Hooray!!!

The sweater is up on the KnitPicks website, so I can finally show you!!! Here's Kevin modeling it before it left my house - I had to make a size 42, and that's exactly Kevin's size:(he had been hunting all morning, so trust me, it's better that I cropped his head in the picture!)

and here's the picture from the newest KnitPicks catalog

Isn't that a nice sweater? The pattern isn't quite ready for sale yet (according to the website) but it took a total of 16 skeins of Wool of the Andes - which makes it about a $32 sweater.

You know how I keep telling you about my parents, and how they are such wonderful enablers?? Well...we had our family Christmas this afternoon, Mom drew my name in the family gift exchange, and THIS is what she got for me!!!! Do you know how many times I put this set into my shopping cart? I always delete it, though, because I could never justify buying something like this for myself. Thanks, Mom!!! :-)

A Birthday Surprise

I have, without a doubt, the best secret pal in the entire SP9!!!! She sent me a wonderful box just a week or so ago, and yesterday my mailbox was stuffed with a giant envelope. Inside were the cutest notecardsand a book from my Amazon wishlist!!
Ever since I knitted the Sloppy Joe sweater from this book for KnitPicks, I've been wanting this book. I haven't been able to justify buying it, especially with the holidays right around the corner. The Best Secret Pal in the World, however, sent it to me as a birthday present!! I was absolutely speechless - and if you know me, you know that's quite a feat!

THANK YOU Secret Pal!!! It was so nice of you to think of me!!

I also have the best parents in the world...in addition to paying for my airfare and rental car to Knitting Camp last summer (as an early birthday present) , my parents bought me exactly what I wanted for my birthday - a double set of winter white Corelle plates, bowls and cups! My old Corelle set is 17 years old, the pattern (Country Violets) has been discontinued, and several of the pieces had been broken over the years. The white set is just perfect! :-) Thank you very much, Mom and Dad!!!

In case you were wondering, today is my 41st birthday. I plan to spend today making more Christmas candy and maybe doing a little bit of knitting. I don't plan, however, to repeat what I did yesterday - I discovered that sheets of hard candy, while being broken apart, can slice your thumb just as well and just as deeply as any piece of broken glass. (I couldn't even knit last night, but it feels better this morning) I have a whole bunch of dipping chocolate, lots of corn syrup and sugar...now I need to start concocting. I plan to make more hard candy and a few batches of peanut brittle, also.

Kevin and Kelson are spending the entire day deer hunting, so Kyle and I are going to see what we can create...I'm thinking truffles. :-) Kyle has a very important job in the candy making enterprise; at the end of each batch of candy (especially the chocolate kind!) he is the official spoon-cleaner-offer. It's a dirty job, but he's definitely the most qualified.
Of course, when he's done with his job, I become the official Kyle-cleaner-offer!

Apropos of absolutely nothing - here's a picture of my boys and my sister's girls, taken at Thanksgiving. A handsome group, if I do say so myself. :-)

(Hopefully) out of my blogging malaise...

It's been a very hectic, frazzled couple of weeks. I've been overrun with JDs at school (24 on Tuesday...and I only have 21 seats in my room!), and by the time I get home, I hardly feel like reading emails, let alone updating my blog.

However...

My Secret Pal Strikes again!!!! Woohoo!!!

After an incredibly crummy day yesterday, I came home to find this very colorful box:
and inside, a yarn I've never played with before:

Malabrigo!!! This yarn is actually a very pretty purple, but for some reason it kept photographing as blue. This is incredibly soft and squooshy - I think that it's either going to be a scarf or mittens...I absolutely love it!!! :-)

There was a jar of Body Scrub that smells absolutely divine - it's already in the shower

and a really nice journal/notepad set!

Thanks for making my day, secret pal!!!

We were sent home from school early today because of the weather. We had 6 inches of snow fall between 6:00 this morning and 1:00 this afternoon...and more is supposed to be on its way (chant with me, please....snow day snow day snow day!).

Gracie made the most of the first snowfall of the season:

Bottled Music

Kelson sent this to me...