So the other day I was preparing my first day of the year post. You know, the one where I review everything I’ve knit all year and set goals for the coming year. Guess what I realized? I never showed you any photos of the finished Bee Fields Shawl. I can’t even believe that. It’s the most gorgeous, most complex, most time consuming thing I knit all year and I never showed you. Until now.

I’ve discovered a problem with my new camera, though. All the pictures come out so wonderful I have a hard time deciding which ones to post. I hope you don’t mind.

I thought it would be fun to have the final Eye Candy Friday of 2007 actually be candy. This stuff comes from Hammond’s Candies and it’s worth every penny.

Have a terrific last weekend of 2007!

I received some wonderful gifts this Christmas – clothes and yarn and jewelry and books and DVDs just to name a few. And yet there’s on present that surpasses all of them. No, it’s not a spinning wheel. It’s a new camera from Dale.

Of course, I told him exactly which one to get. I had been wanting a digital SLR for quite some time and I had gone back and forth on which model. I talked with friends and read reviews but ultimately I decided on the Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I’ve just got a fondness for Canon and that influenced my decision more than anything else.

We missed the part about needing a compact flash card, though, so I couldn’t use the camera until we made a trip to the store yesterday.

This was my first picture with the camera:

This was my second:

I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

Thank you all for the Christmas wishes. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Some really fabulous gifts were exchanged, we ate terrific food, drank a fair amount of champagne, played silly games, and laughed a lot. There were moments of sadness as we missed those who weren’t with us but the over all tone was one of gratitude and happiness.

Nevertheless, last night as Dale and I were getting ready for bed we took a moment to enjoy the Christmas tree together. It was a quiet time in the midst of all the crazy-holiday stuff and I found myself thinking that while it had been a really nice Christmas, I was relieved that it was over. Even when we keep it simple – which we did – there’s still a lot of preparation and planning that goes into this holiday. It will be nice to not have anything to do for a while!

The good news is that I can now show you the things I knit for Christmas. Yes, you heard me right, I knit for Christmas. Most of you know that I don’t knit Christmas gifts. There’s too much pressure and stress to get things done and I’ve learned over the years that many people just don’t truly appreciate hand knit gifts. However, the two I knit for this year were two of my dearest friends and I knew they would be thrilled.

A Fake Isle Hat for Blogless Sharon.

She loved it and put it on immediately, despite her fancy Christmas Eve outfit. It looked really cute on her and she has promised to wear it while feeding the sheep and the alpacas.

And a pair of Serpentine Mitts for my dear friend Wendy.

Wendy was also very pleased with her gift. I made them for her to wear at reenactments but she has declared that she doesn’t want to save them for just that and I suspect she’ll be wearing them much more frequently.

It felt really great to gift my friends with items. But I still don’t knit for Christmas.

I’ve got two new ornaments on my tree.

Some mittens. Aren’t they cute?

And a wee little Santa hat. Also very cute.

I had planned on making more of these but, well, you know how those sorts of plans often go. Truly, though, they are very fast. Twenty minutes per item, max. It doesn’t get much quicker than that!

Tonight our house will be bursting at the seams with family and friends. I’ve baked dozens of cookies and yesterday Dale and I made 180 Swedish meatballs. Today I’ll be stuffing finger sandwiches, baking beans and a ham, and making lots of deviled eggs. Mmmmm.

You can be certain that while I’m doing all those things I’ll be thinking of you. I wish we could all spend Christmas Eve together – what a party that would be!

A toast to my blog readers. Merry Christmas from all of us at Carole Knits!

White snow. Red berries. Winter Solstice.

I do a lot of online shopping and this time of year there are packages arriving every day it seems. Dale is often home in the middle of the day and he will take whatever packages have arrived and leave them on the kitchen table. Yesterday when I came home there were 2 packages in the kitchen. But then I noticed there was one that he had left in the mudroom. That’s odd, I thought, and I went to investigate.

Turns out, it was a package for Mason and it was from his Auntie Cookie. Dale said when he brought it in the house Mason immediately came running and tried to tear into it. That’s why it was in the mudroom when I got home – away from the prying claws of a certain cat.

Of course, the package was for him and I gave it right over. He proceeded to tear his way into it, making use of his claws and teeth.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Mason loves his present of three catnip mouse hand knit by his favorite auntie.

Although, he did look a little glassy-eyed after he had played for a bit.

But yes, he’s in lurve.

So, thank you, Auntie Cookie! Mason loves you lots!

Lucy is the daughter of my friend and colleague Amy. I have known Lucy since she was 10 years old and I’ve always had a special place in my heart for her. You see, Lucy is the one who connected us with our first Civil War reenacting group. It’s a long story but the quick version is that Lucy’s 8th grade history teacher was a reenactor and she knew that we had a burning passion for the Civil War and she got us together. We’ve taken Lucy with us to a few living histories over the years and she’s really a great young woman.

Lucy started college this fall in upstate New York and when she did I started sending her emails. You know, just checking in, seeing how she was adjusting, offering a friendly voice in case she was lonely or just needed a friend. Turns out, what she needed was socks. It’s cold in upstate New York!

The yarn is Claudia’s Handpaint from the Loopy Ewe. The pattern is just a 60 stitch picot edge sock.

Lucy told me that her favorite color is pink but that she likes lots of other colors, too. I think these fit the bill.

I wouldn’t knit socks for just any college freshman. Lucy is special and I’m so glad I could offer her a little bit of love in the form of a pair of socks.

I woke up Sunday with a craving for cinnamon rolls. Maybe it was the snow, maybe it was the Christmas spirit, maybe it was residual visions of all the goodies at Faneuil Hall from the night before, but whatever the cause, I wanted something cinnamon-y.

I ignored my craving and sat down with a cup of coffee and read the morning blogs. And what did I find? Norma going on and on and ON about cinnamon. She linked to Pioneer Woman and her cinnamon rolls. I checked out the recipe but, quickly (and sadly) realized that I didn’t have all the ingredients.

All was not lost, however, because Pioneer Woman’s most recent post was the recipe for French Breakfast Puffs. Sure enough, I had all the ingredients. And they sounded so absolutely decadent and delicious and cinnamon-y that I just had to head right into the kitchen and make them.

Don’t they look just like the ones on Pioneer Woman’s page? Yup, they sure do.

And what better way to reward a hungry, cold and wet husband than with a fresh-and-hot-out-of-the-oven-cinnamon-muffin?

He approved. You will, too, I promise.

Here’s a summary of our house last Thursday night.

The weather outside was frightful

But the fire was so delightful

It was the perfect night for our favorite Rankin Bass Christmas specials, hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps, and decorating the Christmas Tree.

Let it snow, indeed!