Payin' It Forward...

You guys have been hearing me talk about how excited I have been to welcome the Holidays this year because of the newly formed extended family we now have. Well, Thanksgiving was everything it was supposed to be and more. We all sat around the table eating, talking and laughing for a long time....that is, until Kick Off. We are a Seahawks Family. The food was amazing, the company even better and we won the game. The day could not have been better than it was. Dilshani even brought her "big" camera (the camera she does all her professional shoots with) to take some pics. Here are some from the day....

I love this picture of Mom and I

And this is probably my favorite pic of Dilshani and I yet...in Seahawks gear no less

Love this pic but the quality of the selfie doesn't hold a candle to Dilshani's camera

Dilshani took this when I wasn't watching. I kind of like it!

This is Dilshani's husband Dan, my adopted brother. He SUCH a great guy!

I LOVE this pic of Dan & Dilshani. I took it with her camera. They are both so photogenic its scary

 From left to right: Kamal, Dilshani, Dan and Michael

This last pic I cannot believe they got. Dad doesn't do selfies. But he did this one!

Thanksgiving was but a preview to what Christmas will be for us this year. The only element missing from Thanksgiving were Dan & Dilshani's 2 youngest kids who live in Washington DC with their father. We'll be seeing them on the 27th of December and I am so stinkin' excited about this I can barely stand it. The family will be complete for a period of time. Expect more pictures, there will no doubt be a ton of them. We'll be having our family Christmas with them on the 28th. Then Anika turns 13 on January 1st and Dilshani turns 40 on January 6th. We'll celebrate their birthdays together with tons of fun and other surprises!

Facebook has a great way of bringing people together. People that haven't seen each other in a long while, people that see each other all the time, and people who, without Facebook, wouldn't know each other at all. Through my Facebook Group Claudia Donnelly Designs, I have "met" several people online who I now refer to as friends. Let me tell you what I know about Trina. Trina is sweet, kind, funny, and she's a Seahawks fan. She has been following me and what I'm doing for I don't know how long. We have had several little conversations via Facebook about my fingerless mitts pattern which, as you may know, was released last week under the name Vanilla Fingerless Mitts. She apparently has wanted a pair for some time now and really likes my plain, easy, no fuss mitts. To the point where she offered to buy the yarn if I would make them for her. We had a good laugh over it for a while because, you see, Trina lives in Florida. I don't know what part of Florida she lives in but I just couldn't understand how someone living in Florida could possibly have need for a pair of fingerless mitts. At any rate, Trina was quite serious. She's so nice, I caved. I told her to order some Malabrigo Worsted in a colorway she liked and have it sent to my address. So she did! And the yarn is gorgeous! I cannot wait to get started on them to see how the colors play with one another. I don't recall having seen the colorway Deja Vu but I may just need a pair of them too! Here are pictures of the yarn...

Trina explained to me that she is going through a bit of a rough time right now and this will definitely lift her spirits. I cannot wait to start them and get them off to her. To know that a pair of fingerless mitts has the ability to make someone feel so much better than I am more than happy to oblige. I cant wait to see the colors play together! Speaking of color play, Mom and I happen to be at Village Wools this afternoon to drop off some more of my patterns when I happen to notice a brand new colorway in their Malabrigo Worsted section. Before I touched it and even took a closer look, I knew I had to have it. Its a colorway called Autumn Forest...

Isn't it gorgeous?! I cant wait to work with this one too!!!!!! But Trina's mitts will come first.  

This afternoon Mom and I both finished binding off our Cinnamon Stone Shawls. They aren't blocked yet but we spread them out on the floor so you can get a good idea as to what they look like. I thought Moms would be considerably larger than mine but that appears to be not the case. Her yarn was all alpaca and she knits looser than I do. Anyway, here are the pics. The first one is mine and the pink one is Mom's...

Mine has a picot bind off and Mom just did a stretchy bind off on hers. The yarn she was working with was a very light fingering and she didn't like the picots it was making. We'll be able to block some points into it so I'm not worried. I will post pics of them after they are blocked. Mine is being sent off to someone else I don't know that part of a Pay it Forward deal on Ravelry. That's fun. I like making those packages up and sending them out knowing it will make someone smile, especially just before Christmas!

By my side all evening has been Princess Fluffypants aka Audrey Grace, watching me write this...

Or not, as the case may be...

Have a wonderful weekend and I hope you all are inspired to do something nice for someone else! And as always...Knit On!