Look, pictures!

I treated myself to a little present this holiday season: a Sony Cybershoot camera! I never thought one could feel such love for an inanimate object that wasn't yarn! Here's a snapshot of the trip through the pass on Thursday. The drive over to North Idaho was much, much worse then coming home. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera then, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

The second sock for the hubby kept me busy during the drive.

But once I was home, my Foliage hat was the project I wanted to work on! I think it's coming along just nicely and I can't wait to wear it because it's so cute and it's cold.

Merry Christmas! (A day late....)

Our White Christmas came a day late! It started snowing on Christmas and today we woke up to about 5 inches and it's still snowing! You can pretty much count on a little white stuff in Northern Idaho around the holidays, but this is a fun treat! Of course, there's no picture because Santa didn't leave a new camera for me under the tree, but he did leave several new knitting books! In fact, after a lazy morning of watching the birds peck through the snow to find some bird food, we're heading out to check out the new yarn shop in Coeur d'Alene! I know Santa would want me to spend some holiday money there! Plus, maybe, battle the crowds for a new camera at a great price!

Hope you got everything you wanted for the holidays! My Christmas wish of not wanting to be knitting on gifts until 1 a.m. did come true. But for the sake of editorial integrity, I confess, I didn't even bother to finish the hubby's second sock. I just wrapped up the first one (didn't even weave the ends in). He loved it, it fit, look for picture to come soon. Am hoping to have the second one done by Groundhog's Day. It's good to have a holiday goal for knitting.

A battle for third place

The Knitting Football Stars started off the Fantasy Football season, so strong, so capable, so full of promise - much like beautiful new yarn ready to go with a fabulous pattern. But halfway through the season - or body of the sweater if you will - they dropped a few stitches. And we just spiraled downhill. After a winning streak of several games, we plummeted to the bottom. Now it's a battle for third place with the hubby. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

My Christmas Wish

It is my Christmas Wish that this year I not end up knitting frantically into the wee hours of Christmas morn' trying to finish up gifts. I opted to knit only a small amount of gifts this year. Apparently that was too much. Christmas is less than a week away (how did that happen?) and I still have quite a ways to go on both projects.

Since I don't have a camera anymore, I'll have to just describe the circumstance to you. Or as my hubby says, create a picture with your words. Here goes:
My hubby's sock: one down, about 4 inches into the second one.
My MIL's scarf: just cast on, about 6 inches into it.
My mom's scarf: done and given to her, she loved it (sadly, no pic though).

Here's another picture with my words for you to imagine:
Me frantically knitting away while October Road on abc.com (for some reason beyond me, I'm addicted to it. And it bugs me at the same time because every time they have a scene with one of the two women in the show who are mothers, they are either: 1) carrying a load of laundry 2) cooking a meal or 3) serving a meal to their man who's waiting at the table for said meal. Seriously, it drives me crazy, yet am addicted.) OK, am rambling to procrastinate said knitting. Am now off (with my knitting) to the SKG Holiday party!

P.S. Happy Birthday Supergirl - love the crown!

In case you didn't want to knit your own socks

The NetGranny's can do it for you! I found this little gem in a magazine and had to log on to check it out. It's a group of Swiss Granny's who'll make you your own pair of hand knit socks! You can choose the granny to knit your socks for you. I think Nelly looks really sweet. And so does Annalies. Personally, I love the idea! But for now, I'll stick to my own socks. Although I'm all for a web savvy, enterprising, knitting Grandma!

A New Family Tradition

This weekend marked a new tradition for my family. For the first time I'll be spending Christmas away from my family, with Matt''s family. So my folks and sister came to Seattle this weekend for an early Christmas together. It was a fun festive weekend! We went on the Christmas Ship as it traveled through the Ballard Locks! It was so much fun and highly enjoyable - I highly recommend that if you're in the Seattle area during the holidays!

Now you're probably wondering where are the pictures to accompany this delightful weekend? Well, that's the sad part of this little adventure. You see, this weekend was the weekend that my camera decided to stop working. It's been on the fritz for a while now and I was hoping it'd make it through the holidays but no such luck. So I'm up to waiting for my dad or sister to download and email their pictures for me. But since neither of them are big photo downloaders, it may be a while. Getting them could be a holiday miracle.

We did the family gift exchange and my mother loved her scarf (again, no photo). She gave me a simple quilt pattern and some fabric blocks to make it! Very pretty fabric but you'll have to take my word for it.

Since I've been a pretty good girl this year, I'm hoping Santa will leave a new camera under the tree for me. If not, I'm hitting the after Christmas sales.

Meeting a Journalistic Icon

Today I had the great privilege to meet a journalist I have admired for many, many years: Tom Brokaw. I loved watching his nightly news cast when I was in school (total news nerd, I know). It's still good, but just not the same without him.

We did an interview with him, then I listened to his speech about his new book "Boom!" He took the time to sign all of our books. I'm really looking forward to reading it!

(This is a picture of Tom as he's signing my book. Note that he's not even looking remotely my way. The woman he's looking at was an elderly woman with a cane who I helped up the stage to get her book signed. Then I left her get her book signed first. She proceeded to chat and chat and chat about his other book. She talked so much that he just started signing the books of the folks behind her (me) without so much as even saying hello. Not that I'm one to tell Karma anything, but I think Karma owes me.)

Confession

My Christmas knitting has totally fallen by the wayside. I have one present done. Haven't started the other one. And am only 1 inch into Matt's second sock. It's bad. What's even worse is my reason for why the knitting has come to a stand still three weeks before Christmas. It's my new lap top. I love it. Am addicted to it. I wish I could say I was surfing knitting sites or even updating my blog all the time (but we know that's not true.) What is keeping me from knitting (or at least knitting fast as I do try to make it through a few rows at a time) is the chess game! I play against the computer and the damn thing beats me all the time! It's so discouraging, yet I keep at it. Pathetic I know. That and I'm reading a really good book - The Other Boleyn Sister - a very fun and easy read. It's just really long. Now instead of staying up late knitting, I'm staying up late reading! It's bad. I need to kick it into high gear!

In the holiday spirit

The holiday spirit is flowing freely at our house (at least with me anyway)! The tree and all decorations are up! They help light up the gray, rainy, Seattle winter weather. Half of my holiday shopping is done! I saw the Pacific Northwest Ballet Nutcracker with some friends Friday night. Nothing kicks starts the holiday spirit like the Nutcracker! One of my knitted gifts is finished (no pictures yet as the receiver of said knitted gift is a reader here). And I've just finished downloading all of my Christmas music on my new laptop (which I'm totally loving right now despite the fact that its taking me away from my precious knitting time!). Plus it snowed in Seattle yesterday! Big, white, fluffy flakes! Of course they were really wet and melted instantly, but still, for a little while, it turned gray, rainy Seattle into a white winter wonderland!