so this is the new year.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all – and by that I mean the entire internet – rang it in with some style. I spent mine hanging out with rad people and eating delicious cheese, which the way most things should be, I think.

I ended up going back to my parents’ place out west for the end of December, which was delightful, and leaving my camera in my apartment here, which was less delightful. 2009 marked the first year I actually did a lot of Christmas gift knitting – I enjoyed it because I like giving people I love the things that I’ve made, but I didn’t enjoy the way it made crafting sort of stressful. I don’t think I’ll be doing it again.

Did you know that it’s possible to knit a pair of size 9 men’s socks in four days? Totally unrelatedly. Because I sure didn’t. (I also – honestly, I did not realize that actual people had feet that big. I finished a sock, matched it up to the measurements I had, and did not believe it would fit a real person.)

The only pair I have a picture of is my mother’s pair, because I. . .may or may not have had to finish them on the flight home. I mailed them back to her yesterday. I know they’ll fit, and I know she loves them – all the important stuff – but I still feel a bit like the Worst Firstborn Ever for not finishing her Christmas present until five days later.

I also did a little bit of knitting-related shopping, while I was away.

Five skeins of Custom Woolen Mills mule spinner 2-ply. It’s a light worsted/sport weight yarn, and really sheepy. I have about enough to make a sweater, but I might turn it into a blanket or something in the outerwear family. (It’s not the softest against bare skin, and I tend to wear my sweaters with short-sleeved shirts.) This yarn does, however, have the distinction of being spun in Alberta, which frankly appeals to my sense of whimsy just enough that it was worth it.

Oh, yeah. And then some of this may have snuck into my basket. Whatever.

Mini-Maiden, 500ish yards of wool-silk laceweight that I just want to rub against my cheek like a crazy person. It’s going to be rad.

Song of the Entry: Death Cab for Cutie – The New Year (Video)

the best way to spread christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

The Christmas knitting is well underway – this is the first year I’ve really had any down-to-the-wire gift knitting undone, and I’m not sure it’s a feeling I like. Next year, I plan to take on less. The current flurry of (unphotographed) work is for my parents, who are both theoretically getting socks for Christmas – I have exactly one of my mother’s pair done, and I started the cuff for the first sock of my father’s pair yesterday. This is Bad News.

However, the scarf for my good friend B- is done. And now that I’ve given it to him, I feel safe about putting pictures of it on the internet. This was the first scarf I’ve ever knit sideways (by casting on 470 stitches and knitting 40 rows, instead of casting on 40 stitches and knitting several hundred rows). I’m still not sure how I feel about the process – each way of scarf knitting has its upsides and downsides, I guess.

Either way, the scarf went from this:

To this.

(That’s linen stitch, not colourwork, so it’s actually dead easy.)

He likes it (and wears it!), so that’s more than good enough for me.

our cheeks are nice and rosy and -

Oh man, it has not been that long since I posted. Oops.

So anyway, after that last entry full of good intentions and plans for Christmas knitting and resolve to work on my sweater, I sat down with my friend D- for coffee. And D- is a really swell guy, but sometimes his head gets cold, so he said to me: could you knit me a hat?

We have been friends for seven years. I said yes.

(This is the best picture of the hat I have, and it’s no longer mine to to photograph. I have this problem with things I knit for gifts. Anyway, it’s made of Dream in Color Classy, half from stash and half bought fresh. I used Jared Flood‘s Turn A Square pattern.)

Okay, but here is the thing. D- has a roommate, and he is also my friend. We’ll call him, I don’t know, B-. I couldn’t knit something for one without offering to knit something for the other, obviously, so I’m also making a scarf. In the same yarn.

(I’m trying my hardest not to go all Mrs. Weasley and accidentally give them matching winter wear. It’s going well so far.)