Happy Holidays! Strike Over!

So the strike is over and everything has turned to a mad rush for last minute Christmas shopping! Well, at least for people that didn't get out the city earlier! New York was so empty this morning!

I lucked out on Wednesday by working at home. Thursday morning I went back to work, but had to drive around Queens for 30 minutes in the cab trying to get a 4th person so we could get over the bridge to Manhattan! Getting home wasn't a problem this time, my fiance had driven up from Jersey so we just drove home to Queens. Course he was stuck in traffic at 3pm on the Jersey Turnpike when they announced the strike was over.......but hey, better late than never!

But who cares about all that strike stuff......it's time for Christmas!



It's going to be a busy holiday! We have tons of family to see. Both of our parents are divorced, so we have 4 families to fit in! Luckily I took off from work all next week, so I'll have plenty of time to rest (and knit)!

Happy Holidays everyone! I'll see ya guys next year - hopefully with a finished pair of Log Cabin socks!

Hey! Can I Get A Ride?

Fun, fun, fun. That is the way my day went today. Woke up to no subway service in NYC due to the greedy union calling a strike. I mean, I'm all for the workers getting their raises, but when so many people are just trying to get to work to provide for their families and buy Christmas presents - this just totally sucks! I managed to get to work in a minivan with 6 strangers. Luckily it only cost me $10. Left my apartment at 9am, got to work at 11am. Getting home wasn't so easy however. I was planning on taking the LIRR, but that didn't work out. Then I figured I'd just jump in a cab with 3 other people, that didn't work either. So I ended up walking home. So I walked from 39th and Broadway to 31st Ave in Queens. For those of you that are lucky enough to not live in NYC and aren't familiar with the area, that means I had to walk about 5 miles and had to cross the East River via the Queensboro Bridge. And let me tell you, it was not a fun walk when it is 20 degrees outside and you are walking for 2 hours! The last time I had to do this was during the blackout in 2003, and I thought I'd never have to do it again! UGH! I brought work home with me tonight, I am NOT dealing with this again tomorrow. I guess it could have been worse though, it could have been snowing!

And now back to our normally scheduled knitting content:

I started knitting the Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays this past weekend. I had the yarn sitting around from my Rowan mag subscription from last year. It was supposed to be a capelet, but it wasn't the best looking capelet, and I'm not really a capelet kinda girl. So the yarn is now socks. Yay socks! Boo MTA and the Union!

Secret Pal 6 Reveal

I received my final package from my wonderful SP Melissa from melknits this weekend. It was filled with tons of wonderful goodies!

I received 4 balls of plymouth baby alpaca brush, 2 balls of sockotta, a pattern for a hat and socks for the sockotta, woolwash, a cute little basket, and some Christmas coffee and tea from starbucks. I'm sure the caffeine will help me stay up to knit "just one more row"!

Here's a detail of the cute little basket! I put a dime in the picture so you could see how small it really is.


Melissa also sent along a little "newsletter" telling me a little about herself and her family. What a creative reveal! Thanks Melissa for everything!

The secret pal I had to spoil was ALSO named Melissa - the hostess called it the "ring around the Melissa's". So as my first SP draws to a close I am so happy that I had a good experience. I didn't exactly know what to expect and now I have made two more knitting buddies - it just happens that both of them are named Melissa!

Blocking Board is Getting All the Love

My blocking board has been getting tons of love lately. I haven't put it away since I brought it back to my apartment a month or so ago!

The Opera scarf is giving the board love tonight. I finished tonight at SnB and it feels good to have one more project off the list.




I think this is going to be my last Christmas knit. I was planning on making my Dad's wife a pair of socks, but it's going to take a bit of work to have them done in time. Plus she started knitting herself a little while back and has only made some novelty yarn scarves. Since she keeps saying that she would like to learn how to knit sweaters, I thought it might be nicer to buy her a beginning sweater book and offer her some lessons. I think she'd appreciate the socks, but I think buying her a book or even some more yarn will be even better. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.

So Christmas knitting is officially over! Now I can go back to my regularly scheduled selfish knitting!

Two Down, Two to Go

So I managed to make it back from Minneapolis in one piece! On the way there, I was fine, but on the way home the anxiety kicked in a bit. Luckily my boss offered me her 1st class seat and I had my knitting with me. I was so distraught that I knit a whole repeat on branching out before I realized I dropped 3 stitches on the first row I had started with. But I'm home now and don't think I'll have to go on any more business trips for awhile. It was good to experience a new place, but man was it cold! It was like -6 degrees yesterday! It felt like a heat wave when I got back to NYC - and it was only 34 degrees!

So I managed to finish up Branching Out on the plane and blocked it tonight. I'm so excited to have 2 gifts down and only 2 more to go! The pattern was a lot clearer once it was blocked and I hope it stays that way when being worn.



Today I received my package from Purl with my beautiful Alpaca and Silk from Blue Sky. What great timing. I am doing the Opera Scarf from Blue Sky, which is a free pattern offered on their web site. It seems like a pretty quick knit, so I hope to have it finished by next week if not sooner. I was going to cast on tonight, but I still have to pack to go home to NJ. I am going to Fiona Apple in Philly tomorrow night - I can't wait!


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, yummy yarn!

Goodies

Yesterday I picked up my yarn sample book from Habu Textiles. Habu's yarns are absolutely amazing! They have everything from silk and wool to pineapple, copper, silver and steel. I visited their showroom in NYC a couple weeks back when I was doing some research on a top secret project and I was in heaven.



Today I received The Knitting Answer Book from Amazon. I had placed the pre-order ages ago and I thought it was supposed to come out in October, but I guess I was wrong. I've scanned through it very quickly, but I like what I see so far. I strongly suggest adding this to your knitting reference library even if you've been knitting for years. The book is small too, about 4 x 6, so it's even easy to slip into your knitting bag when knitting on the town. Oh and did I mention it's cheap too - only $14.95!



Branching Out is coming along very well. I can't wait to finish! Judging from trying to wrap it around my neck, it's about 3/4 of the way there. I hope to have it done before Wednesday.

I found a very nice free scarf pattern from Blue Sky Alpaca to do for my Grandmom too. I ditched the glove and sock idea - I think she'll get more use out of this. It's made out of their Alpaca/Silk blend and I'm really excited about trying this yarn out.

Monday and Tuesday of next week it's off to Minnesota for Target meetings. Ugh! I almost wish I had gotten it over with the first time. Wish me luck! I'll just pack lots of knitting and hope for the best.