I went to bed about 10:40 last night. Not even late enough to watch the ball drop in Times Square. I thought about staying up until at least 11 p.m. Then decided that it would probably wreck me for today if I stayed up late.
So I went to bed and woke up today about my usual time.
Quiet day. Didn't have the television on for most of the day. I knit a bit, off and on throughout the day.
I learned something interesting about my knitting. While working on my Harvest Cardigan I decided to time how long it took me to knit a row, and then purl a row.
My knit row was 9:02.16.
Wanna guess how long it took me to knit my purl row? 09:03.00
Yup. I was just as surprised as you.
I played my newest "obsession." Though I don't know if I can call Animal Crossing an obsession. A few of my friends started playing and we are having fun telling each other how far along we are and such.
I also did some puttering around the house, catching up on housework and putting away almost all the Christmas stuff away. I let my Mother-in-Law's angels up. I'm not ready to put them away just yet.
My hubby and I spent a bit of time out in the back twenty. The weather was decent today. Not warm, but not cold. Like, it was cold enough outside that you could do physical work and not be uncomfortable.
It was decided to run the tractor and see how things were working. Just making sure the implements were ready to go when/if we get enough snow that will need to be pushed around by big machinery.
Everything works as it should and the tractor seemed ready to tackle some "serious" work.
We ate chicken wings for a late lunch. What a treat!
The afternoon was spent chilling, basically. Watching tv, puttering on the Internet.
We need more days like this. Especially now that I can officially start thinking/planning/doing seed starting stuff. I'll be setting my indoor greenhouse up for seed starting.
I think I'll be going back to a non-every day writing schedule. Several days a week. I'll aim for Monday, Wednesday, Friday and maybe a day on Sunday. As the spirit moves me.
I slept pretty good last night and woke up feeling somewhat refreshed.
I spent some time knitting on my Harvest Cardigan, while watching Woody Woodpecker on MeTv.
By the light of one low light, and watching the sky slowly brighten to a dull grey.
There wasn't too much on the to-do list today.
Late in the morning my hubby and I went tromping in to the cedar woods and looked around for some downed cedars.
The trees we took samples have been down for around 10 years, if not longer.
We took those samples and my husband knocked some chunks out of them and we got to see how good the wood is.
Like it had been cut down yesterday.
So pretty!
A couple years ago I had to go to one of the home improvement stores and pick out cedar planks for our sauna. It was really hard to find cedar that looked as nice as what we just pulled out of our woods.
Hubby and I are going around and around a potential homestead-y project, and use wood harvested from our land. We are still going around and around, pondering it.
Otherwise, it's been a fairly quiet Saturday. It snowed a bit. We did some hunting. Nothing to report there.
Tomorrow I'm sure I'll have more on my to-do list, and speaking of lists, I'll be working on my goals for 2024 list.
Christmas Eve I spent the morning doing a bit of food prep. The only two things I took pictures of were the two cheeseballs I made.
This one I started off with a recipe from Almanac. I was a bit disappointed with it. Don't get me wrong, it tasted just fine. However, one of the groups at our local Cathedral church makes cheeseballs every year for a fundraiser and they are SO good. I know some of the ingredients that are used for the cheeseball. I'm going to try and make one. Wish me luck.
The other cheeseball I made was a dessert cheeseball, that I made with my own inspiration, no recipe.
This one was a HUGE hit with my husband. I tried to replicate the flavor of the cranberry-covered goat cheese logs from Aldi. I done did good.
For the main meal we had a gorgeous prime rib roast.
We went hunting in the afternoon. The neighbors started shooting firearms again. Incredibly frustrating. This time around the shooting sounded further away.
Oh! Sunday I did watch some Christmas movies. My friend Becky was talking about Christmas movies on a recent blog post and I got to thinking that I should probably watch a few.
While I was doing food prep I watched Christmas at PeeWee's Play house.
Then later on I watched A Muppet Family Christmas.
What a throwback watching this movie was. It included the commercials from the year 1987.
Today was a quiet day. Woke up to more rain. Did I mention the rain we had yesterday? Yup. Rain.
Then more rain today.
Today our big meal was beef tenderloin steaks. Yum! And then the boys had crab legs (surf and turf)
This is one of the crab leg clusters.
What did we have on the television while we were prepping this meal and eating?
Why MXC of course. Nothing screams Christmas quite like this show.
I watched a bit of A Christmas Story while knitting a few rows on my Harvest Cardigan before we ate.
If you couldn't tell, I completely forgot about a Christmas Day cast on. As much as I try to remember these sorts of things, I more often than not forget about them. So, for now until maybe New Year's Eve, I'll just keep working on my cardigan and other current WIPs I have.
Or, maybe I'm in the minority of my knitting/stitching/crafting circle. Does anyone do Christmas or New Year's Eve cast ons?
A little bit later I was watching the Muppets Christmas Carol. My first time seeing it. They have a different spin on the story. I haven't finished the movie yet. Don't tell me how it ends. *wink*
I told my husband the rats in this movie reminds me of the creatures that hang on Jabba the Hut in the Star Wars movies. He agreed. Even the noises the rats make are similar to what the other creatures make.
This afternoon we went out hunting again. No random shooting from the neighbors this time.
ANNNNNDD I had a bit of action.
A small doe showed up. She was super skittish and left within a few seconds after this girl showed up. Then this gal left after a moment.
It was the first deer I've seen in almost two months.
So that was exciting.
Then close to shooting hours ending I got a text from my hubby, saying he was packing up. I wrote back, saying "okay" and started packing up myself.
Then I looked out the window and went "Sh*t!" and quickly sent a text saying "Deer!"
I quick looked through my scope and through my binoculars. Another doe. Possibly one of the "babies" we said we were going to pass on. I confirmed it was not a buck. Also, you see that ribbon? I have that. ribbon to help me know if the deer is big enough to harvest.
I got to sit for a few moments and watch her guard the pile from another deer. Then she ate for a few moments and then disappeared. A moment or two later my husband was there, waiting for me to leave the blind so we could go back to the house.
This evening we opened gifts and my husband was happily surprised by the gift from our son, and my son was really surprised by the gifts we gave him. I already received my gifts from my husband (the yarn) and my son ordered my gift but it won't be here for a few weeks. My guess is that it's something garden-related.
Speaking of gardening ... now I can officially start thinking about all things gardening-related, if I haven't mentioned it already. Yay! I need to pull out my binder that I started this year, and I'm taking notes from some of the things shared from Kristin at Shifting Roots.
This morning I got up, wiped the bleariness from my eyes and had a cup of coffee.
Then I started knitting.
Don't remember how long I knit. The day had to be started. And I was hungry.
Then we ran to town.
I didn't have to drive, so I brought the mitten.
I knit on the way to town, and on the way home.
When I got home, I did house-y things, like cleaning up the kitchen and ... I don't remember what else.
Then I took a nap.
Then I got up and got ready for hunting.
Another time of it being so quiet out there that my ears were ringing.
The temperature this afternoon ... unreal. I saw bugs flying around. BUGS! on Dec. 23.
I had immediate regrets that I didn't bring the mitten with me. I could have knit and not have worried about my hands getting cold.
And ... unfortunately my hunting time was cut short.
Someone decided to empty a magazine of something that was not .22 ammo a little too close for comfort.
I was reading a book on my kindle app when I heard "bang, bang, bang, bang ... etc.," and it felt stupidly close to where I was sitting. My hubby said it sounded like it was right by him.
So ... if anything might have been coming our way, it obviously took off and left the area.
We came back to the house and had supper.
Then ... I started knitting. I knit and I knit. And I knit.
A few weeks ago my hubby said "Hey, I wonder if Temu has yarn."
Uh, yeah they do!
We spent a decent amount of time looking at what was offered and trying to figure out yardage.
I still don't know what the yardage is buuuuuut I will tell you the yarn is REALLY nice.
What is a good way to figure out yardage for yarn? I'm thinking I may need to undo a skein of the yarn and wind it up into a hank so I can count loops.
I'm really hoping that each color is enough yardage for a sweater. That would be so great!
Speaking of sweaters, I decided to take it easy on myself tonite and I pulled out my harvest cardigan and worked on it for a bit.
The week after a vacation is usually a tough one. Trying to catch up at work and wishing you could still be on holiday. At least that is how it is for me.
For whatever reason this week after Thanksgiving I fee like it's been a longer than usual week and I'm desperately trying to play catch up.
Catching up on what? I have no idea.
Monday I hiked it out in to the back twenty to get the SD cards from the game cams. It was the coldest day of this week.
It was a beautiful sky that morning.
I spent the day catching up on work things, and feeling like I was spinning my wheels.
Tuesday there was an Advent retreat for work. It was a lovely day and gave a lot of food for thought.
After the retreat, when I got home, I made myself a quick cup of tea and enjoyed the quiet time for a few moments before starting supper.
I don't remember where I got this cup from. It was either given to me or I picked it up somewhere. Then it eventually made it to my MIL's cupboard. When she passed away I took it back.
Wednesday was a busy day, again, and I feel like I didn't get much accomplished.
Last weekend, when I was sitting out in the hunting blind, I was thinking a lot of thoughts. Some of them including the wish for electric handwarmers and why didn't I order them way back when, cause I'd have them right now.
The desire for electric handwarmers grew into a fantasy (if you will) of having handwarmers in handknit mittens.
So, the cardigan I started last week was put aside and I started working on a pair of mittens on Monday night.
Last night I finished the first one.
The pattern is from Tin Can Knits. I took the time to measure my hand and I adjusted down one of the needle sizes. The mitten is bigger than I anticipated it to be, so I will likely run short and need to pick up some more Lion Brand Wool-Ease thick and quick from the Walmart.
I LOVE this mitten and can't wait to complete the second one. I'll be working on it all my spare time and hopefully I will be able to wear them when I go out hunting this weekend.
Funny thing ... or, interesting thing, if you want to go that way. I'm starting to find myself going back to the same patterns. This mitten pattern I'm planning to print out and have it in my binder for the next time I want to make mittens. I love how they took the time to have mittens in all sizes and yarn weights. I love Harvest cardigan they put out, as I'm making another one right now.
I have all these knitting patterns, stored digitally somewhere, and I find myself going back to ones that I feel are tried and true. There are so many patterns out there it's overwhelming a lot of times when you want to make something to give as a gift.
Anywho, just had to get that out there.
Oh! in other news, last week I cut up ALL the fabric for the two quilts I'm working on. I buckled down, got brave about stacking fabrics and got it ALL cut and ready to go. I thought I'd be in the craft room this weeking, working on blocks. Nope. Those mittens have me smitten and I must finish them before I do anything else.
