Merry Christmas!

Some encouraging words from the Gospel of John (NIV): In him was life, and that life was the light of men... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Rusty Nail

A little Friday eye candy. I am busy packing, packing, packing...

Checklist

I'm the sort of person who writes things on the to-do list, after I've done them, just so I can cross them off. But you knew that. Anyway, guess what I got finished today?



No, I didn't think that you would guess a miniature bead purse from 1999 (1996?). Actually, I had 4 of these finished and waiting for handles. Seems silly that after stringing a zillion tiny beads and knitting a purse on 000 zero needles I would be so loath to take the 10 minutes to twist a handle. Sometimes a project just ends that way waits for a return of crafting will.

The other purses will not be appearing on the blog because a) I am too lazy to learn how to set the aperture/ISO/flash settings on my camera when there is no sunshine b) there was no sunshine c) the purses had to be sent ASAP as Christmas gifts (you know, after 10 years of sitting in my closet).

This beige and green one was the only one I knit for myself during my tiny bead knitting binge and I have renewed respect for my teenage self. I may have worn cargo pants, t-shirts and tennis shoes, but I knit killer sparkly miniature purses...

Remotely Crazy

My camera remote arrived! So now I can show you the Plum Crazy Shawl. My photography with the remote is still pretty rough, but gotta start somewhere :)



Fiber: 8 oz Falkland wool
Colorway: 5 Plum Pie, May 2009 Club Fiber by Hello Yarn
Handspun by yours truly
Pattern: Feather & Fan Comfort Shawl



Now I need some long sleeve t-shirts so I can start wearing my shawls out of the house...

Miles To Knit Before I Sleep...

I started earlier this year, but there's still a lot on the list.

Yarn Stalking

Did I ever tell you about the time I stumbled across an obscure independent German yarn dyer? Her site was cute and she had amazing colors. But you know how difficult it is to special-order things from overseas. I thought maybe sometime if I really wanted to, I could figure out the process and get something from her. Well, then she was discovered by North Americans. For a while her stuff was so popular that it seemed to the only way to get it (beside luck) was to pay scalper prices for it on Ebay. It seems that only the recession has been enough to bring her yarn back into the realm of imagination. Some of her least popular colors are now being sold second hand for $40 per skein of sock yarn.

There have been other rushes on popular yarns. Remember when everyone who was anyone was trying KPPPM, then Socks That Rock, then Sundara etc. etc. ? So this time, when I started to see some work on Etsy that intrigued me, I decided to order some. You know, before it turned into a top dollar global phenomenon after being launched to fame by a leading knit-blogger's stunningly photographed FO (yep, I can tell I just lost my non-knitting friends - sorry y'all, tune in next time).

This is the first (more skeins coming) to be procured under my new early yarn stalking system. What do you think, will it have tripled in value by next year?

Dreaming of Christmas

I've been enjoying the photography advent calendar by Moonstiches. You might want to take a peek too.

Today when unpacking the ornaments I came across these. I didn't notice until photographing them that there are five. Five Christmas trees on December 5th.



and five shadows...



Yes, I'm dreaming of Christmas. Here are some of my Christmas wishes:

- sing Christmas carols around a tree decorated with burning candles
- eat 7 Layer Cookies
- surprise someone with an unexpected gift
- laugh so hard my abs hurt for days
- go shopping for clothes with my awesome sister
- go LAST MINUTE shopping with my mom
- catch up with friends

Happy Swap

Blindly swapped some alpaca blend fiber for whatever another raveler wanted to send me.



A few days later this arrived: 200g of lovely BLF/Silk blend. I've been watching this Etsy seller and now serendipitously, some of her work arrives on my doorstep!

But that wasn't all... Jennie also included stitch markers (matching olive green and purple), chocolate, and copies of TWO patterns currently in my queue. The pretty things were wrapped up with care in patterned tissue paper and stickers. Wow! Thank you Jennie :)

PS - Her blog is in Swedish, but my browser offers to translate it for me. It comes out a bit odd, but enough to follow the gist of things.

Life's Rhythms

You know how it is, life is busy and the blog gets quiet. However, looking back on my past posts, I realize how this place has given me a place to journal. It's good to look back and see what I was thinking and doing a year or two ago. To see the flow of it again...

I don't want to lose this fall. This was the first year that there was Thanksgiving at my house. The stuffing came out just like Mom's (yea!) and because of her scripted schedule (emailed to me by request) the event was tear free. My MIL and FIL brought cranberry relish, 3 pies, and their wonderful company. It was cosy and joyful to be together. Next time I might even have the brain space to think about things like table decor... and napkins :)

Another autumn discovery - My neighbor just happened to be making apple-sauce when I came by - could it really be that easy? Yes, yes it was. Peel, core, simmer, enjoy. After that I went to the store and bought Golden Delicious and Macintosh. Peeling that Golden Delicious took me right back to the first taste of fresh pressed cider, hands and nose frozen after hours working with wet apples. It was like finding a long lost friend.

As usual December has erased my desire to spin and filled me with a longing to knit. everything. now. I'm not sure if it is the darkness, or the cold, or the strange combination of happy and sad memories that the season evokes. But I'm continuing my quest for the perfect hat and a few gifts are in progress.

I hope to share more here soon!