Hi, all! I hope everyone had a great holiday. I know we did. Our kids got a much-wished-for Wii for Christmas, and much to our delight (and dismay), even our 5-year-old took to it pretty quickly. (He’s the current bowling champ in the household.) Thankfully, he still says his Thomas the Tank Engine Carnival Play Set is his favorite gift (from Grandma, of course…) though the older one LOVES the Wii. Hey, at least we’ll know where to find her.

Me? In between the Christmas card writing and the cooking and the eating and all of that other stuff, I’ve been trying to steal as many moments as I can to work on Miss Z.’s Blanket. It’s coming along, but with me being the admitted slowest knitter in the world, of course it will take longer than I ever would want it to. I decided during my last week at work during the holidays that I was going to call the project the “Many Hands, Big Heart” afghan. My logic is that since Miss Z. is a co-worker, that I would let any other co-worker who wants to, to knit on it for a stitch, or a row, or whatever suits them. Even if I only teach a person to make one stitch, their contribution still counts. I only actually work on-site two days a week these days, so coordinating the project will be interesting, but I am hoping to get lots of hands to chip in. So far, MANY people have expressed interest, and the Office Director for our department has said I can send an email to everyone in our wider group. That’s cool.

A little bird mentioned to me recently that I wrap my stitches “backwards” when I knit. I didn’t realize this as my stitches aren’t at all twisted (at least I’m consistent!) but now seeing so many other knitters work on my blanket too I can definitely see that my way of doing things is not what the majority does. In this case though I have many colors and textures going, and with the whole concept of Many Hands, I think it will be a design feature, if you will, if some of the stitches might be a bit twisted. I don’t think the recipient will notice, and if there does end up being a twisted stitch here and there, then so be it. Each one will be twisted with love.

Knitterly Gifties

Santa was very good to me! DH presented me with the long-awaited Options Harmony interchangeable needles. Now I have the whole set, except for the largest sizes of tips, which aren’t included. I’ll probably get them separately just because I am a completist, even though it is rare when I knit with anything higher than an 11. I did cheat and get myself a couple pairs of tips before Christmas, but I did wait for the whole set to come. Yay! I’m even thinking of switching out my metal Options on my current WIP to the wood ones. Haven’t decided yet on that.

My inlaws gave me the Quantaray Portable Photo Studio, which I am also considering to be a knitting related item. I love to shoot photos of my yarn related things for this blog, and frankly, I’m getting tired of shooting from the same old red kitchen chair every time. The kitchen chair has been optimal to now because I have overhead pot lights in the kitchen which are pretty good for color accuracy. So now I get to play with mini photography lights and see how I do. That is, when I get them working. Unfortunately one of the lights in my kit is loose and we could not tighten it and get it to work. I’m going to have to exchange my kit for another, which hopefully won’t be too hard to do. I can’t wait to play with it! Yay!!

Well, it’s getting late here so I better sign off for now and get ready for bed. Hope everyone is recovering well from much celebrating (or if not from celebrating, from doing something else fun on your day off!) Me? I gotta go back to work tomorrow. Drat.