❄ Christmas Season has Started at my Home ❄

Hello my dear friends.  I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving holiday.  It was warm here on Thanksgiving day; we set a heat record!  I'm so excited to share with you my latest find. . .

 A vintage 1949 Christmas issue of The Illustrated London Times.  I found it at our local library sale last week.  I was so thrilled to find this.  It's truly from a different time where I think things were more appreciated and classy than today.

 

As you can see, it was published for the US market at one dollar.  It was a weekly publication up until 1971 and it ceased publication altogether in 2003.

You can see that the insert for the subscription card is still intact in the magazine.  

I loved looking through the pages and seeing the advertisements from long ago.  This was published before I was even born!  (And, my children think I'm ancient...)

There were some beautiful illustrations in the magazine along with some wonderful stories that I have yet to read.

It was interesting to read about the Christmas customs of today.

 Speaking of my favorite time of year, you won't find any bah humbug here on my blog.  I too, don't like the commercialization of this blessed holiday but I ignore it.  It's simple really.  My shopping for Christmas is something that I look forward to do and I get it done early.  We bought the fresh tree for the family room yesterday at Home Depot and as you can see, it's up and decorated with hot pink lights!  It contains all the ornaments that mean so much to me.  The living room tree, which is artificial, will go up in a week or so.  Next up is wrapping presents to the sound of Christmas carols and baking my beloved Christmas cookies.

We have a family tradition that we always get our fresh tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving along with our dear daughter and her family.  Supposedly, there's a shortage of Christmas trees this year due to the recession and drought from years past.  Home Depot's tree lot was half full and many of those were already dry.  This is my daughter's beautiful fresh tree which my dear son-in-law takes care of each and every year.  And, looking at it in awe in the spirit of this upcoming blessed season are my little grandchildren.

Do you have fond memories of Christmas from years past?  I do and I have always tried to pass that onto my children and grandchildren.  Yes, we have gifts but it's not really about the gifts.  It's about family, tradition, worship and all the other wonderful things that go along with this holiday that really has nothing to do with money.

On a side note, I'm a little sad tonight since my dear kitty, Lilly, is not feeling well.  She has what I could call kitty stomach flu.  I will be calling the vet in the morning.  I cried earlier today as I'm so concerned about her.  She 12 1/2 years old and we've had her as a part of our family for over 10 1/2 years.  She is my child that I still have at home.  Please say a little prayer for her if you wish.

Until next time, I wish you all the very best for the upcoming week.

With my best wishes,

Pat

I'm so Excited . . . and I just Can't Hide it . . .

Hello my dear friends.  I'm back again to share with you something that has taken over my life!  It's Sophie's Universe.  A beautiful crocheted blanket that was designed by the very talented Dedri Uys.  Dedri started this pattern back in 2015 as a CAL that ran for a total of 20 weeks. The pattern is still available on her blog.  It seems as though I'm always behind in joining in with these fun activities.

 

I discovered this amazing pattern from my friend Kate, who recently finished her beautiful blanket.  Since I didn't want to download/print the pattern, I decided to order the book online from Wool Warehouse and it's the best money I've ever spent on a pattern.  

I had sixteen skeins of Stylecraft DK yarn that I had purchase and started to use to make a ripple blanket.  As you can see from the photo above, the colors were not "happening".  This project had sat in my craft closet for over a year unfinished.

I had wanted to mimic the coast ripple blanket I had made from Lucy and Attic 24.  Lucy is such an amazing, talented fiber arts artist.  Her sense of color combinations are unlike anything I've ever seen.  I had a great time making the coast blanket but unfortunately, when I tried to make my own interpretation of this blanket, I was bored stiff with the dull colors and repeats.

Voila!  That all changed when I received my Sophie's Universe pattern book.  My colors are now starting to come together (I think).  It might look very dark right now, but there's going to be a lot of creamy white borders around this blanket as it grows up.  I'm hoping it will measure 70" x 70" when I'm all done with it.

There are over 5,000 people on Ravelry doing this project!  Wow, that's a lot of yarn.  If you are new to crochet (I've been crocheting for 41 years), don't be worried about the complexity of this project.  The book is designed as follows:  each page of the book contains one row of the pattern along with detailed instructions and very detailed photos.  Dedri shows you exactly what your stitches should look like.  And, best of all, the color scheme can be whatever suits you.  And, you weave end the yarn ends as you go along so when you are all done, you are completely finished; no more yarn ends to deal with!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my latest obsession!  Please feel free to share what you've been up to this week.  And, thank you again for visiting Lilly My Cat.

Best wishes,

Pat

Needles & Nook

Greetings my dear friends.  Spring is almost here but I feel as though we didn't even have winter as we just got over having a heat wave with temps in the 90's!

I want to thank everyone who read my reflections during lent.  Your kind comments really warmed my heart.  Speaking of warm, here's the scarf that I'm currently knitting......

It's a Churchmouse Yarn pattern.  At first, I really didn't enjoy knitting this pattern but since it's a two row repeat, it goes by very fast. The pattern can be found here.

As for reading, I am so enjoying this book:

It's a non fiction book about the Essex whaling ship that set out in 1819 from Nantucket on a whale hunt.  A few years ago, my husband and I visited Nantucket and saw some stately old homes that once had belonged to whale ship captains.  It's a fascinating read into history of long ago.

I am joining in at:
Frontier Dreams  
Create with Joy....
Yarn Along with Ginny...
Happy Friday at Planet Penny...

Please don't be shy to stop by and say "hello".  And, you are most than welcome to click on the buttons to follow along and see what is happening here at Lilly My Cat.

Have a wonderful day,
Pat

TOP DOWN BABY SWEATER - Plymouth Yarn Company - FREE PATTERN

Have you ever felt that you don't have enough time to do everything you want to accomplish?  I have so many things I would like to create but I'm not starting any new projects until I finish the blanket I'm currently crocheting. I had purchased the yarn in the spring when I was in Istanbul.  I like the pattern but the colors I am using are rather drab and plain.  I guess I'm hooked on the bright colors I've recently been using.

But, here is a project I finished awhile ago.  It's my favorite kind of baby sweater to knit - it's a top down sweater knit in one piece from the neckline down.....

As you can see, this sweater still needs to have some type of neck fastening - maybe a cute button.

I purchased this pattern and yarn together.  (yes, I bought the pattern because I thought it was so cute).

But today when I was going through my patterns, I found that I also had found this pattern online.  It's almost identical except the pattern I purchased has more rows of the pattern on the bottom of the sweater.  The link to the free pattern can be found here.

I am linking up on January 20 over at Yarn Along.  That's why I'm going to share an interesting book that I've been reading.....

It's entitled The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook.  It's a nonfiction book first published in 1888 that gives practical tips about keeping house in British India during the Raj.  I find this time period fascinating reading.  When I was a young mother (so many years ago....) I think I read every book on India at my local library.  We lived in a small eastern Washington town that had a population of about 12,000.  I grew up in a small town so it was the norm for me.

(do you see the glass vases with the bulbs?  I am forcing narcissus bulbs in water - it's fascinating to see the way the roots are twisting about the rocks and how they are springing up with blooms now taking shape)

I'll leave you with this week's photo of Lilly.  We sat outside earlier this week since we had glorious weather.  Lilly of course, had to join us...

Her body fills this little patio table!  I think she looks like a regal big cat the way she's posing.

There's a new link up party that has recently started.  I suggest you stop by Planet Penny's Happy Friday where I also will be joining the party.  You will meet some wonderful crafters there.

I hope wherever you are this winter that you are keeping warm and safe.  Every night on the news I see wintry weather that's causing havoc on the roads.  We are expected to have a mini heat wave later this week although it's cool at night.  How I wish we could get some much needed rain.....

Until next time, I wish you the best.  Please feel free to comment to if you wish, you can follow along with the adventure of this blog via Bloglovin or signing up.

My best to each of you,

Pat