Knitter in Progress

This year Little Diva was ready to jump into the world of pumpkin carving. She chose the emoticon ;) , we chose to put it on the pumpkin facing the traditional way rather than sideways. I think she did a great job. And Rage, with possibly a little prompting from me--his personal pumpkin carver, choose a skull and crossbones. I loved carving that and I'm so glad he picked it because I would have had to go buy another pumpkin to do it myself if he didn't. We are being blessed here with extraordinarily nice weather for this late in the year and I have a feeling that our Halloween will be loaded with lots of Trick or Treaters. Nice weather + Halloween on a Friday = Lots of kiddos Don't overdose on candy everyone :) Happy Halloween!

First of all, where did this month go? I feel like it passed in a blur and as I have been sitting here pondering what exactly I accomplished this month I am hard pressed to remember what happened in September and what happened in October--this year seems to be quickly flying to a close. I do know that I made a dent in one of my HAED WIPs, I Love Thee(Seed). I am not sure how well you'll be able to see if from the pictures but I filled in a lot of stitches around Aragorn's bangs-- did you know this piece was a tribute to Arwen and Aragorn ( look here for other pieces in her Romance Series )? The stitched piece I am working on differs slightly from the original art pieces but the characters contained within are the same. I absolutely love working on this one and I am hoping to finish the two pages I am currently working on by the end of the year. Before(at the end of September): After:

**This was an interesting quiz. I was surprised by the results. Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test... Traditional, Vibrant, and Tasteful 10 Islamic, 6 Impressionist, -2 Ukiyo-e, -23 Cubist, -14 Abstract and 2 Renaissance! Islamic art is developed from many sources: Roman, Early Christian, and Byzantine styles were taken over in early Islamic architecture; the architecture and decorative art of pre-Islamic Persia was of paramount significance; Central Asian styles were brought in with various nomadic incursions; and Chinese influences . Islamic art uses many geometical floral or vegetable designs in a repetitive pattern known as arabesque. It is used to symbolize the transcendent, indivisible and infinite nature of Allah. People that like Islamic art tend to be more traditional people that appreciate keeping patterns that they learned and experienced from their past. It is not to say that they are not innovative personalities, they just do not...

write 1667 words per day for a month! For the last three years, I have spent the month of November participating in the madness that is National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo, for short) and this year will be no exception. I've loved doing it(and hated it on some days--when things aren't flowing particularly well). I look forward to completing my fourth year. Why do I put myself through it year after year? **I love the challenge it presents. **I love staying up really, really late at night--just me, my iPod, my computer, my characters, and my story(it's worth being exhausted by the end of the month) **I love that I can just let everything go and write completely getting lost in my story while letting my characters guide the way. **I love that it allows me to explore genres that I normally would not try. **I love having a 50,000 word novel at the end of the month that is just for me :) **I feel like I have to earn the T-Shirt I treat myself to each year. So, anyone out ther...

I have been waiting, not so patiently, for months and it is finally here. The Opal Harry Potter yarn has arrived in Colorado and in an unprecedented move for me, I splurged on two of each skein :) **top row(left to right): Hedwig, Harry, Ron and Harry, Ron **bottom row(left to right): Draco, Tonks, Lupin, Dumbledore I have loved Opal sock yarn since I started knitting socks back in 2004 and this yarn is no exception. I love how Tonks and Lupin's colorways are somewhat related. Hedwig looks great too. My biggest beef, I guess, is that instead of a "Harry and Ron" combo colorway why couldn't they have done a Hermione? Or since it's a tribute to Half Blood Prince wouldn't Snape be a logical choice. Not complaining, just sayin' is all. And just because I like looking at them, here's another pic: And another that I messed with using my photo editing software(I can't really tell the difference though?):

I pulled out I Love Thee for the HAED background SAL. I just love this piece. Before: After:

September Wrap Up: Knitting: **finish 4 squares-- finished 3.5 **finish a pair of socks--nope, but Socktober is coming up **start some gifty knitting-- DONE Stitching: **QS Swimming with Dolphins for the HAED SAL Challenge weekend-- DONE Reading: **finish 2 books-- DONE, finished 3 Other: **lose 5 pounds-- lost 3 **finish my 3600 minutes in 60 days challenge-- ended up with 2498, so I fell a little short but I'm really not that upset about it. I will definitely push harder for the next round. October Goals: Knitting: **one pair of Socktober Socks **gifty knitting Stitching: **HAED SAL Challenge--QS Swimming with Dolphins Other: **lose 5 pounds **finish half of my new 60 in 60 challenge