'nother pair of sox !

My most recent pair.  

Eyelets on the leg portion both front and back.

This yarn has an interesting component. 

It's called Outlast.  

I've pulled a couple of explanations off the web for ya.

Outlast^® technology, 

originally developed for NASA, 

utilizes phase change materials (PCM) that absorb, 

store and release heat for optimal thermal comfort.  

Outlast^® technology is comparable to ice in a drink; 

as it changes from solid to liquid, 

it absorbs heat and cools the drink, 

keeping that drink at the desired temperature for longer.

 Outlast^® phase change materials work in the same way, but are microencapsulated to be permanently enclosed and protected in a polymer shell. 

We call microencapsulated phase change materials Thermocules™.

This encapsulation process makes the Thermocules™ exceptionally durable for many applications. 

These Thermocules™ can be incorporated into fabrics and fibers and have the capacity to absorb, store and release excess heat.  

This gives any product 

containing Outlast^® technology the ability to continually regulate skin’s microclimate. 

As the skin gets hot, the heat is absorbed, 

and as it cools, that heat is released.

Outlast^® technology is not wicking technology, 

which manages moisture by reacting to your sweat and pulling it away from the skin. 

Outlast^® technology will proactively manage heat while controlling the production of moisture before it begins. 

The Loopy Ewe has this to say:

"This sock weight yarn is made from 

superwash Merino, nylon and Outlast

Outlast, a fiber technology that interacts with

the body's microclimate to moderate temporature

to help from being too hot or too cold.

It's yarn with a built-in climate control !"

Anyhoo, they feel great on my feet and I love the colors.

What more could a gal ask for?

hugs

♥

25 Degrees F

And I'm ready for it with my new Kiltie Cowl.

It's knit from my knitspot 

Fall In Full Color Yarn Club December shipment.

It's a blend of

 80% Wool, 

10% Angora, 

10% Cashmere

in the Yuletime colorway

A glorious Mix of blues

Knitspot always includes such wonderful goodies.

Tucked away in this shipment were

five hand-blown glass buttons designed especially for this yarn and this exclusive Anne Hanson designed cowl.

#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#

It's almost lunchtime so off we go looking for something great for lunch.

After which we'll shop for birdseed so our neighborhood birds will stay fat and sassy.

If you're going out today be certain to

Bundle up, 

it could be cold out there.

hugs

red hot ♥'s to you

2012 Finishes

End of 2012

I'm another year older and still in the Pink ! ! ! 

# # # # # # # # # # # #

Let's talk about Me.

teehee, teehee

Really,

let's talk about my knitting this year.

This year I've added a Tracking Gauge 

in my right side-bar.

Each time I finished a Project the total yarn used was posted.

The cumulative yardage was posted,

as well as the equivalent in miles.

It's revealed an interesting perspective.

I think I can describe my love of knitting as a

PASSION

Looking backing

this has been a busy year

for 

My Passion For Knitting

How's this for passion!

I've knit a total of 18,055 yards of yarn.

That's more than ten miles of yarn.

When I began tracking my works

I had no idea  

that numbers like this would result!

I'm flabbergasted, over-whelmed !!

Here's a breakdown:

4 Adult-sized Sweaters

1 Baby-sized Sweater

12 Shawls

9 pair of Adult-sized Sox

2 pair Fingerless Mitts

8 Adult-sized Hats

6 Cowls/Neckwarmers

6 Monsters/Stuffie Toys

I'm astounded with these numbers ! ! ! ! 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Last finished project of this year.

Abalone Sweater.

Wishing you

the Very Best of New Year

 2013

many hugs and much love

to each of you,

Gerry

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Hello Everyone

Hello, how is everyone?

Are you ready for winter weather?

or are you in a climate where winter comes only on the calendar?

Mid-Missouri has been wonderful this Autumn.

Mild temps [with a time or two of COLD]

lots of sunshine with a little rain

[we could use more, but only in the form of rain, not the other]

Our Christmas tree is up

[bought one with the lights already on it]

DD#2 and I have discussed our plans for eats over the Holidays.

Nothing special.

However,

 we are going to attempt 

a slowcooker 'Beer Bath Turkey'

Wish us luck with this, huh ! ! ! 

+  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +

It's soon to be Winter

and I've been busy knitting hats

This Raspberry colored hat 

with hand-knit flower is the 

For Good Hat

designed by Megan/Stockinette Zombies Podcast

The knitted flower was a gift 

and it will be removed from this hat, shortly.

It's to be given to someone dear.

[yes, sans the pretty flower]

Under the Mistletoe Hat

a quick knit that doesn't cover my ears!

Just the one to toss in my bag for 

not-so-cold winter days.

Okay, that was two knit projects for the head

Now something for my feet.

This pair is knit with a Merino Wool/Cashmere/Nylon blend yarn

that makes me feel most decadent. 

[Decadent: a Noun for -  a person who is luxuriously self-indulgent]

Who?  Me?

The wonderful pattern is Rosa Rubiginosa

designed by Hunter Hammersen

so much fun to knit.

Even with this dark-ish yarn the pattern is noticeable  from a distance.

And I will be knitting Rosa again in a lighter shade yarn.

The feel of this yarn on my very own feeties is out of this world.

There WILL BE MORE OF THIS YARN in my future ! 

#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

May a tell you a story?

Hope you don't mind, I'm telling it.  :^)

It was the summer after I passed fifth grade 

and eager to begin 6th Grade

that our family moved from the desert to the beach.

Much to my delight two girls my age lived across the street.

The older was a grade ahead of me and the younger a grade behind me.

That didn't matter, we became friends, with me filling the age gap. 

Their folks and mine encouraged our friendship.

The three of us spent many happy times together.

I think we 'discovered boys' when we reached jr high.

[No details on that will be revealed here.]

As our family moved between the desert and the beach we remained friends.

After high school graduation we kept in close contact and even attended each other's baby showers.

Then, as young mothers 

we each had our own lives to manage 

and our friendship was put on hold, so to speak.

Flash forward some fifty years.

After some searching, the Internet provided me with enough info to write a couple of letters.

One sister replied and we established a somewhat relationship.

However, this past year seems to have been our time to followup our initial connection.

The younger of the gals and I have been exchanging snail mail and re-introducing ourselves.

Fifty-plus years of catching up sure takes lots of hand-written pages, on both our parts.

But what anticipation - - - waiting for that next

snail mail.

Yesterday, out of the blue I received a pkg.

What?

She has sent me

her hand-made soap.

Three fragrances:

Rose

Oatmeal/Honey

Chamomile/Lavender

No doubt, this last one is meant to be used at my night time bath to relax me from a hectic day's activities.

OMG, I feel so pampered ! ! ! ! 

How sweet is this .  .  .  .

Have a peek

I've displayed them on my hand-knit shawl.

 It's been my plan all along was  to send this shawl to her right after the New Year.

You guys may remember

les Abeilles shawl

aka the Bees

I've decided now is the time to sent to lovely.

So, les Abeilles is wrapped and ready for tomorrow's trip to the post office to begin it's journey to my

childhood friend.

After all, one hand-crafted gift 

deserves hand-crafted gift in return.

Hope she likes it.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

You know how much I enjoy our chats.

[when you comment do you remember

to click the

subscribe by email button 

to take part in the rest of our chat?]

Happy Holidays

from Our House to Yours !

hugs

♥

The day before

Here it is the 

day before Thanksgiving ! ! ! 

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone ! ! ! ! 

Just a quick glance at what's happin'

in my kitchen:

Older Daughter's contribution toward

T-Day dinner is the

Pie Pumpkin she purchased during her visit with us

and I've halved it, sprayed it with Pam 

and it's baking along side

Mrs. Smith's Pumpkin Pie.

My Yam Dish is on the lower shelf.

Yes, canned yams, butter, brown sugar and ground pepper.

whew ! ! !  I'm pooped ! ! ! ! 

Thanks to DD#2, 

Mr. Turkey, 

weighing in at 20 pounds

and the rest of the fixin's are in her good hands.

We'll be feasting at her table tomorrow.

Don't YOU be late to the table ! ! ! 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Meanwhile,

just in case

the-middle-of-the-night-snack-attack

comes along:

Oh, my ! ! ! 

Do you want to hear about my love affair with Nutella??

Tell me,

have you ever tried either

Nutella or Biscoff Spread?????

********

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ! ! ! 

hugs

♥

Hooded Scarf

Pfeiffer Hooded Scarf

in a lovely turquoise in the most squishable machine washable wool.

The is the hood section beginning at the neckline

going up to the top of the head

Once the hood is complete

it will be attached to a long cable-patterned scarf.

Yet to be knit  :^)

'Finished in time for our first truly winter day', is what DD#2 is no doubt wishing.

This will be for Debbie when it's finished.

hugs

♥

Klick-Klack

The sound of my needle tips knitting these stitches that create something wonderfully 

cozy for this coming winter weather.

The beginning of another quick knit hat.

It's another Gnome Acres yarn

in the 

Under The Christmas Tree

colorway

Oh, yes, it's another hat for Gerry

hugs

♥  ♥   ♥  ♥  ♥

Some new yarn made it into my Stash

There's an independent dyer whose colors I'm a sucker.  

If you remember my post about my Franklin's Journey Shawlette, well it's the very same dyer.

GnomeAcres dyes the most gorgeous colors.

Here's what I knit with a couple of colorway

that wouldn't stay out of my shopping cart.

Meet Molly Weasley 

[ala Harry Potter series]

Molly has a corodinating color heel.

I improvised the bitty cables on the front of the leg.

Fun, fun, fun to wear

keeps my feet toasty and

keeps a smile on my face.

Arthur Weasley became a Honey Cowl.

When I wrap 'round twice, 

Arthur keeps those pesky Canadian breezes from 

winding down my neck and  into my jacket.

I'm definitely not ready for winter weather.

How 'bout you?

That was a couple of quick knits to keep these fingers busy

hugs

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Whew! October was a busy month.

Out-of-town visitors from California kept us hopping.

The beginning of the month our older son made a quick appearance,

the end of the month brought younger son and d-i-l

and

our older daughter.

Not much planning of activities 

- we all like to take what comes.

Our Capitol was highlight a couple of days.

A guided tour of our beautiful Capitol one day 

and a private tour for some of us another day.

Lots of visits to favorite eating spots

- especially Central Dairy -

Boy, oh, boy, did we ever get our fill of dairy.

Extreme Moose Tracks and Bear Claw

seemed to be the flavors of choice.

Couldn't talk anyone into a Banana Split.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Now that everyone has returned to the West Coast 

we have taken time to remove any and all of the Halloween decor.  

By the way, how many Trick-or-Treaters rang your door bell????

Wanna guess how many we had 

- here I am bragging again -

did ya take a stab at how many?

Nine, 

that's 9 little ghost or gobblins or rather Princesses, Super Heroes and, yes, even one member of some SWAT TEAM ! ! ! ! !  

Cute, every one.  

But what do we do with the rest of the candy???

v^v^v^v^v

Between the arrivals and departures of our kid's visits

there was time to knit.

Yeah, yeah, I know you're not one bit surprized.

Well, with the turn of the seasons and cooler to cold temps making it known every time we left the house,

I decided I needed a knit hat to keep my ears warm.

So I cast on using the Tree Frog colorway

and knit the ribbing that would hug my head and ears.

Then began the decrease portion.  

By decreasing five times each round I created a wonderful swirl effect that I just love.

Keeps my ears warm and my head snuggled into this yummy Merino wool.

Have you ever attempted to photography yourself wearing a knit hat?

Well, it ain't easy!

Don't ask me how I know.  

However, the number 23 does come to mind when I think about it.

Hubby came to my rescue

and got just the angle I wanted to show off my knit  hat.

xxx to you, Hubby.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Our visitors have returned to the West Coast

and October has become November.

It was time to put away all the 

 - well, almost all the Halloween stuff and such. 

WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT

PENELOPE THE EMPATHETIC MONSTER?????

 Gotta love her grin.

She's just too dang cute to put out of view,

don't ya think.

# # # # # # # # # #

Please, don't walk through the leaves

: ^ )

hugs

♥ ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥ ♥