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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Yarn Along: Year End Tally and New Goals


Now that Christmas Day has come and gone, and I showed the work in progress to the recipient, I can show you my finished (not blocked - but I'm still counting it for 2014) Pear Scented Candle Shawl for my MIL. The plan is to block it tomorrow, and send it to her the following day - well within the 12 days of Christmas. I was hoping to finish Equinox before the end of the year, but I was too tired. There are about 45 rounds on the last sleeve, and the blocking to do. I'd like to get a picture of my friend wearing the cowl I made before I post the final photos for that, but here is my list of finished objects for the year:

That's just over two and a half items each month. Which isn't too shabby for a homeschooling mother of eight, I think. I did do more designing, even submitting some proposals to Interweave Knits (though they were rejected this time), and having a design accepted in a book coming out this spring. There are a few unfinished items that I wanted to get done earlier this year, and I still plan on working on them this new year. My goals for the coming year are similar to what they are each year:
I'm not sure if I should include learning to steek or do intarsia. Those are on my list, but I'm not sure I'm going to tackle them this year. How about you? What are your crafting goals?

In the reading department, The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot was such a fun and clever read. I was checking it out to see if it would be appropriate for and interesting to our younger kids, and I really like it. We're getting the next book in the series from the library, too. I have about six days to finish Christ in His Saints, and I think I might make it. The goal was to have it completed before we started school up again. It's been such a good book, but hard to read all in a sitting or two, because each character sketch causes one to think and want to read more and savor a little. Though it has taken me a long time to read it, that is not an indictment of the book, it is to its credit, actually.

My book list for the year. I didn't realize until making this list that I didn't finish a single book in the month of April:




Also posting to Keep Calm and Craft On


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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:32 PM 0 comments

Monday, December 29, 2014

Menu Plan: Days Four Through Ten of Christmas

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

We are well into the 12 days of Christmas. Our plans for Christmas were unexpectedly changed last week, and it put my meal planning off as well, so we just scrapped it and had time with our family and friends. The kids' guardians (they get our children if both Rich and I die) and godparents to about five of them, plus their son, who is our godson, and Rich's mother were able to come spend Tuesday through Saturday with us. It made it a bit more complicated and crowded, but I think was still nice. Rich had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off from work already, so he took Saint Stephen off as well, and we had him home from Wednesday until he had to go back to work on Monday.

Our 18th anniversary is Wednesday, which is pretty exciting. We're not doing anything exciting, though. We are going to have a nice dinner with our family, then heading out to have drinks and hors-d'ouevres and to hear some live music in town, and coming home to ring in the New Year with our kids. As is our family tradition, we spread the cooking and decorating out through all the 12 days, so each day we make some fun cookie or candy or treat and the kids find a way to decorate our house. Mostly, though, we get to take some down time and they work on crafts or projects they received as gifts and read books and just have a relaxing, non-demanding time.

This week's menu has no fasting in it at all, but because of the day Epiphany falls next week, we will be back to our normal schedule.
What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:06 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Yarn Along: Finishing and New Patterns


It is nine days before Christmas, and I am still not doing marathon Christmas knitting. I am only working on one project for Christmas, actually, which I can't share here yet. I have one finished, of which I need to get a better picture to post, and I've given up on getting the Channukah present finished, as it does not have time to get there tonight, or this week. It will have to be a present for another time.

Since we had almost a week away last week, for Rich's work, I was able to do a lot of knitting and finishing. I'm pretty close to finished with Equinox. I did get Sea Smoke finished, revised, and rewritten. The hostess at our bed and breakfast, A Cascade View was a knitter and I was able to tag along with her to her knitting circle and have a morning of knitting. That was a lot of fun.

Rich took this picture of me at one of the evening events for his conference. I'm wearing my ring around the rosy scarf (which two of the commissioners' wives tried to take from me) and the lights made a fun effect.


I did finish the baby sweater, but just in time.




Two patterns have been published this week!


This is Mariam, though when she saw it, she thought it was Nejat.
Hoar Frost (the hat) can be bought on Ravelry and Nimblestix.


I had to take the picture with Lucy, because Nejat would not cooperate.
Sea Smoke can also be purchased on both Ravelry and Nimblestix.

Remember to favorite and queue them, but most of all, please enjoy them!

This week, we are focusing on music, crafts and cooking - art and home economics, with a bit of Latin, math (geometric calculations and conversions), and kitchen chemistry to boot. Three of the kids are knitters, and have projects they are working on, so I'm helping with that, and the rest are painting and building and doing all sorts of other, fun, creative work.

While we were traveling, I finished A Fatal Fleece (Seaside Knitters Mystery, Book 6) and did some more reading in Christ in His Saints. I've so enjoyed this book, but it is taking me a long time to finish it completely. I'm hoping that during our Christmas break I can get all the way through it.



Also posting to Keep Calm and Craft On


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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 5:28 PM 6 comments

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