Welcome to 2007! After a week with a minimum of internet, inability to access my voice mail, and lots of celebrating, I'm back in Minnesota responding to a backlog of work and personal e-mail and voice mails.
Arizona was lovely and productive, and I knit quite a bit. Sadly I didn't quite make the Naked Needles challenge, but I'm a lot closer than I was a few months ago, and that feels good.
Still on the needles:
Mom's shawl: Ended up being an On the Needles gift. Only the edging to do now, but not sure how long that will take me. I was unwilling to start this on the plane yesterday, so I pulled out Manly Mitts and worked on those.
First Year Shawl: Still in exactly the same place it was before the holidays, as I left it in Minnesota.
Manly Mitts: Not in fact done, though the first one is approaching done. I'll work on these quite a bit this week I think.
Holidays: I had a flight to AZ that was absolutely fine until the last minute of scheduled flight. As we came in for a landing in Phoenix, we pulled out of the landing very close to the ground because of fog. Fog? In Phoenix? This was strange. Eventually we ended up (along with every other plane on its way to Phoenix, on the tarmac at the Tuscon airport. Where we waited. And waited. And waited. Tuscon doesn't have a lot of gates, so we sat on the plane and waited some more. Finally, the captain told us we would get a chance to take off in an hour (due to the backlog of planes at this point). Then we ended up getting moved up very precipitously when someone canceled a takeoff, and our second attempt to land in Phoenix was much more successful. Of course by then I had missed my connecting flight, and after a good deal of scrambling, I made it on to a later flight and made it home. I did put all this extra time to good use. On the flight to Phoenix, and on the ground in Tuscon, I busily knitted along on Mom's shawl. On the second flight I needed something a bit more mindless and smaller (due to the small plane, I couldn't take my rolling carry-on on board), so I knitted on my sock in progress.
Once I arrived though, it was a good week of holidays, socializing, and cleaning out my room. OK, the cleaning out the room wasn't fun, but it was good prep for the impending moves of both my office and home this month!
My knitting resolutions?
1. Knit From Your Stash a-Thon (see below).
2. Keep my stash better organized once we move. I have the beginnings of a plan for this, but nothing definite yet.
3. Knit and wear two adult sized sweaters this year.
4. Socialize more with other knitters. These are, after all, our people. I'm thinking of going to the Tuesday Night Knitters group at Borealis on a semi-regular basis. It would be ideal to start going tonight, but sadly we already have plans.
5. Re the blog. Less parentheses! I know I overuse them, so I'll start paying better attention to that.
I'm also joining my own version of Wendy's Knit From Your Stash a-Thon. I'm amending the rules for myself though:
The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through June 30, 2007 -- a period of six months.
2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:
2.a. Sock yarn does not count. However, only two pairs of socks are allowed to be in progress at a time.
2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that I really and truly do not have the yarn for, I may buy yarn to knit that gift.
2.c. If I are knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.
2.d. I get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- I am allowed to fall off the wagon one time. (Potentially Maryland?)
3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn and spinning fiber.
4. I am allowed to buy yarn while traveling more than two hours from home.
This shouldn't be too hard, especially given that once I finish the shawls, I have yarn in the stash for the next three sweaters I have planned! Although I took the yarn for A Cardigan for Arwen all the way to Arizona and back, I'm proud to say I held my resolve. No Arwen till Mom's shawl is done!
I realize I still haven't posted on the second half of my great mail day, but I'll try and take a few photos tonight to truly do it justice. This post is already really long.
Hope your re-immersion in work is going well!
PS: Did you see Stephanie's post? I don't think I've ever been so glad to be a part of the community as when I see the sheer amount of difference we can make as a group, as we proved time and time again this year. Whether the cause was Multiple Sclerosis, Breast Cancer, Heifer International, or Doctors Without Borders, as a group we seem to be uncommonly generous in our giving. This is of course on top of the incredible generosity of knitters who knit hats and scarves and mittens and sweaters for various causes; Dulaan and the Red Scarf Project jump to mind.
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