The Year in Photography, 2008

So I just spent the good part of an hour looking at a collection of images from 2008. Some of them are truly amazing. This one is of Mount Everest.

The link is from photojojo, which is a really interesting photography site/blog. I track it on Google Reader. They have great pointers and tricks, even for point-and-shoot cameras.

New (Old) Project

Well, now that all of that Christmas knitting is finished, I have nothing to do. Em, actually, I'm sure Patrick would argue that I have plenty to do. So let's say, I don't have any knitting projects to keep me occupied in the evenings.

So I've pulled this old quilting project out of the cabinet. I haven't touched this since 2001, mostly because the color scheme is slightly patriotic (What? I like red, blue and cream!), and I haven't been feeling very patriotic for awhile now.

But this January there's an art show around the theme of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, and I'm thinking that this might be just the reason I need to finish the project. I have a couple of ideas for changing it up, so we'll see how it goes.

Patrick is the photographer above. Though he isn't as comfortable with the manual setting on the camera as I am, he understands the fundamentals of photography and does a good job of framing.

Parade of FOs

Hello All! I hope your holidays are going well--fun, relaxing, etc. Patrick and I spent Christmas day at four locations. One of my gifts from Patrick was Pocky, which is like chocolate-dipped breadsticks. Yummy, really!


As I mentioned before, I've been doing tons of knitting, but haven't been able to post about it because the projects were for Christmas gifts. Well, here they are!

Two hats for two little boys. They are based on the Wool Noggins pattern. For the brown one, I just added an I-cord topper.

Here's a dark picture of the mystery I-cord project. It's a centipede scarf!

A caliorimetry for The Cuz made with sport-weight alpaca held double and an old button from a box of buttons I got from my grandmother.

A set for my sister-in-law. Bulky-weight baby alpaca. The scarf is a Jute Rope, and I made up the hat to match the stitch pattern.

Here's a mother/daughter set for my other sister-in-law and neice. The yarn is Brooks Farm Four Play. The scarf is the Four Play pattern, the hat is Button Tab, and the small hat is a modified Wool noggin with the decreases altered to come to an elf-like peak, with an I-cord topper.

Here's a set for Lil Sis--my first cables! The pattern for the set is Natty. Made with bulky-weight baby alpaca. She has decided that it is itchy, but I'm hoping she'll wear it anyway...

Enjoy the rest of the holidays!

Catching Up

Hello!

The job hunt continues, though I'm not expecting much right now around the holidays. I'm still sending out resumes, and I'm meeting with some placement agencies next week. But really, I'm expecting the next month to be one of sitting and waiting. And I'm OK with that.

With all of my free time, I've been doing lots of Christmas knitting. But I can't show it to you. Well, here's a piece of one of the projects--I'm pretty sure this little boy doesn't follow my blog...

32 2-inch I-cords will be the death of me.

Here's something I made for myself recently. My first Clapotis:

George is interested, but banned from sitting on it. this thing turned out huge. Of course, I didn't check my guage. I can wear it only on cold cold days, as it is like wearing a lap quilt around my neck. That said, I really like it, and I have enough of the yarn left to make a hat and maybe mittens. I chose my winter coat to go with this scarf (instead of the other way around, like most normal people), so I'd better get some use out of it!

Not that I'm looking forward to winter weather. My garden is looking brown. We managed to harvest swiss chard and kale into late October, but there's nothing happening now. Patrick spent a couple of evenings drawing diagrams of the front and side yards, itemizing all of the plantings. Because, you know, he's an engineer. If I can find them, I'll post them.

We had our annual Holiday Tea last weekend. We try to do this every year--open up the house for an afternoon and invite people to drop in, have a warm drink and chat. I love seeing everyone. We have the party preparations down pat at this point: I make one or two pots of soup, Patrick goes to the bakery the morning of, and we spread out all of our teas on the counter next to the electric kettle. Easy! Here's my solution to 12 idential black mugs, so people don't get them mixed up:

Ha Ha Ha Ha

I saw this video over on Ectomo--I love when he shows all of the power buttons. What a grump.