Happy New Year!

Welcome, everyone, to 2011. I don't know about you, but I was so glad to kick 2010 to the curb. This year can't possibly turn out like that one. I'm not going to let it. We had some good times (Berlin, I'm looking at you!), but it was overall a very rough year. I had to train a new assistant three times, my mom was in a car accident, and money's been pretty tight for everyone. I just always felt like I was waiting for the next disaster to hit. Today's started out pretty well, so I'm going to try to sustain the momentum as long as possible.

Christmas break was not the restful "break" I was hoping for. My flight down to FL was delayed three hours, meaning that I didn't roll into my mom's house until 3:45 am, which meant that the next few days were kind of a blur because of lack of sleep and excess activity--I drove to see my dad with my sister, decorated my mom's tree, did some last minute shopping with her, then drove to Spanky's in my sister's car for two days, saw all of her family, and then drove back with her and the dog to spend a couple more days with my mom. THEN, the flight home was delayed for FIVE HOURS (thanks, blizzard! and thanks, Jet Blue!). That made it basically an overnight flight, because I didn't get back to JC until 6:30 in the morning. This year, I'm not going home for Christmas. If my mom wants to see me, she can come up here, dammit. And Jet Blue, I want that time back!

So I've really been enjoying the run up to New Year's, since I don't have to do anything or see anyone, and we're in our own house, nesting away and resting up. When I go back to work on Monday, I have to hit the ground running. I have a conference in Boston on Jan 6, so I have a ton of work to get ready for that, as well as wrapping up the last contracts from 2010 (met my goal, booyah!!!).

In terms of knitting, I didn't get as much accomplished in this last little bit of time as I wanted, which I also blame on Jet Blue and the lack of sleep and rest I got over the break. I did finish Spanky's nephew's hat, which turned out passably well, although not exactly what I was picturing. He asked me for a purple hat with a red X across the top. I have no idea how to do that, aside from double-stitching it on, but that was hard to do because of the decreases. Maybe someday I'll try it again. I ended up just stitching up some red "scars" across the top of the hat into a X. Maybe the decreases should have been done in the purple part. I don't know. I used the Turn a Square pattern by Jared Flood as the blueprint, since it has the square decreases on the top, which I thought I could just follow as a guide for the X. It didn't work. He seemed to be ok with it though. That does count as my last FO for 2010, FO 24 (I did a pretty thorough write-up of my FOs for 2010 in a previous post, so no need to linger on them here--was a pretty mediocre year in terms of output and results...):

Pattern: Turn a Square, adapted for sport weight yarn and only done in one color. Also, I didn't have time to block it. I was up really late the night before I had to go to Spanky's re-doing the X a bazillion times, so blocking didn't happen.

Yarn: Cascade Superwash Sport in eye-searing purple and red. I bought the sport weight because I needed those colors, and they didn't have 220 in the correct purple or red. I figured I could adapt a pattern, which I did. It only took one skein of the purple, and obviously just a bit of the red. I still have one purple and the rest of the red left, and I'm going to make him some mitts or a cowl to go with the hat at some point.

Needle: Size US 5 circular and DPNs. I've lost my good wooden DPNs, so we had to run out to Joann's and buy two sets of Susan Bates cheapy aluminum ones, because of course the Bates ones only come in sets of 4, not 5. Sigh.

But I also forgot to show you FO #23, which turned out a lot better:



Pattern: Jack in the Box mittens from Knitting New Mittens and Gloves by Robin Melanson. This book is awesome, by the way, but this is the first thing I've actually made from it. They are so wonderful, and were fairly straightforward to make. I used some Bernat Lana--the same as for the Acorn hat, as they were going to be given together to my final assistant of 2010, Rebecca. I love the pattern on the cuff, and the flip tops.


(a bit blurry, but you get the idea. also, very stretchy, not what you'd think by looking at it!)

The mittens are one of the few I've seen that button the flaps closed. Normally you see the buttons on the back to button the flaps open, but in the cold weather we just had, I assume she's going to keep them closed more than open anyway.

Oh, by the way, she didn't make me anything. Nor did I get a card. I'm a bit bummed about that. Sigh. (I know, grinchy... we covered this! I just have to keep repeating to myself that my self-worth isn't tied up into whether people remember you at the holidays or not. But really? Why no present at all? No card? Even Matthew gave us a bottle of wine, and he's not my assistant anymore! Does she just not like me? WTF?!)

Oh well. New year, new attitude. Forgiveness, kindness, not all about me, that sort of thing. But it did hurt a little bit. And being above it all is HARD, y'all. Especially since I loved those mittens so much I wanted to keep them.

In terms of 2011, I only want to keep knitting down the stash, and maybe learn a few new things. I'm taking a color work class at Vogue Knitting Live at the end of January, and I'm participating in a Sock Yarn Stash Knit Down. The first pair of the year, to be done by the end of Jan are the Zokni socks, done in a leafy green color of Knit Picks Essential, that I've had in the stash for a few years now. Time to use it up!