i did finish a hat this past week!

KP hat #2

yarn: morehouse merino 3-ply in black and charcoal

needles: US8 denise circular needles

pattern: my own… k3, p1 ribbing with stripes

i’m adding this to the KP hat collection as it’s really meant for him.. but luckily we can both wear it! the morehouse merino is very soft but i don’t rank it as one of my favorite yarns. i spent a lot of time picking straw out of the yarn and you can’t pull very hard on the yarn or else it’ll break (which happened to me at the top of the hat! argh!) anyway, i’m pretty much done with my two skeins and they are going in the used-up pile of yarn that i keep around for scraps.

my extended in-law family recently added a new member to their happy group.

i’ll love him, i’ll squeeze him, and i’ll call him george!

say hello to, of course, tinkerbell (this dog was named by a young girl who, you can tell, is very up on pop culture). i wanted to keep her, take her home in my bag. she passed out on my chest for a good twenty minutes. sigh. i love that little thing. my FIL was telling KP that he’s IN TROUBLE now.

i’ve updated the gallery with some action shots of my SIL and MIL with their crafty gifts. luckily, they both loved them! i’m so happy! there’s nothing worse than giving away your knits and the person just doesn’t appreciate the work that went into them.

the spiders have a guest knitter in town! johanna, all the way from tokyo, stopped by the point for a little knitting last night. hopefully she can drop by today as well. we all talked about babies, knitting, the differences between tokyo and new york. you know, the usual stuff.

johanna and sandra hang out

veronique showed off her new sock!

attack of the crazy stripes!

and then we all trekked home around 8PM. hopefully we can do it all again tonight.

some knitblogs have been talking about their accomplishments for 2005 and what they are resolving to do in 2006 so i thought that i would join in.

in 2005 i..

• learned how to knit so anything that you see in my completed projects list is stuff that i’ve made only ever for the first time!
• met a ton of great new friends
• kept up with my exercising at the gym (3 times per week on average!)
• launched a new website
• made lots of changes to gleek.net
• put on another production with madair
• many other things that i hesitate to add here for fear that i would look like an over-achiever

in 2006 i plan to..

• make a sweater (or two). seaming is my weak point and i have avoided it like the plague. but now that i have a few essential books and some spiders to help me, i think that i’m ready
• make more shawls and wraps because i am really lacking in this area of my wardrobe
• make more bags (basically, sew more)
• develop more of my own patterns
• put on another show with madair (theater!!!)
• launch more websites (sorry this is so secretive.. they are in the planning stages)
• use mint to track gleek.net usage
• travel to europe
• keep working out at the gym (this one won’t be hard as i’m majorly addicted to my gym.. it’s at work and to prove how addicted i am i actually went into the office DURING MY VACATION just to go to the gym. i was told to go home but i can’t help it!)
• keep up with my japanese
• maybe learn another language too!

ok, i think that just about covers it. soon it’ll be 2006 and my 30th birthday is just around the corner (the 18th of january for all you who are keeping track). i’m thinking about what i would like to treat myself to for my birthday (a big bag of noro silk garden perhaps?) hmmmm, decisions decisions.

so now with the site lookin’ so brand spankin’ new, it’s time to give you all the updates. first of all, the spiders numbers have grown by two over the past couple of weeks. veronique and marie have joined us the past two knit sessions at the point and we’re so happy to have them.

marie demonstrates spinning to veronique and sarah

i’ve also been working on a few new projects. i picked up two skeins of morehouse merino 3-ply after rhinebeck and i must say that this is some damn soft yarn. i bought it out of the broken ends barrel at $6 per skein which means that there were several knots and loose strands but i just felted them back together! i used them to knit up a hat for KP friday night and saturday. it all started off fine…

love those stitch markers!

but the end result left much to be desired…

it’s a bit bunchy

i don’t really like it. not at all. at least, not on KP. the top of the hat is all bunchy because i used k2tog instead of skk which would have been flatter. i’m going to knit up a second hat seeing as i have plenty of yarn left.

i also started my sleepy pillow mitered square project. i’ll need 8 in total and i finished 1 yesterday. here it is on the needles.

ecru is not a color that photographs well

sorry about the image quality. ecru is one of those colors that’s either too hot or too cold when photographed. anyway, you get the picture. only 7 more to go! i also finished mom’s first sock (as mentioned in the previous post)…

and started on the second one last night. i’m really quite happy with the way the first one turned out. the second one will no doubt be better since i probably won’t have to rip it out as much. ok, for more info on projects please check out the backpack: projects in progress, in the queue, 2005 finished projects. i updated them all over the weekend.

the patterns page should be up and running by the end of the week (maybe sooner) so, in the meantime, if you’re still looking for the bulky circular bolero pattern, please use the contact form.