Last Pair of 2011

I had to squeak in one last pair for 2011. Okay, I got a bit lazy and made them shorties but they're still socks. Plus living in SoCal, I like to wear socks but traditional calf length socks are not so practical. In addtion, they can look kind of dorky with my athletic shoes so this solves that problem. Also, I can be pretty dorky on my own, thank you very much! :)





This pair will be given to my dear childhood friend Kathy that I've known since the 2nd grade ( a very long time) and since she has princess feet that can feel any little bump (design element) on her sensitive footsies, these will be perfect for her. Cute stripes in holiday colors that she can enjoy year round.

I think I have to knit more since I have lots of leftover sock yarn waiting to be used. :)

Knitted Toy

I finished this cute toy earlier this month but forgot to take pictures until today. It's a perfect project to use up those sock yarn leftovers and this time I used up the yarn I used for Josh's socks. It is a self striping yarn which makes it so cute and fun to look at.



This is for Curly, Carol & Buddy's little dog and we'll see if he likes it or not.




Josh sure does. He is automatically drawn to it by squishing, tossing and catching it. I still have enough of that sock yarn to make another one for Josh.



2011 is winding down and both Hector & I have a nasty cold that knocked us on our butts. We are much better but we're hoping the kids will have escaped the icky cold. Not fun. At all.

So I leave this year, thankful for my loved ones, family, friends and to those who I know in the blogosphere. Here's to 2012! May it be healthy, prosperous and happy! :)
And lots of knitting...

Hockey and Hats

As Christmas approaches swiftly, I start knitting hats to 'pad' the Christmas gift pile. Over the course of this year, I still knit mostly socks which almost always start off as mine but for whatever reason, sometimes the socks don't fit me...too big, too small or not my taste so I throw them into the gift pile.

It works and I've a good selection going but since the women/girls benefit for the most part, I feel bad and knit a couple of hats. Okay, if you follow my most recent completed hats, they were for women/girls. I knit a hat for Josh too although that doesn't count. There is another hat I finished a long time ago (frisky reindeer hat) that I will give to Alex. That isn't much on the guys' side of the family. I will say this that some of the guys in the family are pretty darn picky. One teen won't wear hats because it will mess up his hair. Okay, he's off the list. Another male only wants a black plain hat which will kill me with boredom and blindness. Okay, I did buy some black wool but here it is, December 21, and no hat. So he loses out again this year. I knit a nephew a striped hat several years ago and he's moving to Sacramento area at the end of the year so I could knit him a hat and mail it to him.

I guess I'm saying, I'm done knitting hats. :)

Saying that, I did finish this Lucky 7 Hat and who knows who will grab it. I will find out if my nephew from above will want it since he is a black hat kind of guy too. I just managed to squeak out his striped hat with black and muted shades of Noro.

Tyler models Lucky 7.

So that leads to hockey...such a traumatic month ( I sorta kid). My team (LA Kings) starts losing, not scoring and then their head coach gets fired. Another one is hired and today he takes over. Kat and I head over to watch their first practice together. I will pause and ask...is there any other professional sport that have practices open to the public? It's great.  :)

New head coach Darryl Sutter

Trio

The players looked upbeat and eager. Tomorrow will be the beginning, we play the Ducks our cross town rivals.







Hector and I will be there cheering on the Kings!!

New Hats

this is the Escargot Hat from Knitty.com. I had to felt the hat because it was HUGE! And see even after shrinkage, it still fits my bighead. Ha! It is kind of cute and I didn't think that I could pull this style off but not too shabby. :)



I added the cute rose buttons to the flyer cap  but it's not for me as shown in the pic below. I think it will look cute on a young girl. Well, it was never for me anyway! :)





Oh, much better model although still big for A...

Wanderer

Josh is growing up. He refuses to use his Curious George umbrella and shuns his cool earflap hat that I knit for him because one kid commented on it, said it looked funny. Josh, of course, can't totally figure out the context but takes it at face value so now he won't wear the hat.

Time to knit something more grownup and mature to suit my little guy. Enter the Wanderer Cap featured in Weekend Hats.  I love hats although not all of them suit me. They are the perfect gift to knit during the Christmas season and pretty fast. I still have 2 other hats that are done but need some finishing touches. :)

More photos later on those but here is the Wanderer.







Hopefully, Josh stays close by home and won't wander off any time soon!

Monday

It's raining and even though I knew it was going to happen, I procrastinated grocery shopping until this morning so that was an experience. Maybe in the back of my mind, when I hear rain I think/hope it's more like scattered showers but no, it's a constant steady rain since 8 am.

We're not made for that kind of rain so the storm drains get seriously backed up and last weeks winds created more debris that causes more problems. I'm home now, grocery shopping done and making turkey soup and Chinese porridge jook that smells really good and I'm starving. Won't be ready until later today so I have to wait.

Finished this Escargot hat over the weekend but it's terribly big so I felted it and it fits better but still big. I think it will still look cute but felted. I must knit looser than I thought so major adjustments will have to be made for the next one. When it dries, I take pics of it and I hadn't thought of taking before pictures... Oh well.

It's really cute and unique but not really my style. I wish I could carry off the vintage look but no, I don't think I ever could. Into the gift pile, it goes! :0

Weekend Post

Nice low key weekend. I didn't do much of anything but lounge around the house watching Hector / Tyler play the new Zelda Skyward Sword knitting until it was time to head over to Staples Center with the whole family for the Kings game.

Great view of the entire ice but at times, I felt disconnected from the actual game playing but it was nice and made me appreciate our usual seats. :)

View from the upper seats.

Nice view of our usual seats way down there.

Josh enjoyed some TV in bed with me. I wanted to capture his 'purdy eyes'. :) I finished another project and maybe I won't post those pictures just yet. But I did get my final installment  of my sock yarn club with happy colors perfect for the season.

I'm roasting another turkey in our rotisserie and it smells wonderful. Just in time for the next couple of days that are going to be rainy and cold. I think I will attempt turkey soup too!

Round Up

I'm doing better keeping up with my 365 Project but my regular blog is being neglected so here is some of what I've been up to.

My mom had the crazy idea of eating chestnuts but didn't realize how to cook/roast them. Since she never uses her oven nor wants to, she gave them to me to make & give some to her. I had to look up how to roast them and there are several ways, some of which doesn't require an oven but I tried the oven method.



They came out okay although if my mom springs the idea again next winter, I'll try the boil first then broil method that I read the street vendors use to get their chestnuts perfect.

Kat and I went to the Kings game last night and short story, the LA Kings lost 4-2. :(
The fans were frustrated and not happy with the Kings play but still managed to entertain and have a good time. 

Before (with beer)

After (beer)

Bailey

Bud Man

Wild celebrate their win

Another game Saturday and our family of four will be going so that should be fun!!

Flyer Cap

Another quick hat project that used up my leftover yarn  from my Vortex hat. I followed the pattern as written which is a tad short for me but it will fit smaller heads fine. I still need to find buttons to sew on along with the front flap which will complete the aviator look.

As usual, Josh was very compliant in modelling. I might have to include a warning to all the young girls to not look directly into Josh's eyes or instant swooning might occur. :)







I love Noro's bright colors and in the future I would knit the hat longer to fit me but that's just me! :) I'm thinking of gifting this to our friend's daughter in San Diego who is in her teen years so hopefully she'll like it.

Recap

Recently, I went through my project page on Ravelry and counted 40 pairs of socks since 2008! Yikes! That's really cool and true when I heard that sock knitting was addictive! Even though the weather is much colder than usual, I don't get to wearing much knitwear as I'd like but socks are perfect and so is sock weight (fingering) yarn.

So I thought since I've been told that I'm difficult to shop for gifts, here are my favorite yarn websites.

The Loopy Ewe


Knitpicks

I'm also thinking of joining a sock knitting club like I did last year. It was really fun to get a package with some nice sock yarn and a couple of patterns to go along with it. The gift that keeps on giving. :)

For your amusement...

or not but this sums up a typical day at the pharmacy. I've been out of the 'biz' for about 5+ years but this article brought me right back to those crazy times at the pharmacy.

Why it take so long to fill your Rx at the pharmacy...


And while humorous and slightly snarky, this really DOES happen more frequently and I thank the Lord that I don't work in retail pharmacy any more!

Thanks Hector!! :)

Green Waffel

This morning, the hat was still unfinished but a few hours later, it's complete!! :) Made smaller (as in shorter) to fit a youth but very stretchy so that it will grow with the person.
I used a green yarn that I got in the hockey playoff pools earlier this year and I finally found a the right project for it.

I was thinking whether I should add a pom pom but it looks nice as is and not everyone likes pom poms. I plan of gifting this to our friend's daughter so I need to knit another hat ASAP for her sister although not the same hat since I got bored with this on the 2nd time around.

So here are the pictures... modelled by A.

Cool Socks

I cast off on Joshua's socks and they really look cool.



Self striping yarn makes it look like I put a lot of work into them when I really didn't. :)
I love the colors and Josh seems pretty happy with them too. He said he wants to wear them to school tomorrow. I'm going to make sure he wears them a lot since they fit perfectly now and I didn't allow for any growing room.



I made them shorties so he won't look a total dork wearing them with his shorts. :)

New Things

I'm  venturing into another project. This is a 365 project and even though I have a plan, I've already bent my rules. Anyway, please take a look.

Taking the Plunge.

Food Food Food

This Thanksgiving weekend was the time for cooking and eating. Lots of it. We spent Thanksgiving Day at my cousin's new home where we had a potluck. Nothing like turkey and Chinese food. The day after, I made our own turkey in the rotisserie which was awesome and I'm not lying either.

On Saturday, I made a rib roast...again awesome! Saturday night I used turkey leftovers to make a pot pie/shepherds pis of sorts. I used cornbread stuffing as the crust and filled it with turkey, gravy, peas, carrots, corn topped with cheesy mashed potatoes & french fried onions. Freakin awesome.

Sunday I didn't make anything but I went to brunch at Marie Callendars by LACMA with Kat and her family which was delicious. Oh my, every day was filled with great food and I still have leftovers.

And of course, I don't have pictures because I was eating...

Finished Goodies

Yay, more projects to show off!

First, I will present my Dead Simple Lace Socks. I used some mystery yarn that I remember buying in Victoria, BC and lost the label (very annoying) but the socks are very pretty.








I used my remote shutter for pics propping the camera up on the floor with a video game to level the lens. I probably could have elevated it a bit more but still the socks look good. :)

Next up we have the Waffel Hat. Again using the remote shutter with the camera on the dining table. Very stretchy hat which is kind of big on me but doesn't slide down past my eyes. I'll make mods the next time I knit this to fit normal people heads. :)





Time to celebrate Thanksgiving and enjoy/appreciate all that we have. Give thanks and hugs to those around you! :)

Fall Tuesday

It's chilly for SoCal and we also got our 1st storm. I don't really know if it's our first one of the season but I'll just say first for November. It rained for about 8 hrs off and on and stopped in time for the MLS championship soccer game. Yay for the Galaxy!!

Took a couple of photos, still trying to work out the logistics of my 365 project. For me, I'll still post a pic a day although I'm still batting around the taking a photo a day which is a huge difference.

Anyway, ignore my internal struggles...







It's a leafy kind of day...

Friday

Sorry for the lack of updates...Tyler was sick for 2 days, and I've been kind of blaise about the whole posting thing. I have been knitting and finally finished a pair of socks that I started in July(?). It's already November and I really need to find my gift pile and figure if I have enough items.

I also was busy making my 2012 photo calendar which I've been doing for about 4-5 years and it's actually done. I've been holding off on it from sending the order button to make sure I order the correct number since I usually have 2 or so leftover. At least if I need more, I can order it since it's saved on my Costco account.

I was also contemplating some photography ideas to challenge myself in 2012. I'm toying with the idea of a 365 project which I've started a couple of times that never took so I just need to commit and do it. I don't know if I should add another blog just focussing on the 365 project, what do you think?

Kindle Fire

Hector bought this as an anniversary gift  and it arrived this morning. :) Josh spotted it on the porch as we were leaving for school. I think he thought it might be his LEGO package but I could see the Amazon Kindle labelled on it. Joshua said he expected dad to give me yarn which was really cute.



Simple packaging that is the Kindle and the charging cord. That's it.



Fits comfortably in my hand too. Kind of hard to take a photo of it while holding it though.



Turned on right away and everything was simple after that. It was already loaded with our Amazon info, asked for wifi connection and registered itself right away. A few more minutes and all my books are on here.

Web browsing is easy and I already practiced downloading a knitting pattern on here so I can access it easily. Cool.



Even videos are nice looking and easy to access. So far my impression is that this will be a great tool/plaything for me. I wanted to store my knitting patterns on something so I don't need to keep printing them out which I tend to misplace eventually. Patterns don't take up much room so I can try uploading them to the Cloud and see how that works.

I haven't read any books yet but I might stick to my original Kindle as it will be easier on my eyes but the potential for travel worthiness is wonderful. I know it's geared to Amazon content but that works for me. I'll have to re-evaluate again in a month...

This n That

Nice to have a long holiday weekend and give a special thanks to my veteren hubby and to all who serve our country(past, present and future)! Our weekend was filled with hockey themed events. A great hockey game Saturday night and then Tip A King on Sunday.

Pictures later but I feel really tired lately...T-guy got sick last night so I kept him home from school. He is pushing hard for the Xbox 360 but he's been told that he needs to earn the $ from his grades and whatever he can scrape up either by gift cards or extra chores. He is trying to find loopholes in our agreement  so today I drew up a contract explaining in written terms how this is to be done. So far he has calculated about $208 towards the system. If he does manage to pay for it early, the actual play time on it is really restricted to more good grades etc and I can adjest that accordingly. :0

!5+ years of Tru Wuv

15 years ago, Hector and I were married. We met in 1991, dated for 5 years and got married in 1996. Hector proposed March 20, 1996 (funny how that date sticks in my mind) and I put the wedding plans in motion.  Time has flown by as it always has with us and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with this wonderful man! :)

Chilly

Here is SoCal, the weather drastically changed in a matter of a day. Hot one day and then a drop of about 40* along with rain for good measure. It was nice to have that cooler temp and of course I had to add to it by visiting a couple of ice rinks. One was to watch the Kings practice on Friday & on Staurday to take Josh to his ice hockey session. :)

On our way back, Josh sees a package on our porch. Hmmm, Hector was expecting a package but it's addressed to both of us. A mystery since it's from the Vermont Company. I open it up and this is what is revealed....



Whu-uuuut?? A commemorative tin of shortbread cookies with the Royal Couple. Okkkaay. Oh, my mom sent it to us. Known for her unusual and often quirky gifts, I didn't know what to make of it. Why?

It turns out that she sent that for our anniversary (November 9th) which is kind of funny. And sweet in her own weird way. :) My friend Kat already claimed the tin since she totally digs this kind of stuff. I guess I'll have cookies with my tea...

quickie

Last night I knit a cute little baby hat called Aviatrix. The yarn is a mystery since I lost the ball band long ago that my cousin gifted to me. A nice multi-colored yarn with a soft feel to it.

The pattern is super easy and cute. I really need to find a doll to be a model for my babywear although Torchic is very cute, he doesn't fill the bill. But you get the idea...





I need to find some cute buttons to attach the strap. Fun project!