Unwrapping and Wrapping Up

Christmas 2016 was a nice, quiet holiday.  Jim and I visited Holidazzle in Loring Park.  Holidazzle used to be a Christmas parade and has since been revamped into a Christmas market featuring local Ben came on Christmas eve to wrap gifts.  Crazy weather made it a good day to hunker down and enjoy family time.  We waited until Christmas morning to open gifts and enjoyed reminiscing about Christmases past and how our family traditions began.  Jim was very happy with the mittens and the pajama pants I made for him.  I cannot believe I was able to finish those projects!  Ben's sweater is coming along, I started the fronts together.  It's been some time since I made an intarsia sweater.  The process is like a mullet hairdo - business in the front, and party (or mayhem with the yarn tails) in the back.  Good thing I have plenty of bobbins to wrangle the yarn.

I'm pleased with the color choices for this project.

Jim and I went to the mall after Holidazzle and stopped in the bookstore to check out the magazines.  Imagine that!  

Some of the brown sugar cut out cookies.  Ben chose the cookie cutters this year.  Ampelmann, forest critters, puppy dog, and pine trees.  The toffee bits were a tasty addition to the hedgehogs and moose this year.

The Holidazzle lights were beautiful!

Our little tree decorated with memories.  (Humm, it's dropped a few needles.)

One of Jim's mittens before fulling...

...and the happy recipient.

Ben making butter with the churn Jim got for us.  It was delicious!

We took time on Christmas Eve to drive around and look at the lights.

"Droid to the World"

Looking ahead to 2017...time, it can be a friend or a foe.  There are 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days a year (with the exception of leap year) and yet the minutes, hours, and days go by so quickly!  In spite of my time passing too quickly, I managed to produce not only fiber works, teaching classes, and painting with limited vision until March 2016 when Dr. Conrad restored my sight with a new lens implant in my left eye.  The next few months were spent planning and training for the 12-day Philmont trek in August.  Naturally, a month before we were to leave I bashed my foot on the corner of the cedar chest (that has been in the same spot for 17 years).  I ended up buying new boots because of the swelling and pain.  My third and fourth toes became buddies taped together for a few months.  We hiked 75 miles in the New Mexico mountains.  It was beautiful.  I missed my other hiking boots and it was a happy day in October when I tried them on and they were once again comfortable!  I wish I could say the same for my hands.  It's a good thing I switch out my hand work often.  Between knitting, spinning, weaving, painting, sewing, and baking my grip is not quite as strong and there is a bit of pain in the joints (sad face).  Limiting my keyboard time on the computer also helps, although it is necessary whether I like it or not.  

Now that I'm exclusively at Anoka Fiber Works, my time is my own, meaning I'm in control of what I make, classes I schedule, and the number of students I have in class.  Just over a year ago on December 5, our little group started a weave-along that turned into finished vests, a weekly weaving group, floor looms for Mary and myself, a published article, and me becoming a vendor at AFW.  I'll be moving to a space along the wall before the year is over.  Collectively we continue to build community through our common love of all things fiber.

Back from Gilwell and onward to Iceland

Yesterday I returned from Gilwell (Wood Badge).  The weather was amazing!  I headed up to Stearns Scout Camp on Thursday afternoon.  My birthday was on Thursday, so Wednesday evening Jim and I went out to supper and then to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert and then bought a cake to share with Ben on Sunday.

Besides the nice weather on Saturday and Sunday (with just a bit of rain on Thursday and Friday) the course was a success!  The participants had a good time, finished writing their tickets, presented their projects and camped.  It was a pleasure to visit some of the patrol in their campsites for lunch and supper.  Sharing delicious food with old friends and new friends is always special.  The leaves are beginning to turn and there is just enough of a nip in the autumn air to wear a jacket.

As with any event such as Wood Badge, logistics and facilities have their challenges.  The participants are not aware of the near kitchen disasters of  putting meals out on time, blown fuses, large coffee pots that don't perk, and having to drive to another kitchen to use the large convection oven!  We Quartermasters managed just fine and worked together as a team to feed the hungry staff, participants, and guests.  Never a dull moment in the kitchen/s!

Looking from the front of Landes Training Center at the beautiful sunset

Colors from the sunset gave a pinkish cast to the wood.  Below the Wood
Badge sign is the course number.  Our motto is "Envision Scouting Service."

My new hiking boots were very comfortable through the long weekend!

The patrols entertained everyone at the campfire.

I started Oats (the cowl) when I drove over to Heritage Lodge to
use the convection oven for baking the brownies.

My bears visited the Bear Patrol's table every day--this was Saturday.  Smoky and Woody Bear were the last ones to visit on Sunday.

Home again.  Tired bears, laundry to do, and projects to finish...

I managed to knit a bit on Oats, an easy cowl from Tin Can Knits.  It is one of eight free patterns for new knitters.  The patterns from The Simple Collection posted thus far (they are being released over a six-month period) are simple and stylish.  I am making the short cowl.  Working on the Pine Bough Cowl has me not wanting to do another large cowl!  Also, there was enough time for me to work on the project for Spin-Off Magazine for the Spring 2014 issue.  My goal is to complete the project this week.  When I return from Iceland I can edit my article and send everything off to Interweave Press in Colorado.

The Oats cowl is coming along nicely.  I made the ribbed border just a little bigger than 1.5-inches, and need to have the piece 8.5-inches wide before adding more ribbing.

Later this week is the beginning of an adventure to Iceland.  I am going on a Stitchtopia knitting tour through Arena Travel and Rowan.  I cannot wait to see more of this lovely country than just as a stopover.  Time to charge the camera and get some knitting together!