Sunday was the perfect, snowy day, waking up with only a skiff, and by early afternoon, a wonderland, and enough to go on a "snow adventure", with the boys taking turns playing Rudolph wearing a headlamp with the red light turned on and pulling the sled with rope around the waist, the other with the Santa hat on in the sled. I opted out mid-adventure, retreating indoors for an hour with "my" weekly radio program and the sewing machine. Meanwhile, C and the boys did a little sledding and scraped snow off one of the frozen ponds.
Sadly, though, ALL this snow is GONE, GONE, GONE, and turned to slush and ice today. E's little song from the back seat of the van: "The road is made of slush, and people are made of sugar and candy. The driveway is made of slush, and our blood is made of melted red chocolate, that sometimes is blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue...."
So much holiday play and discussion going on right now, especially after seeing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last week: E, again from the back seat, "Do you think there really is a talking and singing snowman somewhere?" and "Mama, do you think there are misfits in the real world?" The one thing E would like from Santa this year: a reindeer. Santa is thinking that this book or else this one will do the trick and is sending them our way, even as I sit here and type. Santa, by the way, isn't opposed to bringing used, or "misfit", books to this household.
Still to come in the holiday classics movie line up: Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Clause, Frosty the Snowman, The Snowman, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and the new classic-to-be, Elf. Wow. I didn't realize we had so many of these until listing them here, all but one, actually. Hmmn, I guess holiday movies account for a large percentage of the movies we own.
Fortunately, the holiday and winter books, both in our own "library", and those checked out from the actual library, far outnumber the movies. I won't list those, but see Amanda's list here for a good part of them. A few goodies there I've never heard of but are now on my hold list at the library. Have I mentioned how much I loooooove online card catalogs (all the while lamenting the old hands-on ones with all those little drawers and cards)? So many books just a click away, and free for the borrowing. They even let me know by email when my books on hold (from almost any library in the state) are available for pick up, and also when a book is about to become overdue!
Oh, the gnome, or nisse, above? Knitted from Alan Dart's pattern from the 2005, Issue 8 of the British magazine Simply Knitting, which I first saw knitted up here on Hege's blog and many more later, here on Ravelry. This one is for my mom's birthday but there are plans in the works for at least one or two more. When I first saw this pattern I thought I wanted to make a hundred but knitting one up has tamed those ambitions.
Yarns used: leftover Jo Sharp DK in pale pink and heathered slate-blue for the face and body, Kristin Nicholas' Julia in Geranium for the hat, boots, and mittens, and Crystal Palace Tingle in Bark Tweed. The pattern calls for a DK weight yarn knit at a tighter than usual gauge on size 3 needles. Although it's a worsted weight yarn, the Julia yarn worked fine, too.
This is the first time I've used the Julia yarn, which I've fallen in love with. It's a blend of wool, mohair, and alpaca, but feels like your knitting with a good, substantial, solid worsted wool, only soft as butter. Aside from the bright range of colors, I had thought this was pretty unassuming yarn...until you get it on the needles. Wonderful stuff! My new motto after knitting with this yarn: "Not all worsted are created equal." A second LYS has just started stocking this yarn, along with Kristin's new book, filled with her colorful knitting designs, many of which are embellished with embroidered finishing touches. I can't wait to use this yarn again in the future. If you've never checked out her blog, Getting Stitched on the Farm, now is a great time to start, while she's having a virtual book launch party and yarn giveaway contest going on right now through Dec. 9th. While you're there, be sure to poke around in her archives filled with color and yarn and anecdotes about life on the farm.
