It's... alive! (more or less)

So yes. I'm alive, more or less. I have a cold, so I'm staying at home, and I'm finally at the "bored of being sick and sick of being bored" phase, rather than the "OMG, my face feels like it is going to explode and I want to die" phase. This is positive. This also means that I'm catching up on the blog and on some sadly neglected blocking (sorta) and photography.

The hurricane. We survived, didn't lose power, didn't have any issues. Lots of other people in the area were badly affected though, and we're still seeing major problems with the recovery from it. Where I work in the Financial District, there are large numbers of buildings that are still without heat, power and telecommunications, which has made the area... weird.

I finished some mitts for my friend Brady, with yarn that she got at Rhinebeck (wow, just realized I still haven't photographed my Rhinebeck purchases. eep). Still haven't given them to her, because we keep being sick when the other isn't, and don't want to wander around and ensicken each other, as that would suck. But they're here, and waiting for her:

Pattern: Owl Study Gloves
Yarn: Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky in Turtle

Then the holidays happened. They were good. Short declarative sentences. Ha!

During Thanksgiving I finished my Color Affection shawl, which, while I love it, completely killed any and all desire to knit, for like, a month. It sucked. It is a sucky, sucky knit (for me. I know other people love it) and all that garter stitch made me want to poke out my own eyes. Or somebody else's. But it was good to knit on while I was having family togetherness time and pretending to pay attention to what other people were saying. Ok, to be fair, I was actually paying attention to what other people (extended family members. Of course I was paying attention to you, Bruce. And Georgia.) were saying, because the knitting was so boring. I probably should not be giving away all of my secrets right now. Oops. I just blocked this shawl today. and by blocked I mean, got it wet and then dumped it on top of a radiator to dry. I still haven't really forgiven this shawl yet for being such a boring pain in the ass. I'm not sure I ever will. But I spent so much time on it that I don't really want to give it away, and I like the way it looks. It's a dilemma.

Oh, and on the technical side, I knitted this in lace weight, but on the fingering weight needle size. I think that was US 4 or 6. Can't remember. Don't want to think about it. Knitted it like that because I wanted it airy, and because I'm lazy as hell and didn't want to knit this shawl on a size US 2 needle, because I probably would have thrown the entire thing into the Atlantic Ocean and never knitted again (at least for 3 months).

Pattern: Color Affection
Yarn: Miss Babs Yet in Bare, Biker Girl and Roasted Pumpkin

Then I knitted Bruce some socks, out of this:

Which is Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic Dégradé, from my birthday yarn stash from Webs. It was fun to knit with, although there were a bunch of knots in the skein, which pissed me off. Other than that, they were uneventful, and I don't have photos because of the aforementioned backlog, plus Bruce's feet aren't here in the sunlight to take pictures of the socks on, which is another issue. Just use your imagination.

After that was a hat for me, because I wanted a purple hat to go with my September Circle. Here's a picture of me all sick today wearing the hat.

Pattern: Etta
Yarn: Berroco Vintage

And lastly, my friend Meredith, for whom I have knitted other things (because she's awesome and a great appreciator of handknits), brought me some lovely baby alpaca yarn and asked me to knit her some stuff. So what did I do? More garter stitch. But it was for the hat. So it was super fast. And didn't involve interminably long rows like the effin Color Affection. Sigh. Anyway, here's the hat (with me still sick in it.):

Pattern: Rikke Hat
Yarn: Michell & CIA Indiecita DK

And I made her a Honey Cowl out of the same yarn:

That is the softest alpaca yarn I have ever used, and didn't itch like every other alpaca yarn I've knit with and/or worn. So, recommended, if you can find it.

That's all. I'll get to my end of the year round up post in March, maybe. Heh.

Also, will be stopping by and checking in on everyone else's blogs soon.