Work in Progress Wednesday

Mrs. H, our hostess for WIP Wednesday, is doing a year-end wrap up of her projects. Which sounds like a nice idea, except that I don't want to think about all of those dress collars I crocheted this fall, let alone link to pictures. I'd rather forget about that, thank you.

So, what are we carrying over into the new year as works in progress?

The Chicknits hoodie, which I'm starting to believe is never going to be done. I ripped back the left sleeve on Christmas because, once again, the increases were wrong. Then I knit the entire sleeve while watching all 6 DVDs of Star Wars (not including Clone Wars) on Christmas Day.



I'm now working on the hood, as shown in this back view.. I picked up the stitches for it while watching Patrick Stewart play Scrooge in our DVD of A Christmas Carol. Tonight we'll be watching Marx Brothers movies for New Year's Eve (a family tradition) -- perhaps I'll get the hood finished. Sheesh, this was supposed to be an autumn project, not a project that dragged on until spring. (All of those lace collars really goobered up my plans for autumn, you know.)

The American Girl-size Irish Dance dresses didn't get done for Christmas:



The next step is to sew together the bodices in order to see if I'm on the right track. Then I'll try making capes. Note that I bought some lace for the collars -- no, I'm not crocheting itsy-bitsy lace collars for these things. No, no, no. No more lace collars.

Other works in progress around the house: Rick re-painted the family room this week. It is now less pinky-peachy, and no longer looks like the set for The Golden Girls. He has a bit of trim work to do, and then that project is over. He was going to work on the brakes on my car this morning (Uncle Chelsea said he'd come over to instruct), but decided that doing brakes in an unheated, un-insulated garage in 20F weather wasn't really the thing to do today, so Midas did them last night.

And the kids are working on jigsaw puzzles. They're also steadfastly ignoring my suggestions that it would be pleasant to start the new year with their rooms freshly vacuumed; I expect this discussion to be ongoing and escalating in volume throughout the day.

Now That Christmas Is Over

The temperature has shot up into the 60s, and it's raining, raining, raining. A river is forming in our back yard.



The kids have put together all of the Legos, Thalia has put together the Ravensburger Puzzleball Globe, and they've now moved on to making small motor, batteries, and generators with science kits. Rick has been organizing paperwork and painting woodwork. I've been knitting, sewing, and scrapbooking (due to a sudden inspiration to actually finish the scrapbook I'd been making of Christmas 2007 before ordering prints of Christmas 2008).

We have plenty to do inside, and several days to enjoy a more relaxed schedule.

Some Highlights

Mark and Linda came over on Christmas Eve. We had a nice dinner, read the Christmas story, and opened some gifts.

They had come bearing gifts of American Girl outfits



and light sabers.




This morning was the Big Event. My gosh, I thought the house was going to explode with all of the secrets.


And indeed, it did.


Some highlights:

A softie Thalia made for AnnaBeth:


A felt ornament AnnaBeth made for me:


Flannel jammie pants the girls made for Rick (way too baggie, but that's the great thing about jammie pants):


And a potholder Thalia made for me, lined with cotton batting and Insul-Bright (pattern from Sew Simple):


The day has been spent assembling Star Wars Legos and watching all 6 DVDs, occasionally acting out the light saber scenes.

More Christmas Around the House

You know that giant map of the United States we have on our kitchen wall?

I took it down and put up this instead:




I got the idea from Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight -- a homeschool blog that is mind bogglingly creative.


I pounded straight pins into the wall and tied red ribbon to the pins. The cards are either simply folded over the ribbon, or else clipped on with binder clips.

A close up of a binder clip holding a card:



This is our favorite card, by the way, since it has both a black cat and the cardinal that this family always has on their Christmas card (they're huge St. Louis Cardinal fans). But don't worry -- the card you sent is our second favorite.

(And if you didn't send us a card, well, I'm sure the card you would have sent if only you knew our mailing address/had sent any cards out at all would've been our favorite.)

Weekend Recap

Christmas! Times 2!

Yes, we've done Christmas twice so far.

We zoomed over to Indiana on Friday, where we got together with some of Rick's family for some holiday fun. We went to David's house, where we had a fantastic holiday meal (fajitas!), then opened gifts. After that we hung around talking, looking over Facebook flares for Twilight, and generally just being a family.

The cat was dressed as Santa. He did not want his picture taken.



As a matter of fact, none of the pictures I took that evening turned out. Which is really a shame, but we have our memories of the event. Also, the cat can't complain that I posted an unflattering picture on the blog, but the rest of the family can, so the cat is the only one with a photo.

We spent the night with Rick's mom and step-dad. Then we headed over to my parent's house for a meal-and-gift-exchange, scheduled early to avoid conflict with the Purdue basketball game.

As per tradition, Elaine brought crackers so we could have silly crowns.






One of the gifts we were working on last week was revealed as a bathrobe for Dad, made in Purdue flannel.



The photo of him modeling it suffered from backlighting issues, so here is our body-double posing in it last week:



We also gave out Girl Scout nuts as gifts



and more Girl Scout nuts as gifts



and more



When my sister opened her can of nuts (and you need to realize that we're missing a shot here of Mark and Cindy opening nuts, so there were even more than you're seeing) she sort of started losing it over the fact that our family has NO IMAGINATION with gifts, and just buys multiples of something and hands them out to everyone.



Then, as is our tradition, we went bowling. My parents live in a retirement community that has a bowling alley that we can reserve for just our family. It's really fun.

Dad has joined a bowling league, as a matter of fact.




After the Purdue game we spent the evening watching White Christmas.

We headed home on Sunday with a temperature of about 6F and winds of 30-40 mph. It was an interesting trip, blowing around the road, not wanting to stop and get out of the car for ANYTHING. But we made it home, the cats hadn't destroyed the house, and now we can finish preparing for our next adventures in Christmas.

Going to See a Man About a Horse

Specifically, an American Girl horse. Which is what they each asked for. Well, when they saw Santa the night before, AnnaBeth told him she wanted a rat. A real live rat, that is. We've tried to explain, though, that Santa has more sense than to bring live animals on Christmas day, and they should never, ever expect a new pet on Christmas. So when we got down to crunch time yesterday, ("okay, this is the OFFICIAL Santa visit, and we'll probably not talk to Santa again in the next week"), she reverted to what she'd been talking about for the last 10 months or so -- wanting an American Girl horse from Santa.

Of course, this isn't the real Santa. It's just some helper. Although the girls thought he was okay --he didn't get the designation of Polyester Beard Guy from them.

They saw the real Santa last year:





And what was so cool was that he remembered them from the year before (which, of course, helped prove he was the real deal):



What a hoot -- I just now noticed that AnnaBeth is wearing the exact same striped shirt in 2 of those photos. Sort of like it's her official Go to See Santa shirt. Really, though, it isn't. Here's proof -- the year before that she wore a jumper:



And the year before? They both wore jumpers.



And since we're on a roll, putting up old Santa photos, here's the year before that:



And the year before that:



At which point we are apparently in our pre-digital era, since I can't find earlier pictures on the computer.

Work in Progress Wednesday

We have 2 separate parts for your reading pleasure: the knitting part, and the Christmas part.

THE KNITTING PART

Work continues on the Basic Chic Hoodie. I'm currently working on the second sleeve.



At this point it's getting pretty bulky to lug this thing around, given that it's knitted in one piece. Picture trying to sit in a swivel chair knitting this with it all piled in your lap. Now, picture a large cat trying to also sit on your lap while you're knitting. Not a pretty picture.

I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather endure an hour of sewing up various sweater parts (sleeves, front, back) than endure several hours of knitting a whoppin' huge one piece sweater. Heck, it's not even that convenient to knit this second sleeve in the round -- I have to continuously flip the sleeve back and forth to spiral around and around, since otherwise the sleeve would just twist more and more tightly.

THE CHRISTMAS PART

Production continues on various Christmas gifts. If you typically get a gift from us, don't look at these pictures too closely, okay?

AnnaBeth has been sewing




and Thalia has learned to use the serger.



My jobs have been cutting out, ironing, pinning, and removing the afore mentioned large cat from the item they're trying to work on, since the fabric was a cozy alternative to my lap.



"I will deal with you later, lowly human."

I've also been doing some embroidery. I'm not sure if it will be done for Christmas.



That bottom piece has the design drawn out on Sulky. After I embroider it I'll tear away the Sulky, picking out all of the little bits with those tweezers up above. Then I'll need to embroider side panels, cuffs, and a cape. And sew it all together, along with bloomers. It will (theoretically) fit an 18 inch doll.

Our hostess for Work In Progress Wednesday is Mrs. H, who welcomes everyone to join in with any projects they'd like to show.