K is for KAL

I signed up on Ravelry for a KAL. (For those who don't know, that's a Knit-A-Long and yes, most knitters know that A-Long is actually one word - along.) I normally hate KAL's since I never finish any and it's just pressure for no reason. Not that these KAL's are all serious with KAL police or anything. The only pressure is what I put on myself.


Anyway, I saw this particular KAL and it looked doable and fun. It was an ornament-a-month and that appealed to me since that's something I've been thinking about doing for the boys for a few years now. Every January we hit the after-xmas sales and let them pick a new ornament. We also have the ornaments they've made over the years. They are already pretty well set for when they have trees of their own someday! Even so, I've wanted to make them some ornaments. I was going to do 2 a month so in December, they would each have 12 to add to their collections!



I've done one each.



Here's D2's pickle ornament, Pickly...



I asked what face he wanted on it and he said he wanted it to be surprised at all the presents under the tree.



Here's T's Mr. Pickles....




I asked T what face he wanted and he said he wanted Mr. Pickles to be happy about the presents! They slay me.



So that's all I've done with this KAL. Well, these and adding to my queue the other 11 I want to make them.



As for the rest of my knitting goals, I'm hat crazy. I've made at least 6 hats this year, I'm halfway through one sweater, 1/3 of the way through 2 others and I'm working on several socks.



In other news....
I can't thank you guys enough for the tremendous outpouring of kindness and support about my last post! School is going really well and I adore it! It's challenging and fun and my 4 other classmates are great. The teacher is outstanding and I'm really getting it. Today, my brain wouldn't work as well as it did last week, but there's going to be days like that so I'm OK with it. It's weird because the slower I do the "writing" (which is what they call it - like typing but faster/more efficient), the worse I do. When I stop wrangling my brain and just let it flow, my hands do better.


Last Wed was my birthday (41!) and on Tues., Dave called and said, "I've got something that's going to change your life." I said, "Divorce papers?" (We laughed because that's how we do it!) He wouldn't tell me the surprise and when he came home, he handed me my birthday present.


I think I've mentioned in the past that Dave is the best at giving presents. If he had asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I would have said this exact thing he got me. I didn't ask for anything for my b'day this year, we spent $450 on a new laptop for school, we are paying about $60 a week extra on gas for me to get to school and the cost of school.... oy. But he still gets me a present.... it's one of those dealies that you plug into the bottom of your ipod and it plays through the radio! So I am no longer at the mercy of DJ's during my commute!!


When I came home from school, there were two lovely handmade cards from my boys on my desk. I took the day off. As long-timers here may remember, I NEVER work on my birthday (except once during Basic Training, when I had no choice). I did go to school because that's not work for me!



On Sunday, I went to my knitting group and LaDonna brought a 12 pack of giant muffins from Mimi's Cafe, Jen brought fancy cupcakes and they all pitched in to get me a gas card from Cosco!



What a great birthday!



Many years to come, Ruth!