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)

dreaming ’bout brand new spaces and brand new faces

I have a bit of a mishmash of things to talk about, today. First of all, this sleeve.

It rose from the ashes of the sweater I started a few weeks ago, which I worked on for a solid eight or nine inches of body before I decided that really, it wasn’t going to look that good on me at all. I was so confident that I didn’t even take a picture – I just gave up, frogged, and drew a whole bunch of sketches. So, now I’m making up a sweater from scratch. (Give or take. I have an EZ book and a couple of tutorials that I’m hoping will guide me.)

I’ve also started a sock. This one is purple,, and really that’s the only exciting thing it’s got going for it. The yarn is (more) Tanis Fiber Arts, and at this point my affection for her yarn is probably starting to seem a little creepy, except that, okay. So, remember all of this wool, the sock yarn I bought that was going to be a pair of stripey socks and maybe an Ulmus?

I was really excited about it, and took it everywhere I went, and knit three-quarters of a pair of lovely striped socks, and then. Uh. Possibly I left it in class in a bag (with my spare Addi and a couple of spare sets of sock needles) and have yet to track it down. Possibly it has disappeared into the ether, forever. I’m still kind of in mourning.

So, when I was at the Creativ Festival a couple of weekends ago, I picked up some more yarn at the Purple Purl booth (a skein of sock yarn and a Fiddlehead Mitten Kit), and I’m making myself a new pair of socks that I definitely, definitely, for suresies won’t lose.

They’re purple.

Song of the Entry: Michael Bernard Fitzgerald – Brand New Spaces (Watch/Listen to the best music video ever.)

and now we're going to roll.

IMG_8141ps, originally uploaded by pirateygoodness.

Since finishing my socks, I have – not startitis, per se, but a couple of different projects started this weekend that I’m hoping will get me through the next few weeks and a trip home at the end of the month.

The yarn above is Socks That Rock Mediumweight, in Knitters Without Borders. Which, tragically, is turning out to be one of those colourways that looks much, much better in the skein, but whatever. I kind of saw that coming, and it’s kind of a cool idea – a couple dollars from the proceeds of this colourway go to MSF.

I’ve also started something with this, and I’m very excited about it – that’s Malabrigo Lace, in Azul Bolita, and it’s exactly as blue as it looks in that picture. Expect a lot of Tobias Funke jokes.

Song of the Entry: Mest – Cadillac (Listen)