Just like Thanksgiving, today’s Eye Candy Friday post is about abundance and plenty. Just tell me which is your favorite:

Apple

Pumpkin

Mincemeat

Or cranberry pecan

My favorite is pumpkin but as the cook I really do have to try them all! Have a great weekend and enjoy all those leftovers.

A few people have asked about Knit Unto Others, the charity knitting blog that Margene and I have promoted for the last two years. You heard it here first: we aren’t doing it in 2008. Of course we still support knitting for charity but the prospect of tracking knitters and their projects and prizes and their distribution, well, we just didn’t have it in us this year.

We know you understand, just as we know that you don’t need a prize to bribe you into knitting for someone less fortunate. You already know that knitting for charity is a wonderful and rewarding thing. You also know that many of us have much while too many of us have very little. Even without Knit Unto Others you know that now is the time to share that abundance with someone less fortunate.

If I’ve convinced you to do some charity knitting then I hope that you’ll consider making a contribution to Jean’s hat drive. You can read all about it on her blog but the quick and dirty version is that she is collecting hand knit hats for the homeless in New York City. It’s cold out there, people, and everyone could use some wool to keep warm.

If we all knit with a thankful spirit I believe we can really make a difference. Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends – I’ll be back on Friday for Eye Candy Friday: Thanksgiving Style.

This week’s Ten on Tuesday is 10 Things You Want for Christmas (or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc) but I’m going to do last week’s because I’ve got the Thanksgiving spirit. So, here we have:

10 Things I am Thankful For This Year

1. I am married to a great guy and I have good kids. Being part of a family isn’t always easy but I am never lonely for companionship. We have learned to enjoy each others company and accept each others faults quirks and I wouldn’t trade any of them for the world.

2. I have a job that I enjoy. My schedule is flexible, my pay is adequate, and my daily work is rewarding. A lot of this is due to the terrific people who work at the library with me and I’m really thankful for them, too.

3. I have a house. We have working plumbing and heating, a nice kitchen with appliances and gadgets, a new roof and enough room for all my stuff. Sure, more closets would be nice, as would central air conditioning and some new furniture and carpeting but I’m pretty content with what we have and I’m thankful to have a place to call home.

4. I have a pretty good and quite abundant collection of yarn and fiber. I’ve even got some Wollmeise winging its way to me thanks to the generosity of a friend. If I had to stop buying stuff tomorrow I think I could carry on with what I already have for a nice long time.

5. I am thankful for my pets. Okay, mostly I am thankful for the cat, but the dog is okay, too.

6. I am thankful for my laptop and the ease with which I can stay in touch with my cyber friends, update this here blog, go on Ravelry, Tastespotting, google.

7. I have really great friends. There’s all of you, of course, plus some terrific women that I’m so lucky to have in my life. I’d be lost without them and I hope they know that.

8. I attended my fair share of fiber festivals this year. Some were day trips and some were whole weekends and all of them were wonderful.

9. I am thankful for finally learning how to brew a delicious pot of tea. I have expanded my palate and love for tea into a whole new world and I’m really glad about it.

10. I got a fabulous camera this year. I’m still learning and collecting lenses (I have a feeling that goes on forever) and taking classes but I’m just really thankful for this new way of expressing myself through photography.

It’s the season for thankfulness and it feels good.

It has been unseasonably cold here for several days. This weather has not been conducive for a photo shoot for the finished and blocked Oh Canada stole so today you get socks. After all, a sock photo shoot takes mere minutes. And that’s about all I could stand to be outside for this weekend.

The yarn is Sophie’s Toes and the color is called Crushed Velvet. Perfect for the upcoming holiday season, I think.

You know the drill – 64 stitches with a picot edge. It’s dull but it works. And when the yarn is as colorful as this stuff it’s really not ever dull at all.

Honestly, this yarn is so yummy I could knit with it all the time. It’s squooshy and comes in some really awesome color combinations. And when I wear socks knit from this stuff I feel like my feet are getting a hug. Really.

Is that weird?

More fun with the macro lens this week. When everything outside turns brown I become very thankful for my green houseplants.

I hope you find something to be thankful for this weekend.

It’s been a long time since I did a “hmmm” post so I think it’s high time I write one. Here goes.

~I saw this thing on Oprah last week about treating dry and cracked heels. When you go to bed you rub your heel with a Stridex Medicated Pad, slather it with Vaseline, and then put on a pair of socks. Supposedly the salicylic acid in the Stridex pad helps remove the dead skin and then the Vaseline moisturizes it. They said if you do this every night for a week you’ll have the heels of a baby. I’m day 4 into this and I think it’s working.

~I haven’t turned on our furnace yet this fall. Now before you get all excited, please remember that we have a wood stove, so it’s not like we’re freezing to death here. I do usually cave before now, though, since the wood stove is in the living room and the kitchen and bedrooms really benefit from the supplemental heat from the radiators. I’ve resisted so far but I was mighty tempted yesterday when the kitchen was 55°.

~Paula is asking for help with her survey on starting a fiber processing business. You can fill it out here.

~While you’re clicking around the internets did you know that Sonny & Shear is holding a contest right now? They are giving away 8 skeins of Yarntini if you make a donation to Pennies for Bella. It’s a great cause and an absolutely fabulous prize.

~I know some of you live in Massachusetts and I wanted to give you guys a heads up on the brand new Massachusetts Library License Plate program. Proceeds will benefit public, academic, special and school libraries across the state and you can read all about this and how to sign up for a plate right here.

~Thanksgiving is one week from today. Have you started cooking yet? Don’t forget that you can make your pie crust in advance. Might be time to re-read my blog post on making pie crust.

And that’s all for today. Hmmm.

This picture has nothing to do with this post. But it’s pretty and I hate to publish a post with no photos.

Last week I got a phone call from the president of the local Lion’s Club. He asked if I’d be a judge in their annual speech contest for high school students. I teased him that he must be getting pretty far down on the list if he was asking me to do it but I readily agreed. As an aside, I find it interesting that Dale, my rock ‘n ‘roll singing husband, also gets asked to be a judge on occasion. Of course, he gets asked to judge things like the annual battle of the bands and the Mr. EB High School competition. But I digress.

So anyway, the program was Monday night and I have to say it was pretty great. There were 5 students reading their speeches and the topic was the media’s influence on today’s society. While each student had a slightly different approach to the subject, they were all in agreement that the media’s influence is a negative one. I found that to be interesting and maybe also a little sad. They are awfully young to be so cynical!

I thought I’d turn this one over to some of the smartest people I know. My readers. What do you think of the media’s influence on today’s society? Discuss.

We spent this past weekend in Ogunquit, Maine with Dale’s sister Lisa.  She has a time share up there for the weekend and was really sweet to invite us to spend some time with her.  The place was very nice and had some great features like a whirlpool tub and electric fireplace.  Unfortunately, the weather was crappy.  It rained Friday night and all day Saturday.  Sunday was sunny but cold and windy.

Of course the weather didn’t stop us from getting out a bit and exploring.  We drove up the coast and I took some photos.

They sure are different than the last beach photos I posted.

We visited L.L. Bean, where I did some Christmas shopping.   We played games and drank some wine.  We shared stories and shed a few tears of the very recent death of Lisa’s boyfriend.  We swam in the pool and took a turn in the sauna.   Mostly, though, we just talked and laughed.

And that always makes for a great weekend.

I had a fun but exhausting weekend away.  I promise details tomorrow but for today I need to catch up on some things.  Nothing too important, just sleep.  And maybe some blogs.

Come back tomorrow!

I had some fun with the macro lens this week.  I think a single leaf represents November quite well.

Have a great weekend.