Alone again and knitting

The guests are all gone and it is just the 4 of us again. The house seems so quiet-- mostly because DH and DD17 are napping, DD19 is reading and I have been knitting. It is so nice to have company and also nice to get back to normal.

I am knitting a Diagonal Baby Blanket for the youth pastor and wife's new baby which is due the end of this month. The shower is 1/13 and I started the blanket yesterday. It is a simple pattern and can be knitted or crocheted. It is made using Homespun yarn by Lion's Brand. I have made so many of them that I began purchasing the yarn on E-Bay when I could find it at less than what it is in the stores. I was fortunate to find the yarn at $3.99 at Michael's last week (usually $5.39).

I am about 1/3 done - and should be over half done by the end of the day. I do mine on a circular needle and make it larger than the pattern (at least 144 stitches across the middle row but sometimes more depending on how the yarn goes). I use 4 skeins of yarn and increase until I am almost at the end of the second skein - then start decreasing. I like this pattern because it doesn't take a lot of thinking and checking the chart - and it is a nice soft blanket when done. The Homespun yarn gives it a varigated/striped look too. I am doing this one in the Waterfall color. It is one of my favorites. I think I have made about 8 of them this year.

I also started making lists of what Christmas decorations I have - going from room to room. I got the kitchen and dining room done this morning. My plan is to put it all in a home inventory and also indicate in which box (the storage boxes will be numbered) the item is stored so I can keep better tabs on the decorations. I realized that I did not get out 2 of my snowmen decorations out this year so there must be a box that DH missed when he brought them all out of the basement - most likely a Christmas tin and not a box as I use a lot of the empty popcorn tins to pack away the items and then sometimes sit the tins around the house to 'decorate'.

I decided to make the Ham Lasagne (asparagus on the side) tonight because I did not get the chicken in the crock pot early enough. I can put the chicken in the crock pot before leaving for work and then cook some rice when I get home. Sometimes I remove the chicken from the sauce and stir in Minute Rice into the sauce but the family doesn't care for that (sure is easy though). The girls have left to get together with some other church camp friends who are home from college for the holidays - so DH and I will be eating alone. Sure will be different than the last week or so :-)