Good to be Home Again

Ahhhh. I do love the holidays, but after 5 days at my parents', and almost 3 at Hubby's, with only two days in between, it is so very nice to get back into our little routines at home... even if home is an enormous mess.

Right now, Monkey is having a bath, and Daddy is assisting, (I can hear the giggles from here) so I have a few minutes to catch you up. I finished my holiday knitting just in time, again. Now this year I didn't plan on very many knit gifts because I wanted to avoid the frantic knitting/felting/sewing at midnight from last December. But still, I was down to the wire. I may not have been quite as stressed about it this year, but I was still pushing the deadline. I'm thinking that no matter how few or how many handmade projects I plan on, I will somehow find a way to be done just in time. I should just be glad that I did get them done, because the alternative is a bit embarrassing (and knitting gifts after they've been given is a bit like a chore).

My holiday knitting consisted of dishcloths for 8 (four each), a shawl, and some crazy hats.

Here are some dishcloths:

The finished shawl:

No pictures yet of the crazy hats for my BIL who likes to soak in his outdoor hot-tub in the winter, sorry. He got an acrylic rainbow hat with tail an pom-pom, and a regular hat of terra-cotta in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, very comfy.

Today is New Year's Eve, and I'm thinking of the direction I'd like my knitting to take in 2008.

• Knit up more of my stash, in order to switch the stash from the jumble of odd skeins it is to (many less skeins) of (nicer) yarn to be bought for a specific purpose.


• Finish a few UFO's, to have less of them at the end of the year than the amount I have now (many more than you are thinking).


• Knit some for charity. There are a lot of cold people out there. I have a ton of yarn. There's a connection there.


• Publish some free patterns. Yeah, I said FREE. One pattern a month, minimum. Here on the blog. Be sure to check back.

For now, I'm working on a charity baby blanket for Warm Woolies. It usually takes me awhile to select a pattern and yarn, but this time I just picked yarn out of the stash and cast on. Yeah me!