365 Days to go . . .

I don't really like the idea of most New Year's Resolutions, since they are usually so amorphous that they can only end in failure. I believe in concrete goals, ones that you actually can obtain. I need a number, a schedule. I usually don't make any resolutions, because if I'm going to put off doing something until the date changes, it probably means that I don't really have the drive to do it. But, I do have some ambitions for 2008.

1) Read 50 books in 2008. I read 36 books in 2007, and now that I am no longer in school, I'm really enjoying having the freedom to read what I want. I'd like to work on 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (with the acceptance that I will never finish this list. I've read 49 - only 952 to go.) There is a really cool spreadsheet you can download here, that will keep track of everything for you.

2) Learn some new knitting skills. Namely, colorwork. I can't say that I'm going to like it, or be good at it, but you can't knock it till you try it. I really want to make these Endpaper Mitts.

3) Write more letters. I've joined the Modern Letter Project, so I'll at least be writing 2 letters a month. The internet is great and all, but I think we all agree that getting mail is awesome.

4) Take more pictures. I always see things and think to myself, "Man, I wish I had my camera!" I'll start bringing it with me more.

Ok, that's all. Not too hard, huh? I'm sure that during the course of the year, I'll find new and exciting things to do and places to see, and I'll just go for it. Why wait when you can do it NOW? Happy New Year everyone!

The Year's End

I hope everyone had an exciting and eventful holiday season (or non-eventful, if that's what you prefer.) While the highlight of my Christmas might very well have been our dinner of Fried Chicken & Waffles with Syrup & Hot Sauce, I did get some knitterly gifts. I am now the proud owner of a set of KnitPicks Options Needles! I LOVE these things. They are so smooth, I swear I can knit faster with them. Its also nice to know that I have most needle sizes ready to go, and I won't have to buy anymore for a long, long time. (You can see in the picture that they've changed their case - if you want the cool little binder, its now $20 more! Luckily I got the binder included with mine, but I think its a cheap move on Knitpicks's part.)

Also, someone needs to fess up. I received this book in the mail, with no indication of who it was from, and no one has mentioned that they sent it to me! Was it you? (Also, this book does not mess around. It says its "naughty" and it is.


I continue to plug away on my green cardigan. I have the back and most of a front left. Now that I have the options needles, I'm hoping it will go faster. I did need some instant gratification though, so I made this quick scarf. Its a little sparkly, and I like how the colors blend together. And, it also matches one of my backyard bushes!

The Tiniest Sweater in the World

Ok, all together now: "Awwwwwwww!"

Although it doesn't have it's tiny hanger yet, this is destined to be a Christmas ornament. It's just so CUTE, I can hardly stand it. It's hard to tell scale in these pictures, but its about 2 inches high. It's made from leftover sock yarn, and the patten can be found here. (You have to subscribe to this mailing list to get the pattern for free . . . but that's why I have a fake email account.)

10 Favorite Things

I did a swap a few months ago that was to write a letter listing 10 of your favorite things. I decided to go more visual (click image for bigger):


So, what are 10 of your favorite things?
Tagging: Golden Iris, ReluctantMango, The Smile Spot, & Yarnmama.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's always a little weird to celebrate a holiday when the weather isn't quite fitting - like an 80 degree Christmas or a rainy 4th of July. But here in New Mexico we got perfect Thanksgiving weather (even though it was 80 degrees 2 days ago):

This Thanksgiving I made my first pumpkin pie, to bring to our friends' house. Everyone really liked it, and wanted to know the recipe. "Is this your mom's recipe?" I was asked. "Um, actually its the recipe that's on the can of pumpkin," I was forced to reply. Busted! (Good thing they didn't ask about the crust . . . that was Pillsbury.)

Back to knitting

I finished something! These are just basic socks with a seed-stitch cuff, made in Schachenmayr Regia Color 4-ply / 4-fädig (how's that for a name?) that I got at Maryland Sheep & Wool. I really like this yarn - the stripes are cool, and the yarn seems nice and sturdy. (It's also machine washable, which is a requirement for my socks - it would take approximately 4 seconds for hand-wash-only yarn to deconstruct in my house.)


I started a sweater too! Right now it looks like a blob, though. It will be this sweater. I was sort of torn about the plain edges, since as you can already see, stockinette stitch curls like nobody's business. I really like the aesthetic of it though, so I could be setting myself up for years of frustration. The yarn is a cotton/linen/vicose blend that is very soft, and lighter than straight-up cotton. It's weird to knit a sweater bottom-up, it just doesn't make too much sense logically. Probably after this I'll stick to top-down, since they don't require seaming and you can try them on as you go along.

I just got a copy of Fitted Knits - I was super excited for it, although I was a little disappointed when I finally got it. I thought there would be more info about modifying the patterns - like how to sub yarns, etc. I like a lot of the patterns in the book, but almost all of them are knit with bulky yarn! I think the smallest needle size is an 8. Bulky knitting looks good on no one, in my opinion, so I'm going to get a math exercise when I make something out of this book.

Wedding

I'm doing things a little backwards here, but before the honeymoon there was an actual wedding! As you can see the weather was perfect after a few days of constant rain. We had a very picturesque location, as well, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

I loved my short dress! Besides the fact that it was a "bridesmaid's dress" and only cost $140, it made me not look like a stumpy ghost, which is what a long dress would have looked like. Just for fun I tried on a huge dress with lots of gathers and rhinestones, and I kid you not, I could not walk in it. I felt like I was standing inside of a giant cupcake.

Our reception was also in Williamsburg, at a conference center that had a waterfall! Above are our wedding party - including my brother, sister, my friend of 20 years, and the groom's dad. Guess who's who! (Also, I totally have a delt muscle in that picture. Awesome.)

The whole thing went by incredibly fast, and so I apologize if you were there and I hardly talked to you. Taking 200+ pictures apparently eats up a lot of time. I missed out on an awesome cheese & fruit display, so I'm hoping everyone else took advantage of it. As I try to see the humor in everything, I thought the funniest thing about the wedding was that our musicians thought that we were Irish. The singer stood up and said "It wouldn't be an Irish wedding without an Irish toast!" and proceeding to give some Irish toasts. Except that we're not Irish. At all.

Next: back to regularly scheduled knitting programming.

Caribbean Interlude

After all of the months of preparation spent on weddings, they sure go by fast! I get a guilty pleasure out of watching Bridezillas on TV, and I never understand how you could get so worked up about 4 hours of your life. Oh well. Everything went perfectly - I'll post some pictures of the actual event soon.

For our honeymoon we spent 7 days in the Caribbean. It was an interesting experience, not at all what I had expected. For instance, I never saw any of those pristine white beaches you see on the travel channel. I did see beaches where you were harassed constantly by people wanted to braid your hair (I think my longest piece of hair is about 4 inches), sell you jewelry, and take you on jet skis. I even saw a guy selling maps that I saw for free at the tourist office, and another guy offering foot massages, who ran away as soon as the police approached him.

I'm not really a beach person anyway, so I was more in awe of the rainforests. We went on a hike in St. Lucia (in my opinion, one of the most beautiful islands), and the amount of produce growing freely is amazing: mangoes, starfruit, avocados, cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa, coffee, bananas, etc. I would like to issue a public service announcement that hiking in a bathing suit, towel, and watershoes through a wet, steep rainforest is not a good idea. (Hear that, girl in front of me the whole time?)


Our cruise ship was ridiculously huge. (It was bigger than the Titanic - I looked it up.) Despite my discontentment with the constant stream of black smoke and generally wastefulness going on on the ship, it was a fun experience. Good food whenever you want it, plentiful hot tubs, gym/sauna/steam room, ice rink!, and many, many deck chairs. (Our ship is the giant one, next to a "normal" sized cruise ship.)


And best of all, a new towel animal every night in your room.


I had a good time, and not to be down on cruising, but I'm not sure I'd do it again. You have to be around a large group of people wherever you go, and as I mentioned before, the whole thing seemed sort of wasteful. There was food left on everyone's plate, and we had to use paper cups for most beverages - I probably threw away 15 cups during the week, so multiply that by 3,000 or so. It's also difficult to get around on shore, and as a walking/explorer type of person, it was hard to deal with $20-one-way cab rides. If I had to do it again, I'd probably spend more time in one place, since its hard to see anything during short times at port. St. Lucia was probably the most visually stunning, and also one of the poorest countries. Barbados seemed to just be developing its tourist industry. Antigua was one of my favorites - once we passed the usual tourist shops, it seemed like a relaxed kind of place. St.Maarten is overrun with jewelry stores, and seemed the most international of all the islands we visited. We didn't see much of St.Thomas, but it seemed quite Americanized.


All in all, I like seeing as many places as possible, even if they don't end up being my favorite. So for my next vacation, maybe a lake? Rest of the pictures are here.

Books Read - October 2007

Books read in October, 2007. Whoo, lots of mysteries this month! I'm a little mysteried out for the moment, so back to regular programming in November.

25. The Merlot Murders - Ellen Crosby Murders at a winery in Virginia - surprisingly well written.

26. Tears of the Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith Second in the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series. Mma Ramotswe is endearing and the setting is enchanting. Smith also has an incredible sense of humor.

26. Strawberry Shortcake Murder - Joanne Fluke Second Hannah Swenson mystery - These books make me want to open up my own bakery. I love the setting of a cookie shop in Minnesota in winter - so cozy! I also love the heroine of these books, Hannah. She's smart, real, sassy, and funny.

27. Shakespeare's Landlord - Charlaine Harris First in the Lilly Bard series. This one was a little more graphic than most cozy mysteries. But Lilly is a weightlifter, and even bitchy at times. It's great.

28. Gunpowder Green - Laura Childs Second in the Tea Shop mystery series. After reading this second book in the series, the setting started to annoy me. Most of the characters are wealthy, and most events take place at expensive parties, boutiques, and yacht clubs. It's hard to feel a connection.

Plans

I recently participated in a letter writing swap, where the them was "10 of my favorite things." It was a fun swap, particularly because I got a wonderful over-the-top package from a partner in Scotland. She sent some incredible stationary:


I looked up the designer, Papaya! I really want to buy a bunch of their stationary - except that shipping is like $9! I hate it when the shipping is outrageous - this is for paper, after all.

I'm almost done with my second striped sock. I was hoping to post pictures before I left, but that is not in the cards. Yes, I'm leaving - I'm getting married in 5 days! Then its off to the blissfully calm Caribbean. See everyone in November!

I have big knitting plans when I get back. I'm feeling the urge to knit a sweater, and I'm looking at this:Cropped Cardigan with Leaf Ties from Knitty and Fitted Knits. I bought a bunch of linen/cotton yarn to make the Eyelet Chemise from Interweave, but I realized that I would probably never finish or wear it. I've never finished anything lace, and short-sleeved sweaters are sort of useless (for me at least). I'm planning to alter this somewhat, making it more fitted, longer, and possibly with ribbing. We'll see what happens.

Signing off for now . . .