iPurl: November 2012

Friday, November 23, 2012

The Day After Thanksgiving

Began in the early morning quiet before the house wakes, having pie and coffee for breakfast with Pam. Joe joined us, after getting a great, crackling fire going in the fireplace. Ahhhh, a leisurely morning! No Black Friday marathon shopping for us!

Yesterday was a day of good food, family and football! The Texan's win of their first Thanksgiving Day game was perfection (even tho the game went into overtime causing angst for everyone)! The adults watched football and the grandchildren played inside and out.

The peace and quiet before 5 year old grandson, Jayden, awakes, is nice. His exuberance for everything is enjoyable and contagious but loud! The next big thing for him is a visit to the LEGO store at the Mall. He has been fairly patient. Today, he is content to be going to the movies after lunch. After a waffle for breakfast, he is watching Puss n Boots while thumbing thru a toy flyer from the newspaper.

The deer have come into the back yard to eat corn put out for them yesterday evening. Jayden is watching them have their breakfast. The couple of mornings with a hard frost have started leaves falling and grasses turning brown, it looks like Fall is here - about time since its time to put up The Christmas tree!

Joe decided to put the turkey carcass out in the back yard - the far back yard. He has crows that he feeds along with other wild things. Shortly, we had a yard full of buzzards (25 at least)! Jayden was amazed, and frankly, so was I! As we backed out of the driveway, to go to the movies, buzzards were lined up on the top of our house!

Buzzards

Posted with Blogsy

Sunday, November 18, 2012

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving! Pam and Ryan, with Jayden and possibly Alexis, will be coming in Tuesday afternoon. She plans to stop in at the shop on the way to the house. Wade and Christa, with Audrey and Aiden, will also be spending Thanksgiving with us. We are looking forward to an enjoyable time with our children and grandchildren!

I have worked from a short list today - getting the guest room ready with clean sheets, dusting and vacuuming. Making sure the guest bathroom is clean and has plenty of linens. In between those chores, I have been working on Alexis' Wallaby. There was a problem with 4 stitches too many at one shoulder. I had to frog it down to where I knitted the sleeves onto the body of the sweater. Ugh! Getting past that, the re-knitting has been going well. I don't know if Alexis will be coming for Thanksgiving but I want to have her sweater finished for her! I will be knitting a few Christmas displays for the shop in December THEN baby knitting begins! Pam and Ryan's baby boy will be arriving mid March.

Tomorrow, I will be emptying out the fridge making room for a large turkey, making a grocery list, vacuuming and mopping the tile floors. The final thing is child-proofing - putting away breakables! That should get us in pretty good shape! Joe will be grocery shopping on his way home.

iPurl will be open on Tuesday - closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We figure everyone will be out doing their Black Friday shopping after Thanksgiving. We will open iPurl on Saturday and Sunday as usual.

On Wednesday, I will be making 2 pumpkin pies and a chocolate pie, cornbread dressing and sweet potatoes - all family favorites! Thursday morning, very early, Joe will be cooking the turkey - he does a great turkey! He cooks the green beans and new potatoes with Cajun smoked link sausage. He is also thinking he will make a crawfish jambalaya!

On Saturday, Cindy and I will begin decorating for Christmas at the shop. We are putting up a tree, lots more lights and working on a Christmas window display! The plans for knit groups to watch Downton Abbey and Classic Christmas movies are almost complete! We hope to start those ASAP. We are looking forward to a fun December and hope to see you!

Posted with Blogsy

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Thursday Already?

The weeks are flying by! Sometimes I forget to blog when I get home... When I do forget, check the FB page for the Christmas pattern link.

I stopped at the little Brookshire's Grocery in Magnolia for salad stuff for dinner and my lunch tomorrow. There is a HUGE decorated Christmas tree just inside the doors! Even though I want to knit everything in a shade of red currently, I am not ready for Christmas decorations yet! They must be selling Christmas trees. We are knitting Christmas displays, decorations and gifts but we are not decorating the shop until after Thanksgiving! I like to experience Holidays one at a time! We will be decorating iPurl the weekend after Thanksgiving.

A dozen super large specialty knitting needles came in yesterday. They are for a specific yarn using a specific pattern. Sounds easy enough. The pattern, knit in-the-round, calls for a #35 32-inch circular. Joe and I measured the length of the needles that came in and they are 42 inches. Seems the circular needles are too long for the cast on for the pattern. How can that be? Calling the yarn rep first thing in the morning.

Today's Christmas pattern link is for a crocheted Snowman Mug Hug -

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/snowman-mug-hug

Hoping to get Comcast in early next week to install a cable jack at the knit table so we can start our Downton Abbey knitting groups. Comcast is running Seasons 1and 2 this month with Season 3 beginning in January. Everyone not familiar with the series can get caught up over the next couple of months. We will have one group during the week and another on the weekend. In December, we will also schedule Christmas Classic movies knit groups. What is your favorite Christmas movie? 😊 If your knit group wants to watch when you are in the shop, let us know!

A couple of weeks ago, AmREIT, owner of the strip center, called to say we had to have a water meter installed. They sent a couple of guys out last week. Today, AmREIT called again and said they are sending us the $700 bill for that water meter installation saying it's in the lease agreement that we are responsible for that! It's their building and we send the water payment to them but we have to install the meter? Big Sigh.......

OTN - Flower Scarf in alpaca chunky.

Goodnight All!

Posted with Blogsy

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

What is it About Tuesdays

Tuesdays are almost our busiest day at the shop! I would never have guessed it would be Tuesday! The point is I was very busy at the shop today and didn't post a link here for a Christmas pattern.

Traffic was BAD coming home - took forever to get here tonight.

I'm

So, here it is - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/snowman-felt-christmas-bauble

It's a cute little felted ornament! Wouldn't he be cute tied to a Christmas package? Ella rae wool would be perfect for felting this little fella! You may have leftover yarn in your stash that would work great! (Of course, it's a little fella - you can tell by his nose) this is not a free pattern. It is $2.50 GBP

I'm gonna sit down now and work on a little red mitten, I think.

Posted with Blogsy

Monday, November 5, 2012

Monday, Monday

It has been a mixed day of early knitting, housework and laundry. Later this evening, I will be doing shop stuff - checking accounts and paying some bills. Our Internet service has been doing the big off and on all day that makes me crazy! I guess maybe the wind is blowing or something...

Bella is going to the Vet this afternoon for her annual checkup and heartworm pills! I have gathered her things we will need - leash, t-shirt, blanket (for comfort and cold - Bostons get cold easily), past Vet visit documents as we are going to a new Vet and her carseat is secured in the front passenger seat. As she sees me gather her things, she get so excited - she loves riding in the car! Bella has had some rough Vet visits but this one should be routine. She's taking a little snooze now. Sweet little Boston Baby!

A Bella Nap

How about a Ravelry link for a cute free Christmas project? I thought you might like this one! It's a nice pair of striped handwarmers called Peppermint Pattie. They are knit in the round with worsted weight yarn. They can be knit in either Cascade Sierra cotton or Ella rae wool. They shouldn't take too long and you've got a cute gift for someone done and ready to wrap! No sweat!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/peppermint-patties

Peppermint Patties

Enjoy!

Posted with Blogsy

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Sunday, November 4th

Throughout the month of November and into December, Cindy and I will be knitting Christmas shop displays for some of the Ravelry links we post. We have been amazed and thrilled with some of the holiday patterns we have found on Ravelry and think you will be happy with them too!

Forgetting to use the swift and ball winder before leaving iPurl yesterday, I have been hand-rolling 3 different colors of Cascade Sierra. (It can be relaxing if there's not a lot of yardage) A creamy white, garnet and cherry red, they are pretty and very Christmasy! The pattern will be one of the links we will post - it is not today's link

Speaking of the Ravelry links, today's link is a knitted Reindeer Cup Cosy! A free pattern that is a really cute one too! It calls for DK weight yarn which would be Cascade Ultra Pima cotton making it washable also.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/reindeer-cup-cosy

This is a cute gift idea for a co-worker or friend! Think of a large mug (pattern is sized for a large mug - maybe a Starbucks mug) with this cosy on it, filled with colorful Christmas shreds topped with a Starbucks gift card, or another store gift card, or chocolate candy, candy canes or an iPurl gift certificate!

Now is the time to be knitting little red baby hats for St Lukes Hospital! We saved red baby yarn to add to the charity knitting basket so it could be used now. It is free along with the pattern!

Joe grilled some of the HEB poblano chicken sausage links and fresh corn on the cob. I fixed a cilantro and lime rice mix and navy beans. He also fixed some pumpkin cookie bars that were wonderful! We watched the Texans win their game today.

We hope you are enjoying your Sunday afternoon!

Posted with Blogsy

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Making Christmas Knitting and Crochet Easier for You

Having one of those 3AM brainstorms, we thought it would be fun to post a new link every day for a cute Christmas Ravelry pattern! Most of the patterns will be free! All of them will be super cute and fun!

The links will be posted here, on iPurl's FaceBook page and Twitter!

On Saturdays and Sunday afternoons, some of us will be working on these patterns back back at the knit table. We hope you will come and join us!

So, beginning today, here is the first link - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/snowman-knitted-ornament