Sunshine, dishcloths, and the Holidays

It’s official. Black Friday after a VERY successful and awesome Thanksgiving dinner. This leads us into the madness and consumer gluttony that is called Christmas.  I know people who max out all credit cards during this 4 week timeframe and are still paying on gifts  a few years later….

My Thanksgiving was incredible. We ate with my husband’s cousin and her large family. She has the same number of kids as I do and even a grandbaby. So it was a houseful. It was sublime. I was in domestic bliss as we placed the brined turkey into the oven bag at 11. Letting the oven do all the work, the kids begged to help peel 15 lbs of potatoes. It only took about a half hour or so, but it was fun. Then we toasted the bread for the stuffing while the potatoes boiled. It was all done on time, we piled the food and ourselves into the van, and made the short trek to the cousin’s house.

The last 2 years, we travelled from Indiana to Central New York (state) for the holidays. It’s a long 12 hour trip with 5 kids . And it’s a short stay since we had to be back by Monday. But this year, we live in New York and it was nice to be so close and not hurried. I love having a late dinner. We took our time getting things together, there was no stress, and dinner was superb. I hope everyone else had a great day as well.

Last week I received an envelope in the mail. No name with an unfamiliar return address. Hmmm. Here’s what I found inside:

This came from my anonymous swap partner from the Sunshine swap. A pair of Addi’s in size 7, 16” circs. I lost all my hat needles in the move somehow. Yay!! I’ve never knit with Addi’s before so I’m looking forward to using these. Stitch markers and a pattern for a shawl I wanted. It was a nice bit of sunshine I tell you.

Our family is going through some hard times. My husband’s great aunt (grandma’s twin sister) is on the verge of dying. They took her to her daughter’s house to die a quiet death last Saturday. Everyone is surprised how long she’s lasting without food or water. Even though she’s lived a long life, it’s still hard to see her go. I did not know her when she was a vibrant independent soul. But I do know from her family that she was an amazing woman with the strength of God. And it shows in her family. What a wonderful legacy to leave behind! Aunt Maisie will be greatly missed and mourned.

Onto the knitting content:

Dishcloths. I guess it’s time for that cycle once again. Here’s a bunch I’ve done in the past week or so:

Granny’s Square. Free pattern from Bernat. Easy and quick. I did make it a few rows shorter though. I don’t like HUGE cloths at all.

Janell’s Star Cloth. I needed a few FO’s, and these two cloths did the trick!

Nubbins Nouveau. This is way to big for my tasted. You really can’t grasp the scope of the size of this thing in the pic. It’s only 44 sts wide, but it’s HUGE. I do like the pattern and it was pretty easy once I figured out how to connect row 2 with row 1.

Snowflake by Nora Gaughan. A nice cable pattern. Pretty easy but time consuming. I need to resew it to hide the seam.

And Zig from COTW Yahoo group. I used RH creme de la creme for this. The yarn is thin which I like but it bled like crazy. My needles turned green!

Here’s a hat I made too. It’s the Zucchini hat. I should have made it bigger around, but it’s ok. I used Vanna’s choice, which I think is one of the nicest acrylics out there. It’s soft and warm.

That’s it for this update. I will have more soon :)