Blah Blah Blah

This showed up on my doorstep this morning, hand delivered by SOMEONE very special and so sweet she always shows up on doorsteps unexpectedly bearing gifts. THANK YOU you sneaky elf!
I'm not making much progress on anything knitting related -
We had a big windstorm last Thursday and power was knocked out all over the place - our power was only gone for about 24 hours - but my Husband's brother and sister-in-law didn't get theirs back on until last night(Tuesday!) - So they camped out with us for 3 nights after enduring increasingly chilly evenings bundled up inside their own house - so now we'll try to get back to normal so that we can get back to abnormal when my parents come into town on Friday morning - so I am increasingly doubtful that the "puhwple" sweater will be done before Christmas - all my energy will be diverted into a massive cleaning effort that would probably not have to be such an effort if I would just expend some minimal cleaning effort on a more regular basis - but really, it's not that fun unless there's some stress involved right?

Wii (and wee)

So this is how we spent a special pre-Christmas family night - no quiet stories by the fire or cookie baking to favorite Christmas tunes or reverent contemplation of the Christmas story - nope, not for us - we went to THE MALL -



we do not go to the mall very much, and if we do, it is no fun for anyone - especially anyone who is trying to actually do some shopping - but our only goal on this trip was to be together and get some ice cream, which we did, and then we saw this.

My 7 year old (and my 33 year old) both stood wide eyed and began to twitch with excitement as they waited to try out this new Nintendo Wii thing - a new, more interactive kind of game system - it was very amusing to watch as several people, eyes glued to the screen, used the controller as a bat, a bowling ball, boxing gloves, a steering wheel, depending on what game they were playing - I must admit that I too joined in and it was actually kind of fun - I sort of forgot myself as I ducked and punched and uppercut the air in front of me right in the middle of a busy shopping mall - and listen, I was not the only mom out there having a little too much fun knocking out my imaginary opponent - it was a bit scary.
After the "Wii" we were on to more traditional Christmas at the mall favorites like, "I want that one" "Can we just buy this one thing today?" and "WWWAAAAAAAAAAA I want it, I want it WAAAAAAAAAAAA".

On the knitting front, I finished these wee little tiny cuties - oh how I love little tiny things - oh I just want to bite one of their arms off they're so cute -

8 minisweater ornaments for the people in our church small group - My husband made the litte hangers and the transport rack.

I have made exactly zero progress on Ariann - but I have finished the body and one sleeve of a sweater for my little girl - "it has to be Puhwple OK mom?" - so it is very purple and she has commissioned that the yoke be done in pink, yellow, and orange - we'll see if I can finish by the weekend -

Just Wondering

So I was just wondering - is it OK to just knit a (for sale) pattern from a picture? If I don't plan on selling it or stealing it and calling it my own pattern - if I think I can kind of fudge and use someone else's basic idea, is that OK? I think that it is fine - but then I was thinking that maybe it's just not good "knitting etiquette" or something - I'm just cheap - and highly unoriginal. Can anyone put me on the right track?
( the peppers are totally unrelated to anything - had no new yarn to show but felt this needed a little splash of color)