Days 10 and 11

I did Days 10 and 11 today while waiting for Skip's penultimate radiation treatment. Arne mentioned the split in the pattern above and below the heel. I had been wondering how that was going to work when the pattern was interrupted for the heel. Day 10 completed the pattern mirrored from Day 7, then a change of colour for a new pattern with red and white.

The yarn I selected looks very close in colour to the yarn Arne is using. Mine is a very soft acrylic which, in general use, would probably pill like crazy. but I'm liking the Christmassy look. 14 more days. The stocking is going to be huge.

After finishing Day 11s six rounds, I switched to the Musselburgh hat and continued on with that. This yarn, too, is very soft and is fuzzing a bit where I started it. It will be a very cozy hat. 

I should have weighed the crown before starting the straight tube to know exactly when to start the decreases at the other end. However the striping colours are starting to repeat so I have a pretty good idea at what colour stripe I should begin the decreases in order to use up most of the yarn and not run out. Yarn chicken is very annoying.

The finished closed 'tube' should measure about 22" long. so I'm over halfway done.

I got Skip's tree up in the front window yesterday and my knitted Aran tree skirt around the bottom. 

Last night I got the big tree up in the corner of the family room. It only has 2 ornaments on it so far so the plan is to finish decorating it tomorrow morning.

This is my current to do wish list:

• make one sewing project for a gift
• bake Skip a birthday cake (his birthday is day after tomorrow)
• locate part of another gift that is kicking around somewhere in the house
• assemble the gift bags
• start thinking about stocking stuffers for Skip and Scooter
• bake some cookies
• take a look at Hello Fresh for something different for us to eat
• do more Christmas decorating around the house

I really hope I can get most of these things done over the next couple of days. I want the week before Christmas to be relaxing and as stress-free as possible.

Did I mention that after our snowfall last week, our snow clearing service had our sidewalk, driveway, and walkways to the back gate and front door done by 8:30am? It was awesome to be awakened by the scraping sounds and look out the bedroom window and see this.

I cannot express how relieved I am to not have to do the snow clearing this winter. We were too late trying to book someone last winter and got a new, more powerful snow blower for me to wield. It worked well except for one really wet snowfall and the plow filling in the driveway with huge chunks of ice.  Now, with the snowblower, I can still clear a path if I need to get Skip to an early appointment if the snow clearing service hasn't made it to our place yet. Peace of mind is everything to me these days.