Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has had a nice holiday season! I am looking forward to New Year's, because I am going to San Francisco. My brother and my best friend live there. I've been there once, but only to a suburb. I can't wait to see my brother (I haven't seen him in 1 1/2 years!) and to see such a great city.

Meanwhile, I've been knitting but in fits and starts. The only successful project this week has been this Manos scarf:




Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Right now, I'm just enjoying looking at it!

I'm also working on a poncho for my best friend - you know, the one I am visiting in about 36 hours? Ha. But I figure if I can get close to the cast-off length, she can try it on before I finish it, so it will be custom-made for her. I also promised a scarf to my dear b.f., so I will be working on that too. But it seems hard to get going on projects, now that the holidays are over! Sigh.

While I'm in San Francisco, I hope to make it to Artfibers, and with any luck, I'll find some great yarn for a Clapotis!Yes, I know, I have pledged to reduce my stash in the new year. Well, yarn for one more project won't hurt!

Washington is supposed to be in the 60s this weekend, while San Francisco is only going to be in the 50s, with rain! Go figure. This was my view as I walked to work this morning (hopefully you can see the Washington Monument in the distance):



...a good reminder that the city I live in is pretty special too.

Happy New Year, everyone!!

A New Knitter

I work for a small consulting company in Washington, DC. This company, although for-profit, is more touchy-feely than some non-profits I have worked for. I'm saying this so that when I post photos (below) of our office masseur, you'll know where I'm coming from! Anyway, one Friday, Steven came to our office (he comes every other Friday), and I was wearing a cardigan I made. This particular cardigan is very sheepy, as it is made from a light color of Rowan Big Wool. It made quite an impression on him, so he decided to learn how to knit.

Here he is, wearing his first project:




This is made from some sort of Noro, maybe Kochoran. Here's a closeup:

As his next project, he would like to make a cabled sweater. I say, go for the gusto! Steven, you are awesome!

In addition to Steven, it's very cool because there are at least three people at my small company who want to learn how to knit. Even better, our newest staffer P. is a knitter. So, we can both teach people! Our office already has a book club, and P. suggested maybe we alternate reading with knitting. Excellent idea!

Not too much else going on. You may recall I mentioned a hat (and scarf) that needed to get made and mailed - well, I punted. I bought a gift basket instead! Sometimes you just need to say, enough with the hand-made gifts. There's always birthdays, and next year's holiday season!

Happy holidays, everyone and safe travels!

Thanks!

Thank you so much for the kind comments on my post! I really appreciate it.

Lynette asked how much Manos was needed for my scarf. I bought two skeins and held them double, and after cutting 10" pieces for the fringe, I had two small balls remaining. So two skeins will be plenty. (I don't think one would be enough.)

Another reader asked about knitting groups in DC. I'm glad you asked! If I wanted to, I could go to at least two knitting group meetings every week, and those are just the ones you can get to via Metro. Visit http://dcknitters.themindspill.com/ for a listing and be sure to sign up for the Yahoo Group. There's also a DC Stitch-n-Bitch Yahoo Group you can join. I can say from personal experience that all of the groups listed are friendly and welcoming to newcomers. The more the merrier!

More holiday knitting

Now that Polly has shared my sock blocking inquiry, it seems only fair to show you the completed socks in question.




(Note: the one on the left is turned inside-out.) The pattern is "Whitby" from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. I am very proud of these socks and even prouder of the fact that they are already in the mail to their intended recipient. I hope she likes them!

A little factoid about me: in 10 years of waning and waxing interest in knitting, I have never made a hat. Of course, this explains why I decided to make one as a Christmas gift, and why I would choose to leave this gift til last. Naturally. I am now on my third hat pattern, after frogging the first two attempts. They say the third time's the charm, so hopefully I will have a picture to post tomorrow.

One more picture before I go, of a lovely scarf I made for my friend. Manos knit double on 17s makes the most beautiful, cushy, warm scarf! And I made it in about two hours, so that's even better!Have a great day, everyone!

FO Thursday

So, I finally finished the baby sweater! I think it should be against the law for anything that small to have that many seams. Whew! But it's really cute, and I hope baby Blythe (as she is to be called) will be snuggly and warm in it. Here's the sweater, (on my messy desk at work)...



...and here's the cute package it will go in.



The container is in the shape of a Chinese food container, but it's plastic - so you can see the cute tissue paper from the outside. Neat, eh? I got it from the The Container Store.

In other news, I finished an easy scarf from the Noro Transitions. I ended up not doing the horizontal type scarf, because I thought the colors looked really strange together in long stripes. Here's what it looks like before knitting



and after knitting.





This was my second experience with Noro. The first one went okay - I used Silk Garden and Cash Iroha for a long horizontal knit scarf. But I think the color-striping thing wasn't so obvious, because the Cash Iroha is solid-colored. It would be nice, I think, for the colors to repeat in the skein, so you can make something more balanced looking. Not sure what I will do with this scarf. I don't know who on my holiday list would appreciate it. It may to go Food & Friends; it would certainly be nice and warm.

Well, that's it for today. Oh - I almost forgot. Does anyone know if Nigella is a knitter? Check out the cover of her latest book:


Happy knitting, everyone!

Knit...Knit...Knitty!

Hello friends,

By now I imagine you have seen the new Knitty. With each new issue, this mag manages to surprise and delight me. This one is no exception! I love Cathode, and especially Tempting. I'm not sure if I would wear these in the winter, though, because I'm always cold - but I am considering organizing a knitalong for one of these two patterns. Anyone know how you start one?

No photos today, as I have misplaced the cord to my digicam. But, I am continuing on my Christmas gifts, namely the blue-green socks that I have posted about several times. I am also attempting to make a scarf in Noro Transitions, in the #8 colorway, which was featured on the Knit Happens blog:


My first try was not so lovely as this one - but I am undaunted and will try again. Photos tomorrow, I promise! Until then, happy knitting!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We are getting precariously close to Christmas, but I have noted a strange lack of holiday spirit on my part. Having observed this, yesterday I decided to listed to some Christmas music at work, to try and get the Christmas juices flowing. No dice. And it was even Ella Fitzgerald's "Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas," which is about as far as you can get from the awful, jangly, overbearing stuff they play in the department stores. Speaking of department stores, I began my holiday shopping at one last night. Again, it was a completely lackluster experience. I just felt like I was in there to "buy stuff." Total bummer.

Happily, though, knitting is proving to be the one thing that I find festive about the season this time around. I am making lots of holiday gifts, which feels fun because I know that most of the recipients have no idea what I am planning for them. Also, a colleague at work is having a baby, and I decided to make a tiny pink sweater for the occasion. (It's almost finished, and I will post a photo shortly.)

So I guess all is not lost for this holiday season. How wonderful that the craft of knitting, and the delight of making gifts by hand is reviving my holiday spirit.

Thanksgiving with Mom

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had a very nice, quiet holiday with my mom, who was visiting from Chattanooga, TN. We went out to dinner (no bird-cooking for me) at an elegant restaurant in Washington, relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Starting on Friday, we shopped! And shopped, and shopped. We hardly bought anything, mind you, but we enjoyed looking, trying things on, and seeing all the holiday items.

When my mom arrived, she showed me a pair of fuschia gloves she had, and said that she would like to make a scarf to match. I took her to Knit Happens, where we found the perfect yarn. I couldn't believe how well it matched! Mom chatted with a friendly Knit Happens staffer...


...and then hammed it up for the camera with a Colinette throw:




I surprised my mom by 1) buying the yarn she picked out and 2) knitting the scarf for her before her trip back to Chattanooga. Here's mom in her beautiful scarf and gloves, with a beautiful smile to match! As you can see, we look a lot alike:




So, that's pretty much all I have to report, other than that I am starting to freak out about all the knitting I need to finish before the holidays. The Yarn Harlot expresses these sentiments with great hilarity, as she so often does. I can't decide whether it's better to a) knit feverishly on one project at a time, until I finish it or b) multi-task and work on several projects at once. I guess the important thing is just to keep going.

The Yarn Harlot is planning to post gift ideas for knitters, one each day for most of December. I'm not very interested in knitting gifts this year, because I've decided that I want to use up my stash. I did not become a knitter just to have another way to accumulate stuff and clutter up my (tiny) apartment; I did it to make things. So stash-busting will be my New Year's resolution. That said, I do like the aptly-titled Knitter's Stash, and the Vogue Accessories book. Maybe those will be "Merry Christmas to Me" gifts; books don't count as "stuff," just yarn.

Well, must get back to my gift-making. Have a great Friday, everyone!