Notre Dame just got trounced by Ohio State for their 8th consecutive bowl game loss...not a record we're pleased with in this house. But maybe next year will bring more joy, and since we should be able to see all the home games, I really really hope that it will be the year ND finally shakes down the thunder. Not like tonight. But, let's talk about all the good things that happened in the last 10 days...
Christmas was a time for a lot of family fun. We spent a few days in CT with my family, including Sam (seen here being proudly displayed by my mom) and my grandparents. My parents both liked the alpaca scarves I knit for them from the yarn they picked out at
Southwind Farms, but I forgot to take a pic of them modeling their gifts (Mom, can you send one?).
After Christmas we headed to MI for the rest of the week. I found out my mother-in-law is a big fan of untangling yarn, so I let her handle all of the knitpicks Sierra that I was working with, since I couldn't figure out how to wind it without creating a mess...thanks Mom L! I made her a little knitting kit, so we'll see how far she
progresses before I see her next. Here's a pic of the scarf I am working on with this yarn (it's an
Irish Hiking Scarf from
Hello Yarn) -- it's a Christmas present, a little
late but oh well. We hung out with our adorable nephew Alek & niece Annika -- here's a pic of Alek wearing a Chinese hat that Dave bought in Hong Kong.
I had some great wool that I bought from the
Craftacular and I made the
Coronet cable-trimmed hat from
knitty as a present for my friend Bevo. This was a particularly rewarding project for me, because it forced me to do a few new things, including a provisional cast-on (thanks
knittinghelp.com) and the
kitchener stitch (not so hard as I thought -- it didn't come out perfect but that's because I was grafting together the cabled band and I'm not that advanced -- I decided that if i had to wait for perfection I'd never get anything done at this stage). I also had to undo and re-do the hat when it was initially too small for its recipient. I really like how it turned out.
Anyway, I'll end here, and I wish you all a Happy New Year! I hope 2006 lives up to everyone's hopes and that your resolutions/promises/life changes/happiness are all met.
Guacamole!
It's the Year of the Dog! So Gregor, Dave & I headed down to Chinatown this afternoon to check out the Lunar New Year celebration. The must-haves for the crowd were these long colorful paper tubes that shoot showers of colorful paper bits into the air -- think wrapping paper tubes covered in foil and packed with tissue paper shreds. You push on one end until the 
pressure inside the tube makes the paper explode into the sky and everyone cheers. This is great and colorful, but you can see the "river of blood" that results from such revelry on a rainy day. Gregor found out the hard way that this river is much deeper than it looks. And I found out that wet rainbow-colored paper is not so nice when it lands all over your light-colored coat...reminds me of a certain blue streamer vs. animal cracker incident in college....jpg)
I ripped out the original start to my mittens and am now following a seed-stitch cable mitten pattern supplied by my guru. See? I'm quite happy with how they're coming along so far.
Dave has finally embraced my obsession with knitting & with bags, providing a birthday present that allows me to combine the two! He even went through the trouble of ordering the bag on-line, not just picking it up on a whim. I love it! He went one step further into Michelle-specific gifts and got me a copy of Vegetarian Times. See what 4 years of marriage can do? He finally gets me!
This past Sunday was my 32nd birthday, and Dave, Gregor, Katie & I went up to Lake Placid for the long weekend to celebrate and get away. The highlight, besides copious amounts of time spent knitting by the fireplace in the lodge with Katie, had to be the .jpg)
