Yet another catch-up post

As usual, it's been a while since I posted last.

I've been busy between the knitting workshop and now!

First, the last day of the workshop:

Susanna Hansson taught a class on stripes, and it was wonderful! I was initially disappointed that it had been chosen, but I learned a lot. She talked about the Fibonacci sequence in a new way than I'd thought about, and I learned a new twist on making a jogless stripe.

The hat above is too small for Ryan so I made him one that's identical only bigger. Gillian wants one, too, only in purples instead of blues.

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I finally finished up my second Honeycomb fingerless mitt. I've been working on writing up the pattern to make two at a time on magic loop, and hopefully I'll have it test knit and ready sometime in the next month or so.


I've also been doing some Christmas knitting, which I'm going to refrain from posting about here. I don't think the recipient reads my blog but I don't want to chance it.

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During the spinning guild meeting and while Karen was here (we had a great time -- more about that later), I managed to get the Ashland Bay merino/silk spun up that I bought at the Snake River Fiber Fair in 2007. I think that finishes up the fiber that I bought then.

I got 184 yards from 4 ounces, and it's worsted weight.


Of course the picture doesn't do it justice. It's so soft! And of course I have no idea what I'm going to do with it (as usual!).

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My very nice Mother-In-Law sent me a gorgeous present for my birthday:

It's a basket of Amaryllis! I'm very excited. I love these plants, and three at once is a special treat.

I also got some yarn from Aunt Louise for my birthday:

She sent eight skeins of worsted-weight 100% Peruvian Alpaca, and it's incredibly soft! I have no idea what I'm going to do with it (yet) beyond petting it occasionally. She said that she made a jacket with some black yarn of the same stuff, and I can only imagine how wonderful it is. I'm tempted to dye it and make a cuff-to-cuff jacket. We'll see....

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Now, on to activities while Karen was here.

When my sister comes down to Tulsa, one of the must-visit places is DSW shoes, and this time I actually found *two* pairs of shoes for me! This is a truly earth-shattering event.

Here's a pic of one of the pairs:


Not only are they cute, they show off my socks (which knitters know is very important). I'll work on getting a picture of the other pair soon. They're just as cute!

Karen outdid herself with Thanksgiving. Here is everyone, ready to eat:


It was incredibly tasty and I'm so thrilled that we have leftovers. Yummy!!!


We swore we wouldn't go shopping on Black Friday but we ended up going anyway. We left Karen at home to nap and went to Harbor Freight (which Greg calls "Michael's for men") to get some wheels for the kids' go cart. It's been a big hit!






Karen went back up to Illinois this morning, and she's got a bit of work ahead of her. She's got about a week to finish her dissertation, then a week to relax and clean until my parents arrive. They'll all drive down from Illinois to spend Christmas with us, which will be wonderful!

The kids and I are going to work on getting the Christmas decorations out and put up this afternoon [since it's already noon! Where did the morning go?!?!] so hopefully I'll have some pics to share of that for my next post.

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I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Bohus knitting workshop

Today was fascinating!

The K.N.I.T. (Knitting Needles In Tulsa) Guild hosted Susanna Hansson for a Bohus (pronounced "Boo-heus" with the last syllable almost in a kissing kind of movement) workshop. We started on wristlets, and this is the class's progress:

Mine is the one in the center top.

Here are some of the gorgeous sweaters and accessories Susanna brought:



These are some of the ladies who took the class, with Susanna (seated) demonstrating a stranding technique:


These are some samples of different sizes and edging treatments:


I worked a little bit more on my cuff when I got home, but after the second time I had to rip back the same simple three rounds, I decided I was too tired to continue.

Tomorrow is the stripes class, which I originally wasn't going to take but I was offered a free scholarship so I decided to go! I'm looking forward to it.

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In other news, I may have broken my toe last night. If it's not actually broken then it's very sore, very bruised, and rather swollen.


[Wow, my feet are really unattractive. LOL! At least I have hair on my toes, which means my circulation is still O.K.. Woo hoo for hairy toes!]

I hope all of you have as great a weekend as I'm having.

Almost over the bug, and a neat day trip

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been fighting some sort of illness. Everyone else in the family has had a very slight cold, but it hit me like a ton of bricks and has pretty well knocked me down for most of the last week.

I'm finally getting over it, and today I felt strong enough to go with the rest of the family on a day trip up to the Tallgrass Prairie up near Bartlesville. It was beautiful! They normally have a bunch of bison running around, but last weekend they rounded them up and they're penned for a while.

Greg drove, even though he doesn't generally prefer to drive, because I still wasn't feeling quite "with it" enough to drive.

I got some really neat late-fall pictures of the vegetation.


When we first started out on our drive (it took a little over an hour to get to the preserve), Ryan said that he really liked "seeing all the naked trees. But they're not ALL naked!" LOL!


This is a statue by the headquarters of the preserve:





And Mom, here's one of the pictures we'll be using for the family calendar this year:






This building is a landmark in Pawhuska, as the map we printed out said "turn right at the triangular building" (and it *is* tough to miss!). It's kind of hard to see form this angle, but it's definitely like a pie wedge. Ryan said "it's just like a slice of pizza!"


And now it's almost 11:00 at night, so it's time for bed.

I hope you all had a great weekend!