Woohoo, another post this month!

This would be a much more eye-catching post if there were pictures. But alas, words will have to do.

Thanksgiving came and went. We cooked a turkey and now our turkey stock is replenished for a while. I was actually considering making something else for Thanksgiving, because we could also use some chicken stock or lamb stock, but I went with the traditional. It was just my husband and me and the cats, although surprisingly the cats did not beg for turkey. Only Felix and Sergei got turkey treats because Ella and Abby don't care for "people" food. In addition to the turkey we fixed the usual side dishes of mashed potatoes, stuffing, and rolls. The veggies were steamed carrots and broccoli from the garden and asparagus from the store. No dessert because I didn't get around to making pie.

We watched a bunch of movies we had recorded on our DVR:
Pan's Labyrinth - excellent
Black Dahlia - disappointing
Duma - very good
Night at the Museum - entertaining and fun
The Queen - very good

I started a new knitting project on Friday. I'm making Lara, from the Debbie Bliss "Alpaca Silk" book published a few years ago.

I had wanted to make it when it came out but didn't want to fork over the $$$ for the yarn. But when I saw that Webs (yarn.com) had some on clearance at Stitches West last February, I snapped up two bags, because this project takes 18 skeins. The yarn is a pumpkin-orange color, which now I fear will make me look like a big pumpkin. It looked more appealing in the bag. And speaking of which, I did the most STUPID thing a knitter can do. I didn't check the dye lot of the bags and yes...they are different. Stupid, stupid, stupid. However, I can't tell a difference in the colors so maybe I'm saved by the improved, computerized (I assume) technology of dying yarn today. I've noticed that some companies don't even list dye lots on their yarn, claiming that there's no need. I had finished about half of the first sleeve (this is knit in one piece from one sleeve to the other) when I discovered my stupid error so I started incorporating yarn from the second dye lot. I alternated every two rows for an inch or so and I can't tell a difference. I forgot to check how it looks in the daylight this morning and it'll be dark when I get home, so I'll have to remember to do it tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers. The yarn doesn't have much natural variation so if there is a difference, I might have to rethink using the yarn for this project. That will not make me happy at all.

I also started a weaving project on my Schacht Flip, rigid heddle loom. I finally got around to warping it, which wasn't too difficult. The instructions that come with the flip are pretty good and I also had a couple of books for backup reference. The cotton yarn I'm using is probably too thin for the size heddle I have (12 dent) and the resulting fabric is fairly loosely woven. But that's ok because this is practice weaving. I ordered a stand for the Flip because weaving at our dining room table won't be comfortable and the coffee tables are too low. I also ordered size 8 and 10 dent heddles. Now I'm set! Well, until I want to do 2-heddle weaving, which is something that can be done on the Flip. First things first though. I need to just get some weaving done!

I haven't done any sewing since October when I made some cloth shopping bags. I'd hoped to get back to the sewing machine but first I wanted to clean up my sewing spaces and inventory the fabric that's been piling up on the guest room bed. Unfortunately that doesn't mean that I stop shopping for sewing supplies. I have been good about not buying fabric because I know anything I buy will just need to be packed into boxes. But the holiday sales at Joanns and Hancocks are hard to ignore. I finally bought the Gutermann thread cabinet I'd been eyeing for a while. Joanns had special sales over the holiday weekend that were only good for a limited time and this thread cabinet was one of the items. It has 100 spools of the Gutermann polyester thread in it with room to store more. I ordered the cabinet online at 12:30 am on the day of the sale so I'd be sure to get one. Funny thing was that they actually had two of these cabinets in the store when I stopped by there later that evening. But in true form for this particular, chaotic, and messy Joann store, they weren't labeled with a price and were not near the rest of the thread. I was at Joann to pick up some embroidery floss for a friend, but since patterns and notions were on sale...well, I had to browse and ended up buying a few.

Saturday afternoon was also the get-together of my on-line sewing friends. There were about 10 of us and we had a good time chatting, sharing what we've made, and swapping fabric and patterns. I passed on a few patterns and magazines from my stash and only managed to come home with one piece of fabric. I didn't have a chance to go through my fabric stash this time but next meeting I will definitely have some to contribute to someone elses stash.

On Sunday my husband and I took a nice walk near Shoreline, which is an estuary of the bay. We saw lots of ducks, sea birds, a hawk (or maybe it was a Kestrel) and a beautiful pheasant. Afterwards we stopped for pie and coffee.

No Christmas decorations up yet. We do not join the crowd and put things up early, but of course there are plenty of people who do. There are even two radio stations (KBAY and KOIT) that are already playing Christmas music 24/7. Both do streaming audio, so if you need a Christmas music fix, there you go.