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)

seven women on my mind

IMG_7213, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

It’s done! It’s done, it’s done, it’s done! (And a good thing, too, because now I can pay even more attention to my NaKniSweMo sweater.) This is, as I predicted, an awfully short scarf – it wraps around my neck exactly one time, enough that I can single-knot it together. (Or hold the ends together with a brooch, if I were the kind of person who owned and wore brooches, but I am not.) The pattern is Cable and Lace Scarf Redux by The Kniterella, which is gorgeous (and I apologize for the snotty Ravelry-only linking, I am too lazy to find a link to the unlocked pattern) and went by very quickly.

I don’t care how short it is, though. It is warm, and unbelievably soft, and I may actually never take it off.

Song of the Entry: The Eagles – Take it Easy

i'm the instigator of underwear showing up here and there

IMG_7163, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

Remember the yarn I bought over Thanksgiving weekend? This yarn? I finally knit with it! Basically, the second I picked up the skein I just wanted to squish my face against it (the wool/silk is ridiculously soft) – so I decided the best thing to make would be something that went against my neck and face.

This is a scarf! Or possibly just a glorified neckerchief, since I’m trying to make as much scarf as I can get out of 300 yards, but, whatever. It’s going to be awesome, and I can squish it against my face as much as I want to.

Song of the Entry: P!nk – Bad Influence