No rest for the wicked

Well, I've been a busy girl the last couple of weeks, that's for sure.

Thanksgiving weekend was out of control, with family everywhere. My dad's sister, two brothers and one sister-in-law, my brother, sister-in-law and nephew, and a cousin and his girlfriend. It was great to see everyone, but that's a lot of people. Never a dull moment, as they say.

On the plus side, hanging out with family gave me lots of time to knit, and I got quite a nice chunk done on the baby blanket I'm test knitting for Lynn ( http://www.colorjoy.com/weblog/ ). It's gorgeous, this yarn is totally to die for. I'm having great fun knitting it, it's so soft! Not to mention machine washable. Fabulous.

Also, I finished my Aran bag from Sarah's class ( www.handknitter.sarahpeasley.com ), well, all except for the actualy stitching of the lining to the bag. Let me just tell you how it's practically a miracle that I managed to get the lining sewn together with the interfacing and all that jazz to get the bag to stand up. Sewing is not my strong point. Still, it was a fun bag to do and now I feel as though I've expanded my bag creating horizons, now that I don't necessarily have to felt a bag for it to be practical to carry. At any rate, here's my almost finished bag:


Next, Grace and I have a friend, Leo, who is gearing up for his first winter in Michigan after having grown up in Costa Rica. Needless to say he'll be quite cold. So in an effort to keep him from running as fast as possible away from here in about mid-January, I'm in the process of making him a hat and scarf to stay warm. I'm using Lion Brand Wool-Ease chunky knit on size 10 needles, and this stuff is like armor. If wind gets through this hat, you should go inside immediately because it's probably dangerous outside. :) The hat is a pattern I found on the internet a couple of years ago, I'm not even sure it has a name, and the scarf is called Men's Rustic Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, which is probably the best investment in a book I've made. If you don't have it, I most definitely recommend looking into it. Someday I would like to knit everything in it. And that's saying a lot (I'm very picky).

And now I'm going to settle in for a cozy evening of watching the old Disney animated Robin Hood which just arrived from Amazon.com. Possibly followed by Pete's Dragon... I seriously think it's been about 2 and a half weeks since I've had an evening to myself to just sit and do whatever I want. I'm going to relish it and completely hermit myself in here (yes, I just turned hermit into a verb)