New Year

I've been thinking about some resolutions, both knitterly and non-. The knitterly ones are as such:

1. Only make blog promises I intend to keep.
2. Post at least one entry (with picture/s) each week.
3. Do not promise scarves, shawls, wraps, or stoles as presents when there are deadlines for said items involved.
4. More socks.

In relation to the knitting resolution number 1, I am finally going to share with you the little Christmas knitting I have gotten done so far.

This is the garter-stitch wrap I'm making for my grandmother. It's only about a third of the way done. I had decided sometime around October that I'd be ready to knit the lace wrap "Cozy" from knitty for Christmas. I was so wrong. I hated knitting through the back loops, I hated not knowing how to count my stitches until it's too late, and I hated how the circular needle I was using kept snagging the yarn on its cruddy brass join. I will not mention the name of the needle; maybe it was just a dud. In any case, four hours into Cozy and a half-inch done, I realized I was going to end up with a schmatte, a schmatte which would also be a waste of this beautiful Artfibers Kyoto in number 40. So I cast on 60 stitches on size 11 needles and knit from there. I was able to show it to my grandmother on Christmas day, and she really liked it. And then as I knit furiously throughout the rest of the day and into the night, she kept saying, "So, how ya doin' with that?" and "It's really cold outside...". She has a very dry sense of humor and is usually very reserved, so when she jokes around it is really great. I still felt bad though.

This is the Irish Hiking Scarf that I'm making for my dad in Autumn House Farm Alpaca Brush. (Got it at Rhinebeck, but here's their website: http://www.autumnhousefarm.com/). It is also only a third of the way done. As per knitting resolution number 3, these kinds of things have to be around 6 feet long, and what with cabling for this one and a good amount of width for the other, they take much longer to knit than, say, a hat. Obviously I haven't gotten very good at estimating how long things will take yet. Anyway, my dad saw the WIP and he likes it a lot too. But I still gotta finish that.

The other things on my list have not even been started yet. Eighhhh. But I am not going to take them out of my "queue." By the way, I'm on Ravelry now, as sarahanneG.

Oh yah, last but not least, here's the sock that I promised to show so long ago. It has not progressed beyond this point yet, because of the Christmas knitting:

It's not too badly fudged for my first sock, although something happened with the decreases for the heel gusset that I can't explain. All I need to do for this sock are toe decreases and then kitchener.

Now I must face the writing of my final papers. Help.