Fingerless Mitts

Remember my intentions to knock out those fingerless mitts for Chris pretty quickly?  Well, that crazy thumb part turned out to be a little bit scarier than I originally thought.  I stared and stared at the waste yarn I knit into the thumb area to be removed later and magically knit into a thumb hole.  But the more I stared, the more confused I became.  I tried to convince Chris that tucking his thumbs into the mitts would actually be much warmer than having a silly thumb hole, but he didn't buy it.  I thought it was a pretty good argument. 

Finally, after much staring and much contemplation, I finally just went for it and tried to follow the directions exactly as written (this is always the answer when I get confused in my knitting - I seem to make the instructions much harder than they actually are).  I inserted my needles into the live stitches from the inside of the mitt, but there were too many stitches on each needle.  I knew I had to pick up three stitches on each side, so I figured it really didn't matter because I would just count them as already picked up (in other words, I said, "screw it, they'll turn out fine").  However, when I carefully moved my needles to the outside of the mitt, there were magically six stitches on top and five stitches on bottom, exactly as the instructions said there would be.  Whether I counted wrong in the beginning or dropped one on the move from inside to outside, I'll never know.  Honestly, I don't care because it turned out right, and mitt #1 looks great!  (It's actually a bit large on me, but you get the idea.)

I hope to finish the thumb on mitt #2 tonight, unless Chris suddenly has a change of heart and decides that tucking that thumb in will be warmer after all...

A Month of Celebrations

October has been a month full of celebrations!

On October 15th, Chris and I celebrated our 5th anniversary! Here are the high points of our visit to Lake Oconee to celebrate:

• Shopping and strolling around Madison, one of the most beautiful cities in Georgia
• Driving around the lake area to include a drive by our first house (oh, the memories)

• Sitting for an entire afternoon at the lakeside bar at the Ritz Carlton watching college football, drinking beer, and eating calamari and flatbread

• Roasting marshmallows over the outdoor fire pit

• Eating a delicious dinner of shrimp and grits and filet mignon

• Eating dessert, ‘nuf said

• Spending the night at the Ritz Carlton hotel

• Eating a beautiful buffet breakfast the next morning

So, did you notice there was a lot of eating? My jeans sure did… I can’t think of a single low point, aside from it ending. It was a fabulous celebration of five amazing years together.

On October 26th, I celebrated my graduation from the Leadership Warner Robins program put on annually by the Robins Regional Chamber of Commerce. If I were to make a bulleted list of all of the high points of this program, I would surely develop carpal tunnel syndrome before it was complete. In short, I met some amazing people who I now call friends, visited some incredible places in and around our Houston County community, completed some interesting homework assignments, and worked with my class to pull off an incredible class project. Here are some photo highlights…



A visit to the Georgia state capitol.

 

I have no idea what I'm holding, but I wanted to look cute holding it and that's the only reason I'm smiling that big. I was actually scared to death I was going to accidentally shoot something.



The only photo where I look even remotely badass. In all of the other shooting photos, I look extremely goofy. One of my classmates said I looked like Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits.

The dedication marker for the tree we sponsored at the Little League Southeastern Regional Headquarters (part of the class project).

Military working dog demonstration.

On October 28th, Chris received the employee of the quarter award at work. He had a great opportunity to join the Robins AFB family as an engineering co-op last June and has been working hard to complete his Mechanical Engineering degree while working at the base. I am so proud of his accomplishments at both work and in school and cannot wait to see him graduate in May!

On October 30th, we celebrated Halloween a day early with the rest of the county. Since Chris was busy with school, we stayed home for the weekend and passed out candy to all the cutie patootie trick-or-treaters. These included a little boy that looked into my giant bowl of chocolate candy and asked me where the chocolate was, a skateboarding zombie (I really should have gotten that one without asking) who was probably too old to be trick-or-treating, and two 80’s girls that were definitely born in the 2000s. I actually felt a little old… Chris even called me the creepy old lady for asking the kids about their costumes. What else were we going to talk about, the upcoming election?

And now, it’s already November, which means more celebrating and more eating, come Thanksgiving! This is my favorite time of year; the weather is finally cooling off, the holiday celebrations are beginning, and we have some great quality time with family and friends to look forward to…