Our Nest is Empty Again

This morning our DD drove off to go back to her "real" life in Lexington leaving the folks in the frozen north. I reminded her last night that every mile means it'll be getting warmer. She kept checking the temp in KY and announcing it so I think she'll be glad to be back where it's not quite so cold and snowy. It was great to have her here for 10 days; she knit a lot, I knit a lot, and she got to spend time with Durwood which was in short supply when he was working.

Some of her "quality" time with Dad was spent in what she called the "meatball sweatshop" helping him prepare Italian Wedding Soup as our contribution to the family's Souptastic Christmas Feast. Pictured is tray 1 of 3 of itty-bitty meatballs. Durwood says he likes to get 3 or 4 meatballs in every bite. I say I'd make as many meatballs as there are servings and be done with it! Just one giant meatball per bowl. Tom's Turkey Booyah (traditional NE Wisconsin poultry and veggie soup--Belgian, maybe?) and Beer Cheese Soup were good, but we thought Durwood's Italian Wedding Soup was the best.


My knitting moved along nicely this week even with the distraction of gift finishing and gift wrapping and gift giving and gift opening (with no gift returning). I finally (it only took 10 months of not-intensive knitting) finished sock #1 of my first pair of socks using real skinny sock yarn and US3s. You can see I did cast on sock #2. I should have the pair to wear next fall if my timetable remains constant. DD is a great sock-knitting motivator, she zooms along using US2s and the thinnest of yarn, all the while wearing hand knit socks from her arsenal of completed pairs.


In the face of her sockitude I decided to give knitting two at once on 2 circs another try. She and I sat down together and talked our way through the instructions and pictures in this book. I'm nearing the 2" mark on the cuff which is zooming along for me. I'll keep going on these; I'm determined.







I worked on the second of four sections of the sari silk purse for my DIL. I hope to finish it and cast on #3 by bedtime.




And finally, you have to see the coolest Christmas present I got from DD. She borrowed a knitting machine and knit a piece of fabric 18" X 34" out of undyed light worsted weight yarn. Then she used squirt bottles filled with dye to draw a reef scene on it. My job is to unpick the end and unravel it while knitting it into something else, like a shawl or gloves or whatever. She says it's about 300 yards so I have to find a pattern that uses almost that much or maybe 2 that add up, don't want to waste an inch. So very cool.