Winter has arrived!

We saw the snow in Seattle on Monday Night Football, then saw it coming across the country. The cold front arrived in Houston this morning. It is colder now than it was when I woke up this morning! And we'll almost get to freezing tonight - time to turn on the fireplace! Ok, it may not seem like much to anyone north of the Mason-Dixon line, or, in fact, for anyone 100 miles north of us, but that's pretty cold around here.

I was very good last night. First - I went to the gym. I did the treadmill for 45 minutes (or the length of one Battlestar Galactica episode). Then, after dinner, I stitched on a new design! Yay! Unfortuantely, that means no pictures for now.

I am thankful to be loved

As you may have guessed, last week's hiatus was due to the Thanksgiving holiday. DH and I took a little jaunt to Baton Rouge where we celebrated with my folks, and communed long-distance with my brother, who cooks a celebratory turkey in Germany. Although the weather was nice on Black Friday, we only did minimal shopping, preferring instead to revel in the victory of the Aggies (Whoop!) and stay far from the madding crowds.

Mocha the cat had spent a month in Baton Rouge so that she didn't have to go to boarding school when we went to Denver earlier in November. She seemed very excited to see us, jumping up on the screen door to watch us as we unloaded the car after arriving. What was funnier was her behavior when we were packing up to leave. After four days, she had gotten used to us coming and going again. This time, however, there were suitcases involved, so she was on alert! When I got her carrier out, she went right in. We weren't quite ready for her to go in the car, though, so we opened the top of the carrier (it has a secondary opening). She would poke her head out to watch us, but she wouldn't get out of the carrier - she was going to go with us this time!

The trip back home was uneventful; Mocha didn't meow too much. However, she didn't want me to go to work this morning - she meowed and cried and rubbed on my legs. I told her I wouldn't be gone long, though.

Good news on the stitching front: The orange hat is done (oh, wait that's the knitting front). Well, the baby is due soon. On the stitching front, I do have another new design done and ready to be stitched. It is not very big and there's Math invovled. I like it. I have also started on the last of the "Ancient World Samplers". I've charted out the center design - now I have to work on getting the colors right. Sometimes this is the most complicated part, especially for something that exists in the real world. The Colesseum was 3/4 stitched when I ripped it out and redid the colors on it. I'll probably end up stitching this sampler as I still have to design the border, the alphabet and the quote. Oh, and the fabric for the girl baby sampler arrived, and it is so pretty and pink - I love it! So there is a lot going on on the stitching front!

Knitters Anonymous

Hello, my name is Kat and I have a knitting problem.

This is a baby hat. It is for some friends who have a baby due in December. I also plan to make matching booties.

This is a sock swatch.

And this is the beginning of a sock:

There is also a green sweater that is in progress somewhere. I'm going to blame the explosion of knitting projects on the cat. She is currently on holiday at her grandmother's house, so there is no danger of leaving yarn out around the house right now. I really do need to work on the scrapbook for Mom, her birthday is next weekend, so time is getting short. Also, I have cross-stitch designs that are screaming at me to come alive.

But what if I just knit one more row on the sock - would that be ok?

Fall, are you sure?

I think the problem I'm having with time passing has to do with the weather. We're still having 70-80+ degree days here and although the crepe myrtle has decided to loose all of its leaves, not many of the other trees have decided that it is fall. It just doesn't feel like it should be the middle of November. Of course, I write this today, and we'll have a severe cold front arrive tomorrow. Anyway, without a weather change, since I'm not in school, and work is pretty much the same regardless of season.

The upshot of all this is while I keep telling myself that Thanksgiving is next week, it just doesn't feel like it. So, while I know I am way way way behind for Nashville, it just doesn't feel like it. I'm trying very hard to be diligent and get some work done, but other stuff has been interfering. I do have one new design half-charted. I think it is lovely (just my humble opinion) and it was inspired by my recent trip to Colorado.

Speaking of Colorado, here are some pictures, finally:

The new Art Museum in Denver:


Which leads to some interesting interior rooms:

We love Leadville, too! A very nice little town to visit at 10,200 feet! And it has a terrific view of Mt. Massive (which I didn't take a picture of).

See the tallest two peaks in the picture below? Those are Gray's and Torrey's Peaks. I walked to the top of Gray's Peak in July. Three months later, one of my toenails fell off. Walking up a mountain is not to be taken lightly. Have good shoes.

This is Pike's Peak (in the background) and the Garden of the Gods (and me!)

Ok, back to designing so that I will hopefully have something to stitch over Thanksgiving!

Miss me?

I didn't fall off the earth after hitting 2000 charts - but I did leave town. When I left the blog last week, I was off to the post office and the LNS. How could I not go to the LNS when it is open late and right across the street from the post office? Also, I had new patterns to show the owner, so the latest releases are now available at 3 Stitches in Spring, TX, as well as from many fine retailers who bought during the online show. Which reminds me - I need to update the website hopefully this week. Anyway, I only bought a few things, including some floss for a pink thing that should come out this winter.

Sometime during that week, I did manage to finish the blue sweater as seen here:

One thing to note: this sweater is supposed to be one size fits all. Notice that it hits right at my waist, luckily where I like it. This is where Kat learns that gauge is important in knitting and is lucky that she is short enought for the sweater to fit!

On Thursday, October 26, we learned that Maw-Maw, my step-mother's mother, passed away. She was a sweet lady who loved all those around her. This precipitated an unexpected trip to Baton Rouge for the funeral and a rearrangement of our already planned vacation plans. After much haggling with the airline, we got our travel plans rearranged and Sunday were on the road to Baton Rouge. The cat went with us to have an extended stay with her Kitty-Granny (my Mom) rather than spend a week in boarding school (the vet). We'll pick her back up during the holidays. After a whirlwind two days in BR, we were back in Houston, and Tuesday on a plan to Denver, CO!

Denver was another world! Snow still on the ground, chill in the air (what air - not enough oxygen to call it air), and so dry everything crackled. This trip was a vacation/family visit so we were doing free-form sight-seeing and didn't have too much planned out ahead of time. We spent one day trolling around downtown Denver - the new art museum is very cool, although I don't know if I'd like to walk into the corner in the bathroom. All the walls are funky angles, so some of the rooms are strangely shaped. We spent two days visiting mountain towns. Although it doesn't sound nice, Leadville is a great place to visit, and at 10,200 feet, has some great views! We also spent some time in Colorado Springs and briefly saw the Garden of the Gods. Hopefully, I'll have pictures tomorrow. Unfortunately, I didn't have an active cross stitch project to take touring. I'll have to remedy that for future trips. We caught the early flight back yesterday and it was very nice to spend a day doing almost nothing but watching TV, drawing (new designs!), and stitching. I hope to do more of that this week - and maybe the laundry. Oh, and wait for my skin to fill out again as I absorb more moisture from the air. Yay humidity!