Purling Oaks

Finishing

It has been a day of finishing. Finishing wrapping presents, stuffing holiday photo essays into envelopes, making a roadtrip into the Madison Post Office with (thankfully) extended hours to send parcels to far-living family and friends. So all that's left are the parties and the present opening and the food, yes, the food. You know I feel good. The to-do list is empty for the evening and that is a rare event.

It has been foggy the past two days, and as Vicki posted today, the snow and ice have been melting. The temperature was in the upper 30's today. I chopped and shoveled ice for a little while this afternoon to clear part of the driveway. This warmth won't last long. The weather forecast has been changing during the course of the day. The last time I checked we were due to get 4 to 7 inches of snow this evening after some rain and the temperature will really be dropping. We're planning to go to a family party in Milwaukee tomorrow. I hope the roads are okay for driving, I would really like to go to the party.

Speaking of finishing, I finished the Koigu Fingerless Mitts on Thursday during the drive to Milwaukee. I even wove in the ends after cutting them (the ends) with my Swiss Army knife. My dad gave me that knife and I use it all the time---well, whenever I haven't had to go through airport security, that is. Here's the standard bathroom mirror shot. ( I did try a few other photos but the focus wasn't on the mitts.) Kim sent me the yarn and pattern to make the mitts. I love the yarn and the pattern is very clear. The mitts turned out great! One of my favorite finished objects. I love them. Thanks, Kim!!

Shopping, sherry, and socks

Today was my second consecutive day of shopping for holiday gifts. I'm making very good progress between in-town and in-ternet sources. I'll conduct a detailed inventory tomorrow morning (off-blog) to make sure the list has been checked twice. I avoided Black Friday and my shopping experiences yesterday and today were pretty good. I shopped Hilldale Mall on Friday and while it was busy it wasn't horrible. Today I avoided the malls and just hit Target, Michael's (crafts), the Poynette BP gas station, and Poynette's Piggly Wiggly. I left the house about 10:45 am this morning and made it back about 5 pm. I decided to have a bit of a snack before dinner since I, surprisingly, forgot to eat lunch today. (Don't worry, I did eat breakfast.) My snack consisted of little mini-Moo wedge (french onion flavor), Townhouse crackers, and a dirty manzanilla sherry martini. The 'martini' is Spanish manzanilla dry sherry with a green olive and a bit of juice from the olive jar.

There has been knitting progress. Friday was also oil-change day for the Jeep so I had time to knit at the dealership on the second fingerless mitt. I'm pretty happy with the first mitt, too, which happens to have my first "thumb" construction. Here is mitt number one pointing out the line of snow heading for Chez Purling Oaks. The forecasts vary in how much snow we'll see by the end of tomorrow...anywhere from one inch to three inches.

My DSIL, Anne, told me this evening about a method used to reinforce sock heels. She is reading (Anne, I cannot remember the book's title) a historical novel/biography/story about a young woman. In the story, the young woman is knitting socks and there is one line in the book that is very interesting. The line mentions the young woman taking several strands of her own hair to reinforce the heels of the socks she is knitting. I need to follow up with Anne to get the title of the book.

Snug Sunday

Yesterday's snowfall was a pretty respectable five inches with sleet and freezing rain at the end. Respectable, as in, respect the weather! The snow was very heavy and wet. There were numerous accidents. Our driveway is so long we have it plowed and our plow-guy couldn't make it here until about 10 AM since the township roads were very slippery and unplowed. Whew. I'm glad both DH and I were home and not out in the storm.

I cast on for fingerless mitts last night with Koigu yarn from Kim. I admired her mitts and, due to her giftiness, I can knit some too. The yarn is shades of olive green. I meant to cast on for Williamsro but the Koigu was calling out for attention. Thank you, Kim!

Today, I spent time on laundry as usual. It is my favorite chore but the key word is chore. I also decorated for Christmas.....including putting up the tree. We have a *fake* tree. It is very convenient and since it is pre-lit, quite handy. Real trees are great but they are more hassle than I want due to our schedule. One of my favorite parts of our Christmas decorations is the train.
It is an N-scale and we just have a little oval track. I only bring it out for Christmas. I love it and it appears the cats love it this year, too. *sigh*