A New Year

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe that 2006 is already over - it went by so fast! I do vaguely remember July, but other than that, it seems like a blur. I'm hoping I remember more of 2007.

Lots of stuff to blog about today - I had a visit from Sarah and her adorable dog Murphy last week. They came over for a hike around our local Army Corps of Engineers dam - it was a great day weather-wise - no wind, not too cold and sunny. The dogs had a blast running full tilt through the woods, mud and jumping trees. They even took a little swim in the cold water. I am sadly pictureless as I forgot my camera, but I'm hoping some of Sarah's shots come out and I can "borrow" them....It was pretty uneventful except for some lack of balance on my part resulting in cold, wet feet, and Tucker's ode to Ashley's dog Bailey. We'll just say he got a nice, long bath that night. Everyone, dog and human, had a great time.

Sarah gifted me some great, soft, fuzzy fetching mitts - they are so soft and cuddly - I'm wearing them now in my freezing cold office. Speaking of gifts - we did our family Hannukah celebration over the weekend. Since we usually can't get together during the holiday, we just celebrate when we can. There were gifts galore for everyone.... As you can see, our clan uses only the best wrapping paper. It's kind of a tradition to use newspaper in our house - as kids, my parents used the comics to wrap gifts. It was colorful, readily available and best of all cheap! Now, we add recyclable to the list as well. I got lots of great gifts including some incredible sneakers I have been lusting after for a while now. They will be perfect for wet agility trials in the spring! Another standout gift was an ingenuiTEA infuser from adagio teas. The same one Erin raves about here. It is a pretty slick device - throw in the loose tea, brew and place it over your mug to dispense it. Cleans up easy too....I've had quite a bit of tea already this week!

The dogs were not left out of the gifts either - we got them a cushy new bed for cuddling in on those cold (if they ever come) winter nights. Otis really loves the big bolsters along the back.

My mother in law gave us an adorable clock - it just makes me smile every time I look at it! She also gave us a really neat countertop hydroponic grower - you can grow lettuce, tomatoes, chili's and strawberries with these neat little pods. I stupidly didn't write down the brand name, so no linky for now.

It was a wonderful holiday season - lots of friends, good times and even some knitting!

Mamluke is complete!

Pattern: Mamluke Socks from Folk Socks (can't get enough of that Nancy Bush!)
Yarn: Regia Silk - used a little less than one 50gm ball of each color
Time to Completion: 15 days (!!!!!)
Mods: Added one pattern repeat (10 sts) so they would fit.

They actually fit really well, though I made the floats on the instep pattern much looser on the second sock, and it doesn't pull as much. I haven't done anything with the ribbing as of yet. A few tries out in the "real world" and I'll see if I want to take Kelly's suggestion and rip out the existing ribbing, then just knit up from the sock and make it longer. They are purty though - huh? Honestly, I never thought I could knit such pretty fair isle!

The sock needles didn't remain naked for long though. "Denmark" from Knitting on the Road has been one of my favorites for a while. With an empty slot in my sock knitting bag, I started it on Sunday.

I'm using the Henry's Attic Kona that I dyed up a while back. Love the color, loving the pattern. On #3's this will be a quick knit!Urban Aran also got some needle time.

The back is done and blocking, and the first sleeve is about 7" in. The grand plan is to finish the sleeve, then weigh it along with the back and compare it to the amount of yarn I have left. I really like how it's knitting up so far though!

Still no snow here, though we did get barely a dusting a few days ago. The temperatures are supposed to go up to 50 or so this week, so winter weather has yet to make a real appearance here.