our sunset thanksgiving

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Since we were spending Thanksgiving out west we decided to take our Sunset Magazine with us and have a completely non-traditional Thanksgiving.  Sunset featured a FoolProof Feast we decided to try.  We made the list (on a Chalk Lots!), bought the ingredients and then drew names out of a hat as to which dish each person would make.  Getting the kids involved was so much fun!  Just watching them try to figure out how long their recipe would take and exactly how it would be made was comical.  And their personalities completely showed!  I had the joy of making the Pumpkin Ice Cream Gingersnap pie.  Yumm!
We started the day with Pumpkin Scones... they were A M A Z I N G.

thanksgiving 2016

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Happy Saturday, friends!

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of love and included time spent with family and friends.
Lake Tahoe was incredible.  I feel completely blessed to have been there with these five.

We had a completely non-traditional Thanksgiving from traveling to preparing all new recipes for our Thanksgiving feast.  I can't wait to share.

scarlet and gray

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I finished this pair of mitts, whose colors represent OSU, where my Charlie goes to school.  I think they would be great in any color combo, representing a school or not.
I'll share the pattern soon!
I've been trying to knit, but nursing an infection/allergy of my eyes, due to eyelash extensions.  Yes.  I tried them.  I LOVED them.  I had a reaction.  I had to have them removed.  They were so much fun until the reaction!
Headed to Lake Tahoe tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Something new and different.  I'm super excited!
Happy weekend, friends.

dashing

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 I made a pair of Dashing Mitts 100 years ago.  They were one of my absolute favorites.  Squishy, twisted cables wrapped around my wrist.  Oh, I just love that!
While we were in Alaska, last summer, I met a darling girl who was living and working at Glacier National Lodge.  Over the next three days we quickly became besties.  I wanted to give her something when we left, as my token of appreciation for her lovely soul.  I gave her my old, dirty, dashing mitts.  (So sweet, right?! She seemed to be thrilled.  Honest!)
We then traveled to the quaint town of Sitka, where I stumbled upon a yarn shop.  I picked up the yummiest skeins of Madelinetosh.  You know the kind of yarn when you pick it up and you have the urge to eat it?  (Oh.  That doesn't happen to you?  Me neither.)  I decided this yarn would become a pair of Dashing.  A really delicious pair of dashing.
Pattern:  Dashing
Yarn: Madelinetosh Vingage, Firewood

seventeen

birthdays
Friends! Bottle those little people!
How did this happen?!
Seventeen balloons.
My BABY is seventeen!
Happy Birthday to my most favorite seventeen year old in the whole, wide, GLORIOUS world.

libby's camping sweater

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The story of Libby's new horse blanket sweater:
My girlfriend's daughter made my girlfriend the cutest sweater.  (Yep.  Awesome young knitter.)  My girlfriend loves it.  So do I.    My girlfriend decided she wants to make herself another one.  I decide I want to make one, too.  It will be a gift to Libby for her Birthday.  
We decide to make a quick knit along.  We give ourselves dates, within a 4 week period, to achieve certain points in the pattern.    My girlfriend heads to JoAnns to buy her yarn.  I have yarn in my stash, gifted to me from my sweet boss.  (Who discarded her new hobby of knitting when she decided knitting an arm pillow really wasn't for her.)  I decide to use this gifted yarn.
I don't check the label on this yarn, but am certain it is the yarn that the pattern calls for.  I knit the sweater with this yarn.  The yarn drys the skin on my hands.  My fingers are sore after all of the pushing down the needle.  I finally read the label.  The yarn is thick and quick, not chunky.  The sweater ends up being the weight of a horse blanket.   I tell Libby it looks great and should be her camping sweater.  (I could never wear this sweater.)  She graciously tells me how awesome this sweater is.  I decide at some point I will buy the correct yarn and replace her sweater.  I hope it happens before she graduates from college.  The end.

Pattern:  Oatmeal Pullover
Needles:  US 10.5
Yarn:  4 balls Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky  (This is what I SHOULD have used.)
Size: 36
Mods:  No mods.  Just the wrong yarn. :)

nineteen

birthdays
Okay.  I am completely and utterly in love with Boulder, Colorado.  I know... I should just get in line. It is hard NOT to fall in love with that place.  
 My sweet girl, Libby, turned nineteen last Thursday.  SO HARD TO BELIEVE.  I haven't seen her since we took her to school in August. (2 1/2 months!)  We decided to head out to celebrate with her.
 She wanted a picnic lunch on the mountains.  So, that is exactly what we did.
Sandwiches.  3 balloons instead of 19.  And a store bought cake instead of homemade.  It was absolutely perfect.
A few other things I want to remember:
Awesome dinner at Scotts on Alpine, Dushanbe Teahouse (best breakfast!), CorePower yoga, Flatirons hike, Farmers Market, CU vs. UCLA game (Go BUFFS!), mountain drive, meeting Jo, beer at The Sink, Boss Lady Pizza, Dinner at Aloy Thai.  The yarn store I want to go to next time.

I knit Libby a super quick gift.  I'll be back tomorrow to show.