thirteen

Okay... Back to reality... For now.

The holidays were wonderful, and still not completely over for us. I know that the calendar says Christmas has passed, but we are going to see some relatives in a couple weeks so we're prolonging the magic. Well... except we'll be taking the Christmas decorations down. If the decorations stay up too long after New Year's I get a bit twitchy. And cranky.

In all honesty, I haven't knit a single stitch in 3 days. James' sister and her husband, along with our niece and nephew were at our house for an extended weekend. They just left this morning and are now back in Florida. Boo. We had a great time with lots of shopping, cooking, laughing and a couple movies. We always have the best time together. Speaking of the cooking, James and Kristy (his sister) made a few recipes from the new Ina Garten cookbook, Foolproof - Recipes You Can Trust. They surprised us with Amelia's Jambalaya and Straw & Hay with Gorgonzola. Mmm... Gorgonzola. Sadly, I don't have any pictures (gobble gobble), but they both looked amazing and tasted even better! If you're a Barefoot Contessa fan, and you haven't yet, grab this book. It's wonderful. Before our guests arrived, I baked the Chocolate Chunk Blondies from the same recipe collection. I did make a small adjustment, though. My nephew has a nut allergy, so instead of walnuts I used (drum roll, please) more chocolate. Sue me.

 

Today I thought to myself, "It's a new year... I should start a new project." My lovely mother gifted me a few patterns on ravelry for Christmas and it just so happens that my friends Aimee and Darren of the Knitting in Circles Podcast are hosting a Gifted Pattern KAL (Knit-A-Long) in their ravelry group. I've started the Windward Scarf by Heidi Kirrmaier and I'm enjoying the pattern so far. It's an asymmetrical scarf that uses a combination of simple stitch patterns and unique construction, that I think I'll enjoy. And let me just say, this pattern is very well-written. I love it when patterns are easy to read. I'm using two different colors of Knit Picks Gloss since I happened to have them on hand. As you may have heard, I'm still trying to stash down before I head to Stitches West next month. Here's my public project page, and a quick pick of the small amount of progress I've made so far...

Oh yes, and as of today, my yarn stash on ravelry is down to 26!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!