It's A Mystery To Me.........

We have welcomed in another New Year with hopes and dreams for a better year ahead than what we just left behind. It also means another year older for our Britt.


Our little Emo Kid told me that she had a really nice birthday. The first part of the day she spent shopping with her mom and her beau Gerad. They ventured through one of her favorite stores, Hot Topics and found some good buys. To be honest, I think if they had just found a park bench and sat all day in one place, as long as she was with the two people she was with, she would have had a really nice birthday. The second part of the day they joined us at Chris and Melody's for great food (those two should open a restaurant) and birthday cake.


For the first time in years she actually mentioned to me that there was something she would like for her birthday. I can't even remember how long ago it has been that she has done that. Britt is one of those children that is happy with anything you give her. We were watching the TV last week and a commercial came on for the Tickle Me Elmo. She told me they have a Tickle Me Cookie Monster and said she thought it was the neatest thing she had seen for a long time because instead of a little wimpy giggle coming out, you get that deep rough Cookie Monster laugh. With that she added she would really like to have one of those. We found a couple of them. Shopping after Christmas can be rough if you are looking for something specific and not doing random shopping. Of the couple we found one just laid there and did nothing when you tickled it. Poor thing's battery was completely spent from all of the Christmas samplers. Fortunately the other was still in good working order so it found its way home with us and into B'day wrapping paper for Britt.


I had also started knitting a pair of gauntlets for Britt. It has been a while since I have done any knitting so I was refreshing my memory as I went along. My needle craft of choice for a while now has been counted cross stitch and crocheting. Britt had picked out the pattern and the yarn for this project. The pattern called for little beads, which our Emo Kid preferred not to have, so I adjusted the pattern for that (Not a difficult task) and yarn has a sparkle thread that runs through it (Very nice look to it). This pattern calls for you to knit in the round and to do it with 4 double pointed needles. Whoa Katie...... bar the door! This is turning out to be a whole new experience for me (have never knitted in the round before let alone use four double pointed needles to do it). There are 80 rounds of knitting to one gauntlet. I have to admit that I was doing great and had caught on to this four needle knitting in the round procedure. I was all the way up to round 75 when I emptied needle #4 of stitches and moved it forward to fill it up with stitches again and ended up pulling the wrong needle forward and in the process dropped all of the stitches it was holding....... Ooops. That is when I remembered how unforgiving knitting can be of mistakes. If I had dropped a stitched or two I could have fixed that, but I dropped 24 of them which told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to go back to square one and start all over again.


Start over it was...... The second time doing this was even easier it seemed. I didn't even have to keep checking on the instructions, I had them pretty well memorized (Jo note: How difficult is it to remember Knit 3 Purl 2 heheheh). The first part of last week we went to pick up a load of firewood so I took my knitting along thinking I could get it finished up and the other gauntlet perhaps started and finished by Britt's B'Day. I laid everything down on the center console in the truck at one point and when I picked it up again the 4th needle was gone. I looked everywhere in that truck for it and it was no place to be found. The door to my side of the truck was not opened until we returned home, so it had to be in that truck someplace......... When we got home I even took the flashlight and checked all the dark places the needle could be hiding........ Still no needle. I have decided that we have Gremlins in that truck or Borrowers. After a couple of days we ended up leaving the mountain and making a trip to the big city to purchase another package of double pointed knitting needles so I could complete my project.

The good news is I was able to complete one of the gauntlets which we photographed ( Thanks to my model, T-Bear) and printed out for Britt with the promise that she would get them when Gauntlet # 2 is completed.

My plans for the rest of the day today includes packing Christmas away until the end of the year. I do so enjoy the soft glow of the lights from the Christmas tree and have dragged my feet a bit about taking it down. My agenda for today includes doing just that though to avoid having it still up come Valentines Day or Easter.