Thanksgiving Thanks

What am I thankful for... well where do I start. I am thankful for my family and my friends. The past year has been very stressful with the completion of my graduate degree, the move back home, start of a new job and my husband starting a new job. Without the love of friends and family and their constant support we never would have gotten to where we are. Literally, we have been so lucky.

I first like to state that I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and son. Without them, I would not be happy or complete. Everyday, I strive to be better because of them. I never knew how much I could love until they came into my life. I am very lucky that I have them in my life.

I thank my family for the constant support over the past year (and prior years). I have emailed them many times asking for support and encouragement to get through the last year of graduate school. Every time, they replied, "You can do it" and "Your almost there" without those simple phrases I never would have finished what I started.

I am thankful for my friends, especially the ones who are just as close to me as family. A shout to all of you who are far away, I miss you! I am truly thankful that in my lifetime I was able to meet you and we can remain friends for a very long time.

I am thankful that I have food on the table and a roof over my head. I wake up and have a job to go to and a car to take me there. These simple things are not so easy to come by for everyone. I am thankful that I can have such nice things and live a comfortable life. Many thanks to those who have helped us along the way to get here.

Here is my plea to you. Not everyone is as lucky as you and I. I do believe that every child should have food, clothes and other basic necessities. Well in my opinion they deserve the world but this is a start. This thanksgiving and holiday season please remember the less fortunate. Check out your local food pantry (second harvest food), Good Will, Salvation Army or whatever and see what you can do to help. It may not be money, just time or a can food you have lying around in your cupboards. Anything can help. Even donating blood is a way of giving back. You can make a difference.

For those of you who give back, I am thankful for you as well.

Every year my family takes names off of a giving tree and gives a gift to a child. We donate to a local food pantry and try to make a difference. I cannot say I have met person I have helped but I am sure they are thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving

Candy Cane Hat

Wow. Its been a bit since I last posted. I have not done much knitting because I have been so busy.  We went back home recently to see family and catch up. We had dinner with my father and his girlfriend on Saturday night at Piggy's. It was an amazing meal, I have not had a fancy dinner like  that in years. I had a great time catching up with him and hearing about all the new things he is up to. Plus my son really likes his grandpa. It is so important to me that my son has a relationship with is entire family. The following day, Nolan saw his grandma and we brought her lunch. We went through my old toys and it brought back a lot of memories. Plus, it was surreal how much stuff my mom held on to over all of the years. We have a small Tupperware that we keep for Nolan for when he gets bigger. Not much fits in it so whatever makes it in has to be pretty important to keep :) My goal is to make a quilt off all of is important baby clothes for when he has his first baby. HAHA this deadline gives me years to learn how to quilt.

We had family pictures taken this weekend by Bryana Alameida Photography. I am so excited to see how they turn out! Paul and I are not very artistic so it probably is hard on the photographer to get good shots of us. It was also in the mid 30s for a temperature so Nolan was not very happy either. We just need a good one to go on the wall and on our holiday cards. I will post pictures once they are available to me.

As for knitting, I took a break for the scarf and started a hat. I wanted to knit something for my son that was quick and cute. I got the itty bitty hats by Susan Anderson and started the candy cane hat. Here is how it turned out:

Here is a picture taken by Bryana with the hat on:

As you can see, Nolan is not the happiest. I have started another candy cane hat for a gift. The pattern goes really fast and should have it done with in a day or two. Then its back to the scarf. I am excited to start again on the scarf. I start a new skein and we will see how the colors work out. Its always fun to have color changing yarn because you never know how exactly it will turn out. I have decided that eventually I am going to make myself some socks when all of the the holiday gifts are done. (Of course the number of friends I have that are pregnant, I will be knitting baby hats for a while but they go fast and are so cute.) Until next time, keep knitting.

horrendously long scarf... will it ever end?!?!?

Yes I realized today I just finished the 10th set of the pattern. Which is only a 1/3 of the way done!?!?! What a horribly long, annoying, scarf...... Well I guess I should have known that because its a SCARF. I never knew it would be this tedious. Well I am hoping tonight, I can start working on my socks on the side... keep me excited and knitting. With Christmas only weeks away, the scarf may be my only project for Christmas. Sad.... But on the flip side, I really like how it is turning out. I hope the color contrast is okay. I really hope she likes it. With all the blood, sweat and tears.....

Sweater, scarf, and whats going on....

This past week or so has been pretty relaxing. Unlike our usual schedule recently, we stayed at home all weekend and enjoyed the company of our son. Well mostly... we are trying to get rid of the pacifier. What a pain... we are going with a method where you cut of part of the pacifier until the child no longer wants it. Well my son, at the very least, is pissed. He only uses it at home and not daycare but that has become a bit confusing for him. Therefore, we decided it was time for it to go. But now he gets up during the middle of the night crying for it. We are not big fans of the cry out method, but it might be our last resort.
This past saturday we tried making our own homemade pizzas. My husband absolutely loved it. If our son is willing to eat the pizza we call that a success. Now we are going to try to make it a competition. Every week we will make our own pizzas and see who's turns out the best. It should be interesting and fun.

 I had a physical this week and was prescribed some meds for my arms. The tendonitis is killer when knitting. Now I feel very little to no pain. I will start physical therapy soon as well. Overall, it has really increased the amount of knitting I have done. Well now is the best time to show off what I have done. My son's dino sweater is finally FINISHED!!!

I really like how they turned out. Unfortunately, I had to use Cascade yarn which will felt if I machine was it. I wanted to save some money and use cheaper yarn. In the future, I may make another sweater but it will be made with better yarn. Much better yarn. I did not include the sawtooth edging on the hood either. I just thought it was enough on the sleeves. He got quite a few comments about the sweater but overall I love it.


So what next to knit....?!?! The scarf for my mother-in-law of course. Man, I love how it is turning out but it is pretty annoying to knit. It is the exact same set of rows for 30 repeats.... talk about boring to  knit. When I get bored with a project, I always start another to keep both projects fresh and exciting. Well those darn socks that I have not worked on in FOREVER.... well I picked them back up this weekend. Mostly because a friend of mine Ever-Anna just started and FINISHED really super cute socks for holiday gifts. They are adorable. I really REALLY want to buy the yarn to make cute socks.  So I need to finish the projects I have started.


Another thing came to my attention this weekend, something that I have always tried to avoid is my knitting turn into a job and not a hobby. I feel lately, I put myself into these situations where I want to knit Xmas gifts and then I am struggling to find the time to finish them rather than knitting to relax. I am not sure how to overcome this feeling... but I am thinking it will go away once Xmas is over. I mean it is my own fault for making myself feel like this. I guess I am just nervous about the deadline of Dec 25th that it is now a habit to knit so much a day or it wont be finished. I guess I should have started these projects earlier.

Lastly, I wanted to include a picture from last night; my very own super hero. My son is amazing and the joy of my life. I cannot imagine life without him and do not want too. Enjoy. Happy Knitting.