2009 a year in review

As I look back on 2009, I feel it was an unusual year. I worked a lot. I did some new things and some old things.

Trips taken in 2009- Vegas (Happy Birthday to me!), Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, and a couple more to St. Louis.

On the knitting front, I finished 27 objects in 2009, which is up from 2008, but I felt that I took about 4 months off from knitting during the summer, so I must have been prolific in the winter/spring and then the fall/winter time periods.

Hats - 8
Mittens - 2
Dolls - 2
Scarves - 5
Sweater (And it fit!) - 1
Baby Bib - 4
Baby Hats - 3
Shawl - 1
Baby Blanket - 1

Notice what's missing...no socks. I did not finish one pair of socks this year. How scary is that?

Big thing for 2009, I bought a spinning wheel and am learning to spin. I love it. Yeah!

What's on tap for 2010:
A trip to Tokyo in March. Can't wait!
More spinning
Hopefully some adventure!

My goals for the year:
1. Join a gym - been trying to do that for 2 years and just haven't gotten around to it.
2. Continue efforts to eat more healthy. More fruits and veggies. Less take out.
3. Do something different at least once a quarter. Go some where new, learn something new, meet someone new.
4. Stay connected to my friends.

Have a safe and happy new year to all my family and friends.

A very fibery xmas

Hello, I'm back from xmas and I have a very fiber xmas. Here's the fibery haul in addition to all the other fabulous things I got. Thank you family.
In the picture, It Itches (Franklin's book), 2 Japanese knitting books, Noro Kuryeon Sock yarn, Noro Shikisai yarn, 2 skeins of lace weight yarn, 2 bobbins for my spinning wheel, an arched lazy kate(still in package), Mystery japanese yarn that feels like it has silk in it and 3 skeins of Noro Silk Garden and a sheep ornament, My SIL did very good for a non-knitter shopping in Tokyo. I love everything. Also, one really cool gift is a pendent, down in the left hand corner, that my aunt got from etsy.com. It's 2 microscope slides with fiber in between it. It's really cool looking.

Well, I'm tired. Got up early for one last breakfast with my neice and then went shopping after I got home at 8pm because someone said the snow word. My plans for the new year and weekend include studying for my SPHR exam, knitting, spinning and a Harry Potter movie marathon because I just got the last movie for xmas.

Happy New Year everyone!

Snowpocolypse

One of my knitter friends deemed this "snowpocolypse" and I liked it...certainly better than "snowmageddon" a la the local news team. So, we got like 20 inches of snow on Saturday. This is what 20" of snow looks like after it blows into deep drifts around cars.
The car on the left is my car, yes the one where you can only see half a bumper. My neighbor to the right made the bold move to clean his car during the middle of the snowstorm yesterday.

I will thank my lovely neighbor, Jenny, for lending me her snow shovel so I could partially dig my car out of the snow bank. After two 1 hour sessions, I managed to clear the snow drift behind the car, the snow off the top of the car and dug the drivers side door out to the point where I can actually open it to get in, should I have the crazy desire to leave my house. The snow on the passenger side is piled up as high to mid-window. I gave up because was freezing and had spaghetti arms before I could get that far. The office is closed tomorrow since the government closed. Yipee. I'd say snow day, but I have plenty of work I can do from home .and .a meeting that we're going to have via e-mail.

Well, the unexpected time at home let me a lot of time to finish some knitting. First, I finished Sabine, which was the second of 2 kits I bought from Bagsmith last year. It's one of those things that will climb the strings as you pull on them. She's super cute. I did redesign the dress to be knit in the round with different yarn, because I liked it better.

I also finished some gloves and a hat for the daughter of a friend. It's the Owl hat pattern on the hat and Jack-in-the Box glove pattern from Knitting New mittens and Gloves.

Finally, we said a sad goodby to a well loved and well-worn pair of socks this morning. I put them on to go out into the snow and "Oh Darn" there was a hold. A quiet peaceful funeral was had in the local trash receptacle. Must knit more socks in 2010. That's like the third pair of socks with a hole and I haven't finished any this year.

Other than that, I ask for everyone's good thoughts and keep your fingers crossed that I can actually fly out on Tuesday to go home for xmas. One of my neighbors drove all the way to the airport this afternoon only to have his flight canceled. Fingers crossed that flights get going out by Tuesday.

Well, yesterday, we had the unexpected please of a snow storm...I say unexpected because I didn't believe the weatherman. So, since it looked like this all day, I changed my plans from movie and shopping...
...to knitting, spinning and napping...

First up, I finished the Meret Beret. I love it. The yarn is Miss Babs Wool/Bamboo that I bought at Stitches Midwest.

Next up was plying the Cranberry colored merino that I bought from Ellen's Half-pint farm at Stitches Midwest. The yarn is fabulous and oh, so squishy. Still need to work on eveness and I have some little tags of overspun yarn hanging, but all in all I think it looks great for only my 4th go at the spinning wheel. It's about 410 yds from 8 oz.

For those keeping track - I've now used 3 skeins of yarn and 12 of the 20 oz of roving I bought at Stitches Midwest. It's got to be a records of usage within the first year...and it's only been 5 months. I must be getting better at picking yarn I'll use.

On Sunday, I went to the movies, to Target (a mistake) and then knitting later in the afternoon, where I finished a scarf out of Wolle's cotton color changing yarn. I love it. It's very long. It needs to be blocked very badly. For those also keeping track, this is skein 2 or 3 used that I purchased from the Shenandoah Fiber Festival. Woo Hoo! to me for actually using yarn I purchased this year.

Other than that, still need to finish a lot of xmas shopping, but am beginning to fear the stores.