Christmas Craft: Tiny Mittens
I've been having some issues with large knitting projects, which means I had to abandon 3 pieces of Christmas knitting. I was knitting for too many hours a day trying to finish two large projects for gifts and ended up with very sore shoulders, elbows and wrists. I knew I wanted to make some ornaments for my family this year, and these Mini Mittens (Ravelry link) which were featured on the cover of the WEBS Holiday 2007 catalog seemed like a great option.
They were a delight to knit. I knit eleven pairs, or twenty-two tiny mittens. These are all knitted in scrap quantities of worsted weight yarn (10 yards or so for each pair) and they were easy. Each mitten took 20-30 minutes to knit on size 5 needles. And after big projects? The instant gratification of tiny things is fabulous. Each mitten is about 2 1/4" long and about 1" wide, and they just fill me with glee to look at them all like this.
Baker Baker
There's a voice inside my head that says, well, if three kinds of cookies are good, eight or nine kinds of cookies are better. And that is how I have spent the past few days, dusted with flour, washing my stand mixer bowl over and over and over again in a baking frenzy to prepare for Christmas. Why so early? Well, some of my husband's family lives in Las Vegas and since we've been together I always bake up a Christmas package for them. Additionally, I'm prepared enough to ship out baked goods to other loved ones as well. This here is cranberry orange bread, and it is delicious and tangy.
One From the “Huh?” Files
While in California, a friend took us to Napa where we found this gem. "A Man's Store ...for work and play", selling such things as Zippos, Wranglers, Swiss Army and Leatherman. The typography (and totally unnecessary ellipsis) really makes the storefront for me.
Amazed by Vastness
Nature is an amazing thing.
I think only 1/2 to 2/3 of the total diameter of the tree is showing in this photo. And I am not a tiny girl by any stretch of imagination. So, this tree is enormous and awe-inspiring. It was also located in a kind of creepy place, surrounded by chainsaw-cut bear sculptures, eerie silence and no sign of other people, save that there was a gift shop with an open door.
Flickr Meme
For anyone who wants to play along: Go to the sixth page of your Flickr photostream and post the sixth picture on that page.
Mine happened to be this Stellar Jay. One of the things that threw me a little when I moved here was that the blue jays did not look the same. Growing up, I saw jays that were a mixture of blue and white. They're so beautiful in the winter against the snow. Here though, we get these angry-sounding black and blue Stellar Jays. I took this photo at a rest stop in northern California, on our way back to Oregon. Just before the jay landed for a little visit, I'd been taking photos of this guy:
A super cute little chipmunk sitting amongst some seeds someone had put out for him.