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).