Merry Christmas, new projects!

Firstly, you have to see Bailey's newest fashion addition. She has a new collar and collar jewelry. Isn't she stylin'?! She posed so perfectly for this picture that I couldn't resist.

So, onto life. We have been celebrating the holidays in our own way here at the Thornton's house. We watch our Christmas movies, and beginning about 10 days before Christmas day, we start opening one gift a night. I haven't opened too many, but the little kids all love this tradition. I have gotten some spectacular gifts so far this year. I have already shown you some yarn I got, but here's more!

They are both called "Mermaid" and one is fingering weight, the other is laceweight. I think I will make a lacy scarf with the laceweight and still unsure what I'll do with the fingering weight...socks maybe?

















I have frogged the socks I was working on for my mom (she wasn't that thrilled with the color and neither was I), and started something with my new yarn. A scarf! It's the one I talked about in one of my previous posts by Noro and it's working up beautifully! I can't wait to see it all washed and blocked. The pattern is wonderfully simple and free, so how can you go wrong? I am working on size 1 needles, but I am so loving the result, that it's worth the tiny stitches :) I am all done with my Christmas knitting list, so it's nice to be working on something for me. I do feel a bit selfish, but I love this scarf!!

I have been so busy knitting that I have been neglecting my puzzle, but I promised to post about it, so here it is!

Now, I know it doesn't look like much, but all that sky at the top was a challenge! Now just to finish the 50 odd people that are skating on that pond...whew!

Now, I don't know how many of you follow this but last weekend was the Target World Challenge (it's a golf tournament for those who may not know). It was also the first tournament that Tiger Woods has played in 11 weeks. So, it was a very exciting weekend, especially since he won! Golf is so great to knit by, nothing better. You can have the time to look down at your project if you need to and not miss what's going on, but there is still something interesting enough to occupy your time. Tiger is taking more time off from golf and won't be playing again until the Buick Invitational on January 25th. I will just have to make do until then :)

I am really getting interested in making handpainted/hand dyed yarn.I have loved knitting with it and think it would be so fun to create my own colorways! We went to Barnes and Noble the other day and picked up the book The Yarn Lovers Guide to Hand Dyeing. It has some interesting techniques in there that I am eager to try, this will be so fun! I will chronicle my first attempt for you all to see...Hopefully it turns out well, lol.

Well, I am off to work on my scarf some more. Happy holidays!!

Thanksgiving Lapbook and other ramblings

Well, as I promised, here are the lapbook pictures. Didn't they do a wonderful job on this one?! We all had a really good time working on it. It's one of the many lapbooks from Live and Learn Press. They have several free ones (they refer to them as Learn 'N Folders), you should go check it out!

We have now put up cork board in our dining room and it has quickly been filled with drawings of all different Christmas themed pictures. Isn't this a beautiful sight?! :)

We have had a lot of fun with that. There is even a crayon drawing of mine up there, but I will leave it at that, lol. I have had a chance to get somewhere on my puzzle, here's what we've got so far:We always do a Charles Wysocki puzzle during Christmas/winter time. This one will eventually look like this. I love Charles Wysocki's artwork and it's so fun to put these puzzles together!

I have entered a contest over at the Lady knits, you need to check it out! Lots of goodies to give away!

I have also decided to join June's great idea of the Pay-it-forward exchange. Here's the low down: I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

So there you have it! Won't this be fun?!

I will end this post with a picture of the cutest little blue merle sheltie you could ever want to see!

Update!! Finally!!

First thing's first...please, PLEASE, please forgive my lack of blogging this past month. Time has just gotten away from me and I have been a horrible blogger...so sorry!! Now to catch you up on things- I finished the purple-y socks for Mackenzie, but cannot show you a picture just yet since I have already wrapped them. For those of you who saw the yarn as a work in progress in the last post, however, I will provide the details.

Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks, Winter Eclipse (75% Washable wool, 25% nylon)
Needles: Size 2 harmony circulars
Pattern: Basic toe-up sock, sized down for a child

Since my last post I also started and finished a pair of socks for Mallory and here they are.


The details are:
Yarn: Fiesta colorway, 100% superwash merino by Black Bunny Fibers
Needles: Size 1 circulars (harmony needles...gorgeous!)
Pattern: A child-sized variation (by me) on the toe-up sock by Wendy

I know that Mallory is really going to enjoy these. She kept coming up with excuses to try them on...just for fun of course :) I still have to wrap these and might put them in her stocking. The lucky thing about her being the youngest is that, since she's the smallest, it's so much easier to make things for her! So, thus ends the Christmas list of things I wanted to complete. I can't believe I made it! I have started a pair of socks for my mom, but my tendonitis is acting up again and I have been forced to set them down for a while. I am fathfully blue ice-ing it twice a day, so I expect speedy recovery!! So, here are her socks...toe-up of course.

Now on to other things. I have already gotten to open a couple of gifts for Hanukkah and they have been delightful! One of my gifts was this beautiful yarn. Both fingering weight, 100% superwash merino. It's kind of hard to see, but the one on the left is a blend of purples and greens, Gem Stones by Poppy Flower Fibers . The one on the right is a blend of greens, blues, and purple called Evening Forest. They are both 500 or more yards each! I am using the Evening Forest to make myself the Noro Silk Garden scarf.I saw it worked up at our LYS and fell in love! I think it will look awesome with a handpainted yarn like this.


I have been working on our annual Christmas puzzle and finally finished it. We always have one of Charles Wysocki's paintings and they are wonderful! Anyway, I finally finished this one two pieces short. ARGH! Oh well, I guess that's what I get for buying it at a yard sale, LOL. Fortunately we have 2 others and I have just started one of those. Here's the "before" pic and i will post updates as I progress :)







Ok, now last but not least in my personal news is something rather dramatic.



My sister Aubrey and I went and got a new piercing! We both got one of our Tragus' pierced, and for those of you who might not know...that's the flap of cartilage that you would press on to cover your ear and say "I'm not listening!", lol. I am so pleased with the outcome and it is healing nicely. I would prefer a smaller hoop, but that will have to wait a couple more weeks at least :)





So, there you have it folks. I will be posting the kids latest lapbook soon. It's their Thanksgiving project and it's mighty impressive, even if I do say so myself.

Lapbooking, knitting, and jewelry

First of all, let me apologize for the delay in my posting. Among other things, we have gotten a case of the sniffles, sore throat, coughing thing amongst our family that is not bad enough to do much damage, but enough to make you feel icky all day. I've been loading up on the Emergen-C so hopefully that will help. Well, onto other news, I received my blog contest prize the other day! Isn't it beautiful?! It even came with a wonderful packet of lavender blossoms. It's heavenly! Thanks Carol!! I can't wait to see how it knits up...but I am not touching it until I can actually work up a pair of socks with it. I finished the orange boucle scarf and sent it off to it's Christmas recipient: my sister-in-law :) She and my brother live in Hawaii but are spending all of December in France, so she will be able to use it then. I will have her take a picture of herself modeling it and will post that asap, i promise!



Right now I have begun (again) Mackenzie's socks. It's wonderful to be knitting socks once more. I am finally able to do some knitting without the wrist brace and its so freeing! I still have at least 2 pairs to do after I finish these so I am really trying to get after it. I am doing these toe up once again and it's going well so far. It looks a lot like blue in this picture but there's also quite a bit of purple in this yarn. Purple is her favorite color and she adores this yarn. Fortunately, her feet aren't very long at all for a girl her age. She wears a size 2 1/2 and she's 12.


Now I know I mentioned this a couple of posts ago, but the littles and I got their Halloween lapbook done by Halloween! I promised pictures for those of you who don't know what a lapbook is, so here you go!

Here is the front of one of them. As you can see, they go all out with the decoration and stickers :) Now there are 4 pages in this particular book to accomodate all the things we made to go inside.









Here's the first 2 pages. There is a recipe for English Soul Cake, a Halloween timeline pop-up book, Halloween Symbols and their meanings, and a recipe for Mexican Bread of the Dead :)











The last 2 pages have a map with details of how people around the world celebrate Halloween differently, a book of pumpkin facts, a pouch with their favorite candies written inside, and last (but of course not least, lol) a skeleton put together with brads.

So, there you have it...a lapbook! The are so many really great things about lapbooks:

-The kids remember what they are learning because it's integrated into a craft project

-The information is broken down into manageable chunks to make several different little books

-They are able to have a wonderful time decorating and expressing their creativity

-They return to the books they have made time and time again, cementing the knowledge they have gained.

-They have something that they can show off proudly to Daddy or company about what they have learned.




Bailey got a bath today, and she's getting so pretty and fluffy. She will be one year old on the 15th and they say that a sheltie's coat will continue to get filled out until they are about 18 months old.

I'm stuck on the computer lately playing a new game. It's Luxor 3, and I bought it as an early Christmas gift for my mom, but I have gotten addicted to it too. You have to try it, but be warned! It's too much fun!! :)


I have been thinking pretty seriously about trying to make money off of what has previously been a hobby of mine; jewelry making. Here's one of the sets I have made so far. I am still looking into all the legal stuff and I would really like to be able to sell online, but it would be nice to have some that I could sell for consignment maybe. Anyway, I have a few things already made but I am not wanting to think about it all going forward until after the holidays. What do you guys think? I have pictures of some of my other things here.

Well, this has been a very long post, but I had quite a few things to catch up on :) Have a great weekend everybody!

Knitting again!

Welcome me back to the land of the knitting! :) Last night was my first knitting in almost 2 weeks...it's been tough! I only worked on my project for about 30 minutes, but it was still wonderful to have the needles back. I am working on the orange boucle scarf that I talk about
here.

On another note, Bailey has yet another new outfit! Here she is in her new pink coat. Isn't this SO cute?! She wasn't too terribly fond of it, but I love the fur trim on the collar. It's just too adorable!

The kids and I are finishing up the lapbook on halloween today. We got everything all cut out and prepared on Friday, so we should be done today.

Oh, by the way, my mom is doing a giveaway, so be sure to head over to her blog and check that out. She's giving away some handspun (some alpaca and some merino) as well as a book on slip-stitch knitting.

I got myself a new cd the other day that is awesome! It's by Emmy Rossum, who you may know as Christine Daae in Phantom of the Opera. She has an awesome voice and her style is somewhere between Enya and Imogen Heap. I would highly recommend checking out her album, Inside Out. Here's one of her songs...her first music video from the new album (released on the 23rd).

Argh Matey!!

Well, the wrist brace is off and I am on my way back to normal life...hopefully :) I haven't actually started knitting again, but we're closer! It's difficult to replace knitting in your life. I was totally unprepared for it! What do you do when you would normally be knitting?! I have gotten some reading done, but I am mostly just worrying over the Christmas gifts that aren't getting done as Christmas creeps ever closer. I have gotten a lot completed in anticipation of the holidays, at least compared to last year, lol. I still have my knitting bag out of sight, but I can feel my strength returning and my project ambition is as high as ever.

On a more exciting note, I won a contest! I never win contests, and I am so thrilled at the prize...yarn! I was over at Carol's blog and she had a contest where you could guess the number of days until she received a job offer that she accepted. So, I guessed 49 and I was right! :) Here's the post and there is a picture of the yarn. I chose the purple-y one (sorry Suzanne!) and can't wait to make some socks with it! Isn't it gorgeous?!



I was at Wal-Mart the other day and couldn't resist this dog costume for Bailey. Isn't she adorably piratey?! She lost the hat immediately after this photo, but she contentedly left the little dress on all day.










I am loving this weather, aren't you? It's finally raining, and it's finally fall! Well, the kids and I are going to make a lapbook for Halloween so I had better hurry up and print it out, cut it out, and do that with them :) Will post pics of that when we have actually completed it.

Fall leaves and knitting woes

I am really bummed out today-I can't knit! I have tendonitis in my right wrist and it has really flared up since this weekend. I spent most of the weekend knitting non-stop on a gift that had to be finished (I did finish, by the way), then spent Tuesday morning at our knitting class that my mom and I teach, then by Tuesday night at our weekly knitting group meeting I was sore...but knitted anyway...so I think it was just a bit too much. So, I am trying to avoid my knitting at this point and give my wrist a rest. I had my knitting bag open earlier and the UFOs (Unfinished Objects) were calling to me so I had to put them out of sight. Zip the bag, put it away. I can, however, show you what I would be working on if I could be :)

First off is a boucle scarf. I think the colors are beautiful and the knitting turns out to be more of a fabric/felted look than actual knitted stitches. Its going pretty fast and I love it.

Next is a pair of toe up socks I have just barely started, as you can see. These are the third of six pairs I have to get done before Christmas :) Now you understand why I am so irritated about knitting time lost!





For the past week I have been working on a paper leaf garland. I have made one before, about 5 years ago, and it turns out so beautifully that I had to make another one. As you can see from the picture, I have traced a leaf shape onto different colored cardstock. I then traced another leaf shape on the inside and have yet to cut all those out with a paper cutting knife. I have 12 leaves of each color, then the inner leaves will double that number. The garland should be long enough...I hope! It takes a while, and it is tedious, but the end result is well worth it. Once I get a few more completed I will post more pictures.

Knitting and patterns

First things first- finished socks! Well, almost finished. As you can see, the one is still on the needles. I am waiting for Aubrey to come home and try them on so I can know if this bind off method is stretchy enough for socks or not. But, don't you just love the way the yarn patterned itself? I am really pleased with it. OK, details:

Yarn: ONline Supersocke (Sunset Colorway, #830)
Needles: Size 2 circulars
Pattern: (Stitch pattern) Yarrow Rib Socks from Vintage Socks, (Sock pattern) Toe up with slip-stitch heel by Wendy.
Started: September 30
Finished: October 11

This toe-up sock pattern came out really easily and eliminated some of those lingering issues that I have when I make socks. For one thing, I never know just where to start toe decreases since I rarely make socks for the same person 2 pairs back to back. This made that such a non-issue, I am definitely doing my next pair toe up as well. Another huge benefit (one which is solely psychological, of course) is that after finishing the foot of the sock it feels like you're home free! You just fly around and around to the top of the cuff. I even had extra yarn with these and there went that "am-I-going-to-have-enough-yarn" stress! So the benefits of toe up were practically endless for me! :)

The past few days have been spent printing patterns that my mom and I have had but never got around to printing. We bought binders, dividers and labels and I spend this morning finishing up all the pattern organizing. Its so awesome! I put the patterns in page protectors and divided them up by topic. I can't wait to try and find a pattern now! :)

Goodbye Leg warmers- Hello Socks!

The anticipated day has finally arrived! I have finished the leg warmers! Actually, I finished them yesterday morning, but have been so busy starting my new project that I couldn't blog. Doesn't Mallory look adorable in these? They fit her great and I can't wait to give them to her...of course, she still doesn't realize she's modeling her own gift. They should fit her for a while, hopefully I added enough extra length. After restarting them several times, I was very ready to have them finished!

Details:

Yarn: Patons Decor #1620
Needle size: Sz. 7 circulars
Pattern: My own design
Started: Sept. 13, Finished: Sept. 30

I wasn't very pleased with this yarn. It's 25% wool and 75% acrylic which makes for a lot of pilling...the knitter's nightmare! It wasn't too bad to work with though and it's great for the purpose.



On to my newest project- my first toe-up socks! I love the yarn, it's so fun to work with. You never get bored of the color and variations. It's ONline Supersocke and I talk more about it here. These are for my sister, Aubrey (who has a womens size 9 1/2 foot) and I wanted to make sure I utilized every bit of yarn that I could. Hence, the decision to go toe-up! so far, so good, I am past the toe increase shaping now and onto the foot pattern. She only wants a simple rib pattern (thank goodness!) so I think that I can handle that along with going at these backwards. Oh, and of course, I am doing them two at a time on two circulars...I am spoiled to it! What can I say? I got the stitch pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. It's the Yarrow Ribbed Sock. The toe up pattern is the Fingering weight, toe up, slip-stitch heel sock from Wendy Knits. It's a free pattern, so it's legal for me to include the above link :) I am really enjoying these socks, and have been anticipating starting them for several days now. Yay!

This weekend was the President's Cup...more time for knitting while watching golf! The perfect combination. It's enjoyable to watch because the field is limited and all my favorites are playing. Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Steve Stricker. Of course, most of my favorite players are on the International team, but it's great to see the U.S. team win! It's the first time that we have won on foreign soil since 1993, so- go team U.S.!

New yarn, again!

I wasn't necessarily planning on this, but I bought more sock yarn yesterday! I guess June and Cat (Girls from my knitting group) are starting to rub off on me :) Anyway, we headed off to our LYS (Local Yarn Store for those of you non-knitters out there) last night and I ended up with the most beautiful sock yarn. It's ONline Supersocke #830 and if you look at this picture, you can see the awesome pattern it makes (it's the top one on the left). I can't find a picture of the other one so I will just have to post pics as I progress. I was intending to buy some yarn for the socks that I am making for my sister Aubrey (she's 21), but they had an actual sock knitted up with a different colorway of this same brand, and I fell in love! Darn that effective marketing strategy stuff! So, now I have a pair of socks in the knitting queue for Aubrey and myself...what am I to do?! Aubrey is anxious for her socks and I am anxious to work with some new yarn so I will be doing hers next!

Now, onto the legwarmers! I am almost done and so happy about it! I tried them on Mallory last night while she was asleep because she is a very sound sleeper. It worked like a charm! Why haven't I done this with every "secret" project before this?! I think I have about 2 more inches to go, then on to the ribbing, then I am done! I know she will love these and wear them out so I want to make them long enough to last for awhile. I am going to make the ribbing long enough to fold down as well. I will be finishing these today *fingers crossed*, so you should be seeing them completed and modeled by some child very soon!

Last night, my mom bought a quilt pattern to make me as a Christmas gift and I am so excited about it! It's so cute, and I love it. You have to go see it here. I love the little turtles and it will look so perfect on my bed. Isn't my mom the greatest?!

Poor Bailey, all this blogging
really wears a girl out! ;)

Knitting class!

Well, thank goodness for Marm remembering the camera this morning! I was able to get pictures of our knitting class this morning to share with you! Don't they all look happy?! So far we are working on a basic garter stitch swatch that is turning into a scarf for some of the faster knitters in the group. Pictured here are the girls of the class. Left to right: Mackenzie, Kelsey, Morgan and Mallory. Mallory is my youngest sister, the one I am making the legwarmers for. I can also not deny Mackenzie (12) and Kelsey (9)...We have been working on the knit stitch for 3 weeks now and will be progressing (Hopefully!) to purling next week. Everyone is doing so well and we are so proud of them!




Here are a couple of the guys in our group, Zach and Hunter. Zach is my brother, he's 10 and getting pretty good with his knitting technique! The thing we have noticed with the boys is their tendency to knit so tightly that you can't slide the
stitches along the needles! This may be common with other new knitters, but so far we have really only dealt with the boys on this. As you can tell, they're having a really good time here, lol.








This is Joseph, with his mom and my other brother Levi (9). Well, that's the whole gang! We knit for an hour at our home-school coop and it's been a great success so far. I will keep updating as our projects progress- Keep your fingers crossed! And as Hunter says, "Knitting Rocks!" ;)

A side note- I am so incredibly excited that Josh Groban (one of my all time faves) is releasing a Christmas album! I have said it for years now that he should- his voice is perfect for Christmas songs- but he finally decided to listen to me and do it this year. YAY! I can't wait!

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New yarn and unschooling/child-directed learning

First things first...new yarn!! Isn't it all gorgeous?! As some of you may have read, I mentioned in my last post that I was struggling with trying to find sock yarn for the many sock recipients at my house. A wonderful, gracious friend from our knitting group supplied me with this wonderful bounty of sock yarn! My mom and I went to visit June yesterday and had a wonderful time. We knitted and talked spinning and yarn for a couple of hours. Is there anything better?! It almost made up for us missing knitting group at B&N this week. Ladies, we missed you all so much!The only problem I am facing now is, I want all this great yarn for myself! LOL You will be seeing projects from this yarn very soon I am sure.

Speaking of which, I am motoring along with my legwarmers, trying to be able to use some pretty yarn for another project. I know it's not very appreciative of me, but I am tired of this
plain blue yarn...Anyway, I worked on these all last night during a movie (Errol Flynn's Robin Hood) and I think I have made some headway.
It feels like I am getting nowhere on this project after doing a couple of pairs of socks! After discovering that the ribbing at the top of these was too big, I was despairing of ever getting them to fit right...Lo and behold, my mom came to my rescue in suggesting that I just make the existing ribbing be at the bottom instead. What a great idea! I don't know why, but it had never even entered my mind...As you cans see, I am still working on my thinking-out-of-the-box skills :)

So, onto the non-knitting part of my life (is there such a thing? LOL), we have been busy with our homeschooling activities this week. We went with our history club to Greenville, KY on a field trip to learn about coal mining. We had a good time, and I think the littles all learned a lot.
As you may already know, our homeschooling style runs toward unschooling. If you don't know what unschooling is, here's a brief description- Unschooling is really child-directed learning in which the child follows their own interests, learning what they are interested in! We direct the interests of our littles, but we don't put age limits or grade limits on them...basically allowing them to focus on anything they want. It's so amazing how this works, because you would assume that children would naturally shy away from educational activities but the opposite is actually true! We have them picking up their math workbooks all by themselves, they play with the
globe, they quiz each other on math facts or music notes all on their own. In short, they learn what they need to, but on their own timetable, when they have a desire to learn it- therefore, they remember what they learn. It's not traditional, but it works for us and I love it. I wanted to share this great example of a project that Kelsey (9 yrs.) did while "playing" :) We try to make all the resources available for them to use, then let them use them at will. It's amazing how much a child learns while they are having fun! I have another blog that has resources for unschooling that we have found including websites, books, movies, etc. I am slowly adding to it as I come across things that we use and enjoy. Anyway, that's a part of our lives that you are now a part of! :)


I have to share this adorable picture of my mom's chihuahua, Bisou...he happens to be in Bailey's bed and it's way too big for him! LOL Isn't he the cutest?!

Rainforest Cafe

I took this picture when we went to the Rainforest Cafe in Nashville last week. I loved how it turned out, the colors are so vibrant. Had to share it!