Wine bottle cover with coasters.

I love making Christmas gifts for everyone. This year has been busy and before I realized it December was here and I had made very few gifts. I made this set of wine cover and coasters for my niece for Christmas. The fabric is sparkly. I used one of my margarita glasses to demonstrate how the coaster fits on the bottom of a wine glass. Of course, I bought a bottle of champagne to put in the bag! I hope she likes them.

A Christmas Tree Wallhanging

My Christmas tree is very large and my home is small, so small that I didn’t want to move furniture around to have space for a tree so I decided to make a Christmas tree that wouldn’t take up space. This is my new wallhanging. I placed a small round table under it with a crocheted table cloth and placed the gifts around and on the table. It takes up very little space and I didn’t have to rearrange my living room to make space! I love the way it turned out. It’s not as great as having the tree up and decorated but it will do for this year!

Winter Knitting

Jared Flood’s Turn a Square Hat made slouchy

Traditional Gansey Socks from Paton’s Kroy FX sock yarn

Well, I’m finally finding time to sit and knit again! I just finished a few hats but forgot to snap pictures before I gave away the hats. I just took this hat off the needles a week ago and happened to snap a picture along with the socks I finished this morning. I’m not too impressed with this sock yarn. The sample swatch hanging from the rack in the same color way looked so much better…mine looks dull and plain. The yarn is a little rougher than I prefer to use when knitting. Also, as a word of caution, if you plan to use this yarn for socks I would suggest that you buy three skeins rather than two. I finshed with less than 18″ of yarn left over on each sock! I would have preferred to make the leg longer but honestly….I didn’t love this yarn enough to run out and look for another skein in the same dyelot to make it longer! The pattern is called Traditional Gansey from Wendy Johnson’s book Socks from the Toe Up. Her patterns, as usual, are easy to read and easy to follow. This is the second pair of socks I’ve knit from her book. I have her other book called something like Toe Up Socks for Everyone but haven’t knit from that book yet. I did see a new book at the Barnes and Noble today called Soctopus or something like that that looked to have some cool patterns but I wanted to check my other books to make sure I’m not repeating myself in patterns…since I LOVE to buy sock knitting books….I probably have all of those patterns in my other books already!!!! Plus I have two brand new skeins of Cascade Heritage sock yarn in Black and one in White for lace knitting. I also have two other new skeins in watercolor ways by other companies….can’t remember which but they are waiting to be knit!

The hat is by Jared Flood called Turn a square…I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used this pattern…too many times to count for sure! This hat was knit for ten inches before beginning to crown to make it more of a slouchy hat. I also knit another hat using this same pattern out of a sock weight yarn and it was really slouchy but I didn’t like the way it turned out in the lighter weight. The ribbing kept wanting to curl but I gave it to my younger son and he’ll wear it or pass it on to a friend…hats never go to waste around here.

I also went out and did a little shopping today. I’m grinning because it’s easy when I’m buying gift cards rather than trying to pick out gifts! I also bought a little kit at Patchwork Place Quilt Shop in Norman, Oklahoma today. The kit is to make coasters for wine glasses. The kit included the fabric and batting with instructions and enough to make four coasters. The fabric was black with sparkly “glitter” and white with silver “glitter”. I thought it would make a cute Christmas gift for someone with a bottle of wine. I’ve already made the coasters and now just need to trim the edges and turn them and they are ready. Now…a quick trip to the Wine Cellar in Norman and the gift will be complete. Unless I decide to buy a set of wine glasses to go along with the gift! Hmmmm….wonder how late Ross is open today? They always seem to have unique crystal wine glasses for sale. I am just about finished with my shopping…I need to do one last check to make sure I have everyone covered….and one more gift certificate from McNellie’s Irish Pub in Norman and my shopping will be complete! Now….who can motivate me to put up my Christmas tree?

Family, good food, good wine and beautiful weather…it doesn’t get much better, except…

Yesterday was a day for bittersweet memories. I hosted Thanksgiving dinner at my home and it was good, an excellent meal, great wine (and yes, we had white and blush for the true bird/wine traditionalists), relaxed atmosphere but my oldest son is still in North Carolina so it was a day of mixed blessings. The greatest gift is that he will be home in time for Christmas! Jarrod and Carey have not stated an exact date but have promised to be here by Christmas which is just a few short weeks away. They are still tying up loose ends on their home. I forgot to pull out the camera so I didn’t get any pictures but I won’t make that mistake during Christmas! So, I’m sitting here planning ahead and thinking about all the preparations, the decorations, the gifts to buy…and wonder WHY I’m still sitting here on Black Friday in my pj’s! I know, deep down inside it’s because I absolutely hate crowds and I know that anywhere I go today I’ll have to deal with this problem of course so, my strategy is to give the early birds a chance to clear out but knowing deep down inside that it’s not a valid strategy with merit but simply a flaw in my character that chooses to procastinate the inevitable! Okay…first stop is at the fabric store, then Barnes & Noble, then the teen store in Moore for my niece, then the new outlet mall in far NW Oklahoma Ciy….I can do this! So…I’ll sign off for now and brave the elements (of people and crowds…not weather) and hope it doesn’t begin raining until I make it safely back home again! Now….where’s my checkbook?

Excerpt from KLWines.com:

2007 Louis M. Martini Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
SKU #1062120

91 points Robert Parker: “… this estate does some stunning work in Napa as evidenced by one of the great values in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa. Made from 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and the rest Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot, this stunning wine can undoubtedly be found discounted to under $25 a bottle. Moreover, there are nearly 66,000 cases produced, so it one of the few outstanding Napa Cabernets that also has tremendous availability. Its dense plum/garnet color is followed by a stunning perfume of black currants, loamy soil, blackberries and smoke. The wine cuts a full-bodied swath across the palate and possesses silky tannins, layers of fruit and a beautiful, opulent, round mouthfeel. It should drink nicely for 10-15 years. Readers may remember that I gave the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa 90 points, and the 2007 is even better!”

Love life enough to enjoy it!

My friend Anna posted this on facebook and I loved it so much I wanted to put it on my blog!

5.6 M Earth Quake in Oklahoma….

I can guess that most Oklahoman’s do not have earth quake insurance! We are usually protected against tornados.
Last night at 10:53pm I woke up to a rumbling sound with my bed shaking and I instantly thought “tornado.” My experience is with tornados but I quickly realized it wasn’t loud enough. I looked out the window to confirm my thought and realized it was an earth quake. We’ve had earth quakes in the last year or so but this is the first one I actually felt this strongly. Last school year we had one about ten miles east of where I live and we could feel the rumbling in SW Oklahoma City where I worked. Last night was a surprise. It was strong enough to ripple and buckle one of our back highways near the epi-center. Just the oddest sensation!

Earthquake Details
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Magnitude 5.6

Date-Time
Sunday, November 06, 2011 at 03:53:10 UTC
Saturday, November 05, 2011 at 10:53:10 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 35.537°N, 96.747°W

Depth 5 km (3.1 miles)

Region OKLAHOMA

Distances 34 km (21 miles) NNE of Shawnee, Oklahoma
63 km (39 miles) SSE of Stillwater, Oklahoma
68 km (42 miles) ESE of Guthrie, Oklahoma
71 km (44 miles) ENE of OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 10.5 km (6.5 miles); depth +/- 2.8 km (1.7 miles)

Parameters NST=189, Nph=192, Dmin=26.7 km, Rmss=1.06 sec, Gp= 29°,
M-type=centroid moment magnitude (Mw), Version=C

Source

Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Cranberry Orange Muffins…YUM

Perfect Saturday morning breakfast with gourmet coffee!

House of Hearts Penny Rug

I had surgery on my left arm Thursday and now all I can do is sit with my arm propped up on a pillow. I tried knitting and it made the incision bleed but I can’t just sit all day idle so I found this project I had started way back when. I found that I can sew on this with minimal movement to my arm while it stays propped up on the pillow. It’s slow going but I think it will look great when it’s finished. This pattern is called House of Hearts by Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries. I’m using wool felt for the project and gold #729 DMC floss. The background color is actually a dark midnight blue rather than the lighter blue color showing up on the computer.

I love this picture

I love this picture! I saw this on the internet and it’s a picture named Jane Brocket so now I need to do a Google search and find out if Jane Brocket is a quilt maker and if she has a quilt book with this quilt! Don’t you just love quilts?

Fabric for a new sunflower lap quilt

A view of the sample block for the sunflower lap quilt

Fabric for sunflower lap quilt

Fabric for sunflower lap quilt

Yesterday my sister and I took a road trip to Hennessee, Oklahoma to Prairie Quilts. Randa, the owner, was celebrating 10 years in business and she had cake and coffee, door prizes and drawings for quilts. My sister won a fat quarter roll of Stone Henge fabric, beautiful! I won a pattern with some 5″ squares to use with the pattern. It was fun! I bought the fabric in the pictures above (except the green was from my stash). Now, my question to everyone, do you think the colors look okay together? I’m not sure about the green and I can’t seem to find my Dragon’s Eye to check it out. Should I substitute another color for the green, or even a different green or does it look okay?