I’m finally getting to my blog and help learning how to use the new computer update. So here’s our Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Thanksgiving spread -
Thanksgiving dishcloth -
Christmas Tree that Bryce had to have. Amber is posing to show the height of the tree. Amber is now taller than her mother. I am now the shortest one of the family. We’ve decided that the tree is about 12 feet high.
Tree with lights -
I knitted this one twice. Once reading the pattern forwards, and again reading it right to left.
This next monkey was knitted with size 4 needles - the cloths only differ in size by about 1 inch. (Editing photos, i.e. cropping this picture is still something that I can't do. I don't know what program use yet. Hmm, I don't like change.) 
Amber has been wanting a cloth and has picked the darker brown monkey as one of her favorites.
A bat -
Skull and crossbones -
Illusions candy corn -
My skull and crossbones pattern -
Frankenstein -
Skull and Crossbones Dishcloth A pdf of this pattern can be found here.
After finishing the goofy tri-cornered baby hats, I had just a tiny bit of the green and purple yarns left over. I wondered what would happen if I striped the two yarns. I was just barely able to make this tiny hat. 
I absolutely loved the way it turned out! I want to buy both yarns in greens and purples again and make this hat in a bigger size.
These are Russian nixie tubes. Lance ordered the clock kit from Yugoslavia and built the box around it. I think it's kind of cool. At 50 seconds past the hour the clock displays the date.
This pattern is becoming my old faithful. I like that it works up quickly in a bulky yarn. I absolutely love this yarn. It's 100% baby alpaca - just delicious!
I did a little experiment with the lighter yellow cloth. According to the pattern, the image is created on the right side of the cloth, with the wrong side being border then purling across. In the lighter cloth, I tried the pattern by creating the image on the wrong side with the right side being border then knitting. The difference is very subtle, but I believe that the image is stronger when created on the right side - as in the darker yellow cloth. The colors and yarns can fool one a bit, but I was able to feel a difference.
I added one row of knit before I did my border on the yellow dishcloth. Subtle but I think I like it better.
I absolutely love the melon and green stripes of color in this yarn. So today I rationalized the need for this yarn, and I added this beautful yarn to my sock stash.
I found that I didn't care for the last row of eyelet hole at the very top before the border. I decided I wanted it a bit more symmetrical, so for the purple one I omitted row 56.
As I finished the purple one, I realized that it wasn't symmetrical from left to right. So I decided to try another cloth - the yellow one. For this cloth, I cast on 41 stitches and changed the eyelet rows by adding a K1 before I started the yo, k2tog repeats. This centered the eyelets much better. I also omitted row 56.
Then of course, I decided to try one other experiment. The previous cloths had the eyelets in vertical rows, so I changed this last cloth to alternate the holes. I did this one by following the pattern that I changed for the yellow cloth. Then I alternated the eyelet rows by reading it forward the first time (row 8), then backwards, right to left, the next time (row 12), back and forth.
After finishing the thank you cloth, I decided I wanted to make an August themed dishcloth as my second cloth. So I went back into the files and found this lighthouse from 2006. This reminds me of August and summer because I love going to the beach this time of year.
Love the toilet paper roll poking out under the hat! Needed something to keep the hat in shape for the photo shoot.
After seeing what I was knitting, I remembered a book I used to read to the kids, Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. I decided my next fishy needed to be blue and green. I also made a change in this fishy. I knitted this with a smaller needles (size 8) and CO 20 st. It turned out slightly bigger, but I like the closer knit.
Two fishies swimming in the sea.
After the presents we had cake. Sariah decide she wanted ice cream cake, but a bit differently than I've previously made. She was so excited about the cake that she invited a friend over. Here we are with Lance cutting the cake.
A slice of cake - described from left to right. Blueberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, gluten-free "blondie", strawberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, gluten-free brownie, blackberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, and gluten-free "blondie". The cake was frosted with whipping cream to which I added some hot chocolate mix. 
I must admit that it was so filling that most of us couldn't finish a slice at one sitting. It was funny to look in the feezer to see all these plates of left over cake.
Here they are all together. The black is a better color, but the stitches aren't as clear. I guess I gave up one for the other.
