Last Hat of the Year

This is the last hat I knit in 2009. All in all, I knit 43 hats this year and donated 37 of them to different charities. I love knitting hats, especially rolled brim hats. I don't have to think much when knitting them. I can watch TV and mindlessly repeat the same stitch over and over. It is like doing something while I am doing nothing. Many more of these hats will fly off of my needles in the months to come.

Too Much Help

I was putting away the Christmas ornaments and I cleared a space to slide the box back into the closet. Before I could get the box into the space, my help came to make sure the space was perfect. It was. I just had to wait until she was finished using the space so I could use it.

More Decorating Tips From Texas

Here is another interesting Christmas decoration. It makes one ask several different questions. Did the stores sell out of the manger scene characters? Was this a playhouse for the children of the house? Did the Grinch come and take the characters and plans to bring them back later? It is something to think about.

Merry Christmas Merry

I love the spelling of my name. When I was little I didn't like my name. There were usually several Marys also in my class and I was always known as Merry S. to distinguish between us. I would wish my name was Melissa. Why that name? Who knows. Now that I am older, I love my name and I run into very few Marys. I wonder where they all went. I haven't run into any Merrys yet, but I know they are out there...somewhere.

Chirstmas in Texas

We spent Christmas in Texas with Mom and Cathy. One of the fun things about writing this blog is that people will let me know about great photo opportunities. Cathy told me about this great tree someone had set up on top of a dirt mound. Not only did they put the tree there to turn the mound into something interesting and wonderful, but they went to the trouble to decorate it to turn it into something memorable.

Trade Off

I have a good friend Amy who is a whiz on the sewing machine. I would love to be able to sew. Unfortunately after taking sewing classes twice, I have come to the conclusion that the sewing machine and I are not friends. The top looks wonderful, but the bottom is full of knots. Anyway, Amy and I have agreed to a trade. I had some stamps she was interested in and she wanted me to knit her a scarf. I wanted some fun project bags for my knitting. This is the scarf I knit for her with the yarn she chose from my stash. I can't wait to get my bags. The material I choose out of her stash was adorable.

Hurricane Hat

I knit this hat for a friend of Robyn's. I love the pattern. It is a simple hat, but it has a cool stitch change that creates the spiral from bottom to top. I will be making this pattern again.

An Update on Leonard's Lemons

The lemons have been harvested. It took a lot longer than we thought it would. Way back in May when I first posted about them, I hoped they would turn out great. They did. Phillip had so much fun making lemonade out of his lemons.

Fall Color

Fall comes late down here. Our area has mostly pine trees, so we don't get to see too much in the way of leaves changing color. We have 2 Bradford pear trees by the driveway and I was noticing this morning how beautiful the leaves were. I would love someday to travel up to the northeast to see the leaves change. I must put that on my list of things to do.

Owl Pellet

Fun times her at our house. Robyn came home from school very excited right before Thanksgiving. Everyone in her Bio II class was given an owl pellet to dissect. She vividly remembers her teacher doing this with the class in Kindergarten and she was eager to do it herself. The owl pellet contained the skeleton of a rat. Hers was an extra special pellet because it had 2 skulls. Can you see why she was so thrilled? Then can you explain it to me? Anyway, a friend came over and they traded bones in order to get the most complete skeleton. Last night she put him together and added some felt ears to the top of his head. Of course, she forgot him on the dining room table, so I ran him up to school. I wonder if anyone in the office was a little curious as to what was inside the box and looked inside?

I Married Mr. Whipple

Phillip has always had a heavy beard. In the thousands of years I have been married to him, I have never seen him with a beard or mustache. I have seen an old picture BM (before Merry he calls it) of him with the stash. The girls and I talked him into growing one again. He had it for a week before he shaved it off. He was so worried about it. He asked me every day before going to work if I thought it was running clients off. All I could think of was how much he looked like Mr. Whipple, but I did tell him I didn't think it would make his clients head for the hills.

Montana Scarf

Another knitted gift. Another scarf. It is what I do.

Flirty Scarf

I have been helping Robyn knit some of the gifts she wants to give for Christmas. Scarves have been flying off of the needles lately and this is a great one. I love the stitch pattern. It was easy to remember and one I could do while watching TV (always a plus). If you are a member of Ravelry, the pattern is "Flirty Scarf".

Snow

Everyone was so excited about the possibility of snow. We get snow so rarely down here, but it will happen on occasionally. It happened. Snow! Snow today was especially meaningful to us today. Last year it snowed the morning after Jonathan was buried. So many of us thought it was God's way of helping us to feel some happiness during our mourning. It did. Today was the anniversary of Jon's death and it snowed again. Not as much as last year, but it still counted as snow. Again, it was seen as a something to help us with the pain. Since 1850, snow had fallen in "measurable amounts" rather than traces in the city just 18 times, according to the National Weather Service. This one was the earliest recorded snowfall.

Sometimes little miracles are brought into our lives. To me, this was one.

It Takes So Little To Make Her Happy

If you saw a van going down the street in the rain with a yellow dog's head sticking out of the window, it was me. I needed to run a quick errand and I took my car pal with me. It is cold degrees (45) outside and raining. And of course the window was down so Skittles could look out. She would stick her head out for a while and then bring it in to shake. Right back out the window she would go since car rides are always better with your head out. I don't mind. It is just water and it makes us both happy.

Happy Birthday Skittles

I just love this girl!

Enough. With. The. Hats. Already!

I was able to complete one last hat last night for Children's Hospital patients. Another gaping hole in my hat series is a black and gold hat in honor of the Saints. This whole place is going nuts over the Saints being 9-0. Who would have ever thought the Saints could be doing so well. It is mind boggling to me.

Can you see the tell tale signs we have a cat in the house?

Did I Hear You Correctly? More hats?

Robyn and Michael are taking hats over to Children's Hospital for me after Thanksgiving. I decided to crank out a couple more before they go. You know I love my LSU Tigers. When I was growing up and first moved to Louisiana, the thought of purple and gold together was hideous. Now that I am older and wiser, purple and gold hold a piece of my heart. I had not knitted a hat with these colors together yet, so I had to rectify that omission. I love the thought of a child somewhere rooting on the Tigers wearing this hat.

To Infinity and Beyond

I probably have never mentioned how much I love Ravelry (only if you don't listen to me when I talk). I can spend hours looking at knitting patterns and reading the message boards. One of the hot topics lately is about an Infinity Scarf. Supposedly, it is one of the "in" accessories this fall/winter. I rarely know anything about being "in", but this scarf caught my interest. It is a wide, long scarf that is knit in a tube width wise. You can wear it long and hanging, twist it twice and wear it cozily against your neck, or wrap it once around your neck and pull the rest up over your head like a hood. I like this idea of a multifunctional scarf, so I made one...as a gift. It was fun to knit, but I did get tired of dragging all those stitches (250) around the circular needle. When I blocked it, the pattern started to look even better. I plan to make another one, but this time I want to knit it flat and try my hand at a provisional cast-on. Then I can stitch the two ends together without a seam.

More Hats for Donate

Robyn and Michael are going to Children's Hospital right after Thanksgiving to drop off the animals she has knitted and the hats I have made. I have been focusing on adult sized hats, so I am switching back to a slightly smaller "teen" size. I found the multi colored yarn in Lafayette when we went over there to look at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. I could not pass it up. It was fun. I have it in a solid pink too. A little goes a long way, so I will have a lot to spread around.