Luxurious swag

Super-duper secret pal swag (I should be learning her (his?) secret identity soon - so excited). Some Baby Cashmere and Peruvian Highland Chunky yarn from elann.com, lovely stitch markers (pictured on needle) and some excellent newbie tools - a needle sizer and some yarn needles. I'm so spoiled. I can't wait to plan what I'll do with these and my previous gifties!

Hoppin' the hound

There's nothing better for FOs than a 7 hour Greyhound bus trip! On the trek home for Thanksgiving I finished my Wavy scarf (she made her NYC debut, ooh la la!), and at my folks' house I was able to knit a left mitten (except, as you can see, for the thumb). The mitten is pretty long - I may frog and re-size. Or I may find a larger-handed friend and give them away. But I suppose a thumb and second mitten would be necessary for that plan :-)

Happy Turkey Day!

I'll be off to NY for the holidays... I hope everyone has a good one! Hopefully there will be some progress shots from all the knitting I get done in my travels!

I knew it!

You're The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
by C.S. Lewis
You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust in zoo animals.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Book Clubbing

In an attempt to meet new people, be introduced to new books and unlock the secrets of what I'm thinking about a book through discussion, I've joined not one, but two book clubs.

So far we've read The Icarus Girl and The Kite Runner in one book club (with The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency as our "pre-holiday, not as traumatizing as the others" next choice). The discussions have been pretty good, intense and unfocused at times but hitting on most of the points that people have wanted to bring up and, I think (hope), everyone leaves with some new food for thought.

In the second book club, until now, there have only been a couple of us reading the book (myself included, I'm proud to say). We've read Ghost World and Fight Club, and watched the films of both. It's been a nice social experience, having dinner together and watching a movie, but with little or no discussion of the actual book. Last night's meeting was really nice - a small group who all read The Time Traveler's Wife and came to book club with things to say, a great dinner (no movie) and discussion. Hurrah!

Secret Pal Swag

Better late than never...a peek at the excellent swag I got from my SP. Cute and knitty card, a copy of Knitting Without Tears, KnitPicks color-your-own yarn + Kool-Aid (LOTS of Kool-Aid!) and some soft, pretty hand-spun and hand-dyed wool. Am I a lucky gal or what?! I can't wait to tackle the whole dying with Kool-Aid project.

The return address on the package was in Portland, OR. That and the hand-spinning and -dying are my only good leads. Oh, and that my SP is more experienced of a knitter and quite empathetic to my newbie status (hence the Zimmerman book). Who are you Secret Pal???

p.s. The wine bottle hiding in the corner was not part of the SP package :-) The photo was just taken sitting atop our bar.

Round and round we go...

To the right, we have my first attempt at knitting in the round, pictured with the book that both helped clarify the process and aptly describes how I felt the first three times I tried to do it and had to pull the whole thing out. You know what they say, fourth times a charm. This lovely 6-row tube will eventually be the aforementioned kpixie mittens. Thanks again, Secret Pal, for the generous gift and the chance to learn a new skill!

In other knitting news, we have the boyfiend scarf - a shot of the whole thing, and a closeup of the mock-cable work.

Hopefully we'll get some shots of the scarf in action, along with it's pals Coif and Wavy, all blocked and happily worn in Montreal this weekend!

On the first month of knitting...

Well, I've taken the plunge and started knitting. I comfort myself that it is not at all hip to take a six-week course at Dartmouth College to learn to knit...in fact, it's downright useful and productive. It's cold up here in New Hampshire!

I've started off with the basics: cast on, knit, purl, add a second color, increase, decrease, bind off. So far I have successfully found a great LYS (Country Woolens in Lebanon, NH), and finished one object (cute little Coif hat from knitty, above). WIPs include the Wavy scarf for myself (also above), and a mock-cable scarf for the boyfriend from Vogue knitting.

I have some big holiday knitting plans, which may or may not come to fruition...I won't mention them here, in case any recipients stumble upon them, but will post FOs (assuming they actually get finished) post-holiday.

I've also jumped right into the knitty spirit and joined a mini Holiday Secret Pal round. My SP is great, and has sent me a gift certificate to kpixie, where I found some fun yarn (above) to use for a cute mitten pattern. (I'd post the free pattern, but not sure what the copyright issues may be, since you have to create an account with kpixie to view it - but I'll definitely post a photo when they're done!) She's also sent me Knitting Without Tears, some dye-your-own yarn from knitpicks (complete with the necessary packs of kool-aid) and a beautiful bit of her own hand-spun and -dyed yarn (ooh...I'll get a pic to post next time). I have to figure out a special way to put it to good use.

So that's all the kniiting news for now. I'll hopefully have a finished boyfriend scarf to post by the end of the weekend (I'm on a deadline - it's for his birthday on 11/20).