, dark, dark, chocolate brown fiber.  It wants to be a Fair Isle sweater.  I think I have enough complimentary yarns to do the job....after the shhhhh....holidays.    And now there's the softest, beautiful top being spun.  It was purchased a couple years ago at a little shop while coming back from vacation.  The tag said "8oz.  Corriedale".  But, geezzzz, it feels and spins like Ashland Bay merino colorway. It's striations of grey, white, sky blue, teal green and a light brown.  But when it's spun, it's a beautiful steel blue/grey.  Loving it!!

It was the only ball the proprietor had, or I would've bought more.  It's spinning up laceweight; will be 2-ply.  It wants to be a shawl.  And so it shall.  With steel grey glass beads knitted into it.  And maybe....the other single will be white merino...blended with iridescent Angelina.  Doesn't that sound divine??!! 

Well, BH has been hard at it cutting down trees, cutting logs, splitting and stacking.  He's working on next year's supply!  What a guy!  All the yard work is done for the season; just the storm windows to put up next weekend.  We're supposed to have moderate temps all next week.

We finally went and got a futon for the spare room.  Gave my brother the twin bed for his grandkids.  What a job putting the futon together!  I told BH we're really, really getting too old for all this heavy lifting and construction!  But, knowing us, I'm sure there will be another project in the not-so-distant future.

Anyway......the spare room looks great.  "Looks like a sitting room" says BH.  Indeed.  Sitting.  And spinning.  Or knitting.  Maybe sewing.  Reading.  Napping. 

It's all good.