Oh, hi 2013, barely noticed you!

I feel like I barrelled into 2013 with barely a wave goodbye to 2012.  Perhaps it's the absence of my usual trip home at this time of year, or maybe it's just because we've been a terrible combination of busy and sick, but there was definitely no pause for reflection this year for either of us!  This weekend is the first in a long time where we haven't been committed to something.

So, I can now finally catch you up on what I've been up to.  Which, due to aforementioned busyness, is less than I liked.  I finished, but have not blocked, my Zephyr Cove shawl. 



To my dismay, Romi released not one but TWO new designs, "Heavenly," which is a "mashup." It's a stole that combines stitch patterns from her Pins and Lace designs, all in a single pattern, and it's a gorgeous way to cap off the year of knitting her beautiful P&L designs.  It's genious and I haven't had time to touch it.

The second design is Coyote Trail, the next in her 7 Small Shawls Year 3 series.  I have wound my yarn...



But haven't yet cast on.

I did manage to pick up Firebird and start working again.  It's a little hard to photograph, because I never actually put the second wing on waist yarn to hold, it's just sitting on the cable - which works perfectly fine, but makes it nearly impossible to spread out the project for pictures.  Also, the recessed light right over my couch is out, so I couldn't get enough light to show detail.



Primarily I have been working on Romi's Poinsettia Tam and Cuffs, a super cute little set that I want to make for my BFF.  Because she is my BFF and I know she will not forsake me forever because her Christmas present is late, I didn't even attempt to get them done in the chaos that was my life in the last few months.  Instead, I just waited until the fuss was over, wound the skein of Shalimar Breathless I had purchased just for this, and cast on.  After a few days of knitting (sadly interspersed with a number of days of non-knitting), I have a tam and a pair of cuffs waiting for me to pick up the sittches and knit the lining on each.





Except I had one little problem.



The yarn rubbed off on my fingers while kintting, and since the yarn for the lining is this tan Kid Seta...



I decided I had better wash the things and give the dye a chance to bleed off. 



There wasn't much color in the water, so I'm hoping I'll be okay.  A more patient woman would go ahead and soak them a second time to see if any more rinsed off, but, alas, I am not that woman. 

There's no scarf pattern with the set, but I wanted to make one to match, and as I was looking at the yarn, I noticed one of the sample knits hanging next to the shelf.  It was the Kid-Seta Gathered Scarf pattern by Skacel.  It was pretty, so I made a note of the pattern name on the tag, got enough yarn to knit the scarf, and when I got home, I downloaded the free pattern.  It's pretty simple, except that it requires you to change needle sizes, which is a little annoying for those of us challenged with chronic impatience (every time someone tells me I must be so  patient to knit the things I do, I laugh so hard, because that is deeply, deeply untrue).  So, while I wait for the tam and cuffs to dry enough for me to knit the linings, I started the scarf.



It's pretty, although it's chafing my tensioning fingers a bit.  Nexcare bandages are my best friend in this situation. It doesn't show in the picture, but there's a gold metallic thread, so it's also a little sparkly.

The only other Christmas present I made was this Permafrost Shawl I gave CodeMama for Christmas, done in Loft, colorway Snowbound.  I've never used a yarn like Loft before.  I found it a bit delicate for my tastes, but once knit, it blocked very crisply.  I don't think I'll be in a hurry to knit with it again, though.  My end result was quite a bit smaller than the pattern measurements, and I had a lot of yarn left over - SKS (supatight knitta syndrome) strikes again!