Worshipping:

Knitting updates (with lots of exclamations!)

• Mostly finished with the alpaca purse-- in a stroke of genius I am making the ties from tiny 2-stitch i-cords!
• Unravelled two old J.Crew cashmere sweaters-- piles of yarn!
• Started the vertical drop-stitch shawl using the yarn leftover from the Muir shawl
• Purchased more Canopy Fingering to make baby gifts for Hannah!
  

Random Reading

My method of choosing books lately is to go to a used book store and comb through the fiction section until I have a stack of things that look good. Today's haul:

• Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
• The Keep by Jennifer Egan
• The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas-- with funny cartoons on the jacket
• Alfred and Guinevere by James Schuyler (from the NYRB Classics series-- I snatch up these books whenever I see them)
• A Sea of Words-- a companion to the Aubrey-Maturin series, which I adore
  

Recent developments

• My mother is WAY more excited about my wedding than I am
• Minnie the cat has a slipped patella
• I can't figure out what government body has authority over Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth
  
• I'm working on a trinity-stitch purse in Canopy Fingering baby alpaca by the Fiber Company-- so yummy
• I joined Ravelry
• Eric and I have been playing Zelda obsessively
• Emily & Andrew are coming to visit next weekend!!
  

2 miles @ 26°F = so hardcore

Though the last 0.5 mile did almost kill me...

Dreaming of

2009 goals

Don't call them resolutions:

• Relax-- good enough is better than perfect
• Get out of the house more
  
• Improve my running-- I don't care about going faster, but I want to run more often
• Knit
• Get married
  

Experimental hat now off needles

I have been trying to figure out this hat since Jan. 2008. My latest attempt came out pretty well, and I certainly did my homework-- gauge samples, complex math, charting out the decreases. I did not fully understand the SSP stitch when I started my decreases, but I don't think it made much of a difference. The problem is the size-- it's too big to be a beanie, and too small to be a beret. It just doesn't know what it wants to be, and I can't decide if want to keep it (I don't have a hat, after all) or take it apart-- and if I take it apart, I'm not sure if I want to remake it in a smaller size as a beanie or go the beret route. My solution was to move on to a new project.

I had a very scary dream last night about the end of the world

Eagerly awaiting

Either my apartment is not child-friendly, or my life is not

2008 recap in no particular order

• Thought seriously about buying a house, but decided not to-- no regrets there
  
• Spent ages looking for a new apartment and hours on Apartment Therapy
• Bought my first piece of real furniture, which now belongs to my cats
• Survived a mass exodus at work
• Got engaged, finally
• Made this
• Skipped my ten-year high school reunion, but reunited with some people I really missed
• As a corollary, became addicted to Facebook
• Read Bleak House and almost all of the Aubrey/Maturin novels, as well as many many other things
  
• Learned to play tennis-- poorly, but with great enthusiasm