knitting in the dark

Forgive me interwebs for I have sinned - it has been more than a month since my last post. SO much work on my plate usually leads to my getting buckets of other stuff (knitting, cleaning, etc) done as well, and this season has been no exception! Since I last checked in here I have knit a hat, two pairs of socks (one for the Knit Outside the Sox contest and one as my yearly tradition for my father’s Christmas present), and have started a third pair (belated Christmas gift for my friend Janie)…

This is the pair I knit my father:

pattern: made up

yarn: Fortissima Socka

started: 22 December 2008

completed: 31 December 2008

But I still haven’t finished seaming Demi or my NaKniSweMo sweater. As predicted, I have a sleeve left to complete, but I’ll get there… eventually.

For Christmas I received some lovely fiber-y gifts from my family (and some lovely non-knitting related items as well). My similarly-fiber-obsessive aunt Kate gave me an Ashford Turkish Spindle and some lovely (and local - the farm is about 20 minutes from my parents’ house) Vashon Alpaca Fibers to learn to spin. I wasn’t planning on taking up spinning, but I’ve been dreaming about it recently and I’m excited to learn to make yarn… especially since she picked a perfect gift without any hints! And my mother gave me the items necessary to turn this Koigu I received Christmas 2006:

into this:

I’ve always considered a swift and ball winder to be a knitting luxury; I’ve been winding balls by hand since I was just a little kid… and why spend that money when I could be use it to buy more yarn! But now that I have the goods I wonder how I managed to be so patient in the past!

Here’s wishing everyone a happy and hopeful 2009!