Field Trip

God comes to us in the things
we know best and can verify the most easily,
the things of our everyday life,
apart from which we cannot understand ourselves.
-John Paul II

You know how I feel about road trips. Very positively. And the upside to working as much as the beau and I do is that we really enjoy your time off. Even a single day is really valuable in the way that it wasn't when I was, say, in college, and I needed a whole week to feel like I was getting a break. With our confluence of 30-some hours away from teh hospital, the beau and I and Rowena took a great little day trip on Sunday to explore parts of southern California we'd never really seen before. It was a fabulous mini-vacation, without any of the stress of actually trying to get somewhere.It was so much fun the last time, let's have another contest to guess where the knitting has been. Here's the back of Rowena from Knit 2 Together playing tourist. It's incredible how much stockinette stitch one can knit if the beau drives, isn't it? I started the day at the top of the ruffle and am several inches beyond this photo now.
A close up of that ruffle is definitely in order:
The ruffle is actually a hem, as you may be able to see from the turning row with the hem 1/2 the stitches of the ruffle (which is twice the number of stitches as the body - see how this all works out?). As I usually do, I knit up the hem with the body, which took pretty much forever. Up close, I think it would have been tidier to sew, but from any kind of distance I don't think it makes much of a difference. And the psychological benefit to me is huge.

So, where did we go? Here's one last hint. Email your guesses to me by Friday February 2 at midnight Pacific Standard Time (GMT - 8), and the winner will get something wonderfully yarny to be determined next week. Be as specific as you can.

Weekend Wallpaper

The love I've known is the love of two people
staring not at each other, but in the same direction.
-Frank Bidart

Seen here, originally from here. A meme. Show the wallpaper on your computer. Easy enough. It's my favorite photo.The beau and I at Joshua Tree National Park last fall. Perhaps we'll do something new and photo-worthy this weekend so you don't get bored of the same one. It's beautiful in San Diego right now, the beau's back from eight days in Texas, and we have a whole 30-something hours off.

For knitting content, here's my old wallpaper, up until about 2 months ago.I'm sure there's something deeply symbolic about the change, but I will say that it did seem a little odd to have all that snow on my computer in San Diego.

Riding the Rails

I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.
-Yogi Berra

Thanks for all your interest in my closet cleaning. It looks like all three have found homes, two of them with people I know (if I adjust the sleeves of the sweater for my mom). . . go figure. At any rate, I've been knitting.

Again, I tell you how amazing it is to actually knit. It turns out that you can make real progress. And even finish things. The fact that these socks were a Christmas/December birthday present? Totally irrelevant to my post-UFO Resurrection Life. Seriously.

The Railway Stitch Socks
Pattern: from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: KnitPicks Essentials in heathered ash and grass, recycled from the damned argyles
Needles: bamboo dpns, US1
Notes: 1) Knit exactly as written, except approximately 1 inch longer. 2) I'm just under the wire for the Knitting Vintage Socks Knitalong January Challenge. Look at that - knitting well with others! 3) I cut and grafted the toe to make one foot long enough. Exciting death-defying photos to follow.
Best Thing About This Project: The lucky recipient (a friend of mine from college) has been known to send me random text messages on rainy days about how much he loves handknit socks. People who do this find themselves the lucky recipients of many pairs of handknit socks.

New Year, New Closet

Property rights serve human values.
They are recognized to that end, and are limited by it.
-Joseph Weintraub

Lately I've been doing more than just knitting; I've also been doing some closet cleaning. (Yes my life can be just that exciting! The beau is out of town for the week and I'm working nights. There are only so many options for entertainment.) I've realized that I only need about half the civilian clothes that I have; now that I've been through the seasonal swing in San Diego - if I haven't worn it yet, I won't. In the cleaning, I've also found some knits that just don't have a place in my closet anymore. Before consigning handknits to the vagaries of Goodwill, I thought I'd see if any of you have an interest.

First up, the felted tote on your left. This is about the size of a laptop case, maybe a little larger, and made of felted Lamb's Pride Bulky. There's a water bottle pocket on the outside and the flower decorations you see. The pattern, I believe, was in one of the Knit It! magazine issues about four years ago. It was great fun to make, but I generally find that felted bags don't have enough structure for me to make it really useful. And if I'm not using it, you might as well.

Next is the sweater that should be my favorite-ever sweater. It's 'my' color turquoise, cotton, and has lovely cabling. Did I mention that it's a Norah Gaughn pattern? Specifically, it's from a Cast On issue about three or so years ago and I used Reynolds Colors, an Aran weight cotton I had gotten at my first-ever trip to Webs on a fabulous sale. Like I said, it should be My Sweater. The problem? Gauge is an evil mistress. It's a bit too big. And in Aran weight cotton, that's obvious and somewhat uncomfortable. The bust size now is about 40" and, per the pattern, it has a slight a-line shape with gently belled sleeves. The length hits me about mid-hip and I'm 5'2", for some perspective, and the sleeves are about 1 1/2- 2" too long on me.

In general, the sweater is beautifully made with a lovely attention to details, and it also has the most beautiful set-in sleeves that I've ever made. (If I do say so myself. Aren't they nice? I love full fashioning in crisp cotton.)

The problem, and the reason that I can't rip out the sweater and remake something else, is that I thought I'd try to make it fit. The cabling was all on the front, with stockinette sides, so I thought I could cut it and sew it together. It kind of worked, but not enough to really get it down to my size, and now it has side seams that are not the tidiest you've ever seen.

And last but not least is a summer tank up in Lion Brand Homespun. Simple pattern, single cable up the front. Size medium, should fit 34-38" bust. I made it up in a stash busting attempt and just never really wear it. So it you want to, please save yourself the trouble of knitting your own.

Interested? Leave a comment or email me with your mailing address and I'll send it off for you to use as you see fit. You'd be doing me a favor. If there is more than one person desiring any given item, I'll draw names sometime this weekend. Regular blogging will resume on schedule with a new finished object. I just wanted to give these handknits a chance at a new - knitting - home before they joined the general fray of donated clothing.

Incredible, Really

No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved! You know, for a little bit? I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!
-Mr. Incredible, The Incredibles

It's incredible, really, how much knitting one can do when one is actually knitting. I speak, of course, of The Chuppah. The Chuppah is my post-boards relaxing knitting. You know, 'the vegging out in front of the TV because all you've done for two days is answer multiple choice questions' knitting. And it is actually getting relaxing, now that I'm doing a lot of it at once. I'm learning the pattern, finding a rhythm, . . . and calculating the time. The good news? I'm now about 16% done, which is more than I thought. The bad news? Well, it isn't bad, per se. Let's just say that I have a spreadsheet. A plan. I'm calculating the work by square feet of knitting (which should tell you something right there), and the goal is to do one repeat (44 rows, approx 6 vertical inches of 6 feet in width, i.e. three square feet) per week, which will have the middle panel done in two months (mid-March). The middle panel - incredible as it may seem being that it's 6x6 feet, is only 56% of the total knitting. Then I have a foot-wide border around the whole. Giving myself another 2 months (until mid-May) to do that, I should have it ready to give to the bride in June. And I'll have approximately 4-6 weeks of a cushion in the event that all does not go according to plan.

Speaking of plans, I should tell you how it is that I'm making incredible progress on all the projects I'm actually working on. It's the UFO Resurrection Challenge. It's so liberating - freeing, really - to only work on one UFO a month. Instead of feeling as if I should be working on all of them, I finished my one, and now I only have 4 active projects - The Chuppah, Rowena (details to follow), the Railway Stitch Socks, and the Humbug Pillow (because one always needs a computer-sitting email-reading project). And they are all coming along nicely, while the others patiently wait until their months.

Sometimes, though, those projects are not sufficient. I did pull out the long-neglected Uniform Socks last night to go watch The Good Shepherd. It was a nice long movie - I knit the entire 3x1 ribbing section you see below, maybe 5-6 inches. Because I wouldn't want any potential knitting time to go to waste . . .

And speaking of quotations (weren't we?), an annonymous commenter had asked where I get the quotations that head my blog posts. (And please recall that "quote" is a verb.) Two places:

1. My commonplace book. It's very Victorian, I realize, but I've been jotting down quotations I like since some time in high school, now spilling into their third book. Often if I'm at home, I grab one, flip through it, and find something that I think will suit my theme.
2. More often, however, Google is my friend. I google "quotation" and "whatever-word-seems-related-to-my-theme." And sometimes I come up with something fun, like today.
   

Retail Therapy

Examinations are formidible even to the best prepared,
for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
-Charles Caleb Colton

I'm in the middle of a two-day long test. Speaking of high-stakes testing, it's the third and final part (spread over 3 years) of my US Medical Licensing Exam. And it's long. Today I answered 350 multiple choice questions about, well, just about anything medical is fair game. And after that, I felt a little, er, fried. So I betook myself to Border's where I had some $10.64 of "holiday" credit to spend before January 31st. . . . and, where it turns out, all the calendars are $4. Hooray for January calendar sales! I picked up my first-ever Knitting Pattern A Day Calendar (yes, not only are there no pictures, I'm also too lazy to even link today), as well as the Stich-and-Bitch page-a-day calendar. (And, lest you think it was all about me, I got the Trivial Pursuit Calendar for the beau.) All this for a total out-of-pocket cost of 17 cents, and the pleasure of sitting on the couch with my tea flipping through new knitting patterns. It was lovely. So lovely, in fact, that I'm off to dream happy knitting dreams in preparation for doing it all again tomorrow. Actual interesting blogging to resume after that.

Winter Lace

In seed time teach, in harvest learn, in winter enjoy.
-William Blake

Margene is always talking about knitting lace in January, and I think it has something to do with the icy, snowy climate in which she lives. She sees the designs all around her. Me? I prefer lace in the summer. Surely you haven't forgotten The Amazing Lace? I like to travel with my lace, to knit something light when the sun is shining and the weather is hot.

Today, however, is an exception. It has been very cold in San Diego (for San Diego) recently - in the 20s F in the morning and only warming up into the low 50s. Considering that nothing is insulated or heated, I'm getting a good amount of use from my lovely collection of wool sweaters and socks. Somehow, though, I have a mental block when it comes to putting on gloves or mittens in Southern California. I do have pockets, after all.

So, the exception? Today is all about lace. I didn't get much of a holiday weekend, since working 2 of 3 days doesn't seem very holiday-ish to me, but I do have today off thanks to the vagaries of the ER schedule. In my day, it's all about knitting The Chuppah. When you start getting emails from the florist, you know it's time to get serious, time myself on the rows, and then make a spreadsheet of what needs to be done when.

And on the blog, it's all about this piece of lace:

Branching Out
Pattern: Is there anyone out there who really needs the link?
Yarn: Doucier et Soie kid mohair and silk
Needles: US 7 Clover dpns, 2 used as straights
Notes: I'm probably the only person not totally in love with this pattern. It was billed as a beginner's intro to lace. Without flattering myself, I'm not exactly a beginning lace knitter. And this pattern just drove me crazy. Now, most of that is probably my fault, since I rarely did more than one repeat at a time. But I never memorized it, and I just got a little bored of the 10-row repeat, without getting into a good meditative rhythm. Which is why it took me far too long to finish . . . But I do like it now that it's done.
Best Thing About This Project: One down on the 2007 UFO Resurrection!

No Fun

"You are no fun."
-my sister

I've been accused of being "no fun" in the past, primarily because I wouldn't drive my sister to go get water ice. But today, I can assure you, I am much more "no fun" that that. Ready for another list?

Things That Are No Fun

1. Taking down the Christmas Tree. Fun to put up, not to take down.
2. Getting a bad headcold. The ER is a filthy cesspool of germs.
3. Not getting gauge on my Rowena swatch. That much further from actually casting on . . .
   
4. Studying for my boards. Did I mention that I'm taking them on Thursday and Friday? Or that I just started studying?
   

The Silver Lining:Have I ever told you about how I can read and knit? I'm flying through my second Railway Stitch Sock as I try to remember random medical trivia (any of you docs out there actually ever see a case of sporothricosis?). Those of you who are more recent readers of this blog may be unaware that I actually knit my way through medical school (more details at the bottom of this post). I used to knit more than 50 hours a week between class and studying - almost like a full-time job! And you wonder where my 100 pairs of socks came from . . . And while we're pondering the wonderful symbiosis between studying and knitting, Laura over at Affiknitty is knitting her way through her bar exam studying. Go wish her luck.

Playing with Yarn

Always read stuff that will make you look good
if you die in the middle of it.
-P.J. O'Rourke

This post will be something akin to a Random Friday. (It is Friday, right Jenn?) I had a great night last night playing with yarn, knitting, and books. In no particular order:

1. I did get that Merino Style color card, as Rachel recommended. Oh, wait. I forgot to tell you that I returned the Rhubarb. I do want to brighten up my wardrobe, but that theory only works if you actually wear it, right? The new color of the day will be Tide Pool. It's bright turquoise, so it's bright and cheerful and will add fun to my wardrobe, but it will also match things I already own. A good combination.
2. Speaking of that massive KnitPicks order, I spent some time figuring out what I had intended to knit with all the yarn I bought. A few were obvious; others I managed to narrow down to one or two, or three . . . time will tell. Time will tell.
3. And my next personal Book-of-the-Month club selection will be from that order. I'm making the Rowena cardigan from Knit 2 Together in Ambrosia. Yum. 80% baby alpaca and 20% cashmere. It's a joy to work with, and looks great on US 5s, nice and even. And soft. Look: I swatched!
4. But in the meantime, I also fulfilled the UFO Resurrection Challenge for January. I had some technical difficulties with the zipper concept for the Ribby Cardi, so I ended up finishing Branching Out. This is just a teaser - it will have it's own special post to follow.
5. And also, I got a little distracted in the middle of my swatching. It's still (kind of) the Christmas season, right? Check out the contrast from last year. And do note the adorable irony of my mohair fuzzy mittens hanging on a California Fan Palm, the only palm tree actually native to California.
6. It must be still some sort of giving spirit, because look at the great gift that just showed up at my door: A package from my aunt. Apparently she was cleaning her closets recently and came across some yarn she wasn't going to use. I am now the happy (and surprised) recipient of a bunch (maybe 800-1000g?) of a purple DK-to-worsted weight cotton. It's an unmercernized single ply with a thread plied around it, kind of nubbly. Something about it is saying Ballet T-Shirt to me.
   
7. And . . . speaking of gifts, I forgot to mention my first finished object of 2007: The Hug, a scarf in an Old Shale variation in a brushed New Zealand mohair. I neglected to take a finished photo as, once again, I was in a mad dash to the post office. But it came out beautifully, everything it should have and was sent on it's way to a friend who could use a little warm and fuzzy at the moment.
   

Gentleman's Socks

Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
-Henry Ford

Continuing along my theme of being a good knitalong-er, and also my inordinate love of Nancy Bush sock patterns, here is the first of two Railway Stitch Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. It is, perhaps, the worst sock-in-progress photo ever, and you may wonder about the 007 Dozen Days button also on the sidebar. Let's just say this isn't one of my dozen . . . At any rate, don't you love the green stripes on the heels and toes? You will see this sock again. The lucky recipient (a friend of mine from college) was visiting recently and they could be just a smidge longer. But I don't want to redo the stripy toe. You see where this is going? We're going to cut and graft!

In other, knitting-related news, I started my 8th block of internship yesterday - ER. While 12 hour shifts mean a lot of screaming babies, "dizzy" women, and people looking for Vicodin, it also means an entire month of no call. Who knows? I may even catch up on some sleep. I'll definitely be catching up on some knitting, some Chuppah, and I have a brand-new project in the works for Block 8. Don't hold your breath - I'm off to the ER again in about 10 minutes - but I'll be back with all the exciting details. And way better photos.

Flying High

To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
-George Gordon, Lord Byron

I'm just flying high today. It's my first day off in two weeks (at last!), I had a great overnight call on Friday (sometimes it's even fun to stay up for 30 hours!); last night I got to get myself and the beau all dressed up for the Internal Medicine Department Holiday Party (more fun than it sounds!); and then, look what I did today: How many of the doctors out there can say that their first resident from internship took them flying? He spent 5 years out with the fleet as a Flight Surgeon before coming back to training, so he's done a lot of flying and even has a plane. How cool is that? Want to see where we went? La Jolla Cove is gorgeous from land, but completely breathtaking from the air. It's a whole new perspective on this city I'm calling home these days.

In other (and knitting) news, I am full steam ahead on a couple of knitalongs at the moment. One is the 2007 UFO Resurrection Challenge.I seem to have 11 ongoing projects on the sidebar over there, but I'm pretty sure I have a 12th somewhere. If only I could remember what it was . . . At any rate, the idea is to tackle one UFO per month for 2007. And since I'm still starting a new project every month, I'll have plenty to keep me going! January's was going to be the New England Socks, long-neglected, but I also had time today to run to Joann's and get the color thread I need. My Ribby Cardi is completely finished - ends woven and everything - except for the zipper. So now that I have all the supplies, you may be seeing that one make an appearance. I would love to wear it while it's still cool out.

And speaking of a project a month, it's about time I got around to showing you my 6th month project, considering that we switch to block 7 on Tuesday . . . Meet the Humbug Pillow from Debbie Bliss' Home book. (Did I mention that I joined the Debbie Bliss Knitalong, mostly for the Denim Aran that will make it into the UFO Challenge one of these months . . . It's a small knitting world, isn't it?) Back to the pillow - it's basically a big rectangle that you sew in a funny way to make a cool triangle shaped pillow. I had some Cotton Ease that seemed perfect, and I needed a good, fairly mindless email/blog-reading project. This fit the bill perfectly, but it seems like a great thing to have around the living room. As a bonus, you also need to sew a fabric pillow inside to stuff, so I also picked up some fabric and the bobbins I need to start using my sewing machine. I'm in the ER next month, which means more days off than usual. I expect we'll be able to see some sewing. Finally!

The Year of the Stash (and Chuppah)

Beauty is Nature's coin, must not be hoarded, but must be current.
-John Milton

Surely I must be the last person to chime in with some version of the Great Stash Knitting Project of 2007. Most famous is probably the Knit From Your Stash 2007! over at Wendy Knits, but there are others out there. And I have to say that I'm getting intrigued . . . You know that this year I've been thinking a lot about stash. Moving it all cross-country will do that do a gal . . . And you may have seen that I expressed some concerns about the stash of patterns in the form of books and magazines that I similarly carted cross-country. The thing is, I have a lot of yarn. Maybe it's time to knit some of it. And so I'm making something of a resolution for myself - in mutual sympathies with the others out there in blogland doing similar things - to declare 2007 The Year of the Stash (and Chuppah). There's only a slight flaw in my plan . . .Turns out I had to buy some 87 skeins of yarn to make it seem feasible. You see, in order to continue with the Book-Project-of-the-Month Plan, I needed some specific kinds of yarn. So one evening in the last week of 2006, in glorious anticipation of a whole year of stash knitting, I pulled out the books I intend to visit in the coming months. Vintage Knits, Knit 2 Together, Hot Knits, Folk Knitting in Estonia, Loop-d-Loop, and, um, some others whose names I'm blanking on at the moment. And I ordered appropriate yarn for a number of projects. Sounds fine, right? Just a slight complication . . . I neglected to make notes on exactly which projects I was pursuing. I guess I thought it would be more obvious than it really was . . . But I'll figure it out. Someday. In the meantime, want to see what I got?

It was a big Knit Picks order, largely driven by my desire for Merino Style (see below) and the quest for free shipping. Above is Knit Picks Gloss in Purple and Gold, 2 skeins of each. I think I bought it because it was on sale. Or maybe I was thinking some sort of colorwork mittens or gloves? It's quite a lovely yarn however, and I'm very pleased.

My favorite of all is the Ambrosia on the right. The flash makes it seem brighter than in real life, where it is a perfect petal pink in cashmere. It's destined to become a Rowena cardigan from Knit 2 Together for a gift later in the year.

Another purchase was a bit more prosaic - remember the Checks and Charms hat and mitten set I made Kate D.? Well, I had plenty of the accent colors left. So just in case I decide that someone else needs one, too, I picked up the necessary skeins of the main colors. I mean, that's hardly even really new yarn at all. It's practically yarn I already had. As well as a single skein of solid gray sock yarn (not even pictured) that I need to complete a pair of socks. Doesn't count . . .

But speaking of socks, you didn't want me to have cold feet, did you? I'd heard pretty good things about Memories, and I liked a few of the colors (which are tragically represented by my flash on the right), so I picked some up. Because even if I don't make socks from these, I can always give them as gifts, or in swaps, or something. Everybody loves handknit socks (except the beau, who is making noises again about how everybody got handknits for Christmas except for him).

Finally, the purchase which drove them all . . . and the one I am least sure about. I want to make a cardigan in Knit 2 Together, or maybe a cardigan from Vintage Style (my memory is totally failing me on this one), but I needed a DK wool, and I've had good experiences with Merino Style in the past. I agonized over the color choices, and finally setled on Rhubarb. It looked like a nice deep, mature sort of pink. Branching out from all the blues and purples and pastels I have, but in a good way, I thought. Tell me honestly - is this a good way? Granted, I haven't seen it in natural light, so I am withholding some judgment on this, but I have my doubts. It just seems a little incredibly glow-in-the-dark bright. And even if it would be branching out in a good way, it doesn't go with anything in my wardrobe. So maybe not . . . Weigh in here, folks. And not only that, but what color instead: Frost? Tide Pool? More Petal like the Ambrosia? Iris? Or should I go Neutral - Cinnamon or Fog? Because, really, this is like a first date. If you have this many doubts on the first date, you never make it to the swatching stage.

Out with the Old

Sometimes it is the only worthwhile product
you can salvage from a day: what you make to eat. . . .
Cooking, therefore, can keep a person who tries sane.
-John Irving

Today is a momentous day - I actually cooked dinner for the first time in at least, oh, a month. Unless, of course, you count Cheerios or grilled cheese cooking. In all fairness, I did get to eat fabulous home-cooked meals courtesy of the beau's mother when they were in town. Still, it's been mostly hospital cafeterias recently. So in honor of this, and of the new year, and of the fact that I received a great package (see below) recently, here's a tribute to kitchen knitting (and crochet).

Felted Mitt and Trivet
Pattern: from Felted Knits by Bev Galeskas
Yarn: Cross a line off the spreadsheet! This is 100g of a bulky purple wool I bought in Canada about, oh, 5 years ago and some leftover Lamb's Pride Bulky I had lying around. They felted at different rates, but ultimately I got them to the same size
Needles: US 13s
Notes: I am rather delinquent in posting this, as it was the project I started in my sixth month of internship - per the plan - (and now we're rather close to finishing the seventh), but it's a great, fun, quick project. Perfect for knitting while studying. I made zero alterations.
Best Thing About This Project: They actually work. I baked cookies (baking is different than cooking) and my hands were safe!

And now I that I've blogged the old, I can thematically link it to a new awesome gift I received: JayJay sent me these fabulous crocheted potholders. You can't see in the photo, but the center is actually two squares then crocheted together with the scalloped edging. Awesome. In cotton I can only presume is Sugar and Cream, and wonderful patriotic colors. I had admired the ones she'd made herself and her brother. Looks like she got the hint . . . Maybe now that I've received them, she'll give us more details on her blog. (And if you haven't, go check out her blog. JayJay is a crafter extraordinaire. Instead of the Knitting Olympics, she was talking about the Ironcraft Triathalon. She does not mess around. Plus, if you become her friend, maybe she'll make you potholders. Hey - it could happen.)

How Did I Do?

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.
-Karen Kaiser Clark

So, how did we (the royal we) do with our big knitting plans for 2006?

Recall: Six (Knitting) Resolutions for 2006:

1. Update The Early Works: Success! I made this hat and matching mittens for the incomparable Kate D.
   
2. Successful fairisle on dpns: Success! The hat and mittens above, plus these Christmas ornaments.
3. The Crossed in Translation KAL: Success Success Success! Who doesn't remember the Knitting Olympics?
   
4. TKGA Master Knitting Level 2. Not even started.
   
5. Christmas stockings for the family: Well, I did make these. Handmade, but not handknit.
   
6. Transition to Southern California: learn to love knitting in cotton. Learn to love that shells and tanks don't have sleeves. Working on it. I did make this lovely shell, and I'm working on a denim sweater. But I still want to make warm woolly sweaters. Maybe I'll start making DK weight sweaters? It is chilly here at night.

Overall? Not bad at all. Note to self: It would be easier to keep on track of resolutions if one actually remembers what they are. I guess they were pretty intuitive, given how much of them I was able to accomplish given the fact that I forgot I had made them. In spite of that, here's the round-up of

The 66 knitted objects of 2006 (The Year of the Ornament):

• 14 Christmas ornaments
• 12 pairs of socks
• 9 baby hats
• 7 facecloths
• 4 adult hats
• 3 adult sweaters
• 3 dishcloths
• 3 felted balls
• 3 scarves
• 2 pairs of mittens
• 2 lace shawls
• 1 small bag
• 1 baby sweater
• 1 adult tank top
• 1 pair of fingerless mitts

And, very importantly, all six projects that were on the needles on January 1, 2006 are now off. I finished five of them, and ripped one. So let this serve as fair warning to the, gasp!, 11 projects currently on the needles. There are 364 days left or you are done for! Because, really . . . if I don't finish it within 1 year, then I'm really not that interested, am I? (The possible exception to this would be Lizard Ridge. I am still actively on the lookout for Cotton Kureyon - anyone else have some hidden away?)

Plans for 2007, heavily featuring this chuppah, coming soon. Think that'll keep me busy? Looking forward to The Year of the Chuppah.