Odds and Ends and the New Year

The New Year always begins for me after I get back from AHA, the biggest history conference of the year. It is usually right after New Year's, and I'm always frantically making travel plans and contacting authors and potential authors for meetings, and that sort of thing, so I don't get a break until that's over. This year it was in San Diego, and while attendance and therefore sales were down, everyone who did go seemed to be enjoying themselves, and why not? San Diego in January! It's beautiful! How come I didn't know this?





One of the best parts for me was seeing an old friend from my hometown, who I've known probably since the fourth grade, but haven't seen since our ten year HS reunion, well, ten years ago.



She lives out there now, and when I posted on Facebook that I was headed out there, she emailed me to see if I wanted to have lunch or something. It was really great to talk to her again, and hopefully, we'll stay in touch now.


Goodbye, San Diego, I hardly knew ye. I'll have to go back again with a car. I didn't get out of the immediate conference area the whole time, and I know there is a lot more to see. Sigh.

Anyway, there were a few odds and ends I wanted to mention before I forget:



1. Christmas! I don't remember how much I talked about what I got for Christmas, but I think this year was a particularly good one. Spanky got me drum lessons! I take my first one tomorrow at 6pm, which I'm REALLY excited about (and more than a little scared of...). She also got me my first Japanese knitting book--a pretty simple collection of hats and scarves. I think they're meant to be for guys, but they're pretty unisex. My mom got me the Alice Starmore book. Yay! I have been wanting to learn about Fair Isle knitting for a while, so this seems like the best place to start. I ordered a pretty cheap vest kit from Knit Picks to practice on. If it works, it is something I'd definitely wear. If not, I'm only out $15.



2. Matthew's last Christmas present: He got me a circular needle clutch from Offhand Designs. I filled it up as much as I could, but you can't really fill up all the sleeves, because then you can't close the clutch. Not quite as useful as he probably expected it to be, but perhaps I can use it to store swatches instead. The clutch is really beautiful though, and I definitely do appreciate it. It's just not really designed well to hold a lot of circulars.

3. My latest project isn't working out. I went through all the yarn that is out in the living room before Christmas, and pulled out a few skeins of better yarn, and decided I was going to knit with stuff that I really enjoyed for the first bit of the year. The first project was this one:



FO #1:

Pattern: Friday scarf by Vyvyan Neel
Needle: US 3 straights
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM (P53087)

This yarn is so pretty. I know the overwhelming sense is of watermelon (again! this is the second time I've knit something green and pink), but there is yellow, and a dark navy blue, and other colors as well, so knitting with it is so much fun. I took this project on the plane to San Diego with me, and it was a very meditative knit. In fact, I knit with it most of the way back and listened to A Christmas Carol read by Tim Curry, which Audible had given away for free, and I'd forgotten about it until then. I don't think I've ever really read the original Christmas Carol, just seen various filmed versions, so it was really great to hear Dickens' words themselves. He's quite witty, and I may have to go back and listen to some of his other books now.

Anyway, I got this Koigu about three years ago, maybe. Maybe longer! I got it at Knit NY after the Knit Out, so that had to be a few years ago. Anyway, I didn't know what I was going to make with this colorway, but I thought it was the best one the store had, and I was just excited to have some Koigu, because it was my first "nicer" yarn purchase. Then it just sat in the stash. The skeins seem kind of skimpy to me, and I know I couldn't make any kind of substantial socks with them, so when I saw that cute scarf pattern, I knew immediately that I'd use the Koigu to make it. It only took one skein though, which left me with one left over, which I'll get to in a minute.

I'm not crazy about how the scarf looks with a button-down shirt, but maybe it will look better with a scoopneck t-shirt or something like that. I also thought it looked ok doubled-up, like a little cravat:



I don't know if it will actually stay like that, but it looks cute! I'll most likely wear it both ways to work. The Koigu softened up quite a bit in blocking, and the scarf stopped curling.

In the meantime, I decided to use the remaining skein to kit a Purl beret, which supposedly only needs one skein of Koigu. Whatever! I've just started the decreases, and I'm about to run out. I think I'm going to have to rip the whole thing out and start over, even with the remnants from the Friday scarf's ball. UGH. It looks really good in this pattern too though.

And finally, I'm JONESING to start a sweater. In fact, I may swatch for that rather than deal with this fucking beret. I'm really mad at it right now. Once I get the sweater all set up and started, I may revisit the hat to finish it, just so I can finally get that Koigu out of the stash. Just in time for the Knit-a-Bit Super Bowl sale!