Feathers in the Nest: 12/16/12

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Warm and Cozy

I'm finally going to slow down XXXX fingers....maybe until Christmas. We are enjoying a new Buck wood stove insert which puts out alot of heat once it gets going!

The hum of the blower is putting me into a relaxing state.

Going to see what's on for Christmas movies in a few.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday and repeat again. I do think this will be a good investment and lower utility bills by half. We have plenty of trees and wood naturally. Just takes a little time to get it started. When it reaches 700 degrees the blower turns on and it's heaven.

I sold something to get this as times are hard. At first I didn't think I would like it. Now, I love it.

And guess who also loves it? Miss Abbie! I made her a fleece easy-peazy blanket up from 60 % off fabbie from Joanne's. Since she is so small, a yard wraps around her 10 times but she loves it.

The print is like this:

A pink, girly Sock Monkey with hearts.

It's her early christmas present.

She needed it last night when the electricity went off from 11pm to 2am due to high winds out here.

SO glad I had the wood stove already heated up good!

Oil lamps lit and just silence. To think. To slow me up. To hault my overdrive brain from a long day of work.

So at 2am when the lights came back on, off to bed late. Again.

My scarf progress is here:

I'm having to learn to add in some chunky stripes/sections to lengthen it.

I have one and 1/2 skein of the brown left and underestimated the length for Mr. Darcy so:

Next lesson for me is to learn how to add another color in for several rows.

He definitely will need this for January and February here.

If anything he can use it outside at home.

Well, folks, it's 80 degrees now on the inside thermometer. I think I can crank this wood stove down a little now but it is 43 outside. Furnace hasn't cut on one time. I think it was a good investment to lower the utility bills.

Warm and cozy,

Jennifer

Thursday, December 20, 2012

More Progress on Knitting project and almost finishing up Christmas decor

So, yup, I've been a busy lady of late. Besides working hard in clinic, decorating for Christmas, addressing Christmas cards to send out, I have progressed with some more knitting of a scarf.

Mr. Darcy is liking this alot. It's lambswool with dark brown mainly and avocado green flecks intermittently.

I last posted this 2 days ago:

and I felt I was getting nowhere BUT when I look at the pic I can see alot of progress.

Kinda like life. Someone told me long time ago and I certainly find it to be true: we don't live in the past, but we certainly have to take a look in the back mirror to see how far we've come to where we are going. That defines success. For success is not how rich we are or our place in society, it's how far one has come from where they started in the first place.

I've found that knitting has a very relaxing effect on me. Wish I had more time.

The scarf is cast on 21 stitches. It's a chunky yarn and I'm knitting every row for basically learning.

I know that I will knit, purl, knit, purl, another one after this.

On days like today, I think I will get alot done. It's pouring rain, cold and all I want to do is drink coffee and knit and watch a Christmas movie!

However, we have soooooooooooo much to do on the basement level to get Mr. Darcy's office set up.

He has quite the massive Presidential desk that is going to look great. He has been working to help me get it into a better living space.

And this day marks Mr. Darcy and my first month anniversary!!!

I ordered this ornament for our first tree. It's a 7 ft slim fir. The ornie was ordered from Personalization.com which is a GREAT gift site. They have wonderful deals and make the most memorable gifts of all you can imagine.

This ornie has our date on it.

I still am adding more ornaments today. I don't think I've ever waited so late to get my decorating complete but it's definitely surrounded with love and Christmas day is going to be special.

There are a few gifts under the tree. I still have wrapping to do. Mr. Darcy is quick. He wrapped his right away......smart guy!!!

Abbie's mat came in too.........she is already enjoying her Christmas giftie. Now she has a placemat to enjoy some people food for supper sometimes.

She especially enjoys potatoes and corn, and ham of late. :P

She is so funny this year. This is the first time she really has noticed a Christmas tree as I didn't have one last year. Occasionally at night she will walk over and put her nose up to an ornament like a deer.

And also she, for some reason, likes to take her food morsel by morsel over to enjoy eating it on the tree skirt.

I'm listening to Fox news this morning and see 2 really big storms coming through the north and south; hence, bringing our strong rains all day.

Everybody stay safe out there in your travels.

I see alot of the airlines in the north have canceled many flights and they are calling for alot of snow and they are expecting a white Christmas there.

Continuing on to finish decorating the tree,

Jennifer

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

My first knitting project!!

I've been wanting to learn how to knit for 3 years. I took a class in person at a local yarn shop and in looking back figured they really just wanted to sell yarn. I got the best beginner's class on sale at Craftsy.com. She knitted in the Continental method and I kept adding a stitch at the end of each row.

I then learned that if I used contrasting needles to yarn color and use bigger chunky yarn and needes I would be able to see my mistakes.

So here I go to Michaels to get chunky yarn and chunky needles. This I did last night and DID find how I was counting wrong on each row.

I cast on 20 stitches. Casting is fun to me. Then I'm just knitting every row to get this stitch down pat and then another project will purl, another to put the two together.

This scarf is in lambswool yarn and very soft, at the same time, very masculine with the colors.

Mr. Darcy's birthday is coming up soon and it's for him. He already knows it as he watched me last night.

I love the flecks of green in this brown scarf. With the aide of a book on knitting and answers to correct mistakes I am learning!!!! AND I stitched up until bedtime of which I almost fell over asleep as it has an hypnotic quality about the repetitive process.

I finally learned that the English method was best for me.

Isn't it great that learning is a lifetime process?

I figure knitting a piece is functional and learning. Learning to fix mistakes. These are mistakes we can fix and that makes it all the better in a world of mistakes we cannot fix.

I hope you are enjoying your day and know that in 1 week Christmas is here!!!

I have a few packages to wrap. This year due to the economy, is slim fittings but the spirit of Christmas will remain with me forever.

The tree is up, a small slender 7 foot. I'll show you pics later. I got it for little of nothing at a local store and had been looking for a very narrow tree, frazier fur for a long time. I did a happy dance in the store when I saw the slim 7 footer and the low price.

More pics to come as it's prettiest at night.

Hands to work,

Jennifer