Thursday, December 27, 2012

Cable Knitting...

One day before Thanksgiving, a friend was at the high school subbing.  As she was supervising her class in the computer lab, she was working on a cable-knit baby blanket.  I oohed and ahhed over her handiwork and she gave me a short lesson on how easy it was to knit cables.  She doesn't use the special cable needle, here's a link to a blog and youtube video that will show you how:   http://www.theknittingscotsman.com/knitting-lab/video-lesson-how-to-knit-a-cable-without-a-needle/  

Over Thanksgiving break, I whipped up a few "mug cozies".  These are very quick to make and once I got the hang of it, I adapted a few different patterns that I'd found online to create my own 'look'.  If you are interested in the pattern, let me know and I'll post it or email it to you!

I was able to turn out a mug cozy in about an hour and a half, and I didn't buy any yarn, I just used left overs. 

My sister wanted some leg warmers for Christmas, so I did some research online and then, again, came up with my own pattern.  I don't fully understand how to knit in the round, so I just knitted these on straight needles and then sewed a seam.   I'm not 100% satisfied with how the seam turned out, but Emily seemed to like them well enough.  I tried them on with a pair of tall boots and they looked good sticking out of the top of the boots. 


Christmas eve morning as I was wrapping up the leg warmer project, I decided to whip up one last mug cozy for Emily.  I didn't have much yarn left, so I just did one quick cable on bigger (size 8) needles.  I really liked how this one turned out.  It's not as tall, but I think it looked really nice with the tan mug.  I had a chunky button with a farmy-scene on it which finished it off nicely!  This would be a great starter project.  If you're interested in the pattern, let me know!!!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Many hands make light work...

This is a multiple choice test.  Please read all choices and then choose the choice that best answers the question.  When you are finished, check over your test and make sure you answered all of the questions.  

1.  This is a picture of:
a)  a dirty combine
b)  a project that will take hours, if not days to complete
c)  something that you should not brush up against when wearing light colored pants
d)  all of the above




2.  These children are:
a)  learning the value of team work
b)  happy to be outside on the 1st of December in 50-degree weather
c)  saving their parents many trips from the machine shop to the water hydrant
d)  all of the above




3.  This little girl is:
a)  a true farm girl
b)  not afraid to get her hands dirty
c)  proud to be keeping up with her big brothers
d)  all of the above







4.  Dave is on top of the combine because:
a)  he loves to be daring
b)  he's power washing the roof and the hopper
c)  he's getting the kinks worked out of the powerwasher so his wife can take over from the ground
d)  all of the above







5.  The girl in the pink is:
a)  playing in the water!!!
b)  giving her mom's back a break
c)  learning that, in this family, we all work together
d)  all of the above








6.  After 3 hours of power washing, the combine is: 
a)  ready for a break, it's turning all pruney!
b)  looking a little bit better...
c)  tired of all those little kids climbing all over it!
d)  all of the above






 
If you answered "d" to questions 1.- 6., you scored a 100%!  Nice job, smarty pants!!!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas Greetings!

This is the part where I gloss over the fact that I haven't blogged in 3 weeks...

So, what have we been doing?


Ummm... We had a visit from "Gingerbread Fred"!  This will be our last visit from him, too... He comes around at Christmastime to visit with each of the Kindergartners.  We had supper, read some books, had breakfast in the morning, usual Daly life stuff.


Let's see... We survived the Christmas program at church.  What a huge undertaking, but like our pastor's wife said, "It's a big responsibility to share with our church family the best story ever written!"
 



What else... Well, even the cattle are getting a dose of holiday cheer!  The guys put a light-up wreath on the back of the feed wagon.  I'm still scratching my head on this one... It is pretty cute, though! 







So, that's about all that's new with us.  Hope you are having a happy and safe Holiday season!