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December 29, 2006

Christmas and a finished knit!

Apologies for the silence here but the holidays have been (no surprise) hectic. Since Geoff and I both work for the university, we have two weeks off around the holidays. But even with all of that time off work, things never seem to get finished!

One of the things that did get finished is the Cathedral Afghan for my grandmother. She loved it! It should keep her very warm! Click the pictures to enlarge them...

Pattern: Cathedral Afghan from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts issue
Started: November 21, 2006
Finished: December 24, 2006
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky
Needles: US 13

My Christmas was wonderful. I got some really great gifts! Geoff gifted me with lots of fun things including an iPod shuffle! Look how teeny-tiny it is!

I love it. I wanted one for my runs and did my first run with it Wednesday night. I love that it's so small and light and I can clip it anywhere!

I got some great knitting stuff too! My parents got me the Knit Picks Options needle set! Wahoo! I also got some knitting books including Knit 2 Together and Speed Knitting. I've been wanting Knit 2 Together for a while now. I love Tracey Ullman and there are some really cute patterns in the book (along with lots of great stories). Speed Knitting has some cute patterns too but the first pattern in the book is a garter-stitch scarf. Do people really need a pattern for that? Cast on x stitches, knit every row, bind off. I think every knitter learns how to make a garter stitch scarf when they learn how to knit. Don't waste my time by putting it in a pattern book. And while I seem to be on my soapbox about knitting pattern books, does anyone else get annoyed by pattern books that take up 10-20 pages with teaching people how to knit? When I learned to knit I looked for books about learning to knit. I think that by the time you are buying books for the patterns in them, you are beyond learning how to knit and purl, increase and decrease. Fill those 10-20 pages with more patterns! Ok, stepping down from my soapbox... sorry for the detour. I also got some great giftcards for iTunes, Amazon.com, Ann Taylor Loft and Starbucks.

And the holidays were made even sweeter by two of my friends having babies! My friend Liz brought Emma Caroline (recipient of the Crumpets dress) into the world on Dec. 15 and my friend Heather brought Isaac William (recipient of the Pea Pod Baby Set) into the world on Dec. 21! What wonderful Christmas presents for them!

I hope you all had a great holiday! And I wish everyone a WONDERFUL 2007!

Posted by allison at 06:08 PM | Comments (11)

December 08, 2006

Sidetracked

Geoff is always getting sidetracked. In fact, it happens so often that it's become a running joke in our house. He'll run outside to take out the recycling or compost and 30 minutes later, when he hasn't returned, I'll look out the window and he'll be weeding the yard, watering the grass, reorganizing the shed... In the few seconds it takes him to walk across the back yard, he will see something that needs to be done and BAM! he's become sidetracked.

Well, this time it's happening to me. Maybe it's the holidays? Who knows. All I know is that there are too many things vying for my attention right now and I feel like nothing is getting finished because I'm always getting sidetracked!

My knitting time has suffered the most I think. I don't think I've even picked up the Aran Tree Skirt in over a week! Why are there only 24 hours in a day?! Can't someone change that?

And it just seems like my "to do" list is getting longer and longer as Christmas approaches. So I apologize for the lack of posts and the (obvious) lack of knitting.

Maybe I can distract you from this knitting void by pointing you to the new issue of Knitty! Have you seen it? There are 26 patterns in this issue! 26! With so many patterns, there is something for everyone. And I've picked out my favorites already...

Tiffany - these mittens are just gorgeous
Monkey - another great sock pattern from the designer of Pomatomus
Venezia - these napkin rings would make wonderful gifts!
Starsky Jr. - this pattern is destined for my niece... someday...
Sheldon - this one is by far my favorite! So cute! I think my nephew must have one. Also, don't forget to check out the Sheldon the Turtle Blog. So many cute Sheldons!

And check out the redesign of their archive page! You can now browse by issue or type of pattern or even search the archives! As a web librarian, these new ways of navigating the archives make me very happy. Knitty makes me happy.

So go forth and knit! Somebody has to!

Posted by allison at 09:49 PM | Comments (3)