New Year's Eve Eve

I was going to use today to reminisce about 2007, but I must have been a naughty girl, because Santa thoughtfully left me a cold for Christmas. In exchange, he took my brain, so I have been pretty useless around the house, have got barely 3 hours of billable hours done in 6 days, and any knitting that requires counting higher than 8 is out of the question. Going back over the calendar and remembering what happened this year is most assuredly beyond me at this time.

However, I do know certain things...

I am thankful for having a loving and wonderful husband, many loving and wonderful friends and family, food on my table, a roof over my head, and enough yarn to keep me knitting for quite some time even if I never set foot in a yarn store again.

Party safe on New Year's Eve - they don't call it "Amateur Night" for nothing. If you're in our neck of the woods and think you've had too much to drink and don't want to drive home, call us. We'll come get you and you can crash on our futon.

I did get some knitting done, even with the above-mentioned 8-count limit. The blue hat is Foliage from knitty.com, done in di.Ve Autunno fine merino wool (lovely yarn - hat's a little big so I'll probably full it a bit).

These orange hats are made from Malabrigo's Gruesa in Cadmium. Do not adjust your monitor; they really are Cheeto-yellow. The one with the holes is my own eyelet unvention; the cabled one is Harlot's Unoriginal Hat, modified to 3 repeats instead of 4 to accommodate the extra chunkiness of the Gruesa.

Another Gaggle... Gathering... Confluence...

The knitters descended today, some to do last-minute holiday knitting (or quilting, as the case may be), some to schmooze, some to just knit with no deadlines. (Photo courtesy of CG, taken with her new iPhone, a Christmas present to herself... which I'm glad she had, because I totally forgot to take pictures with my camera!) When the picture was taken, I think we were all trying to figure out how to Kitchener the two sides of EV's scarf, hence our intense focus at that end of the table.

We also had a gift swap where there was a surprising amount of non-stealing going on... Some sock yarn, circular needle tags (my score!), and someone's de-stashing all got swapped, but the others stayed with their original pickers.


And food... oh boy was there food! A marshmallow tree, rare fruits, homemade bread, bite-sized cheesecakes, chips and dips and Clementines and soup and mulled wine... "Food, glorious food...!"


A good time was had by all.

In Which I Realize I'm a Dolt

Duh. Look!

Christmas is nigh!

In Which I Realize That Time Marches On

Holy moley... two weeks since my last post. Pathetic. But I've gotten a lot done! I've made a... um. Well then there's the... er. Hm. Oh! There was that... damn. The things I remember that I did I can't talk about because they're holiday gift-related... and the things I can't remember, well... I can't remember.

Well, here are some things I know I did in the last 2 weeks that I think I can show without spoiling anyone's holiday gift surprise...

Psychedelic Tiny Purse:
I took my own pattern and went hippie with it. Wheee! (BMFA STR lightweight carried doubled in Fire on the Mountain... left over from my Jaywalker socks, which fit PERFECTLY.)

The World's Most Expensive Washcloth:

This stuff is nasty to work with. I washed it to see if it would soften up, but it would still serve fine as a sloughing cloth for the shower. Or a pot scrubber. (Reynolds Garden Tweed; hard cotton, silk, and some other things. Very strandy.)

A swatch made of clouds:

Misti Alpaca Handpaint Chunky. *sigh* I'm in love all over again. I adore alpaca. The row of purl stitches towards the bottom is to indicate the size needle used. 10 purl bumps, size 10 needles. (Like that one? I got it from Diane at Yarn Place in Sunnyvale, who got it from Lily Chin. Genius!)

Heavy Question of the Day, and Why Ravelry is Bad

So it's not really "to tat or not to tat?" but rather "what to tat?" (And by 'tat,' even though it is a fiber craft, I'm not talking about tatting with perle cotton, and shuttles or needles... I'm talking about tattoos... but I guess you do tattoo with needles, too...)

At least for me, it's true what they say about getting a tattoo... you can't get just one. So I've been mulling over what my third one should be. I'm leaning towards a yin-yang symbol where the two inner 'balls' of the symbol are yarn balls. But I'm also liking the idea of just one yarn ball that has a strand that kind of winds down a body part (depends upon where I put the yarn ball). I've seen some really nice ones on Ravelry, but (a) I don't want to copy anyone else's, and (b) most of them are too busy for what I prefer. Mulling will continue.

Speaking of Ravelry, there are just sooo many things that make it bad:

• - I don't keep a paper knitting journal any more, so I've now got a collection of yarn snippets and ball bands that haven't got an entry in my book.
• - It allows me to find all the above-mentioned tattoos and covet getting another one.
• - It shows me, in real live numbers, how many projects I have on needles, how many I keep saying I'm going to work on, and how much lovely yarn I have that I have no idea what to do with.
• - It makes me want to knit more. And different. And better.

(Okay so maybe that last point isn't technically 'bad,' especially the 'better' part.)

For those of you not on Ravelry, and not close enough to see my now-incomplete knitting journal, here are the latest FOs. The first three (felted thingys, drop-stitch scarf, tiny purse) were all done for Bobbin's Nest Studio. I'll be holding three "QuicKnits" sessions (Wednesdays in December, 6:00-7:00 pm) to learn how to make them. They're EASY, they're QUICK, and they take one skein/ball of yarn or less.

These next two are 'real' things. The first is a hat for my brother. He asked for an ear-flap hat, so this is what he's getting. It desperately needs a blocking, and I desperately need to learn how to do colorwork better. As DK pointed out, "he won't be wearing it inside out." Good thing, too. The socks are my toe-up Jaywalkers, finally done! I'm very pleased with them; they fit like a dream. I think they're the first stocks I've made that fit me correctly. :-)