Christmas Eve

The view from my front door.

That my friends is snow. In Texas. On Christmas Eve.
All is right in my world and I am totally at peace. Merry Christmas!

Birthday Gift

The boy was unsure of what to get me for my birthday, so he got me a gift card from Jo Ann Fabrics.
You see I quickly learned when I started knitting (wow, 2 years ago) that knitting was not going to be a cheap little hobby.
So I devised a strategy. Yarn from LYS's and online, books and needles from Jo Anns and Michaels. I tend to lean more towards Jo Ann's because you can use your coupons on books and magazines. And anyone on Jo Ann's mailing list knows that those 40% off coupons come on almost a weekly basis and every 2-3 weeks the 50% off coupon!!
Well, you combine a $30.00 gift card, one 50% off coupon and four 40% off coupons and what do you get?

Happiness that's what you get. And you also get one skein of yarn so that at the last minute you can make your mother a Christmas gift.

This is the Little Bit of Oomph scarf from "The Yarn Girls Guide to Beyond the Basics".

If you're without a gift and you are pressed for time let me recommend this scarf. Chunky yarn, size 11 needles and a few hours later you have a gift!
All hail the yarn gods.

Yarn Cakes, Cupcakes and Snow in Texas

Happy first week of December!!!

This morning I wrapped myself in my hand knitted scarf and popped my handknit beret on top of my head and opened the door to find that it was snowing in Texas!

It was amazing and beautiful and I was wrapped in all of my yarny goodness and I was absolutely happy.

So happy that I couldn't wait to get home and knit some more. Yes I am a big ole knitting geek and I am not ashamed.

The sad thing about being a Texas knitter is that winter only lasts about 3 weeks a year and those weeks aren't always at the same time, so you have to wear your wool when you can. Tomorrow it might be 90 degrees and I'll be hunting out my t-shirts.

I had a great Thanksgiving weekend. The boy and I drove to Austin for the weekend where I got to finally visit what to me will be the "holy grail" of yarn shops... "Hill Country Weavers".

This is me absolutely giddy upon entering the store.

I literally turned in awestruck circles and then I was on the hunt. And then it was on to The Knitting Nest and we wrapped up our weekend with a visit to the fine ladies of Gauge Knits.

I love Austin and Austin loves knitters. You know how I know that? All of their yarn stores are open on Sunday. Squee! I forsee a lot of weekend jaunts to Austin in my future.

I came home with so much yarn, malabrigo, sock yarn, worsted and cottons. Each one more yummier than the last.

The snow ended this morning after an hour, and though I was all eager to come home and knit me up some winter goodies and then I remembered that I had to rehearse the kids tonight for the Christmas show on Saturday.

Oh well, the yarn had to wait it was off to the studio. And hey, almost all of the kids showed up tonight and most on time. Rehearsal went well and in fact we finished 15 minutes early! But wait I can't rush home to watch Glee and knit just yet, I had to stop at the grocery store and buy a birthday cake to celebrate the December birthdays at work tomorrow.
So here comes my rant.
First of all don't get me wrong, mine is one of the birthdays that we are celebrating tomorrow, but one of the things that I hate the most is transporting cake. It's filled with the possibility of to much error. One trip or a speed bump and there goes everyone's festive extra 15 minutes.

And secondly who are we kidding, mine like all of the other offices in the world is filled with women b.s. ing about their diets. Everyone gathers around, half of the office will request a small piece, a few will want to split a piece with each other while others won't eat any at all claiming that they don't like cake. Blah blah blah, and I would have missed the first 15 minutes of my favorite show for this.

"F" that noise I bought cupcakes. If I haven't mentioned I work in an office that has a serious morale problem, so I know that half of them will end up in the trash anyway.

Kind of a tangenty post, so I am now going to go knit. OH but first I must share my Austin yarn.