Wipocalypse Wrap Up

 Here are my Orts for the year. 

I will empty my jar out so I can begin again for 2013.

 I worked on In the Garden the week before Christmas.  Made good progress and should finish this one up in 2013.

And here is the scarf I am knitting for my son.  Still not done.  Good thing Indiana winters last forever.

I did update my WIPocalypse 2012 page with before and after pictures for all of my projects.

I only read 21 books in 2012.  Usually I do 100.  But this year I was so busy with other projects I just did not have the reading time.  I guess in the past I used reading as an escape from my problems.  I guess my problems were diminished in 2012.

I have picked 3 more designs to start in 2013.  Working on getting them kitted up.  I will be participating again in TUSAL and WIPocalypse.  All in all 2012 was a good stitching year.  I finished 5 projects and made good progress on my other projects.

For 2013 I have also signed up to participate in an 8 week training program for beginner 5K runners and a 5 month walk a long with a goal of 250 miles starting 1/1/13 and ending 6/1/13.  So far 7 of us are doing the walk a long.  Will be challenging as I do most of my walking outdoors and this time of the year it is too cold and icy/snowing to walk outside.  I will have to find indoor treadmill time.

In 2013 I also will continue with my home remodeling project.  More cleaning and painting and maybe new windows.

And my big trip comes up in July - Hiking the Grand Canyon.

But first is my daughter's wedding on 1/12/13.  I think everything is ready for that.

So alot to look forward to in 2013.

 I worked on Little Fairies at Play again this week.  I now have 11,860 stitches done.  I am rotating between 2 projects until the first of the year when I will add more to fill my empty spaces in my rotation.  With 2 more weeks of December left, I should get to do another week on this one.

Here is my Christmas tree this year.  I put it up on Thanksgiving weekend. This is the first time in a long time that I actually wanted to put up a tree.    Hoping for a nice quiet Christmas.  The wedding is rapidly approaching and my daughter is feeling the stress.  It will be nice when that is over so things can go back into a normal routine.

TUSAL

 I now only have 3 projects in my rotation.  So I have been stitching on In the Garden and Little Fairies at Play.  There are lots of greens from Little Fairies and Oranges from In the Garden.

I don't plan on starting any new projects until after the first of the year.  I have my daughter's wedding on 1/12/13 and then travel to Rochester NY for work for four days.  After that I hope to start a few new projects.  Until then I will be planning my new starts and kitting them up.  I want to finish another page of Little Faires at Play before the end of the year.  I still have a ways to go on the second page.

 This week I worked on In the Garden.  Some progress was made but not alot.  My father was in and out of the hospital twice this week.  He is not allowed to drive til we see his doctor.  So I have been over checking on him at night.  Basketball season has started along with drivers training which means I am also taking my son places every night.  I am reading more as I am waiting on everyone.

I did take my knitting with me when I went to visit my father in the hospital.  I am past the half way point.  I just need to figure out how to keep it from curling up.  This afternoon I have to take my dad to a derby girl game as he is in charge of taking tickets.  So not much stitching will get done.  I am going to switch back to working on Little Fairies at Play.  Would like to finish another page before the end of the year.

I finished up the week working on Little Fairies at Play.  Total of 10,452 stitches complete.  Still working on page 2.  Probably will not finish this page this year.  And I have 2 more HAED's in my stash to stitch.  Would love to hear how some people have found ways to stitch faster.  All comments, suggestions welcome.

Wipocalypse November

 Since the last full moon I completed Autumn Angel by Joan Elliott.  Probably my last finish of the year.

I have gone back to working on Little Fairies at Play.  Will stitch on this one thru Saturday.

And of course I am still knitting away on my son's scarf.

 My Sister asked me to do a 4 mile run/walk with her friends on Thanksgiving morning.  It is the first time I have ever done one of these and it was alot of fun.  My sister got us these lovely hats to wear.  It did help so we could find each other in the crowd of 3044 people that participated.  The weather was beautiful - sunny and in the 40's.  My goal was to finish in under an hour as I am a walker and not a runner.   We did jog some - everytime we went down hill and for the last 1/2 mile.  I finished 2537 over all and in 1:02:00 a little over my goal.  For my first time I am glad 1) I finished 2) I was not last and 3) I finished in the middle for women in my age group.

Since I finished Autumn Angel I have been concentrating on knitting the scarf for my son.  I feel that I am at the half way point.  But I am missing my stitching so today I will work on one of my projects for a while.

 I have finally finished Autumn Angel by Joan Elliott.  Started 6/5/11 and finished 11/18/12.

 And I am a little late for TUSAL.  Here are my orts.  Only the threads from backstitching Autumn Angel and from the beading.

I am now working on finishing up the scarf I am knitting for my son.

 I finally have all of the back stitching done.  I now can start adding the 400+ beads!  Hoping to have it finished before the year ends.

 Still working on my son's scarf.  He is anxious for it to be done as the weather is getting colder.

While shopping at Walmart I spotted this cute pig in the pet toys.  When you squeeze him he oinks!  It is a deep oink.  I just had to have him as he made me smile.  My son also laughs whenever he sees him.  I guess we have the same sense of humor.  And no I do not have a pet to share this with.  I was thinking it would make a good white elephant gift.  But I can't give him up.  I will have to go back and buy another if I run into a white elephant gift exchange.

WIPocalypse #11

 I worked on Autumn Angel - still backstiching away.  Getting close to a finish.  Gonna keep working on this one until its done.

 Worked on Little Fairies at Play.

And the knitting of the scarf continues.

 We celebrated my brother's birthday on Sunday.  He is a big Spider Man fan and has quite a collection.  I found this Spider Man potato head for him.

 My daughter got me on Pinterest.  I have been pinning different recipes to try. This one was for pepperoni rolls.  They came out huge and fed all of us which includes 2 growing boys (23 & 16) and I still had one whole roll left over.  This recipe is a keeper and I will make it again.

 Here is my progress on the scarf.  It is slowly getting bigger.

 And during HAED's Columbus Day sale I picked up this pattern.  Totally different than anything else in my stash.  Of course I have no idea when I will start it much less get it finished.  I have way too much to stitch.

Here are the leaves that were down in my back yard on Wednesday 10/24 when I was off.  I got them all raked up.  Since then we have had rain and wind and the tree is now empty and my yard full.  I am off again this Wednesday but they are calling for rain.

 I decided to keep Autumn Angel out and try and get it finished.  There is still alot of back stitching to do.  My stitching time has been limited so I don't know how long it will take to finish but I am going to keep working on it until it is done.

 Last Sunday we had rain on and off all day.  Then about 5pm the sun decided to come out and we had this beautiful rainbow.

 Still knitting away on DS's scarf.  I would like to have it done for Christmas.  We will see how it goes.

 Saturday my sister had a bridal shower for my daughter.  Lots of good food and fun.

This week I will continue working on Autumn Angel and knitting.  I am going cake tasting on Wednesday with my future son-in-law.  Who knows what other exciting adventures will happen this week.

TUSAL

 This week I was off on Tuesday.  It was a beautiful day so I went walking along the River Greenway trail system.  This is the first caterpillar I have seen this year.  By his markings we will have a hard winter to begin with, then mild and finishing up with a hard winter.  Hoping the mild portion of the winter occurs in the beginning of January for my daughters wedding.

 More pictures from my walk.  It was in the high 60's and breezy.

 I saw this turtle sunning himself.  Right after I took his picture he plopped back into the river.

 I am a day early for the TUSAL.  Here are my orts.

 Keep pushing them down after each full moon.

More progress on my son's scarf.  I did stitch some on Autumn Angel but not enough to notice any progress.  I am so close to a finish yet can't seem to work on it.    I was bad and ordered another chart from HAED during their Columbus day sale.  It should be here this week and I will post a picture when I get it.  If I lose my stitching mojo how will I ever complete all of the projects I want to stitch?

 I worked on Little Fairies at Play this past week.  I have now completed 10,012 stitches.  Still on page 2.  I would like to finish this page before the year ends.  Autumn Angel is up this week.  I hope to finish the backstitching and make good progress on the beading.

 Here is my progress on the Scarf.  Trying not to knit too tight as it likes to curl up.

I took a picture of my neighbor's tree.  I love the color.  This greets me every day when I leave for work.  Great way to start the day.  It has been much cooler this fall than in past years.  Highs in low 60's.  This week we will be lucky to get in the 50's. 

WIPocalypse

 I worked on most of my projects this month.  Amish Star almost has another star finished.

 Autumn Angel is in the process of doing the backstitching and then on to adding beads.

 I finished Butterfly Fairy Day.

 In the Garden I am past the half way point.

And I started knitting my son's scarf.  I am actually enjoying knitting.  It is very relaxing.  So not a bad month.  I am going to revamp my rotation for the next few months.  My son has drivers training 2 nights a week, 3 hrs a night for 5 weeks.  So one night I will knit and one night I will work on Amish Star.  Then the other days of the week I will work on whatever project is up in my rotation.  I am going to wait on starting any new projects until after my daughter's wedding in January. 

 My son asked me for an orange and blue knitted scarf.  I haven't knitted since Junior High.  These are the colors he selected.  My sister gave me a refresher course in knitting.   She is right handed and I am left handed which had been a problem when I learned the first time from my Mom.  As I was knitting and then purling my sister commented that I was doing it right handed.  I can do certain things right handed - like bowling but usually I do everything left handed.  She suggested I try it left handed and see if it was more comfortable.  It was!  I am going to do a practice swatch before starting on this yarn.  Of course my son is eager for this to be finished.  So many projects and so little time.  I may be rotating between knitting and making christmas ornaments as I am running out of time.

 Thursday and Friday I spent with my sister hiking at Turkey Run State Park.  We try to go every year.  Last year we opted out as we both had other things going on.  It is alot of climbing up stairs, ladders, over rocks.  My calves are still sore.  We wore our backpacks loaded with 20lb of stuff to see if we would be able to hike carrying that much weight.  Next year we hike the Grand Canyon in July (we are only a little bit crazy) and we need to be able to carry the weight.  We will actually be hiking the Grand Canyon twice - once from the North Rim and then from the South Rim.  Hope I will be able to walk afterwards.

And this week I was working on In the Garden.  I had hoped to get this butterfly finished but ran out of time.  I think my Christmas Ornaments are up next in my rotation.