What I Did On My Winter Vacation
First we flew to North Carolina on December 19. (Yes, the day it was blizzarding all over the eastern US, and yes there were predictable results on our travel plans... it was kind of like traveling in a developing country -- you don't really know when you'll get there, or which route you'll take, but if you kept insisting on your destination, eventually you'll arrive. It was very zen.) On one of the planes, I finished sewing the buttons on my niece's Christmas sweater:
Doesn't she look cute?
Then while we were visiting in North Carolina, driving up to New York, and celebrating Christmas there, I knitted all the pieces of a sweater for my nephew-to-be (due in February):
There's still some finishing work to be done on the sweater, but as the same can be said for the baby, I'm not worried yet. :) I bought buttons yesterday, so I've got all the pieces now!
Then while we drive home from New York, I put in some time with a long-neglected shawl, which had about this much completed when we started driving:
And now has this section added on:
(The pattern is the Swan Lake stole which is meant to tell the story of the Swan Lake ballet in lace patterns. I'm getting close to the feathered wing half -- very exciting!)
We stopped at home and picked up the cats, and drove them my parents' house, where they decided that my husband's suitcase was an ideal cat bed:
And then proceeded to a series of family parties where I made significant progress on some socks for myself:
My mom's family all astutely noticed that I was still working on the same sock that I'd been doing at Thanksgiving. I tried to explain that I'd done a lot of other knitting in the meantime, but I'm not sure they were convinced -- they're used to my cousin's sewing (lightning speed in comparison) and her daughter's little knitting machine, which whips out hats in a few minutes. My process is... slower.
New Year's Eve I wasn't feeling well, so instead of playing cards I put another inch or so on the shawl above.
New Year's Day I did not knit. I was feeling better and played a lot of cards and ignored the needles.
The 2nd, as we drove home, I started another baby sweater. This is a kit I've long coveted but never encountered in the wild until my mother-in-law took me to her local yarn shop to get me a Christmas present. :) I love the yarn (so soft and squishy and hugely thick compared to the sock-weight and lace-weight yarns featured in all of the above projects) and the colors (so gorgeous in all their subtle variations and the ways they work together)...
and the pattern (so easy, and cute, and totally lacking in sewing to be done at the end).
And now we're home and in only 12 hours I should be in my car heading to work. It was a lovely vacation, and long enough that I'm itching for some non-knitting stimulation even if I'm a bit trepidatious about what the next week or two of work will hold.
Happy New Year!