Knitted Holiday Ornaments

We had a week of quality time with family in the Bay Area of California over Thanksgiving. Wayne’s sister Yvonne, and brother-in-law Gayle, were very generous hosting us at their home in Alameda. Our son and daughter-in-law, James and Kelsey, came too, bringing their five month old daughter on her first plane ride. It was a full house with our niece and her boyfriend home for the holiday. We were able to spend quite a bit of time with our daughter Britta, and her boyfriend Isaac, who live nearby in Oakland. It was a good blend of fun outings and just hanging out.

My project for this trip was a set of knitted Christmas ornaments. I used a pattern called “Fancy Balls Ornaments” from Tin Can Knits. The link for the pattern on Ravelry is here. They are similar to the Arne & Carlos knitted balls (see my blog post here), but work up faster due to fewer stitches around and less complicated designs.

I had some Norwegian Rauma Finullgarn fingering weight wool yarn in my stash that was perfect for this project.

I started the first ornament while on the flight from Minneapolis. The pattern has you start by casting on four stitches in the round. That is very slippery and it is hard to keep the double pointed needles facing the right way and not sliding out. I was trying very hard not to drop a needle on the floor of the airplane in which case I might never find it. The man sitting across the aisle was surprised that the airline let me take the knitting needles through security. I almost always bring a knitting project on a plane trip, and so far it has never been a problem.

I got about 2/3 done with one ornament on the plane, when you are supposed to turn it inside out to weave in the ends and then put in some stuffing. I did not have anything to stuff it with so I had to stop.

Later when we were at Yvonne and Gayle’s house, Yvonne had a big wad of dryer lint from a new cotton blanket that she had washed. I was able to use that and finish the ornament at their house.

The pattern has equal numbers of increases at the beginning to the number of decreases at the end, but for some reason it came out pointier on the top half. Wayne said it was shaped like one of the holiday gnomes that are all over these days. The gnome in the photo below with my completed ornament belonged to my mother-in-law. Yvonne refurbished it and has it on display in her house.

I started a second ornament, but I did not really do much knitting on this trip, so I did not finish it until we got back home. My goal when bringing a knitting project on a trip is to make sure that when there is some down time I have something to do, not necessarily to get a lot done.

Instead of knitting, other things I did on this trip included walks through the neighborhood, watching football games, working on a puzzle, and hiking with our kids on the Tennessee Valley Trail to a beach. No we were not in Tennessee. You can click here for a link to the Tennessee Valley area of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Following is a photo of Isaac, Britta, Kelsey with Blair, and James at the beach we hiked to.

We had an afternoon adventure with Britta and Isaac driving south to Santa Cruz. As we were driving along the coast we saw massively big waves. Isaac has lived in Oakland most of his life and said he had never seen waves that big. We ended up pulling over to a place where we could park and get out of the car. Britta and Isaac walked way out on some rocks which of course made us very nervous. A park ranger came by to warn us about “Sleeper Waves”, which are random even bigger waves. In Santa Cruz we went on a scenic walk along a path high up above the coast, ate tacos for lunch, and got ice cream cones before it was time to drive back to Alameda. Following is a photo of the giant waves crashing again the rocks, with Britta and Isaac getting a little too far out for our comfort.

Another activity we did was go to Reboot Float and Cryo Spa where our daughter works. We are not normally “spa” kind of people, but we decided to try the float tank. Normally it costs about $60 to $100, but we got the “parents” price of “free”. Our son James also tried it. There are “pods” with warm water and tons of salt. The large amount of salt causes you to float. You lay in the pod for about an hour with music and light on or off as you choose. You do not have to close the lid, but most people do. You are supposed to get completely relaxed and in a state of sensory deprivation. I thought it would be claustrophobic with the lid closed, but it wasn’t. There was a sort of optical illusion so it felt like you were in a bigger space. Wayne loved it and would do this regularly if money were no object. My son and I were both glad we tried it, but are not interested in doing it again.

James and Kelsey are very experienced travelers, but were not sure how it would go with a five month old baby. Kelsey had a work trip right before the Thanksgiving trip, so traveled from Mississippi to St Paul, and then on to San Francisco all on the same day. They were able to see some friends who live in Oakland, and enjoyed walking in the neighborhood as well as the outings and time with family. James was in the bedroom with Blair during the Thanksgiving meal. Other people offered to relieve him, but he declined. I think maybe he needed a quiet break himself, and was ready to be back home. Later I asked Kelsey if their experience on this trip affected their thoughts about possible upcoming trips, like coming to see us in Arizona. She was very positive and talked about visiting her sister in LA in January, visiting us in Arizona in February, and going to see a friend in Texas in March. OK then.

We had five pies for Thanksgiving, with several people contributing their labor. My daughter made her first apple pie, using apples from the neighbor’s tree. My niece made pumpkin pie. Gayle’s cousin was asked to bring a pecan pie but instead brought home made cinnamon rolls. That is not traditional but oh well. We bought a pecan pie from the freezer section of the grocery store instead, since the freshly made pies were sold out on the day we went shopping.

I made French Silk Pie. Wayne complained that that is not traditional for Thanksgiving, but everyone requested it. French Silk Pie has raw eggs and is not baked, so you are supposed to use pasteurized eggs. I used to be able to buy a carton of pasteurized eggs at the grocery store, but have not been able to find them for years. Last year I decided at the last minute to make this pie, and after researching options, decided to try using liquid eggs which are pasteurized but also they are only egg whites. The texture did not come out right. This year I had a new recipe that takes care of the egg problem by cooking the eggs with the sugar to 160 degrees F. The chocolate has to be melted and then cooled, so the butter does not melt. The chocolate was not melted enough, so there were big chunks in the final completed pie. As I was mixing the ingredients together it seemed too buttery. I thought it was due to the pieces of un melted chocolate that were not blended in. I squirted in some Hershey’s syrup, and then melted and added more chocolate I found in my SIL’s cupboard. Later I realized that I accidentally put in double the amount of butter. I was worried that it would taste like we were eating solid butter, but actually it was OK. I knew it was not right, but no one else would have noticed if I had not pointed it out.

My brother-in-law Gayle and their son Jason always make lemon meringue pie for Thanksgiving, using lemons from their tree. Jason was not home this year, so Gayle made it by himself. The pie looked amazing, but it was pretty sour. No one was sure if he did not use enough sugar or if the lemons were more sour than normal. Despite the problems with the French Silk and Lemon Meringue pies, no one complained about the variety and quality of dessert options!

There was one free afternoon at the end of the week after all the adult children had gone home and the guys were golfing. I googled places to go for a hike that were also near a yarn shop. I found an area where we could do this about 10 miles away in Berkeley. At home I have to drive 12 miles to get from our house out in the country to the grocery store in Fergus Falls, so I drive that far all the time. But this 10 mile drive involved going on highways and driving through densely populated, congested and possibly unsafe areas. Yvonne was hesitant about venturing out that way, but we went and it worked out fine. There was a parking place on the street directly in front of the The Black Squirrel yarn shop.

I bought some long magic loop needles so I could make the Christmas ornaments with magic loop instead of double pointed needles. I also bought a skein of luscious 100% silk yarn. I have an idea for what I am going to do with this yarn, but that could change.

By the time we got done at the yarn shop it was getting late in the afternoon. We decided to skip the hike and head back to Yvonne’s house, cutting through the cute commercial area of Berkeley. I would have enjoyed walking around there, but we will have to do that another time. Following is a photo of the second ornament after I moved it onto the new magic loop needles.

Our flights were direct on Delta between MSP and San Francisco. The Oakland airport is a lot closer to Alameda but all the flights to that airport from Minneapolis have at least one stop. We did not want to ask Gayle to drive us to the San Francisco airport in rush hour traffic. Instead he dropped us off at the BART station near their house. We had to transfer once, but it was easy. The train stopped right at the departure entrance of the airport.

After we were back home I finished the second ornament and made a third one. I went rogue and did not follow the designs for the third one, but instead knitted alternate rows of red and white. I crocheted some chain stitch for loops to hang the ornaments.

I actually like the red and white striped one the best. I swear it has the same number of stitches as the others, so I don’t know why it came out fatter. Maybe the colorwork on the other two caused the stitches to be closer together. They are all about five to six inches tall.

Following is a photo of the three “Fancy Balls” ornaments on our tree, along with a round shaped Arne & Carlos ornament you can see on the far left (that I did not make), a needle felted gnome that my other niece made, and my favorite wool sheep ornament.

I hope everyone has a safe and peaceful holiday season, whoever you are with and however you celebrate.